Please, can anyone recommend to me a really reliable source for
information about the sorts of textiles, especially silk, being used in
England in the fifteenth century?
I've spent a long time researching some inventories of the goods of a
parish church here in Buckinghamshire, (England), which begin in 1475,
and I'm finding it very difficult to understand the meanings of all the
terms for the different textiles. Most of them are silks, but there are
some woollens and linen. There are vestments, hangings, banners; even
household goods and clothing given as gifts or bequeathed to the church,
(and sold to benefit the poor): all sorts of stuff.
Some of the authors I've read are better than others; the worst seem to
have made up the meanings either by extrapolating from some other word
they know which sounds similar, or - apparently - making it up. Hardly
any seem to know anything about weaving, nor about the origins of the
goods and how they were known in different languages as they were
traded, let alone the colours and patterns I've found. No author seems
prepared to explain how they decided that a particular name should be
attached to a particular sort of fabric.
Any suggestions, and any comments about books you know, (both good and
bad ones), will be greatly appreciated by
Linda Walton.
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