Description
TitleThe cathedral of Milan and its fabulous donor
Date Created2013
Other Date2013-01 (degree)
Extentxiii, 276 p. : ill.
DescriptionThis dissertation focuses on Marco Carelli, a fourteenth-century wealthy Milanese merchant who in 1391 donated his vast patrimony to jump-start the building of the city's new cathedral. The intent in each chapter is to weave together a "life" that reflects upon its time. Through wills, merchandise inventories, confraternity statutes, accounting books, sale contracts, and trial minutes dug out of the archives of Bruges, Lille, Milan, and Venice, I reconstruct the life of a man who is in many ways typical for his period. The profile that emerges from this detailed analysis profoundly contradicts the standard historiography of the rapacious merchant who bestowed lavish gifts to buy his way into heaven by paying off time owed for his sins and as well to create earthly monuments to himself. Further, the thesis challenges the prevailing divide among scholars that separates economic and religious spheres, which leads in my judgment to an artificially bifurcated portrait of medieval society and mentality. For a medieval merchant, I argue, being a good Christian meant devoting himself to success in business and equally to charitable deeds, always making great profits on his investments. After an introductory chapter to set the scene, Chapter Two focuses on the Carelli family before Marco was someone of importance, showing how his attitudes and skills were rooted in a robust familial tradition of merchants with solid patrimony and tight networks of commercial alliances acquired through farsighted marital strategies. Then, it explores Marco Carelli's golden age and the construction of his trans-regional mercantile empire, looking at his modus operandi to understand more about choices and decisions, explaining the factors that contributed to his success, and showing the profound intertwining between business and faith, omnipresent in the merchant's life. Chapter Four examines the merchant's bequest to the Milan Cathedral through the examination of his two wills and codicil. The final chapter describes how the cathedral Fabbrica decided to celebrate his death, and to honor his body and his memory - notwithstanding that he asked for none of the pomp and ceremony, only for masses for the salvation of his soul.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Martina Saltamacchia
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
LanguageEnglish
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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