About this item
Highlights
- A timely look at the economic revolution that took place in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.The rise of the monetary economy transformed every aspect of medieval Europe, including its values and culture.
- About the Author: Diane Wolfthal specializes in late medieval and early modern European art.
- 232 Pages
- Art, History
Description
About the Book
"Accompanying a 2023 exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, Medieval Money, Merchants, and Morality focuses on the economic revolution that took place in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance in Europe. Featuring essays by Diane Wolfthal and additional contributions by Steven A. Epstein, David Yoon, and Deirdre Jackson, this publication provides an in-depth look into the origins of money and how it transformed the culture and values of European society"--Book Synopsis
A timely look at the economic revolution that took place in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
The rise of the monetary economy transformed every aspect of medieval Europe, including its values and culture. Medieval Money explores the ways art reflected and reinforced the complex ethical discussions that developed from the widespread role of money in everyday life in the Middle Ages. It traces the origins of global money, and surveys economic history, focusing on the environment, the plague, Jews, and institutions, using a wealth of imagery including illuminated manuscripts, coins, artworks, money chests, and account books.
The iconography, minting, and foreign exchange of coins are examined, and the choice that Christians faced is investigated: should they save their money or their soul? The authors explore images of Avarice, the greedy punished in hell, and immoral ways to earn and spend money, and analyze representations of charity and voluntary poverty. Final chapters examine the material culture of the monetary economy (from an illuminated oath for minters to purses and lockboxes) and images of medieval money management.
Review Quotes
"Although the book serves as the catalogue record of an important exhibition, focused on works of art, what it provides is more than art history. Wolfthal's larger theme is the fraught contest between money's increasing presence and importance in urban economies, poised against medieval Church prohibitions against usury and avarice. As such, the book will be of lasting relevance for historians of all stripes, especially scholars of religion, economy and urbanism."--Larry Silver, The Burlington Magazine
"This book brings a wealth of contextual understanding to complement the objects and ideas in the exhibition itself"--Elizabeth Cleland, Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews
About the Author
Diane Wolfthal specializes in late medieval and early modern European art. Founding Co-editor of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal, she is David and Caroline Minter Chair Emerita in the Humanities and professor emerita of Art History, Rice University. She is the co-author, with Elisabeth Hollander, of a volume on the fourteenth-century Maḥzor in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Deirdre Jackson is assistant curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, the Morgan Library
Steven A. Epstein is professor emeritus, department of history at the University of Kansas. He was educated at Swarthmore College, St. John's College (Cambridge University), and Harvard College, where he developed his interests in medieval social and economic history.
David Yoon is Mark Salton Associate Curator of Medieval, Renaissance and Early European Numismatics, American Numismatic Society