Meticulously researched text and nearly 700 illustrations depict wide range of apparel -- from fur-trimmed cloaks and brocaded robes worn by courtiers and the nobility to simpler mantles, tunics, gowns, and more.

This illustrated study displays a detailed gallery of costumes worn in the 11th through the 15th centuries. The 120 full-color plates exhibit apparel worn by nobility, knights, soldiers, the bourgeois, ecclesiastics, and citizens of all classes.

Margaret Scott presents a fascinating narrative of the history of European clothing for roughly 600 years from the tenth century onwards. Illuminated manuscripts are a treasure trove of information on the clothing people wore, or wanted to be seen to wear, in greater or lesser European courts, but she reminds us that written records, like household accounts, are a valuable complement to the pictures.

Examines the role of clothing in medieval society and discusses trends in clothing styles and the characteristic dress of different classes of people.

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines. Topics in this volume range widely throughout the European middle ages. Three contributions concern terminology for dress. Two deal with multicultural medieval Apulia: an examination of clothing terms in surviving marriage contracts from the tenth to the fourteenth century, and a close focus on an illuminated document made for a prestigious wedding. Turning to Scandinavia, there is an analysis of clothing materials from Norway and Sweden according to gender and social distribution. Further papers consider the economic uses of cloth and clothing: wool production and the dress of the Cistercian community at Beaulieu Abbey based on its 1269-1270 account book, and the use of clothing as pledge or payment in medieval Ireland. In addition, there is a consideration of the history of dagged clothing and its negative significance to moralists, and of the painted hangings that were common in homes of all classes in the sixteenth century. ROBIN NETHERTON is a professional editor and a researcher/lecturer on the interpretation of medieval European dress; GALE R. OWEN-CROCKER is Emerita Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester. Contributors: Antonietta Amati, Eva I. Andersson, John Block Friedman, Susan James, John Oldland, Lucia Sinisi, Mark Zumbuhl

"[The authors] provide a visual snap shot of the courtly elegance and common wear the [medieval] period. Filled with hundreds of sketches taken from original sources, mechanical drawings, and detailed 'layer drawings' demonstrating how the clothing was worn, this entrée both introduces the period and helps newcomers find their way forward in the study of primary and secondary sources."--Back cover.

This unique reference classifies the clothes and accessories of the 12th through 15th centuries along social lines. Garments of every type from the wardrobes of peasants and nobility appear in over 200 period illustrations and patterns.

This volume begins with a short introduction by Else Ostergard to the amazing finds of garments from the Norse settlement of Herjolfnes in Greenland. It then features chapters on technique - production of the thread, dyeing, weaving techniques, cutting and sewing - by Anna Norgard. Also included are measurements and drawings of garments, hoods, and stockings, with sewing instructions, by Lilli Fransen. A practical guide to making your own Norse garment!

Precisely rendered to dazzle the eye with their botanical accuracy, the sumptuous arrays of fruit and flowers by Dutch painter Jan van Huysum (1682-1749) were among the most avidly collected paintings of the 18th century. This little book explores two of Van Huysum's most important still-life paintings, Vase of Flowers and Fruit Piece.