Scholarly studies of textiles have multiplied over the last few decades. The interdisciplinary Clothing the Past: Surviving Garments from Early Medieval to Early Modern Western Europe is a welcome addition to this growing corpus. Elizabeth Coatsworth and Gale Owen-Crocker have done much to foster this branch of study, through their publications and public-facing projects as well as through the organization DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion), co-founded in 1997 by Robin Netherton and Owen-Crocker. Clothing the Past benefits from its authors' long careers and wide-ranging expertise in textile studies. This beautifully illustrated volume presents 100 surviving garments dating from c. 450 to c. 1575. Because the authors organized the attire by type, it provides an opportunity to compare like pieces across the centuries. Only chapter 6, "Upper Body and Front Fastening Garments," offers articles of clothing with limited similarities, although Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker connect them with other items in the book. The volume includes some helpful charts indicating chronological and geographic range, which help lend context to the reasons for the varying survival rates of extant garments. For some types, scholars must turn solely or mainly to the written and artistic evidence of their existence; others are numerous enough that many examples remain. The authors sought out items that survived under a variety of circumstances whether carefully preserved in churches for centuries or buried in bogs and found by chance. Although the authors limit their study to western Europe, they make apt references to Byzantine and Islamic influences. They wrote the entries in such a way that one could consult them for information on specific pieces or productively read through the volume in its entirety, noting the connections that Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker make among various items. A helpful glossary will guide those without much familiarity with textiles. For this reason Clothing the Past should appeal to scholars of textiles as well as to anyone interested in learning more about the history of garments or in seeking information and bibliography related to specific items. The introduction usefully covers the topic of the afterlives of medieval garments, noting how later alterations, evolving scholarly practices, and new knowledge of the clothing's contexts have brought about reassessment of even well-known items such as the so-called coronation robe of Roger II of Sicily (no. 2.3). Further it considers how textile preservation has affected the characteristics of the pieces they cover. One fifth have inscriptions, a sign of their elite use. A few items discovered in archeological excavations have no known parallel and as a result, it is not entirely clear how they were worn. The authors try to compensate for the relative lack of attention to everyday clothing by including humble items alongside rich dress and by addressing the history of underwear (see especially no. 7.1), a subject made difficult by the haphazard survival of linens and substantial gaps in scholarly knowledge. The fascinating brassiere from Lengberg Castle (no. 6.1) constitutes a rare pre-nineteenth-century example, and the auqueton of Isabelle of France presents a unique survival of a padded female undergarment. Two socks provide a sense of everyday lay dress (nos. 7.5-6) and stand in useful contrast to the clerical buskins that follow them (nos. 7.7-10). A German blue wool chasuble (no. 3.9) stands as an unusual example of what priests probably wore outside of cathedrals and major monastic churches--a well-made, but less costly piece than its lavish surviving counterparts. Chapter introductions contextualize the entries and offer new information, comparisons, and background information. Each entry provides key information about the garment's material, cut, dimensions, and related scholarly literature. The entries account for the afterlives of these objects for few escaped reuse, recycling, or repair. Most are therefore altered from their original forms. Excellent examples include the composite miter from Salzburg (no. 1.8) which survives in two locations and underwent at least two alterations during the Middle Ages and two Greenland gowns which were reused as shrouds (no. 4.2 and 4.3). Many entries also detail the context of the textile's discovery, which can be as interesting as the garments themselves. The 1936 discovery of the body wearing the Bocksten hood and tunic (no. 1.2 and 4.1) brought police and a doctor to the scene until the great age of the corpse became apparent. This peat burial provides the only full set of a secular man's outerwear from the Middle Ages. Perhaps most engaging are the accounts of changing scholarly views of some garments. Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker write about the ways textile conservators, museum curators, and historians have changed their minds about some as new techniques, historical interpretations, and information came to bear on them. Examples include the cap of St. Birgitta (no. 1.4), the 'golden gown' of Queen Margaret (no. 5.5), the tunicle of Pere d'Urg (no. 5.9), the boots from a bog burial near Peiting, Germany (no. 9.7), and the heraldic girdle of Fernando de la Cerda (no. 10.7). These tales have much to reveal about the increasing sophistication of textile, archeological, and historical analysis, and the authors use these stories to great effect in keeping the entries engaging while providing technical details and lessons in historiography. This feature sets these entries apart from so many others in museum catalogs and similar publications by making them more broadly relevant than a simple summary of technical details and the most recent interpretation would have done. At times the authors advance their own arguments as in the entry on the Star Mantel of Henry II (no. 2.1), the bell chasuble attributed to St. Willigilis (no. 3.1), the Lucera alb (no. 4.10), the humeral veil from Maaseik (no. 8.8), and the possible headband decoration or cloak tie from the tomb of St. Cuthbert (no. 10.10). Occasionally they point readers to garments in need of further study, such as the Göss dalmatic (no. 5.8). Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker acknowledge that they had to rely on museums and churches to provide photographs, an understandable limitation that affected their selection of garments. The costs of color printing also surely limited the number of images they could include, yet it is hard not to wish for additional photos of the comparable pieces, sculptures, and manuscript illustrations that Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker mention in many of the entries. Although it is possible to look up many of these items, printed images, even if smaller and in two tones, would have aided in demonstrating the relevance of the comparisons. Equally helpful would have been pictures of some details of large pieces, lost in the photos of the whole garments printed in the book. This problem was acute in the chapters on mantles and chasubles. The authors overcame the limitation on photographs in a number of ways. When they could, they included additional images. The photo detail of the Castel Sant-Elia Chasuble (no. 3.3, p. 130), helps explain its construction and recycled materials; the detail of an amice in Zagreb (Figure 4.2) helps one better imagine the original appearance of the Lucera alb (no. 4.10); the image of a portion of the back of the Witgar belt (no. 8.2) to show the reversal of its tablet-woven patterns; the detail of one of Archbishop Hubert Walter's shoe (no. 9.10) to demonstrate its impressively executed decorative scheme; and image details highlight the small, embroidered decorative figures on the so-called St. Sabinus gloves (no. 10.3) and the cloisonné enamel plaques on the Bressanone gloves (no. 10.4). In other entries, the authors specifically note details that, although apparent when viewing a garment in person, are impossible to discern in photographs. That effort to highlight the limitations of some of the photos improves the volume as a study tool. For the Butler-Bowden Cope (no. 2.10), Coatsworth and Owen-Crocker provided a graphic to show the placement of decorative elements for among others. A delightful image of a reconstruction of the embroidered shoe from Bryggen, Bergen (no. 9.4) helps bring the original "to life." Anyone with expertise in a particular era is likely to know of a further article or book they could have cited or to find small problems or omissions in such an extensive volume. This German historian, for example, would note that Charlemagne (768-814) ruled the Carolingian Empire and the Ottonian emperor Henry II (973-1024) the German Empire, not the Holy Roman Empire (p. 299, p. 390). Such quibbles, however, speak to the remarkable breadth and ambition of this book, which covers a great deal of ground chronologically and geographically. Medievalists as well as textile scholars and enthusiasts will profit greatly from reading this volume in its entirety, for it provides a valuable means of showing both the interconnectedness of the medieval world and its rich variety. It can serve as a useful introduction and provide new information even for experts. In sum, Clothing the Past should appeal to a wide range of readers and will hopefully inspire further study of medieval textiles.
20.09.09 Coatsworth/Owen-Crocker, Clothing the Past
