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
September 30, 2012 By
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
September 26, 2012 By
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
September 17, 2012 By
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
July 29, 2012 By
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
July 22, 2012 By
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.
Primary Sources and Context Concerning Joan of Arc’s Male Clothing
December 7, 2011 By
A number of the clergy who had served on the tribunal later testified, during the posthumous investigations and appeal of the case (1450, 1452, and 1455-56) after the English were expelled, that the transcript and judges had misrepresented the circumstances and hence the theological implications.
East and West: Textiles and Fashion in Eurasia in the Early Modern Period
December 6, 2011 By
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
October 9, 2011 By
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 thesis is that the chief causes for the well-known `industrial crisis’ of the traditional English textile towns during the period c.1290 – c.1340 was not the emergence of supposedly superior, lower-cost rural […]
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
September 18, 2011 By
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
September 13, 2011 By
The Bayeux Tapestry: a stripped narative for their eyes and ears Brilliant, Richard Word and Image, Vol..7, (1991) Abstract The Bayeaux Tapestry, a masterpiece of medieval narrative art, tells the highly politicised story of the ascension to the English crown, held by Edward the Confessor. The historical narrative begins in 1064 while Edward was still […]
How English is the Bayeux Tapestry?
September 13, 2011 By
How English is the Bayeux Tapestry? Musgrove, David BBC History Magazine (2010) Abstract With a major conference about the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum this month, David Musgrove considers where it was made and by whom, and asks historians whether the tapestry should be displayed in England. The Norman Conquest of England –1066 and all that […]
Medieval North European Spindles and Whorls
July 31, 2011 By
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?
July 31, 2011 By
Historical Fencing Footwear: “What shoes to train in?” Ask instead, what did Medieval and Renaissance fighters wear? Clements, John ARMA, The Association of Medieval and Renaissance Martial Arts Abstract Footwear is important. It directly affects how you move and what kinds of motions you can perform. Since the footwork of Renaissance martial arts is particular, and […]
Aumônières, otherwise known as alms purses: Embellished textile purses in the European 14th century
July 24, 2011 By
Aumônières, otherwise known as alms purses: Embellished textile purses in the European 14th century McGann, Tasha Kelly La cotte simple (2011) Abstract Pockets as we know them today were not in use in the 14th century. People required some other conveyance for every-day items like money, a paternoster (prayer beads later known as a rosary), a […]
Dyeing with Tannic Acid and Iron: Walnut Husks
May 30, 2011 By
This paper discusses the use of walnut to dye fabric.
North-European Trading Centres and the Early Medieval Craftsman; Craftsmen at Åhus, north-eastern Scania, Sweden ca. AD 750-850+
May 7, 2011 By
The emergence and the further development of wics and trading places in Northern and North-western Europe (late 7th century to the 10th century) cannot be explained as the result of only one social and economic system.
Needlework by Nuns: A Medieval Religious Embroidery
April 7, 2011 By
Although there were certainly nuns who had a true vocation for the religious life, the convent was a refuge for many girls of the higher classes for whom a suitable husband could not be found.
Clothing as a Political Tool in the Ottoman Empire: Two Miniature Paintings From a Sixteenth-Century Illustrated History of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520 -1566)
March 20, 2011 By
Clothing as a Political Tool in the Ottoman Empire: Two Miniature Paintings From a Sixteenth-Century Illustrated History of Süleyman the Magnificent (1520 -1566) Scollay, Susan Journal of Historical and European Studies, Volume 1, December (2007) Abstract The Ottoman state, like other Islamic and pre-modern dynasties, regulated the appearance and personal presentation of its officials and citizens. Costume signalled distinctions […]
Traditional Icelandic Embroidery
March 6, 2011 By
Traditional Icelandic Embroidery By Elsa E. Gudjonsson Reykjavik Icelandic Review (1982) Introduction: The collections of the National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik, containing objects of cultural and historical significance from all periods of the country’s history, include the group of domestically produced embroideries to be discussed here. A thorough examination is not possible within the […]
The Performance of Separation at Escomb Church
March 3, 2011 By
VAGANTES CONFERENCE: Session 1: Performance & Ritual The Performance of Separation at Escomb Church Ashely Lonsdale Cook (University of Wisconsin – Madison) This paper was part of a case study in Ms. Cook’s doctoral thesis which focuses on one of the few intact Anglo-Saxon stone churches. Cook focused on the use of curtains as spacial […]
‘THE HANGINGS ABOUT THE HALL’: An Overview of Textile Wall Hangings in Late Medieval York, 1394-1505
February 20, 2011 By
‘THE HANGINGS ABOUT THE HALL’: An Overview of Textile Wall Hangings in Late Medieval York, 1394-1505 Kightly, Charles Medieval Textiles, Issue 28, June (2001) Abstract This brief survey attempts to answer some of the questions I have been asked about wall hangings in late medieval York houses: who owned them; which rooms were they used in; how […]
Industrial Energy from Water-Mills in the European Economy, Fifth to Eighteenth Centuries: the Limitations of Power
February 13, 2011 By
Industrial Energy from Water-Mills in the European Economy, Fifth to Eighteenth Centuries: the Limitations of Power Munro, John (University of Toronto) Department of Economics University of Toronto, Published Online (2002) Abstract The water-mill, though known in the Roman Empire from the second century BCE, did not come to enjoy any widespread use until the 4th or 5th centuries […]
Women’s Clothing in Kievan Rus
February 13, 2011 By
Women’s Clothing in Kievan Rus La Rus, Sofya Kies, Mka Lisa Medieval Textiles, Issue.27 (2001) Abstract Women’s clothing in 10th to 15th century Rus’, as in other cultures, reflected societal norms, and the individual’s originality and conception of beauty, and indicated rank, wealth, profession, family status and locality. A woman’s inner dignity and emotional restraint were emphasized […]
The symbiosis of towns and textiles: urban institutions and the changing fortunes of cloth manufacturing in the Low Countries and England, 1270 – 1570
February 7, 2011 By
The symbiosis of towns and textiles: urban institutions and the changing fortunes of cloth manufacturing in the Low Countries and England, 1270 – 1570 Munro, John H. (Department of Economics, University of Toronto) The Journal of Early Modern History: Contacts, Comparisons, Contrasts 13 (1999) Abstract This article, a contribution to the ‘proto-industrialisation’ debate, examines the relative advantages […]
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