Europe at Home: Family and Material Culture, 1500-1800 [Hardcover]

Raffaella Sarti (Author), Allan Cameron (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

If we could go back to earlier centuries and step inside any house in Europe, what kind of furnishings would we observe, what would be cooking in the pot, and what would the occupants be wearing and doing? These are some of the questions Raffaella Sarti takes up in this guide to European homes, families, and material possessions of the 16th to 19th centuries. The work traverses all of Europe and presents a detailed picture of daily reality for people at every economic level, from the ragged masses of the homeless to the privileged nobles who occupied grand villas and palaces. Personal stories bring each topic to life and offer insights into human relations not only between rich and poor, powerful and weak, masters and servants, but also between parents and children, husbands and wives, and men and women. The text provides answers the following questions: what did it mean to have a home and not to have one?; how was the creation of a new family funded?; who lived under the same roof?; how were buildings constructed? How was water supplied and what were toilets like?; how many people slept in a bed?; how did people behave at the table?; what clothing did they wear, and what did different articles of clothing mean? ; and how were objects and property used to define masculinity and femininity?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sarti deals with a subject of widespread curiosity: how people actually lived in the past. Hers is a wonderful book, tackling questions about housing, furnishings, food, dining, and clothes, and providing one fascinating discussion after another." - David Kertzer, Brown University

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300085427
• ISBN-13: 978-0300085426
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,509,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lacking clear direction, November 1, 2005

By 

James A. Haluska, Jr. "JQA1313" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Europe at Home (Paperback)

Sarti wrote this book back in the 1960s to explore the lives of common folk in Europe during the age of The Enlightenment. This is a broad scope, both in geography and in timeframe. The most solid aspect of this book comes in the opening chapter where she tries to break down the modern concept of the family to explore what family meant to Europeans then. This is well done in that she shows that the defintion of family does change, depending on time, space and circumstances. However, when she continues on into the material culture of the time, she baffles the reader by stating her findings, but then goes into almost endless examples of how there are exceptions to the rule, and there are many. While you may want to know the exceptions to the rule, a clear, concise trend of what was occuring would be nice. Essentially, Sarti needed to condense her work into something more coherant.

Raffaella Sarti tackles a broad topic in her work, Europe at Home: Family and Material Culture, 1500 - 1800. Sarti's exploration of European domestic life is daunting. She attempts to explore the emerging material culture and changes in family structure from Old Regime Europe to the Age of Revolution. To tackle a topic this broadly is no easy task. Further, not only is the timeframe expansive, so too is the geography. She, "...adopt[s] the territory of modern Europe, which extends from North Cape, Norway to the island of Lampedusa, Italy, and from the Urals to Portugal."(Sarti, 3) Sarti admits that there are inherent problems in tackling such a work. This work, "...cannot provide exhaustive coverage of the various problems in each of the different fields of study or of the results achieved."(Sarti, 2) While she is certainly correct in this belief, she certainly does raise some interesting theories and discussions within the book. Sarti's overall thesis is that there is no definitive way to explain "Europe at Home," there are just too many differences in lifestyle to do so.

In the first chapter, Sarti forces the reader to re-think their basic definitions of both family and home. She dispels many myths regarding the family structure and what constitutes home. Our modern notions are immediately attacked by illustrating that families were often times extensive, beyond just relatives, or that families could also be small, akin to our modern "nuclear families" in size. She also dispels modern notions of the home by exploring what "home" meant to families then. She attempts to find common ground on the definitions of these two terms. Inevitably, the definition ends up leaning towards the lifestyle of the landed aristocracy. That is not to say that Sarti ignores other classes in her book, quite the contrary. She ranges across social and cultural barriers to explore the evolution of ideas in the world of the family and home. This method is a necessity so that the mind of the reader may be opened up to what she will discuss thereafter. If the reader's notion of family and home are not opened up, much of what she does will be lost or futile.

