Élites - History Lab

The Cardinal

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:53 +0000

Portrait by Raphael showing a prince of the Church. The sitter is unknown, but must have been an Italian cardinal of the early 16th century. The great realism of the sitter, his features and his clothing are remarkable

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Origin of the vessels that arrived at the Valencia of the Cernesio family in 1615

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:56 +0000

The Milanese merchant family of the Cernesio family managed to evolve socially during the 17th century to become nobles of the Kingdom of Valencia. Their work as wheat merchants made them well known in the main ports of the western Mediterranean, supplying several cities and almost exclusively the granaries of the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. They also traded in cloth, foodstuffs, steel and horses, among others, showing the diversification of imports that passed through the Valencian ports of the 17th century in their name.
The arrival of the Cernesio family in Valencia was due, on the one hand, to the economic possibilities of such a city, and on the other hand, to the weakness of the local commercial bourgeoisie, which was beset by continuous economic crises.
To emphasise their role in the western Mediterranean, it can be seen from the resource that more than half of the ships that arrived for them came from ports on the Italian peninsula and from the aforementioned islands of Sardinia and Sicily. The data also show the extensive commercial network that involved the Cernesio family, receiving goods from a wide number of ports influenced by the family’s friendships and even resources from their own relatives.

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Granting of titles of nobility and access to the Royal Navy (1690-1829)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

During the 18th century there was an enrichment of Cadiz merchants who came to rise socially acquiring noble titles, going from a family culture of merchants to seek new careers for their children through the income in the Royal Navy. One of the main aspects to be considered initially is the situation of trade, looking at the families still in the business and by studying their sources of wealth also at what level they aspired to in this situation.
With the selection of twenty-seven families from the Cádiz trade, it is possible to find out which of their descendants joined the Academies of Marine Guards from the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century. With the data collected, it is possible to establish the transformations that were taking place within the families themselves and the way in which they adapted to the changes experienced by Cádiz society.
The level of interest in the naval institution remained between three and four throughout the first half of the 18th century, growing exponentially in the second half of the century when the merchants of Cádiz received a greater number of noble titles, decreasing again in the early years of the 19th century, highlighting the strategy of ennoblement that marked the institution in these years.

The post Granting of titles of nobility and access to the Royal Navy (1690-1829) first appeared on History Lab.

Evolution of the number of local elite and merchant families in the Castilian hinterland (1761-1838)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

At the end of the Ancien Régime, the town of Albacete experienced an important demographic growth which led it to exercise a great power of attraction over the migratory and economic networks in the whole of eastern La Mancha. From a meagre 2,500 inhabitants in 1700, it gradually recovered its number of inhabitants, reaching over 5,000 in 1750. The years between 1750-1850 were those which represented an important quantitative change, not without enormous ups and downs, but which quadrupled the population. For the first years of the 1760s, the demographic estimate for the town, villages and hamlets of Albacete was 5,776 inhabitants, with 4,588 in the town centre alone. This figure increased 26 years later in the Floridablanca census to 8,261 inhabitants in the villages and hamlets as a whole and 6,679 people in the town. At the end of the 18th century, through the Godoy census, the town as a whole with its hamlets reached the figure of 9,552 and in 1861 it reached 16,000 inhabitants. The demographic increase in the population of Albacete was reflected in the same way in all social groups. In the case of the merchants, the growth was quite significant from the middle of the 18th century until the first third of the 19th century. With the social and economic expansion of the town after the 1740s and 1750s, and with particular force from 1780 onwards, the social and economic diversification of Albacete’s merchant community became evident, coinciding with a period of withdrawal on the part of the families of the local oligarchy. Many of the merchant families acquired greater power in the first third of the 19th century, who came from small shopkeepers and retailers, as well as master craftsmen who had become wealthy at the end of the 18th century.

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I saw it: Goya, the modern look at art

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:41 +0000

Audio of the programme Documentos RNE on Francisco de Goya. This 55-minute documentary by Ana Vega Toscano explores one of the most singular figures of universal art. It stresses the absolute modernity of his work and the transcendence it has had in the evolution of contemporary art. The extensive and original production of this brilliant painter, with his technical innovations, is explored in parallel with his life and the context of his time, addressing both the myth and the artist. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, through the different phases of his painting, his work reflects the complex process of evolution of the crisis of the Ancien Régime. Although he cannot be considered either an 18th or 19th century painter, he is in fact a contemporary painter in his own right, a precursor of later trends in art such as Impressionism, Expressionism and Surrealism. The documentary features the participation of art historians Manuela Mena Marqués and José Manuel Matilla Rodríguez, curators of the exhibition “Goya. Solo la voluntad me sobra” held in 2019. Also included are contributions by the historian Miguel Artola, the art historian Natacha Seseña and the art historian Alfonso Pérez Sánchez. The programme is completed with a selection of texts and letters by the author and his entourage. A short video clip https://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/documentos-rne/documentos-rne-goya-mirada-moderna-del-arte/5440766/ is also available

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