Drawing upon the private archive, hold in the Archivio di Stato di Milano, of the Andreani family, the author analyzes their impressive extraordinary expenditures during the years 1775-1785. Andreani had moved from Corenno, on Como Lake, to Milan in the first half of the eighteenth century, and were ennobled thanks to their service in the highest ranks of the state bureaucracy. They became one of the richest families of the patriciate of the city, according to the French taxation in the Napoleonic era. The usual splendor of their lifestyle is shown not only by the high expenditures for food, salaries and clothes of the servants, charity, horses and carriages, but also by the extraordinary conspicuous expenditures, namely marriages, funerals, journeys and monastic vows, which were meticulously recorded in their accounting books, and that - for the examined period - amounted to over 2.500.000 Milanese lire. The total yearly outlay averages about 228.000 Milanese lire.
Keywords: Conspicuous consumption, extraordinary expenditures, Andreani family, Milan, XVIII century, status symbol