A paradise for impostors? : clothing as social markers in early modern Rome

Abstract

This thesis seeks to elucidate the ways in which clothing was used by the members of Rome’s different socio-economic classes as a token to accentuate – or disguise – their social standing. In the early modern period, social identity was regarded as much more important than the individual. The social hierarchy was reflected in the hierarchies of appearance, in which clothes constructed the social body with the purpose of defining status and social rank. Clothes also functioned as an alternative currency. Garments were repaired and remade, circulated as perquisites, wages, gifts or bequests, or were pawned or sold on the second-hand market if the necessity arose. Investment in textiles and clothing therefore served as a type of savings; clothing as a means of payment could sometimes even be more valuable than money. Yet, this constant circulation of clothes could at times also create confusion within the hierarchies of appearance. By acquiring clothes otherwise out of reach of one’s socio-economic range, the wearers were enabled to ‘appear what they would like to be’ rather than as they were. Early modern Rome was a city with a dualistic nature, which seems to have permeated many aspects of Roman society around 1600 – the stern Counter-Reformation church on the one hand, and the lavish courts on the other; the sacred versus the profane; the importance of romanitas – an ancient Roman lineage – in contrast to a transnational character. Above all, it was a city where the controlled was constantly challenged by the chaotic. Such a fragmented context creates a number of interesting aspects when studying early-modern clothing as social markers. Thus, because of the Roman society’s very nature, this thesis argues that Rome presented an exceptional case in comparison to other societies in the Italian peninsula.