ABSTRACT
Today, in the so-called ‘Anthropocene’, the whole planet could be included in a cultural history of material culture. This chapter will inevitably have a much more limited scope. It will illustrate, in a cultural-historical perspective, some features and trends of the European material cultures of living between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, mainly focusing on food, the domestic environment and clothing, and the encounters between Europeans and goods from other parts of the world. As a period characterized by booming connections between Europe and the other continents, early modern history is interesting both because of its intrinsic value, and to understand the origins of globalization.
