Life in the Renaissance household

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At Home in Renaissance Italy

Edited by Marta Ajmar-Wollheim and Flora Dennis

Would you like to know what people in the Renaissance era ate, what they sat on, what they believed about conception and birth, how they dealt with personal hygiene, how they kept the house clean and a hundred other fascinating topics?  This is the book that will reveal all.

Written by a group of scholars, each an expert in their own field, this volume (now out in paperback) accompanied the exhibition of the same name at the V&A museum in London in 2006. Nonetheless, it isn't so much a catalogue (although there is a summary catalogue of exhibits at the end) as a guide to domestic, social and artistic life as revealed by the Renaissance house.

An exposition of the lay-out and use of domestic space in the urban, non-elite house sets the scene. Family and social networks are highlighted within the setting of the local neighbourhood.  Contemporary pictures of the interior of houses from this period can be a rich fund of information and portray practices and rituals within the family home. The Renaissance house was the central location for birth, life and death.  The bedroom, designed to receive visitors, for example after childbirth and when visiting the sick or comforting the dying, was in many ways a reception room.  It thus became a space that was given priority in interior decoration, often displaying the most costly pictures and objects a family could afford.

How did the Renaissance house function practically on a daily basis?  Servants, sometimes slaves, and regular visitors such as chimney sweeps oiled the machinery of daily living. The practical tools and scientific instruments they used are here explored and examined.  The differing tasks of men and women are highlighted and we learn about the central concern of the raising of children within the family home. Health, beauty and hygiene practices in the home are considered, revealing some interesting practices. Did you know, for instance, that printed ‘recipe’ books, often known as 'books of secrets', circulated widely from the mid-1500s?  These contained mostly details for the making up of medicines for the treatment of all kinds of ailments, not simply common complaints such as nose bleeds or toothache but also for the most serious conditions, such as syphilis, deafness and plague.

The Renaissance house served as a centre of sociability and entertainment and, despite regional differences in activities, it showed many similarities throughout Italy, providing something of a shared culture.  What did people eat and with what?  What did they sit on? Who and what provided musical entertainment?  These questions and many others are discussed and a variety of answers and suggestions put forward. Aside from social intercourse, business activities were often a significant feature of the Renaissance house with offices and, particularly in Venice, warehouses being part of the household’s functioning and given designated space.

The household was also a devotional centre, in a society where the church and Christian teaching and duty were powerful and significant forces, and this is not neglected here.  Devotional books, objects and pictures were an important presence within the family home and devotional activities within the house followed a daily rhythm according to the Christian calendar.

Objects and furnishings, from painting and sculpture to furniture and textiles, had an active role in family life. The book reveals a broad-ranging view of the types of artistic display offered to the family, servants and visitors alike.  Middle-Eastern objects such as carpets and tableware highlight the international network of trade relations that left its mark on the Renaissance home.  Everyday objects, often retrieved by archaeologists, are also considered in order to give a broader view. In 1600 an inventory taken in the household of a Florentine noblewoman lists about 540 metres of fabric stored in the home.  Some of it was probably destined to be made into clothing, and some of it into hangings and furnishings.  This nugget of information reveals the importance and quantities of textiles used to decorate the house and clothe its occupants, according to what the family could afford.

This book is a goldmine of information but it goes far beyond the simply factual, highlighting questions and making suggestions, discussing and illuminating many of the more obscure aspects of life in the Renaissance household.  It is beautifully produced and generously illustrated with colour images of many and varied kinds of objects, paintings and prints.  There is a wide-ranging bibliography for further reading.

For the reader who wants an in-depth account, getting below the surface of life in the Renaissance home, this book is a veritable treasure trove.

At Home in Renaissance Italy edited by Marta Ajmar-Wollheim and Flora Dennis  is published by V&A Publications, 2010 (paperback publication). 420pp., 350 colour illus.ISBN 978-1851774890