Tesori ovvero beni denaro-equivalenti. Considerazioni sulle funzioni degli oggetti nell’antico regime (secoli XV-XVIII)

This essay focuses on the material and symbolic aims that some objects (like silverware, jewels or pictures) performed in the Late Middle Ages and Modern Ages, in the upper class of Mantua and Genoa. Through these examples, the authors will try to prove how some monetary circuit imperfections pushed on specific circumstances their owners to use them as currencies. Gold and silver coinages seemed more suited to circulate rather than to perform a hoarding function. This was in fact the main function of gold and silver objects. However the ways to give these goods a value changed in response to specific sociological situations. When objects were pawned or sold to get liquidity the raw materials’ value was more important than their workmanship. On the contrary, when purchased or purchasing workmanship became more important than raw material. The authors’ hypothesis is that this phenomenon depends on the specific character of Ancien Régime’s money that was made of the same metals objects were made and it was fungible with them. The conditions that allowed the artistic component to increase its relevance (even when the material value was about zero, like for example pictures) probably occurred when currencies became a pure abstract representation of value and when property and possession became stronger markers of identity.