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5 - Dressing the Sacred: Medallion Silks and Their Use in Western Medieval Europe
- Edited by Robin Netherton, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Monica L. Wright
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- Book:
- Medieval Clothing and Textiles 15
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 31 March 2021
- Print publication:
- 17 May 2019, pp 101-136
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Summary
A major scholarly concern in the field of medieval costume history is the origin of the textiles: not only the source of the fiber and where the textile was woven, but also where it was found. For our present study, the final fate of textiles is at issue. Fabrics are very fragile and often survive only as fragments. Indeed, most material remains of medieval furnishings and dress come from two main categories of sources. The first one is the funerary context; the second is composed of objects kept in religious institutions. Of course, such remains provide a great deal of valuable information, but they must be contextualized properly and cannot be considered usual garments. It is clear that albs and dalmatics were far from ordinary people's clothing. In light of their extraordinary nature, how can we interpret the fabrics—sometimes found in tiny pieces—from tombs and religious treasuries? Are they representative of fashionable fabrics, or could they have had some very specific uses and meanings, even for the wealthy?
ORIGINS OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES
The silks we will consider appear to be of two main kinds of silk fabrics: samite and lampas. Samite, from the glossary of Medieval Dress and Textiles in Britain, is defined as
a plain silk cloth in weft-faced compound twill. Its appearance has the diagonal lines of a twill weave and a lustrous quality produced by the long weft floats. It was made in various weights, but was usually quite heavy and suitable as background for embroidery in gold thread. Monnas notes that though samites were sometimes woven competely in silk, they could also be half-silks, with linen main warps.
Lisa Monnas discusses variations in samites as well as their popularity and provides a useful definition of lampas:
Samite could be figured as well as plain. In the figured version, additional pattern wefts in silk or metal thread, or metal brocading wefts, created the design, but the ground wefts were concealed behind the main warps, and the surface of the textile remained uniform. Weft-faced compound twill silks were enormously successful: versions were woven in China, India, the Sassanian Empire and Byzantium, as well as in Italy and Spain, and were in production for over 500 years. …
3 - The Shirt Attributed to St. Louis
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- By Tina Anderlini, Russange (Lorraine)
- Edited by Robin Netherton, Gale R. Owen-Crocker
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- Book:
- Medieval Clothing and Textiles 11
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 05 December 2015
- Print publication:
- 16 April 2015, pp 49-78
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Summary
The thirteenth-century shirt attributed to Saint Louis, King Louis IX of France, is one of the most interesting items of underwear to survive from the Middle Ages. In the treasury of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the garment was kept in a glass reliquary from 1970 to 2012, during which time its shape and characteristics were the subject of many questions and hypotheses, with greater and lesser degrees of accuracy. Since 2012, the shirt has been in a showcase, making access easier. The author had the opportunity to study the garment, out of its shrine for the first time since 1970, in March 2011, as part of the preparation of one of a series of articles that appeared in the French magazine Moyen-Âge. Gaelle Bernard, a professional historical costumer specializing in the medieval period, assisted with the analysis of the construction and the identification of stitches. The author returned in March 2013 to take additional pictures and measurements for the present article.
HISTORY OF THE GARMENT
The first record of the relic dates to 1418, when it appeared in the inventory of Charles VI's treasury. The shirt reappeared in 1422, in Regnault Doriac's registers concerning items sold to pay for the king's funeral. In 1480, it was listed in the treasury inventories of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Subsequently, around 1575, it was deposited in a small, broken, ivory casket. During the seventeenth century, the shirt was moved to another reliquary, along with a relic that allegedly belonged to St. Simeon as well as the supposed shroud used to wrap the True Holy Cross. The shroud and the shirt were still together when, on March 12, 1791, King Louis XVI ordered them to be transferred to the abbey of Saint-Denis. In 1795, the shirt, along with other relics, was deposited in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It was then described as “une chemise que portait Saint Louis dans sa captivité” [a shirt that St. Louis wore in his captivity].
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