ON - Objects in Network: The social life of things in the fifteenth century between notarial sources and semantic web

Acronym: ON

Description

Drawing on a concept elaborated by social anthropologists and sociologists, ON explores the written traces that different types of objects, and the social relationships around them, left in the exceptionally rich documentary legacy of the notarial serial sources of four cities: Benevento, Bologna, Genova, and Perugia. This comparative investigation of the Italian urban society will allow a deeper understanding of the lifestyle, purchasing power, consumption practices, and social relationships as embodied by the circulation of objects.

ON will contribute to shifting the focus of historiographical enquiry from the international market to human networks and from economic value to the social, material and relational value of objects. This approach aims to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how exchanging things was able to shape and transform personal relationships.