Three of the essays in this collection focus on Italy, with contributions on footwear in Lucca based on documentary evidence of the fourteenth century; aristocratic furnishings as described in a royal letter of the fifteenth century, along with its first translation into English; and Boccaccio's treatment of disguise involving Christian/Islamic identity shifts in his 'Decameron'. The Bayeux Tapestry is discussed as a narrative artwork that adopts various costumes for semiotic purposes. Another chapter considers surviving artefacts: a detailed study of a piece of quilted fabric armour, one of two such items surviving in Lübeck, Germany, reveals how it was made and suggests reasons for some of the unusual features. The volume also includes an investigation of the commercial vocabulary related to the medieval textile and fur industries: the terms used in Britain for measuring textile and fur are listed and discussed, especially the unique use of Anglo-French "launces" in a document of 1300.
Author(s): Robin Netherton, Gale R. Owen-Crocker (eds.)
Publisher: The Boydell Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 182
City: Woodbridge
Illustrations page vi
Tables ix
Contributors x
Preface xii
1. The Significance of Dress in the Bayeux Tapestry / Gale R. Owen-Crocker 1
2. How Long Is a Launce? Units of Measure for Cloth in Late Medieval Britain / Mark Chambers 31
3. Robes, Turbans, and Beards: “Ethnic Passing” in 'Decameron' 10.9 / Ana Grinberg 67
4. 'Calciamentum' Footwear in Late Medieval Lucca / Christine Meek 83
5. “Bene in ordene et bene ornata”: Eleonora d’Aragona’s Description of Her Suite of Rooms in a Roman Palace of the Late Fifteenth Century / Jane Bridgeman 107
6. The Lübeck 'Wappenröcke': Distinctive Style in Fifteenth-Century German Fabric Armor / Jessica Finley 121
Recent Books of Interest 153
Contents of Previous Volumes 163
