Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Clothwork, and Other Cultural Imaginings

283 Pages·2004·28.075 MB·English

by  E. Jane Burns (ed.)

The New Middle Ages
Bonnie Wheeler, Series Editor
The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to transdisciplinary studies of medieval
cultures, with particular emphasis on recuperating women's history and on feminist
and gender analyses. This peer-reviewed series includes both scholarly monographs
and essay collections.
Published By Palgrave
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Medieval
Fabrications
Dress, Textiles, Clothwork, and
Other Cultural Imaginings
Edited by E. Jane Burns
pal grave
macmillan
* MEDIEVAL FABRICATIONS
Copyright© E. Jane Burns, 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-6186-0
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2004 by
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ISBN 978-1-4039-6187-7 ISBN 978-1-137-09675-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-09675-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Medieval fabrications : dress, textiles, clothwork, and other cultural
imaginings I edited by E. Jane Burns
p. em. --(The new Middle Ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Costume--History--Medieval, 500-1500. 2. Textile fabrics, Medi
eval. 3. Costume--Symbolic aspects--Europe. 4. Civilization, Medieval.
I. Burns, E. Jane, 1948-II. New Middle Ages (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))
CT575.M435 2004
391" .009'02--dc22
2003067179
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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First edition: September 2004
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This book is dedicated to Flora McFLimsey,
who appreciated the pleasures ofc lothes
and the imagination.
I would like to extend special thanks to the founding editors of the
Medieval Feminist Newsletter (now the Medieval Feminist Forum) Roberta
L. Krueger and Elizabeth Robertson who agreed with me in 1985, during
an impromptu meeting at the Kalamazoo airport, to launch the news
letter and create an official forum for feminism within Medieval Studies.
Thanks also to Thelma Fenster, who joined us as co-editor of the
newsletter shortly thereafter, and to all those who have supported the
Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship and kept medieval feminist
studies alive over the years. Not least among those scholars is Nancy
Jones whose important early work on the embroidery romances encour
aged us all to begin thinking about textiles and clothwork in a more
interdisciplinary frame.
Thanks also to the wonderful students in my honors class on
"Medieval Fabrications" in spring 2003 for their enthusiasm and invalu
able insights.
I thank my colleagues Judith M. Bennett and Barbara J. Harris and
other members of theN orth Carolina Research Group on Medieval and
Early Modern Women for their incisive comments on an earlier version
of the Introduction to this volume.
Thanks also to Brenda Palo, seamstress extraordinaire, for prepar
ing the index.
And, as always, extra-special thanks to Fred Burns and to Ned, this
time for their enduring commitment to comfortable clothes.
E.J. B.
The editor and authors wish to acknowledge those who gave permission
for use of images:
In Kathryn Starkey's chapter, Photo Rifksdienst voor het Oud
heidkundig Bodemonderzoek, Amersfoort, The Netherlands. In Janet
Snyder's chapter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (all rights reserved).
In Andrea Denny-Brown's chapter, Bibliotheque nationale de France,
Paris.
Why Textiles Make a Difference ................................. 1
E. JANE BURNS
Text and Textile: Lydgate's Tapestry Poems ...................... 19
CLAIRE SPONSLER
Tristan Slippers: An Image of Adultery
or a Symbol of Marriage? .................................. 35
KATHRYN STARKEY
Dressing and Undressing the Clergy: Rites of Ordination
and Degradation ......................................... 55
DYANELLIOTT
Uncovering Griselda: Christine de Pizan, "une seule chemise,"
and the Clerical Tradition: Boccaccio, Petrarch, Philippe
de Mezieres and the Menagier de Paris ....................... 71
ROBERTAL.KRUEGER
"This Skill in a Woman is By No Means to Be Despised":
Weaving and the Gender Division of Labor
in the Middle Ages ........................................ 89
RUTH MAZO KARRAS
Tucks and Darts: Adjusting Patterns to Fit Figures
for Stained Glass Windows Around 1200 .................... 105
MADELINE H. CAVINESS
Limiting Yardage and Changes of Clothes: Sumptuary
Legislation in Thirteenth-Century France,
Languedoc, and Italy: .................................... 121
SARAH-GRACE HELLER
Material and Symbolic Gift Giving:
Clothes in English and French Wills ........................ 137
KA THLEEI\ ASHLEY
Cloth from the Promised Land: Appropriated Islamic
Tiraz in Twelfth-Century French Sculpture .................. 147
JANET SNYDER
Almeria Silk and the French Feudal Imaginary:
Toward a "Material" History of the
Medieval Mediterranean. ................................. 165
SHARON KINOSHITA
How Philosophy Matters: Death, Sex, Clothes, and Boethius ....... 177
ANDREA DENNY-BROWN
Flayed Skin as objet a: Representation and Materiality
in Guillaume de Deguileville's
Pflerinage de vie humaine ................................... 193
SARAH KAY
Notes ...................................................... 207
Works Cited ................................................ 252
Author Biographies .......................................... 273
Index ...................................................... 275
Why Textiles
Make a Difference
E. Jane Burns
ghe essays in this collection reveal the richness and importance of
using dress, textiles, and cloth production as categories of analysis in
medieval studies. Textiles and the representation of them in literary,
historical, art historical, legal, and religious documents provide a partic
ularly apt tool for medievalists of various disciplines because textiles
stand at the nexus of the personal and the cultural, often linking specific,
individual expressions to institutionalized and hierarchical social struc
tures. The spectrum of possibilities raised by the study of medieval cloth
and clothing in all their represented forms ranges widely from the use
and circulation of garments as a mark of visible wealth, social position,
or class status to the varied attempts by clerical and legal authorities to
regulate gender and rank by controlling dress and ornamentation. The
spectrum extends further into the production, distribution, care, use,
and decoration of textiles themselves, often as forms of gendered labor.
It also encompasses the cross-cultural and economic effects of trade and