Acquiring, Flaunting and Destroying Silk In Late Anglo-Saxon England
This paper will argue that vibrantly coloured silks and other elaborate textiles were ubiquitous in England in the late Anglo-Saxon period.
Handspinners of the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance
The Handspinners of Paris, France: In 1270, a royal judge, Etienne Boileau, compiled “Le Livre de Metiers” (The Book of Trades) which contained the ordinances of 100 Parisian craft guilds. By consulting the surviving tax rolls of 1292, 1300, and 1313, it is possible to determine the extent to which these crafts were practiced.
Life, Death, Fate and Female Embodiment: Weaving in Viking Age and Medieval Iceland
Video of a lecture on medieval Icelandic textiles.
Technological Development in Late Saxon Textile Production: its relationship to an emerging market economy and changes in society
The process of change from domestic textile production in early Anglo-Saxon England (5th – mid-7th century) to the more commercially based, organised industry of the late Saxon period (late 9th – 11th century) is a long and complex one.
New research on how the Bayeux Tapestry was made
A University of Manchester researcher has thrown new light on how the world famous Bayeux Tapestry was made over 900 years ago.
Coptic Dress In Egypt: The Social Life Of Medieval Cloth
Coptic textiles in most collections present a very rich iconography, somewhat derived from classical traditions, which has also attracted the attention of art historians. Very little of their work, however, has made any headway in our understanding of the contemporaneous meanings of Coptic textile images and other decorations.
Cultural Identity and Dress: The Case of Late Byzantine Court Costume
At the earliest stages of its development, ceremonial costume was often a more ornate and luxurious version of contemporary attire. It’s use in a ritual context, however, resulted in its becoming imbued with a symbolic significance, a significance that epitomized the political and religious ideology of the state in general and the self perception of the ruling class in particular.
The fabric of society: The organization of textile manufacturing in the Middle East and Europe, c. 700 – c. 1500
In recent years several attempts have been made to use institutional theory to explain this divergence between the Middle East and Europe. Most of these attempts focus on the organization of international trade.
Textile and Embroidered Bookbindings of Medieval England and France
These are rich, elaborately crafted objects that required binders to collaborate with craft persons skilled in needlework. Beautifully woven fabrics were used, some of which were made for clothing.
Maculate Conceptions
For the greater part of human history…disease has been understood in terms of its manifestations on the outside of the body. more than any other sign, t has been spots that have signified the onset of disease…
Sometimes a Codpiece Is Just a Codpiece: The Meanings of Medieval Clothes
I am going to take you on a small tour of clothing production and of the many roles that clothing played in medieval life.
Expressions of Power – Luxury textiles from early medieval northern Europe
This paper focuses on luxury textiles from archaeological and non-archaeological contexts in north-western Europe.
“Semiotics of the Cloth”: Reading Medieval Norse Textile Traditions
Reading textiles from medieval Norse society supplements written sources and also provides insight into the voice of the individual who created these textiles.
“Well Cut through the Body:” Fitted Clothing in Twelfth·Century Europe
Before we go any farther, we should investigate the very practical suggestion that tightly fitted clothing resulted from developments in “cutting and sewing technology.” In the case of twelfth century Europe, however, it seems there was no real change in the tools of the trade; for example, iron shears, which might seem primitive, continued to be used by tailors into the late middle ages.
East and West: Textiles and Fashion in Eurasia in the Early Modern Period
Fashion underpinned the commercial growth and cultural transformation of western society. From at least the sixteenth century, fashion’s demotic stimuli unleashed desires across European social ranks.
The ‘Industrial Crisis’ of the English Textile Towns, c.1290 – c.1330
The ‘Industrial Crisis’ of the English Textile Towns, c.1290 – c.1330 By John Munro University of Toronto Working Paper, 1998 Abstract: The paper’s…
Burgundian Costume: Being a study of women’s formal dress of Northern Europe, especially Burgundy and Flanders, in the later half of the 15th century
The fashionable dress of the later 15th Century has become iconographic with our modern idea of medievalism. Such popular portrayal, largely inauthentic, has linked it with the re-enactor’s idea of bad medievalism.
The Bayeux Tapestry: a stripped narative for their eyes and ears
The Bayeux Tapestry: a stripped narative for their eyes and ears Brilliant, Richard Word and Image, Vol..7, (1991) Abstract The Bayeaux Tapestry, a…
How English is the Bayeux Tapestry?
How English is the Bayeux Tapestry? Musgrove, David BBC History Magazine (2010) Abstract With a major conference about the Bayeux Tapestry at the British…
Medieval North European Spindles and Whorls
This document discusses spindle whorls and shafts found throughout the areas Scandinavians lived in during the Middle Ages (800-1500 CE).
Historical Fencing Footwear: “What shoes to train in?” Ask instead, what did Medieval and Renaissance fighters wear?
Historical Fencing Footwear: “What shoes to train in?” Ask instead, what did Medieval and Renaissance fighters wear? Clements, John ARMA, The Association of Medieval…
Aumônières, otherwise known as alms purses: Embellished textile purses in the European 14th century
Aumônières, otherwise known as alms purses: Embellished textile purses in the European 14th century McGann, Tasha Kelly La cotte simple (2011) Abstract Pockets as…