Table Of ContentEurope’s Rich Fabric
Throughout human history luxury textiles have been used as a marker of
importance, power and distinction. Yet, as the essays in this collection make
clear, the term ‘luxury’ is one that can be fraught with difficulties for historians.
Focusing upon the consumption, commercialisation and production of luxury
textiles in Italy and the Low Countries during the late medieval and early
modern periods, this volume offers a fascinating exploration of the varied
and subtle ways that luxury could be interpreted and understood in the past.
Beginning with the consumption of luxury textiles, it takes the reader on a
journey back from the market place, to the commercialisation of rich fabrics
by an international network of traders, before arriving at the workshop to
explore the Italian and Burgundian world of production of damasks, silks
and tapestries.
The first part of the volume deals with the consumption of luxury textiles,
through an investigation of courtly purchases, as well as urban and
clerical markets, before the chapters in part two move on to explore the
commercialisation of luxury textiles by merchants who facilitated their trade
from the cities of Lucca, Florence and Venice. The third part then focusses
upon manufacture, encouraging consideration of the concept of luxury
during this period through the Italian silk industry and the production of
high-quality woollens in the Low Countries. Graeme Small draws the various
themes of the volume together in a conclusion that suggests profitable future
avenues of research into this important subject.
Bart Lambert is a Lecturer in the History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe
at Durham University. His research interests focus on the history of international
trade and banking in late medieval Europe and the history of immigration in England
during the Later Middle Ages.
Katherine Anne Wilson works as a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at the
University of Chester. She is a specialist in the history of tapestry production and
consumption, cultural history, material culture and gift-exchange relations in the
Burgundian Dominions.
This page has been left blank intentionally
Europe’s Rich Fabric
The Consumption, Commercialisation, and
Production of Luxury Textiles in Italy, the Low
Countries and Neighbouring Territories
(Fourteenth–Sixteenth Centuries)
Edited by
Bart Lambert
Durham University, UK
Katherine Anne Wilson
University of Chester, UK
© Bart Lambert and Katherine Anne Wilson 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission
of the publisher.
Bart Lambert and Katherine Anne Wilson have asserted their right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this
work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
Wey Court East 110 Cherry Street
Union Road Suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818
Surrey, GU9 7PT USA
England
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Europe’s Rich Fabric: The Consumption, Commercialisation, and Production
of Luxury Textiles in Italy, the Low Countries and Neighbouring Territories
(Fourteenth–Sixteenth Centuries) / Edited by Bart Lambert and Katherine Anne
Wilson.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Textile industry – Europe – History – To 1500. 2. Textile industry – Europe
– History – 16th century. 3. Luxury goods industry – Europe – History –
To 1500. 4. Luxury goods industry – Europe – History – 16th century.
5. Textile fabrics – Social aspects – Europe – History – To 1500. 6. Textile
fabrics – Social aspects – Europe – History – 16th century. I. Lambert, Bart,
editor. II. Wilson, Katherine Anne, editor.
HD9940.A2E82 2015
338.4’767700940902–dc23 2015015380
ISBN: 9781409444428 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781409444435 (ebk – PDF)
ISBN: 9781472406101 (ebk – ePUB)
Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling
Limited, at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD
Contents
List of Tables, Figures and Plates vii
Notes on Contributors xi
Preface xv
Introduction: Luxury Textiles in Italy, the Low Countries and
Neighbouring Territories (Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries):
A Conceptual Investigation 1
Bart Lambert and Katherine Anne Wilson
Part I: ConsumPtIon of Luxury textILes
1 ‘In the chamber, in the garde robe, in the chapel, in a chest’:
The Possession and Uses of Luxury Textiles. The Case of Later
Medieval Dijon 11
Katherine Anne Wilson
2 ‘O per honore, o per commodo mio’: Displaying Textiles at the
Gonzaga Court (Fifteenth–Sixteenth Centuries) 35
Christina Antenhofer
3 Between Mass and ‘Mystère’: The Life of Saint Remigius and the
Ceremonial Function of Choir Tapestries 69
Laura Weigert
Part II: CommerCIaLIsatIon of Luxury textILes
4 ‘Se fist riche par draps de soye’ The Intertwinement of Italian
Financial Interests and Luxury Trade at the Burgundian Court
(1384–1481) 91
Bart Lambert
vi EurOpE'S rICh FABrIC
5 Florence, Nuremberg and Beyond: Italian Silks in Central
Europe during the renaissance 107
Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli
6 Trading Silks and Tapestries in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp 131
