Arle, There are some extremely detailed paintings by (broadly contemporary) Georges de la Tour on the internet. (please google, I can't find the links). Apart from mostly religious themes he did a series of "street life" subjects including a half-dozen-or-so depictions of a blind hurdy gurdy player. He might be a bit early, but I think his work is worth a look. A tour of his pieces came thru Ft. Worth a few years back and I got so exicited at some of the paintings I had a 2 security guard escort, by the time I left. My date remained completly unmoved, quit speaking to me, etc, etc. Good riddance, I guess.
But I digress, I don't remember the dates, but not so much earlier as to be acronistic or implausible. The pictures are worth looking at even if you don't base your costuming on them. Good luck, I used to do Renny and would draw a blank every time I asked about some costuming between beggar and courier (same thing really, thet just dress diferent). I finally got some extremely loose knee pants and a muslin (off-white) shirt with Raglan sleeves. The shirt was big enough for three people to wear at once. ( might be a bit crowded, but never lonely) It was was too long to bother with a cod-piece, which was more an upper-class fashion anyway, I only really regretted it because they make such a nice guitar-rest. I suspect a stuffed cod-piece would really interfere with the HG. I was going to add a cape when it got cold, but it was Houston and it never even got cool enough. Actually it would be kinda fun to work with a Renny Dance troup as a vielleur, playing a lot of Playford, Arbeau, Pretorius, and that other guy... whatshisname, the one with all the ... I think maybe Susato, I can't remember the name of the dances either..... maybe it's nap time. Later Roy & thanks everybody for your notes of missage already.
