Chris Laning wrote:
I thought people would enjoy this review of the second volume of MC&T.
(It's an annual: volume 4 is due out later this spring). The reviewer is
clearly delighted with it and says some nice things about how the study
of clothing and textiles illuminates other aspects of medieval life.
Well, duh! We knew that!
Congrats, Robin and Gale!
Thanks, Chris! People have been sending me copies of this one since it
appeared. We're pretty pleased with the assessment; the reviewer is a
respected costume historian in her own right and I hope to have the
chance to work with her someday.
Two of the authors in the volume she reviewed (vol. 2) are regulars on
this list: Drea Leed and Danielle Nunn-Weinberg. Congrats to them, too,
for a job well done.
Reviews seem to take a long time to catch up to publications. We publish
once a year, and our third volume came out in April 2007; see
http://www.boydell.co.uk/43832917.HTM for contents. That volume includes
a paper by listmember Melanie Schuessler on 15th-c. children's clothing.
Our fourth volume is at the printer this week and is due out in a couple
of months. You can see the contents here:
http://www.boydell.co.uk/43833662.HTM
... and you can pre-order either through Boydell or other dealer such as
Amazon (prices vary).
This volume has a number of papers that should be of especial interest
to historic costumers (in addition to costume historians). I'm
particularly pleased about a paper giving a close analysis of a
surviving linen cap attributed to the 14th-century saint Birgitta of
Sweden, complete with photos, measurements, and diagrams of construction
and likely mode of wear for the cap itself, as well as detailed
discussion and diagrams of the embroidered decoration. One of the two
authors is a Danish clothing historian, and the other is a re-enactor
and costumer from Belgium. I suspect we will be seeing Birgitta caps on
re-enactors all over two continents after this comes out.
Another paper, by quilt historian Lisa Evans (who may be known to some
of you as a re-enactor in the Boston area), starts with an entry for a
decorated quilt in Henry VII's inventory and examines it from every
possible angle. She takes into account the 16th century quilt industry,
Henry's marital history, the symbolic use of heraldic motifs, and the
political intrigues of the Tudor court to build an extremely plausible
and logical account of the origin, use, and significance of this textile
object. It reads like a mystery story.
For those of you who have heard me speak on the Greenland multi-gore
gown: I've promised for a long time to do a proper written paper on
this, and I've finally gotten it done. That's in volume 4 as well. Yes,
there's a pattern diagram.
Other papers discuss the linguistic development of costume terms
("wimple" and "cuff"), linen production in medieval Russia, references
to scarlet clothing in Icelandic sagas, a new method for classifying
archaeological textiles that takes appearance into account, and symbolic
use of women's turbans in 15th-century French painting.
And now I'm working on volume 6. No rest for the wicked.
--Robin
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