Jeroen Puttevils
Part III: ProduCtIon of Luxury textILes
7 The Move to Quality Cloth. Luxury Textiles, Labour Markets
and Middle Class Identity in a Medieval Textile City. Mechelen
in the Late Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries 159
Peter Stabel
8 Woollen Luxury Cloth in Late Medieval Italy 181
Franco Franceschi
9 A Luxury Industry: The production of Italian Silks 1400–1600 205
Luca Molà
Centres, peripheries and the performative Textile:
By Way of Conclusion 235
Graeme Small
Index 241
List of Tables, Figures and Plates
Tables
2.1 Detailed list of cloths. 45
2.2 List of cloths. 45
2.3 List of textiles taken by the physician, Magistro Bernardo. 46
2.4 Expenses for gold and silver threads, enamels and
minor silk cloths. 47
5.1 Raw silk sent from Calabria to Florence, on behalf of the
Olivieri of Nuremberg (Sept–Nov 1545). 112
5.2 Florentine silks sent to Nuremberg (21 July 1544–6 June 1545). 116
5.3 German cloths sold to Florentine setaioli on behalf of the
Olivieri of Nuremberg (Feb 1545–Mar 1546). 118
5.4 Sales of silks and purchases of raw silk and German cloths
by Florentine setaioli (1544–46). 122
6.1 Tapestry exports based on toll records, mid sixteenth century. 135
6.2 Share of Netherlandish tapestry production centres in the
export to Iberia in 1553 (January 1–June 30 1533). 135
8.1 Composition of the costs of some fine and medium quality
cloths (1396–end fifteenth century). 198
Figures
1.1 Map of Dijon 1574. Edouard Bredin. Archives Municipales
de Dijon, cote 4, Fi 956. Used with permission of the archives. 16
viii EUROpE'S RICh FABRIC
2.1 Barbara of Brandenburg, Letter to Margareta of Bayern-München,
1478, Archivio di Stato di Mantova, AG b. 2103bis c. 545. Used
with permission of the Archivio di Stato di Mantova and the
Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo. 54
4.1 Statue representing Dino Rapondi, erected by philip the Good
in the ducal Sainte Chapelle in Dijon, Bibliothèque nationale de
France, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, ms. 3901, c. 22. 96
6.1 prices of textiles available on the Antwerp market in 1575. 138
6.2 Price quotations of organzina silk in the Van der Molen
letters, 1538–1544. 144
List of Colour Plates
The plates fall between pages 112–113
1 Andrea Mantegna, The Encounter, Camera degli Sposi, West Wall,
Palazzo Ducale, Castello San Giorgio, Mantua. Used with permission
of the Archivio di Stato di Mantova and the Ministero dei Beni e delle
Attività Culturali e del Turismo.
2 Andrea Mantegna, The Court, Camera degli Sposi, North Wall,
Palazzo Ducale, Castello San Giorgio, Mantua. Used with permission
of the Archivio di Stato di Mantova and the Ministero dei Beni e delle
Attività Culturali e del Turismo.
3 Simon von Taisten, Mary’s Death and the Donors Leonhard von Görz and
Paula Gonzaga, Chapel Schloss Bruck, Lienz. Used with permission of
the Museum Schloss Bruck.
4 Simon von Taisten, The Miracle of the Cross of St. Elisabeth of Thüringen
(detail), Museum der Stadt Lienz, Schloss Bruck, Lienz. Inv. Used
with permission of the Museum Schloss Bruck.
5 portrait of Robert de Lenoncourt, panel 10 of the Life of Saint Remigius,
Reims, Musée de Saint Remi (detail). Copyright Camara StudioDVL,
Reims, France.
6 Lives of Piat and Eleutherius (detail), Tournai, Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Copyright KIK-IRpA, Brussels.
7 Life of Saint Anathoile of Salins (detail), paris, Louvre (photo: RMN).
8 Interior of La Chaise-Dieu (photo: Chaise-Dieu).
9 panel 3 of the Life of Saint Remigius, Reims, Musée de Saint Remi.
Copyright Camara StudioDVL, Reims, France.
10 panel 8 of the Life of Saint Remigius, Reims, Musée de Saint Remi.
Copyright Camara StudioDVL, Reims, France.
11 Detail of panel 8 of the Life of Saint Remigius, Reims, Musée de Saint
Remi. Copyright Camara StudioDVL, Reims, France.
LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND pLATES ix
12 panel 9 of the Life of Saint Remigius, Reims, Musée de Saint Remi.
Copyright Camara StudioDVL, Reims, France.
13 panel 10 of the Life of Saint Remigius, Reims, Musée de Saint Remi.
Copyright Camara StudioDVL, Reims, France.
14 Chasuble with embroidered scene of the passion, Genoese velvet
embroidered with dyed silk and gold thread, c.1530, Maagdenhuis,
Antwerp. Copyright KIK-IRpA, Brussels
15 Large leaf verdure with hercules killing the Stymphalian birds,
Wool & silk, 1541–1560, Provinciebestuur Oost–Vlaanderen, Ghent.
Copyright KIK-IRpA, Brussels.
16 The Mechelen cloth hall in the first half of the 19th century Jan-
Baptist De Noter, Mechelen Cloth Hall, Collection Schoeffer, City
Archives Mechelen. Copyright City Archives Mechelen-www.
beeldbankmechelen.be.
17 Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Young Man, 1485, private Collection.
18 Domenico Ghirlandaio, Stories of Saint Francis (detail), 1485, Santa
Trinita, Sassetti Chapel, Florence. Used with permission of the
Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo.
19 School of Agnolo Gaddi, Stories of Saint Nicholas (detail), circa 1385,
Santa Croce, Castellani Chapel, Florence. Used with permission of the
Fondo Edifici di Culto, Ministero dell’ Interno.