Sarti traces changes to the family across space and time. In the early years of her book, a distinct hierarchy existed in which the parents and then the husband reigned over the females and children of the household. By the end of the eighteenth century, however, "...it became increasingly common for people to base family relationships at least party on a more egalitarian basis." (Sarti, 37) These changes seem to revolve around an economic empowerment of women and children throughout the span of the period covered. Women, in many areas, gained economic status through employment, inheritance, or dowries. In other words, economic empowerment gave women more power in the domestic sphere. Sarti, however, does still caution that male dominance over a house was still prevalent in that they made a greater portion of the decisions about how the money was to be spent. (Sarti 214 - 221)

Sarti explains what obstacles women had to overcome to get to their new position in the family. She explores inequities in society and the law, specifically in regards to women and marriage. The role of parental dominance that was the norm in the early years of her study helps to explain the sometimes undesirable position that women found themselves in after the marriage contract was concluded by her parents. The same can be said for males in such arrangements as well, but females, more often than males, received the short end of the stick. It should be noted, however, that Sarti does note an increasing freedom of choice as time passes. In earlier times, marriage occurred earlier, whereas by the conclusion of the study, marriage comes later in life to both men and women. This stems from a myriad of reasons, such as the freedom to choose, but it also comes from economic considerations that come with that freedom.

Within the home, there is a new emphasis on the private and public sphere. Rooms became specialized, just as Sarti indicates with her subheading, "everything has its place and everything in its place." (Sarti, 128) Corridors were devised to provide said separation between the two spheres. Those corridors divided various rooms into the private spheres, such as the bedroom, a study or lavatories. Along with this separation, there was also an emphasis on comfort. These rooms were areas that family members could retreat to for solace for whatever reason. In the public sphere, on the other hand, entertainment was the norm as guests were received in rooms where the family's best furniture and accoutrements were placed on display. This also allowed the guest to stay contained within the public sphere.

In later chapters, she explores food and clothing. Throughout this exploration, one perceives an overall theme that what was once exclusively the domain of the wealthy, elite or powerful of society is now becoming accessible to the working classes. Famine, during this era, is slowly becoming outdated. This is largely due to international trade and a new emphasis on cultivating items that were previously neglected. Sarti points to such common items as rice, tomatoes, peppers and kidney beans as experiencing a renaissance during this era. Combining the factors of new foods coming from overseas, the lessening costs of current imports, and the new expanding diet, famine was much less a threat to the working class. In the chapter on clothing, Sarti not only explores that facet of life, but also hygiene. There was a change in the outlook of hygiene during this period. The baths became obsolete. New techniques that involved the removing or masking of sweat and dirt became the norm. Further, innovations in the textile industry made clothes more affordable and the repertoire of clothing became larger. Changing of clothing on a regular basis was achievable. Clothes also became more colorful, which one can perceive this as a change in the mentality of society.

Just how does Sarti accomplish all of this? She delves into the documents of everyday life to explore the true nature of the individual and society during this time. Diaries, wills, estates and other primary sources are used extensively. These primary sources are a necessity to explore the everyday lives of Europeans in the Old Regime. They illuminate the finer details that are otherwise missed. In addition, she looks at secondary sources that explore various case studies.

In her conclusion, Sarti admits that she falls short of her objective. Concrete answers are not found here, but it leaves a starting place for subsequent studies of domestic life in Europe. Domestic life, however, is not the only area which Europe at Home is a starting point. Issues dealing with private and public space along with individual rights are explored. A failing that I find in her concluding chapter is that she is more reflective of changes for women than any other group. Of course, this does stem from her own self-admitted point of view, however, with the detailed research of the family as a whole, I would have like to see her give more ink to each facet of the family. She does give all members of the family extensive coverage throughout the course of her book, why she does not finish that way in her conclusion is somewhat frustrating. Nevertheless, the in-depth scope of the family throughout the rest of the book is revealing. Europe at Home as will give subsequent studies on the family during the Old Regime a good place to start.