Introduction

This project continues to a great extent the work carried out through the VIDARQ (HAR2014-52248-P) project. In that previous project we focused on the study of the house behind closed doors during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and for the present one we have managed to develop further and gain a deeper and more rigorous knowledge regarding the house at that particular point in history. However, there is still a lot to be done, since the richness of the material we have found is very significant and the new questions and methodologies we have agreed upon can be applied to the study of the house. We already pointed out then that it was necessary to study not only the different spaces in the house, but also the household goods found in it; and not only the houses that belonged to wealthy members of the noble class, but also those of the secondary nobility, and especially the houses of the members of various groups of professions (small merchants, artisans). It is not just matter of making lists of household goods, but understanding things in their space and objects in their daily life. This is precisely the line of research that we propose for the new VESCASEM project.

An essential aspect to be borne in mind when we study the house is the analysis of the people that lived in it. We must try to link the story of their lives with the analysis of the domestic space, placing the study of the house in a very complex and dynamic context, far from a static and inert perspective. Quite frequently, especially in the case of social groups that were far from oligarchies and power, we can only rebuild a fragment of those lives, or a situation that took place at a very specific moment; and in that case we can only recreate the household in a sporadic manner.

To study the domestic group that lives in the household, we must consider relationships of kin, servitude or slavery. And many different cases can be found in this respect. Children grow up, people age and get sick, and all these things transform the house and change the use of the spaces by enhancing or dividing the rooms. Within this framework, we must enter the world of emotions and affections, analysing some references from inside the house (care, games, solidarity, authority). The emotional relations of people with things have only recently been considered as a field of academic research. In the human sciences, archaeologists, art historians and material culture theoreticians have started research on the emotional meaning of objects. Objects play a key role in symbolizing and sustaining interactions and relationships, in shaping our past and present identities. Likewise, spaces may involve a significant emotional load. Let us picture ourselves, for instance, being at the doorstep, waiting to see what remains behind it; and, when knocking on the door, we start a ritual by which we quietly and respectfully await, but it is not merely an empty gesture. And the person awaiting is the stranger who asks to come in and expects to be accepted inside the house by the other.

This history of emotions can be equally applied to places and objects. Throughout history, the spaces, the material world and the objects made by human beings have been used to create identities and shape social relationships. The place at the table was often hierarchically and symbolically determined, moving around the rooms within the house involved a meaning that was connected to the place people had in it, the use of a certain space played a role in the construction of emotions, the dishes placed on the table could be a sign of hospitality and sociability. In sum, the idea is to rebuild history through objects and to give back to those material aspects its impetus or emotional value.

In the Spanish historiographic context, overall exploration of domestic interiors and goods is rather scarce, and practically unexplored from the perspective of the history of emotions. In our particular case, and following the previous project carried out, we propose to approach a detailed study of the fifteenth and sixteenth-century house interiors, by paying more thorough attention to the distribution of rooms and the possible relations established between the household goods and the physical space; so that we can, ultimately, better understand the daily practices and emotional habits carried out in the same space.