Giovedì 21 febbraio, ore 17.00

Camilla Annerfeldt (PhD candidate, Department of History and Civilisation, European University Institute, Florence) will present her ongoing research A Paradise of Imposters? Clothes as Social Markers in Early Baroque Rome

Early modern Rome was as 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 moralising religious attitude versus the seductive underworld; the sacred and religious versus the profane and political; the importance of romanitas – an ancient Roman lineage – in contrast to a transnational character. In other words, it was a city where the controlled was constantly challenged by the chaotic.

Such a fragmented context creates a number of interesting dimensions when studying clothing as social markers. In fact, social identity was regarded as much more important than the individual in Rome by the turn of the century 1600. The social hierarchy was reflected in hierarchies of appearance, in which clothes constructed the social body with the purpose of defining status and social rank. However, they could also create a desired identity. Clothes also functioned as an alternative currency. Garments were repaired and remade, circulated as perquisites, wages, gifts or bequests, or were sold or pawned as required. Investment in cloth and clothing therefore served as a type of savings. In fact, clothing as a means of payment could sometimes 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 be’ rather than as they were. Thus, for my thesis, I am analysing to what extent and by which means clothing was used by the members of the different socio-economic classes in Rome as a token to accentuate – or disguise – their social standing.

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