Silver transformed and convulsed the early modern world. Silver, even more than gold, occupied a deeply charged intersection of forces and dynamics ED philosophical, religious, material, telluric, economic, colonialist, social, cultural, and courtly ED that traversed and profoundly altered the world. Silver from the so-called 'New World' bankrolled and justified the Spanish monarchy in its landgrab, wars, and empire building in both the Americas and in Europe. The great mountain of fabulously rich silver, Cerro Ricco in Potosí, relentlessly exploited by the Spanish invaders from 1545, irrevocably changed power relations, empires, and entire social and environmental ecologies across the globe. Accelerating global commerce and the growth of capitalism, trade in silver intensified the accumulation of capital and uneven trade balances, and enhanced the wealth of northern Europe at the expense of the Global South, particularly of Latin America. This wealth helped jump start the Industrial Revolution a century later.
Silver: Transformational Matter draws together essays by leading anthropologists, art historians, and historians to rethink silver across diverse fields and bring into context mining, trade, the Spanish empire and colonialism, Indigenous expertise, high-end Islamic and European silver artifacts, philosophical and alchemical erudition, and the shimmer of silver in textiles and moonlight. The emphasis in this collection is on early modern silver (ca.1545-ca.1700), since that was the crux and highpoint of its economic, artistic, and colonialist triumph, but any notion of a homogeneous historical 'period' is strongly resisted. Time and place were splintered by silver, as well as brought into relation by it.
List of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Glossary Introduction: Forging Silver ConnectionsHELEN HILLS: Part I: Silver: Mining, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonialism 1: ALLISON MARGARET BIGELOW: Gold, Silver, Power, and Abuse: 'The Incorporation and Erasure of Indigenous Knowledges in Spanish Colonial Metalwork' 2: THOMAS B. F. CUMMINS: The Atocha's Silver ca.1622: Ingots, Aquillas, and the Intersection of Values 3: MAGGIE BOLTON: Flowing Silver and Ephemeral Cities: Working the Ruins of Colonial Silver Mines Part II: Silver and the Moon 4: SPIKE BUCKLOW: Silver, the Lunar Metal 5: TIM INGOLD: How the World Shines Silver in the Moonlight Part III: Silver Profits: Trade, Trust, and Trickery 6: SERGIUS KODERA: Between Early Modern Technology and Moral Agenda: Silver Counterfeiting and Assaying in Sixteenth-century Europe 7: KRIS LANE: Mutant Money: The Globe-trotting Career of Seventeenth-century Silver Cash Part IV: Exquisite Effects 8: AVINOAM SHALEM: Fidda (Silver): On the Active Life of Matter 9: ELENA PHIPPS: Weaving Silver: Brilliance and Sheen in Colonial Andean Textiles 10: RICHARD CHECKETTS: Adam van Vianen and Ghosts of Silver in the Late-Renaissance World Index
Helen Hills is Professor Emerita at the University of York, where she became the first woman Professor of History of Art in 2008. She has published widely on Italian baroque art and architecture, gender and architecture, and has particular interests in the inter-relationships amongst religious practices, architecture, social class, gender, and sexuality. Her work seeks to push the boundaries of the discipline.
