The Architecture of Banking in Renaissance Italy: Constructing the Spaces of Money

Description

Over the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, European society confronted rapid monetization, a process that has been examined in depth by economic historians. Less well understood is the development of architecture to meet the needs of a burgeoning mercantile economy in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. In this volume, Lauren Jacobi explores some of the repercussions of early capitalism through a study of the location and types of spaces that were used for banking and minting in Florence and other mercantile centers in Europe. Examining the historical relationships between banks and religious behavior, she also analyzes how urban geographies and architectural forms reveal moral attitudes toward money during the onset of capitalism. Jacobi's book offers new insights into the spaces and locations where pre-industrial European banking and minting transpired, as well as the impact of religious concerns and financial tools on those sites.

Lauren Jacobi is a scholar of late medieval and early modern European architecture. She has received fellowships from the Kress Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, the Morgan Library and Museum, and the American Council of Learned Societies. In 2015-16, she held a postdoctoral Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome. She is to be the co-editor of Purity and Contamination in the Renaissance (forthcoming).