Contrary to their ubiquity within written, visual, and material sources, chests have largely remained overlooked in studies of the late Middle Ages. Bill Brown’s “thing theory” helps to explicate the ways in which chests can transform from unnoticed “things” in the background to meaningful “objects” when viewed through their entanglements with commercial, consumer, political, and moral concerns. The interdisciplinary study of chests in the late Middle Ages brings together a range of evidence including inventories, guild accounts, court pleas, contemporary writings, images, and material culture from Burgundy, France, and England.

与它们在书面，视觉和材料来源中的普遍使用相反，在中世纪晚期的研究中，胸部在很大程度上仍然被忽略。比尔·布朗（Bill Brown）的“事物理论”（Thing theory）通过从与商业，消费者，政治和道德方面的纠葛中解脱出来，阐明了箱子从背景中未被注意到的“事物”转变为有意义的“物体”的方式。中世纪后期对胸部的跨学科研究汇集了一系列证据，包括来自勃艮第，法国和英国的清单，行会记录，法院请愿书，当代著作，图像和物质文化。