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Document Details : Title: On the Salvific Economy of Cultural Patronage Subtitle: Some Notes on Early Modern Mercantile Patronage for Cultural Objects Author(s): ASLANIAN, Sebouh D. Journal: Le Muséon Volume: 137 Issue: 1-2 Date: 2024 Pages: 265-321 DOI: 10.2143/MUS.137.1.3293322 Abstract : This essay is a provisional attempt to address the question of cultural patronage by long-distance merchants in the early modern Armenian diaspora. Why did Armenian merchants choose to patronize great works of cultural production, such as the building or renewal of churches, the establishment of schools or printing presses, and especially the commissioning of printed books? While scholars have recognized that the Armenian mercantile community in the early modern period if not earlier 'dedicated a considerable part of its profits to the activities of piety or charity', no scholarship seems to exist that explains why this was indeed the case. To address this lacuna, this essay proposes a new conceptual model for early modern patronage for cultural production across the Armenian diaspora. Through a close reading of unpublished archival documents such as last wills and testaments, kondaks (bulls or encyclicals), as well as largely untapped epistolary correspondence, published colophons of early modern printed books, funerary inscriptions from Armenian churches and cemeteries in India, as well as an eschatological doctrine elaborated by the medieval Armenian theologian Grigor Tat‘ewats‘i (Gregory of Tat‘ew, 1346-1409), the essay argues that patronage for cultural production was motivated by a variety of incentives ranging from otherworldly concern for the salvation of a patron’s and his relatives’ souls at the Parousia, as an act of charity to aid their confessional nation, to more worldly concerns such as the increasing the 'social capital' or prestige power of the patron in the world of trade. Concern for the salvation of the soul through remembering the names of the dead inscribed in colophons (hishatakarans) and flat-surfaced tombstone inscriptions, the essay suggests, was probably among the most important of factors in incentivizing the mysterious act of cultural patronage. I call this model the 'salvific economy of cultural patronage' to distinguish it from the more state-centric political economy of cultural patronage. |
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