(A compendium of information from discussions on the 12th Century Garb Yahoo Group list)
Art Books
Q: “Thanks to Katarina for the photos [of illuminations of the marriage of Matilda and Henry]. They’re really lovely. Lots of detail. I’ve only seem the marriage of Matilda before, where on earth did you find them?”
A: “I peruse the foreign language books for art books which aren’t generally in the regular art sections and pick up volumes that have good representations of bliauts. I find that being able to read the language is not generally essential to understanding of the art. Most everyone can pick out at least the date and location after a few tries.
“I pick up general books on the Romanesque period of art when I find them reasonably priced. Many of the images came from larger Romanesque art compilations. Would you like to see the list of them?”
~ Teffania & Katrine
Messages #103 & 104, July 30 & 31, 2002
Non-English Sources
On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Aenor d’Anjou wrote:
“As far as I am concerned, there is really so little 12ht C. stuff out there that using some 11th and some 13th is perfectly valid, especially since fashion didn’t really change much during this time in history.”
“Yes and no. I’m quite happy to use 11th and 13th century stuff for inferences of what was 12th century, especially if something was used both before and after the period. But the same time I am being constantly surprised at how much info there is about the 12th century. When I first started looking, it was awful, the only costume books I could find were quickly proved wrong, but there were no other costume books to refer to. Other periods do have so much more information available to them, but when you start digging, there is a lot more information available about 12th century clothing. It’s just rather hard to find, being either primary sources (manuscripts, sculptures etc) or published in obscure journals. it’s not exactly easy stuff to access nor to interpret (hey someone needs to write a book on it 🙂 ) but it is there. (try looking at ancient ruins for comparison). I admit having research skills and access to the university library system helps a lot.
“My current astonishment is about German extant late 12th/early 13th century garments, and how little they’ve been published in English. If someone could measure the seams on them we’d have such a better idea about loom widths and cut.
“But as we gather the information together, we do need to make sure we pass it on, also with beginner’s guides to making this type of garb.”
~ Teffania / Tiffany Brown
Message #373, November 21, 2002
“Romanesque” vs “12th Century” as a Search Term
“I suggest going to the largest library in your area that you can borrow from, and try either a search for “Romanesque art” or for a start take a look at the call no. 709.02 (assuming they use Dewey decimal) and don’t forget to check out the folio section if they have one, because big book have the best pictures :-).
“I know it sounds simple, but believe me, a search for 12th century costume tells me my university library has no books, a search for 12th century art revealed 3 books, a search of the medieval manuscripts section revealed about 5 books, but a search for Romanesque art revealed over 50 books, and made me really wish I’d known that terminology a year ago.”
~ Teffania / Tiffany Brown
Message #388, November 24, 2002