Patrimoine, a French word laden with significance

What do we understand by the word "patrimoine"? Its definition is complex because its scope and content have evolved over time. This article by Valérie Desprets is taken from the third edition of Les Cahiers - Insights from Banque de Luxembourg, which is dedicated to the many facets of wealth.

The English cognate of “patrimony” – property inherited from one's father or male ancestor – does not convey the many interpretations associated with its use in contemporary French. Beyond the strict definition of patrimony, these include family wealth, an estate, assets generally including a business and works of art, and even a birthright, all combining and embracing the tangible and intangible aspects of inheritance and heritage. Patrimoine also conveys a sense of shared goods, possessions and benefits, entrusted not just to an individual but often to a community with a common bond – a family or kinship, a neighbourhood or locality, a group or society.

The concept of patrimoine is inextricably linked to heritage, to the idea of something handed down to us by our forebears. A “something” whose scope, nature and consequently function have evolved considerably over time. Derived from the Latin “patrimonium”, which literally means “from the father”, the original sense of the word patrimony, back in the 12th century, referred to family property. It implied a set of personal goods belonging to the pater familias, and could mean exercising a right or a title of ownership that could be sold. The trading (or “market”) value of the good defined the value of the heritage, transmitted from generation to generation. It was a strictly economic vision and explains why, from ancient times through to the 1950s, the family patrimoine has so often been the object of economic interests and alliances.

As the children’s marriages bring significant economic interests into play, arranged marriages were the first stage of regulating succession and became the passkey to a system of social reproduction. Conserving property from the lineage was a way of securing stability and consequently the survival of a society. This private approach to family wealth continues today, even though the concept of patrimoine has been extended over the years to different forms of public property or property shared by a wider community of individuals.

From the private to the public sphere 

The first “historic monuments survey”, conducted in the year 29 BC by Philon de Byzance, who made an inventory of the seven wonders of the ancient world, already alluded to the idea of an inalienable community patrimony. The public or collective status of certain goods emerged properly in the Middle Ages. This was when the Church was developing its ideas about safeguarding and preserving objects invested with value, beyond the family sphere. The most important objects were holy relics, regalia, royal book collections, and archives from royal institutions, abbeys and ancient buildings.

Later, the humanist thinking of the Renaissance, then of the Enlightenment, inspired many scholars and collectors throughout Europe, attracted by the traces of the past and cultures beyond the West. Cabinets of curiosities proliferated before becoming specialised museums. Numerous princely artistic collections were created in France and Italy, representing the first steps towards a European cultural heritage, although still in the private sphere and reserved for a privileged few. Heritage awareness was nonetheless in its infancy during the 18th century. 

Some enlightened sovereigns, convinced that the sharing of knowledge is a prerequisite for progress, decided to open the princely collections to the public and establish the first museums, including the British Museum, as "general repositories” for public use. Others followed, such as the Museum of Vienna in 1783, the Prado in 1785, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence in 1796. The first national museums were created in the 19th century and the movement to protect and safeguard national heritage continued to grow throughout the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, eventually leading to the emergence of a world heritage defended by UNESCO.

Moving from tangible to intangible

A further extension of the meaning of the word patrimoine in the sense of heritage is due to the very nature of what is transmitted. Under the principle of assignment by descent, whether individual or collective, patrimony establishes a vertical intergenerational relationship, a journey through time that goes back to the origins of social groups. It touches on the founding myths of every social entity and crystallises the collective effect of the religious and sacred. Patrimony, designating both the legacy itself and the process of affiliation and passing on the inheritance, becomes a powerful marker of identity.

The work of family sociologists shows the decisive importance of family history in patrimonial inheritance. Here, inheritance is defined in the broadest sense of the term: material, certainly, but also emotional and symbolic, condensed from family traditions and received values (moral, ideological and cultural) as well as social and relational capital. The material inheritance thus carries with it an emotional and ideological burden. The real value of a heritage-laden inheritance therefore lies more in the sense of the bond it forges between generations. This shift from a strictly material definition of heritage to a more intangible concept is also reflected in a common cultural heritage.

Nowadays, everything that evokes the past (even recent) and helps to understand the present is worth preserving. And more than the physical testimony of the power of a people or society, a historical monument primarily brings together a culture and its shared history. Historian Jean-Yves Andrieux talks about the transfer of meaning when he claims that the heritage aspect of patrimoine now refers to works of all kinds, not just tangible goods personally passed on but also achievements, monuments, sites, customs or knowledge reflecting the history of an individual, group, nation or humanity, and often qualified by adjectives such as historic, genetic, natural, cultural and even universal.(1) But cultural heritage does not end at monuments and collections of artefacts; it is the wealth of knowledge and artistic or technological know-how behind it that gives it its full value.

As UNESCO emphasises, intangible cultural heritage is traditional, contemporary and living at the same time. It “includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants” and its importance lies not so much in the cultural manifestation itself but in what it transmits from one generation to the next. “The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing States as for developed ones.”

A universal concept

From the concept of patrimony with its monetary (family or common property) and legal considerations, there has been a progressive shift towards a notion with emotional, symbolic and hallowed characteristics, rooted in a timeless and enduring continuum, whose function has become political. Yet, and this is perhaps the most remarkable point, its character remains universal: for while its definition remains geometrically variable, applying to material goods or moral values, and referring to money and culture, the notion of heritage is nevertheless understandable to all. Yet, and this is perhaps the most remarkable point, its character remains universal: for while its definition remains geometrically variable, applying to material goods or moral values, and referring to money and culture, the notion of heritage is nevertheless understandable to all.

The intangible part of the business heritage

In the post-industrial world of Western economies, a company's net book value is no longer sufficient to reflect its real value. Its capital and heritage is also increasingly made up of intangible assets: employees, structure (organisation, trademarks, information, knowledge, know-how, image and reputation), customers, demand and suppliers. These are all important components of the company even though they do not appear as a balance sheet item. According to Alan Fustec, the real value of a company is measured by factoring in all its hidden wealth which will generate its future profitability but is not stated in the accounts.(2) However, the current legal definition of an asset, whether individual, family or entrepreneurial, does take the intangible dimension into account: it refers to all the assets to which someone can claim title of ownership or a right and which can be sold (including name, reputation, brand, know-how, customer portfolio, etc.).

(1) Jean-Yves Andrieux, Patrimoine et histoire, Paris, Belin, 1997, p. 18. Quoted by Françoise Choay, L’allégorie du patrimoine, Paris, Seuil, 1992, p. 9.
(2) Alan Fustec, recognised expert and lecturer at HEC, founding president of Goodwill-Management, a firm specialising in the measurement of intangible capital.