Objects of consumption: Mediterranean interconnections of the Ottomans and Mamluks

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781119069218.ch35

Uncertainties and controversies have marked, and continue to mark, both Mediterranean and Renaissance studies. The key point here is that while the eighteenth‐century argument has more to do with developments in and around Britain, the sixteenth‐century focus is part of a Mediterranean, Italian, and Renaissance framework. Whether in the sixteenth century or earlier or later, in this fragmented yet interconnected Mediterranean world, it is generally agreed that the rise of consumer culture begins with luxury trade. From the 1450s to the 1650s, population grew, urbanization increased, and demand escalated, to which supply, too, responded, resulting in a proliferation of both regional and interregional trade. At least three types of movement could be distinguished: gift exchange, long‐distance, cross‐cultural trade, and finished products. The absence of visual records for Mamluk or Ottoman interiors, especially when set against the realism found in contemporary Italian art, poses a major problem for material culture studies.