La famiglia Ruiz di Medina del Campo. Persone, tessuti e vestiti nella Castiglia del "Siglo de Oro" (1566-1600)

The research is aimed at the reconstruction of various aspects of the multiform relationship which took place between certain exponents of the Ruiz family –wholesale merchants of fabric– the textiles and the clothes, in the effervescent context of the heart of the Hapsburg Empire during the last third of the 16th century, in Medina del Campo (the town of the fairs) and Valladolid (the capital of the area), through the study of the familiar archive.The relationship between the Ruiz family (textile wholesalers) and the combination of fabric and cloth was analysed in a large context and through various scales of observation: firstly with the "family of merchants" (integrating the bibliography with inedited documents), and subsequently with a series of researches projected towards the "family of clients" – both in the long run as well as in precisely isolated moments, between single biographies and the everyday life , from business transactions and the shopping for fabric and clothes, and finally comparing the "Ruiz network" and other 25 families.The first chapter briefly presents the ample state of the art, the sources and the methodology (accounts, inventories, testaments, “diverse”, mainly gathered with a database); the second the Kingdom of Castilla in the 1500s (economy and society) and the figure of the wealthy merchant; the third the story of the Ruiz family (the two central generations, Simon and the Hospital General of Medina he founded.Chapter 4 deals with the textiles and the fabrics, examining certain wholesale transactions and other retail transactions (in which we can appreciate the multiple agency of the Ruiz family), and deeply analyses over 275 occurrences of fabric found in the documents. After chapter 5, which contains a bibliographic approximation of the fashion of the 1500s and the clothing worn at that time (about 30 examples of articles of clothing), chapter 6 presents the relationship between the Ruiz family, the tailor and the clothing, the "alternative" modalities for the acquisition of clothes, and certain examples of the acquisition of head coverings, gloves, trousers and shoes. Chapter 7 focuses on the comparison of the inventories of the Ruiz family with those of other Castilian families in the second half of the 16 th century. The "material wealth" of 33 subjects is examined, and the macrocategories in which the patrimony studied has been subdivided are defined ("knightly appearance", "worn appearance", "domestic appearance", "domestic work", "sources of appearance", "books") for over 13.500 entries, corresponding to over 33.000 items. Finally, the clothing is examined in further detail (over 3.100 entries corresponding to almost 5.000 items, the second macrocategory after the "domestic appearance").It was possible to imagine a wardrobe which was common to the totality of the subjects analysed, with the most recurring items and the clothes which were most diffused.The Ruiz family and the Presa family were amongst the major owners not only of clothes in general, but also of single pieces, in absolute and relative term. Not only there emerges the tendency to "vivir noblemente", but also it is noticeable, also for the clothing, an "exceptional noble lifestyle".If it is possible to realize, with an observation conducted "from above" (that is, from the numbers extracted from the inventories), a fashion, some patterns of consumption, and some general shared tendencies, at the same time it is necessary to emphasize how, going through the single items of the concrete documents, that variety is one of the constants (a variety of documents and hands, fabrics –both “families” and “tipologies”–, fashions).More than the changes of forms or clothes, which did take place (and which have been recognized) a spinning variety of fabrics and techniques, of decorations and ornaments.Summarizing in one phrase the trajectory of the subjects, fabrics and clothing: the Ruiz, a family of wool merchants dressed in silk.