The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines. Three of the essays in this collection focus on Italy, with contributions on footwear in Lucca based on documentary evidence of the fourteenth century; aristocratic furnishings as described in a royal letter of the fifteenth century, along with its first translation into English; and Boccaccio's treatment of disguise involving Christian/Islamic identity shifts in his Decameron. The Bayeux Tapestry is discussed as a narrative artwork that adopts various costumes for semiotic purposes. Another chapter considers surviving artefacts: a detailed study of a piece of quilted fabric armour, one of two such items surviving in Lubeck, Germany, reveals how it was made and suggests reasons for some of the unusual features. The volume also includes an investigation of the commercial vocabulary related to the medieval textile and fur industries: the terms used in Britain for measuring textile and fur are listed and discussed, especially the unique use of Anglo-French "launces" in a document of 1300. Contributors: Jane Bridgeman, Mark C. Chambers, Jessica Finley, Ana Grinberg, Christine Meek, Gale R. Owen-Crocker

In the Middle Ages, wrestling was practiced as both pastime and self-defense by every level of society - nobles, townsman and peasants alike - and was regarded as the foundation of all other martial arts. And no medieval wrestler's name looms as large as that of the Jewish master Ott, 'wrestler to the noble Princes of Austria', whose treatise is included in over a dozen fencing manuscripts. In this first of its kind book, Jessica Finley of the renowned medieval martial arts association, the Selohaar Fechtschule, guides the reader on a journey that begins with the historical background of Ott's wrestling and culminates in step-by-step instruction for practicing the techniques of this ancient fighting art. Both the lover of history and the wrestler on the mat will find this work an invaluable resource.