Worldly Goods [Hardcover]

Lisa Jardine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1996

"Fascinating . . . Jardine's attention to the material side of things is an important explanatory complement to the many histories of the period that have dwelt on the sublime works of art . . . Real history is in the details, the small stories, of which WORLDLY GOODS is a treasure house."
Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Drawing from her earlier and more academic studies, Lisa Jardine approaches the challenge of creating a new history of the Renaissance with remarkable bravura and all the boldness required to deliver a fresh and highly readable story of an age we think we know so well. In Worldly Goods, Jardine argues that while the Renaissance was indeed marked by a flourishing cultural identity, it was the material and commercial spirit of the 15th and 16th centuries that set the tone. Commerce and international trade provided the enormous fortunes that funded artistic production, and luxury goods, including great works of art, became important as means of displaying newly acquired wealth and status. It was an urge to own, a ceaseless quest for new horizons and exotic treasures, that fueled the cultural output of the Renaissance, according to Jardine, and that taste for conspicuous displays of opulence characterizes the Western experience of the arts and culture to this day.

That Worldly Goods succeeds in telling a captivating new story of the Renaissance is testimony to Jardine's literary and scholarly success at a difficult task. That her book, richly illustrated and well written, makes contemplation of its subject a thrill is testimony of a very good read.

From Publishers Weekly

Arguing that acquisitiveness ranked among the chief traits of leading Renaissance figures, Jardine (Erasmus, Man of Letters), a noted British academic, seeks to reinterpret the forces at work in an era traditionally defined in terms of the triumph of humanism. Writing with critical intelligence and authority, Jardine characterizes the artistic masterpieces of the period as "strictly commercial" undertakings designed to glorify their owners while doubling as convertible capital. Extravagant expenditures on conspicuous display in the interest of dynasty-building drew the Habsburg emperor Maximilian so deeply into debt to Jakob Fugger, the prominent German financier, that Maximilian was forced to cede long-term rights in the profits from his silver and copper mines in exchange for further loans. The struggle to control the globe led to intrigue at the highest levels-both Columbus and Magellan took advantage of stolen maps for their landmark voyages-and Jardine's examination of exploration and commerce provides a window onto the times. Her extended discussion of the rapidly emerging book trade highlights the role of financiers such as the Medicis, the Pope's main bankers, whose keen interest in profits led them to ensure that even books proscribed by the Church remained in circulation. By analyzing the Renaissance narrowly in terms of the ascendancy of modern mercantile capitalism, Jardine likens the period to our own. The risk of such an approach is to slight the hold of antiquity on the shapers of our modern world. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; First Edition edition (November 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385476841
• ISBN-13: 978-0385476843
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #609,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Early Stages of Consumption!, September 10, 1999

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Worldly Goods (Hardcover)

If you sometimes feel that the modern age is spiritually bankrupt, what with all the conspicuous consumption and "keeping up with the Jones's" that goes on and if you yearn for earlier and simpler times- well, you might find this book a bit of a revelation. Ms. Jardine shows us that even back in the 15th and 16th centuries wealthy people wanted to acquire all the art, jewelry,books, etc. they could afford and when they got carried away even more than they could afford. Kings and princes would borrow beyond their means and die surrounded by opulence and debt. Collectors of beautiful objects would become so obsessive that they sometimes could not wait for other wealthy people to die so that they could get their hands on their collections too! People would even collect books as status symbols. A wealthy nobleman might retain a scholar to travel through Europe to buy the "right" books to add to his library. These would be in Latin and Greek. The fact that the nobleman might not be capable of reading the language in question wouldn't matter for the book would look good in his library. Ms. Jardine has an engaging style and the book is beautifully illustrated. My only complaints are that the section dealing with printing tends to give some obvious historical information which is not central to the books thesis and that as you near the end of the book you may feel that things are becoming a bit repetitious. But overall I found the book very enjoyable!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book with an intriguing view of the Renaissance, January 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Worldly Goods (Hardcover)

This is an absolutely beautiful book -- almost worth buying for the quality of the paper and print and the illustrations alone. But it's more than that. The initial chapters on the role of the Eastern Church in preserving Greek learning and its transmission to the West are fascinating and revealing. The overall theme -- that the engine of the Renaissance was acquisition, not some abstract desire for learning -- is less well played out, but nonetheless well worth pondering. A wonderful history in the Barbara Tuchman style: educated, provocative and highly readable

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Money and Wealth talk, September 13, 2001

By 

Ian Cruickshank (Victoria, B.C., Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Worldly Goods (Hardcover)

Lisa Jardine's book "Worldly Goods" is in itself a refreshing view of the Renaissance. The typically structure of the period is to lecture on the enlightement of thought, such Erasmus, or political change as seen with the republics established in the northern Italian cities. Mostly though the Renaissance is connected with the explosion of art. However, Jardine clearly shows that the concept of personal wealth through materialistic possesion is not something new and had a greater influence on the Renaissance period then many would have realized. Her writting style is also a strength of the book as I found it fairly easy to get through in a short period.