On Fri, 2 Dec 2005, E House wrote: > Well, a quick search hasn't found that reference I was thinking of yet > (I'm still going to look more, since this is BUGGING me), but did find > these references to dyeing linen--that doesn't indicate what that > linen was then used FOR, but it's a definite part of the puzzle...
Yes, there are certainly plenty of references to linen dyeing and linen garments in the 16th c. The Plictho would be another similar source; Drea has been collecting these for ages (and I'm guessing you picked these up from her site? let's give her credit for her great work in webbing all this material). So it sounds like I can justify most of my linen hues for 16th c.; I don't know if I can justify the deep intensity of the shades I have on hand, or whether they're correct for clothing :-( There are 16th c. inventories and other documentary references to dyed linen garments, but I'm not sure about the colors mentioned -- I haven't done any real study of this period. Your Italian reference is the earliest I've seen for a recipe, which supports what I said earlier about seeing some implications that dyed linen was in greater use in Italy earlier than points north. I once heard a scholar refer to legal restrictions on linen dyers in medieval Germany (something like not being allowed to dump their dyebaths in the local river), but I'd like to get a better citation before I take on faith that this wasn't a misreading of a restriction that mentioned both linen processors and dyers in the same ordinance, since both procedures do nasty things to water supplies. Clearly there's some dyed linen floating around in medieval Western Europe -- e.g. there's a surviving garment with black linen lining, IIRC -- and I want to make very sure no one thinks I'm saying there was no linen dyeing done in this period. But I don't think it's safe to assume from that that the linen was frequently dyed, and that dyed linen was typically used for the visible layers of clothing, which is what my focus was in my earlier post. Some time ago on this list, someone talked at length about evidence that linen in, hmm, 18th c America? -- I'd have to look it up -- being used almost exclusively in white, blue (often striped), and brown, but rarely or never in other colors, based on inventory evidence and surviving garments. So I wonder whether the use of more variously colored linens was something that went in and out over time, or came later to certain geographical regions. --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
