material Culture 291Cosimo was disinterred and his death costume continued its life in the Palazzo Pitti
museum in Florence. In 1993, a replica of his arming hose was commissioned by the
museum for an exhibition of sixteenth-century Florentine courtly dress. The original
hose had only partially survived with the braid of the cod-piece. Other evidence came
from a seventeenth-century description of Cosimo’s burial, two near-contemporary
portraits and a number of comparative cod-pieces dating from the 1560s.
Over four centuries of concealment, the deep red color of the fabrics had long
faded to more sober shades of brown. And it was this aged look, rather than the strik-
ing red originals, that was eventually reproduced. The breeches and cod-piece were
copied in brown cotton, brown cotton velvet, brown rayon taffeta for the red satin,
and brown nylon braid and ribbon instead of silk. The new cod-piece was formed
from Dacron wadding rather than wool (Arnold, 2000: 46). This was an exercise in
understanding Renaissance garment construction, not one that was intended to bring
the materiality of the Florentine court to life. The justification for remaining authen-
tic to the original object as it presents itself is the greatest challenge for conservators.
And so the biography of Cosimo’s breeches also provides insights into the informa-
tion we really value.Modern things: souvenirs and Wedgwood
The idea of the Mediterranean as an ancient cradle of civilizations, which came back
to life in the Renaissance, has so heavily defined our view of this geo-cultural region
that meaningful narratives of modernity in the countries that line the Middle Sea are
difficult to come by (see further Ben-Yehoyada, this volume). The lack of nation-
defining heavy industry and technology has led to a consequent lack of a commodity-
based identity. In terms of material culture the apogee of Mediterranean innovation
probably came, at least to the uninitiated, with Leonardo Da Vinci’s conceptual
invention of the flying airship machine. While this is celebrated in his eponymous
Museum of Science and Technology in Milan, a very rare early example of an airship
hangar in Augusta, Sicily, is struggling for recognition as a monument to Mediterranean
industrial heritage. It is perhaps because countries around the Mediterranean them-
selves do not self-identify with the industries of modernity (even though they existed
everywhere) that industrial heritage is under-represented in their cultural landscapes.
Other artifacts of the modern and contemporary Mediterranean could also be
characterized by such contradictions. Many Mediterranean towns and cities are pro-
moted to tourists on the basis of their distinctive and traditional crafts. The traditional
artisans of Crete, particularly of Rethemnos, are used as part of living museum dis-
plays to show off their artistry in “a commercially motivated self-parody” (Herzfeld,
2004: 19; also this volume). It is not easy for a discerning heritage tourist to obtain
an authentic souvenir of these labors either. Many of the craft shops in the Old Town
do not even sell the local arts and crafts. Woolen bags, busts of Greek gods and
heroes, hand-painted copies of Greek vases are generally either the products of the
cottage industries of hinterland villages or mass produced in factories on the mainland
(Herzfeld, 2004: 54). The same might be said of Neapolitan craft souvenirs emanat-
ing from traditional botteghe or workshops such as pulcinelle (puppets), playing and
tarot cards, corals and cameos, and “basalt” figurines reputedly made from the rocks
of Vesuvius but in fact mass produced in Chinese factories.0002063960.INDD 291 2/17/2014 11:38:27 AM