This book examines the use of precious cloths in courtly settings East and West between the fourth and the sixteenth centuries. The fresh evidence, drawn from surviving precious cloths together with new interpretations of contemporary written and visual sources, allow for an exploration of common mentalities evident behind the use of precious cloths over the period of more than a millennium and across a vast geographical expanse. The seeds for the writing of this book were sown in 2017, at an international textile conference, 'Precious Cloth and Court Culture', held at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge. The aim of the conference was to draw together textile specialists from across the world to examine how far contacts between courts from Europe to China were mediated through the use and exchange of precious cloth. For the first time, precious court cloths were examined as agents of cultural identity, and as global medium and catalyst for political and socio-economic development and change. The book encompasses the findings of the conference whilst greatly extending its original scope through the addition of new material and also through the reworking, amplification, and inter-linking of common themes across the original papers. In line with current interest in the mapping of 'global histories' the book draws on the textile evidence from right across the medieval and early modern world. Over the period of an entire millennium, this enables a series of parallels to be drawn between the use of precious cloths across Latin, Byzantine/Islamic Mediterranean, Near Eastern, Central Asian and Far Eastern courts. The eleven chapters which make up the book are divided into two sections. The first section consists of seven chapters and geographically covers Latin Europe and the Byzantine and Islamic Mediterranean, whilst section two with four further chapters, moves the discussion across from Eurasia to the Far East. It is the first publication to draw together evidence from both East and West in order to assess the nature of and the very considerable impact of the use of precious cloth across courts of the mediaeval and early modern world.
Preface; Part One. Latin Europe and the Byzantine/Islamic Mediterranean:
The Lion-Hunt Silk Damask of St Ambroses Dalmatic. Court Context,
Reconstruction and Relation to Late Antique Figured Silk Weaving Technology,
by Hero Granger-Taylor; Byzantine, Islamic and Near Eastern Silks,
Expressions of Courtly Piety and Power at the Merovingian, Carolingian,
Ottonian and Later Latin Courts, by Anna Muthesius; Precious Textiles and
Courtly Culture in Medieval Castile (ca. 1155ca.1284), by Marķa Barrigón
Montańés; Mix And Match: The Furnishing of English Royal Palaces in the
Later Middle Ages (13001470), by Lisa Monnas; Thre Cusshions of Clothe of
Gold Tissued: The Role of Luxury Textiles at the Court of Henry VIII, by
Maria Hayward; Early Modern Fashionable Bobbin-Made Lace or Passement of Gold
and Silver Thread, by Lena Dahren; Silk as Power at the Byzantine Court and
Intra-Cultural Connectivity across the Silk Road (415 Century), by Anna
Muthesius; Part Two. Eurasia and the Far East: Precious Cloths in the
Singhas?ri Court of King Krtan?gara 12581292, by Lesley Pullen; Early
Chinese Rank Badges. A Collectors Note, by Chris Hall; From Heaven to Earth:
Transformation of Motifs on Ming Court Robes (14th16th Century), by Sally Yu
Leung; Ottoman Turkish Ceremonial Court Attire and Furnishings: Symbols of
Power and Dynastic Heritage, by Sibel Alpaslan Arēa; Index; Colour Plates.
Anna Muthesius was elected to the first chair in textile studies in Great Britain in 1997, and taught both at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design and in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, founding Fellow of the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles and also of the Textile Study Group of Great Britain. She has published texts on Byzantine, Islamic, Near and Far Eastern silk weaving (4-15 centuries).
