The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a variety of angles and approaches. The essays in this volume continue the Journal's tradition of groundbreaking interdisciplinary work. The volume opens with a survey of the discipline of medieval clothing and textiles, written by founding editor Gale R. Owen-Crocker. The range of the other essays extends chronologically from the early Middle Ages through the fifteenth century and covers a variety of disciplines. Topics include the conception of the author as a "wordweaver" in the literatures of Anglo-Saxon England; intertextual literary identities established through clothing in the Nibelungenlied and the Voelsunga Saga; the historical record of clothing and textiles at the court of King John of England; medallion silks, their use in Western Europe, and their representation in art; the vestments of Beguines and other penitential movements in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and a depiction of heraldic textile weaving inlate-medieval art. Contributors: Tina Anderlini, Joanne W. Anderson, Maren Clegg Hyer, Alejandra Concha Sahli, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Elizabeth M. Swedo, Hugh Thomas

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines and with a special focus on reconstruction and re-enactment. Historical dress and textiles, always a topic of popular interest, has in recent years become an academic subject in its own right, transcending traditional genre boundaries. This annual journal includes in-depth studies from a variety of disciplines as well as cross-genre scholarship, representing such fields as social history, economics, history of techniques and technology, art history, archaeology, literature, and language. The contents cover a broad geographical scope and a range of periods from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Papers in this latest volume discuss clothing descriptions in an early Irish poem in relation to archaeological finds; the Latin inscription embroidered on the Bayeux Tapestry; clothmaking in twelfth-century French romances; medieval Paris as an international textile market; the cost of sartorial excess in England as attested by sumptuary laws and satire; textile cleaning techniques at a German convent in the fifteenth century; the use of jewelled animal pelts as fashion accessories in the Renaissance; and the social significance of the embroidered jacket in early modern England. Also included are reviews of recent books on dress and textile topics. ROBIN NETHERTON's research focuses on medieval Western European clothing and its interpretation by artists and historians; GALE R. OWEN-CROCKER is Professor ofAnglo-Saxon Culture, The University of Manchester. Her most recent books are Dress in Anglo-Saxon England (2004), and King Harold II and the Bayeux Tapestry (2005). Contributors: Niamh Whitfield, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Monica L. Wright, Sharon Farmer, Margaret Rose Jaster, Drea Leed, Tawny Sherrill, Danielle Nunn-Weinberg

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines. Following the Journal's tradition of drawing on a range of disciplines, the essays here also extend chronologically from the tenth through the sixteenth century and cover a wide geography: from Scandinavia to Spain, with stops in England and the Low Countries. They include an examination of the lexical items for banners in Beowulf, evidence of the use of curved template for the composition in the Bayeux Tapestry, a discussion of medieval cultivation of hemp for use in textiles in Sweden, a reading of the character of Lady Mede (Piers Plowman) in the context of costume history, the historical context of the Spanish verdugados (in English, the farthingale)and its use as political propaganda, an analysis of the sartorial imagery on a tabletop painting (attributed to Bosch) depicting the Seven Deadly Sins, and the reconstruction of one of the sixteenth-century London Livery companies' crowns.

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a variety of angles and approaches. The essays here take us from the eleventh century, with an exploration of the Bayeux Tapestry, into an examination and reconstruction of an extant thirteenth-century sleeve in France which provides a rare and early example of medieval quilted armour, and finally on to late medieval Sweden and the reconstruction of gilt-leather intarsia coverlets. A study of construction techniques and the evolution of form of gable and French hoods in the late medieval and the early modern periods follows; and the volume also includes a study of the Great Wardrobe under Edward I of England, and what it can tell us about textiles at the time.

The best new research on medieval clothing and textiles, drawing from a range of disciplines. The essays here continue in the Journal's tradition of drawing on a range of disciplines. Topics include evidence for dress in multicultural sixth-century Ravenna; the incidence of Byzantine and Oriental silks in ninth- tothirteenth-century Denmark; a new analysis of the chronology of and contexts for the French hood; an examination of the mysterious garment called a bliaut in French literature; a discussion of the vocabulary and loan wordsin Italian/Anglo-Norman mercantile transactions; and revelations that fashions in body hair were an important feature of women's appearance. Contributors: John Block Friedman, Anne Hedeager Krag, Karen Margrethe Høskuldsson, Olga Magoula, Megan Tiddeman, Monica L. Wright

Studies of major Arthurian works and authors in Old French, Middle High German, Middle English, and of one important novel by C. S. Lewis. Arthurian Literature continues the policy of alternating themed issues and miscellanies. This varied collection includes studies of major Arthurian works and authors in Old French, Middle High German, Middle English, and ofone important novel by C.S. Lewis. A controversial textual crux in Chretien's Yvain, debated vigorously by scholars in the late 1980s, is revisited, while the narrative function of clothing in Chretien's romances comes under review. An enigmatic and linguistically difficult passage from Der jungere Titurel is translated and discussed, and an article on Der arme Heinrich studies this pious tale in the context of its generic affiliations: while not strictly speaking an Arthurian romance, it deserves consideration here as a work of one of medieval Germany's most significant writers of Arthurian romance. There is discussion of Thomas Chestre's adoption of the lai as a vehicle for social criticism in his Middle English adaptation of Marie de France's Lanval; the evolution of Arthurian romance in medieval England is also the primary concern in a study of The Awntyrs off Arthure. The figure of Arthur himself is central to an examination of the Middle English Prose Brut, and the delicate political implications of Malory's Morte Darthur are explored. Finally, C.S. Lewis's transformation and use ofthe figures of Uther Pendragon and Merlin in That Hideous Strength is explored. Contributors: RICHARD BARBER, JANE DEWHURST, TAMAR DRUKKER, CYRIL EDWARDS, DINA HAZELL, DONALD KENNEDY, GERALD SEAMAN, KRISTA SUE-LO-TWU, JANINA P. TRAXLER, MONICA L. WRIGHT.

Enide's tattered dress and Erec's fabulous coronation robe; Yvain's nudity in the forest, which prevents maidens who know him well clothed from identifying him; Lanval's fairy-lady parading about in the Arthurian court, scantily dressed, for all to observe: just why is clothing so important in twelfth-century French romance? This interdisciplinary book explores how writers of this era used clothing as a signifier with multiple meanings for many narrative purposes. Clothing figured prominently in twelfth-century France, where exotic fabrics and furs came to define a social elite. Monica Wright shows that representations of clothing are not mere embellishments to the text; they help form the textual weave of the romances in which they appear. This book is about how these descriptions are constructed, what they mean, and how clothing becomes an active part of romance composition--the ways in which writers use it to develop and elaborate character, to advance or stall the plot, and to structure the narrative generally.

Enide's tattered dress and Erec's fabulous coronation robe; Yvain's nudity in the forest, which prevents maidens who know him well clothed from identifying him; Lanval's fairy-lady parading about in the Arthurian court, scantily dressed, for all to observe: just why is clothing so important in twelfth-century French romance? This interdisciplinary book explores how writers of this era used clothing as a signifier with multiple meanings for many narrative purposes. Clothing figured prominently in twelfth-century France, where exotic fabrics and furs came to define a social elite. Monica Wright shows that representations of clothing are not mere embellishments to the text; they help form the textual weave of the romances in which they appear. This book is about how these descriptions are constructed, what they mean, and how clothing becomes an active part of romance composition--the ways in which writers use it to develop and elaborate character, to advance or stall the plot, and to structure the narrative generally.