Projects by Riccardo E. Rossi
Upcoming events by Riccardo E. Rossi
During the early modern era, the intensified intercontinental circulation of goods catalysed by t... more During the early modern era, the intensified intercontinental circulation of goods catalysed by the development of oceanic trade routes fuelled new consumer needs and an increasing differentiation of material culture. Scholarship has investigated the use and appropriation of exogenous goods, intellectual debates and changing attitudes concerning ‘luxury’ as well as the emergence of new forms of sociability related to specific consumer practices. The eighteenth century, in particular, has been identified – by scholars dealing primarily with north-western Europe – as an era of a ‘consumer revolution’ and technological innovation that resulted in a substantially augmented access to delectable goods by ordinary people.
What commodities were consumed by which social groups? How fast did new patterns of consumption evolve? To what extent were lower social strata and rural areas involved in these processes? Which goods remained exclusive and which became popular? How did information on new commodities spread and how did changing consumer habits influence material culture and aesthetical styles? Measuring and analysing the change and persistence of consumer patterns is a challenging endeavour. Our workshop will tackle these questions, discussing empirical sources and methodological approaches we can use as historians when we deal with consumption in past societies.
Past talks and events by Riccardo E. Rossi
Papers by Riccardo E. Rossi
History of Retailing and Consumption, 2023
Labour migrants were a widespread phenomenon in the Alps
during the early modern period and impac... more Labour migrants were a widespread phenomenon in the Alps
during the early modern period and impacted the materiality of
everyday life in the mountains. This article investigates traces of
these movements in linguistic usage by exploring the way in
which goods were described by actors from the Three Leagues, in
present-day Switzerland and Italy. Provenances of goods were
given by using toponyms that indicated the place of origin the
more precise, the closer the location was to the Alps. These
geographical terms informed about specific visual and tactile
qualities and were introduced together with other technical
vocabulary via specialized merchants and spread via shops to
customers of the upper echelons. Small-scale retailers and
occasional dealers made use of less detailed descriptions that can
also be found in the accounts of their clients which resembled
the language used in informal correspondences. These channels
could be activated to gain more detailed information and thanks
to the wide-spread networks of migrant labourers, knowledge
was exchanged with and via the Alps. This exchange of
information appears, however, to have become less intense when
migration patterns changed in the aftermath of the French
Revolutionary Wars.
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Projects by Riccardo E. Rossi
Upcoming events by Riccardo E. Rossi
What commodities were consumed by which social groups? How fast did new patterns of consumption evolve? To what extent were lower social strata and rural areas involved in these processes? Which goods remained exclusive and which became popular? How did information on new commodities spread and how did changing consumer habits influence material culture and aesthetical styles? Measuring and analysing the change and persistence of consumer patterns is a challenging endeavour. Our workshop will tackle these questions, discussing empirical sources and methodological approaches we can use as historians when we deal with consumption in past societies.
Past talks and events by Riccardo E. Rossi
Papers by Riccardo E. Rossi
during the early modern period and impacted the materiality of
everyday life in the mountains. This article investigates traces of
these movements in linguistic usage by exploring the way in
which goods were described by actors from the Three Leagues, in
present-day Switzerland and Italy. Provenances of goods were
given by using toponyms that indicated the place of origin the
more precise, the closer the location was to the Alps. These
geographical terms informed about specific visual and tactile
qualities and were introduced together with other technical
vocabulary via specialized merchants and spread via shops to
customers of the upper echelons. Small-scale retailers and
occasional dealers made use of less detailed descriptions that can
also be found in the accounts of their clients which resembled
the language used in informal correspondences. These channels
could be activated to gain more detailed information and thanks
to the wide-spread networks of migrant labourers, knowledge
was exchanged with and via the Alps. This exchange of
information appears, however, to have become less intense when
migration patterns changed in the aftermath of the French
Revolutionary Wars.
What commodities were consumed by which social groups? How fast did new patterns of consumption evolve? To what extent were lower social strata and rural areas involved in these processes? Which goods remained exclusive and which became popular? How did information on new commodities spread and how did changing consumer habits influence material culture and aesthetical styles? Measuring and analysing the change and persistence of consumer patterns is a challenging endeavour. Our workshop will tackle these questions, discussing empirical sources and methodological approaches we can use as historians when we deal with consumption in past societies.
during the early modern period and impacted the materiality of
everyday life in the mountains. This article investigates traces of
these movements in linguistic usage by exploring the way in
which goods were described by actors from the Three Leagues, in
present-day Switzerland and Italy. Provenances of goods were
given by using toponyms that indicated the place of origin the
more precise, the closer the location was to the Alps. These
geographical terms informed about specific visual and tactile
qualities and were introduced together with other technical
vocabulary via specialized merchants and spread via shops to
customers of the upper echelons. Small-scale retailers and
occasional dealers made use of less detailed descriptions that can
also be found in the accounts of their clients which resembled
the language used in informal correspondences. These channels
could be activated to gain more detailed information and thanks
to the wide-spread networks of migrant labourers, knowledge
was exchanged with and via the Alps. This exchange of
information appears, however, to have become less intense when
migration patterns changed in the aftermath of the French
Revolutionary Wars.