Fibers & Fabrics

A quick list of resources particular to Byzantine fabrics: textile production , textile examples (shape of decoration , etc.), and laws concerning the use/produc tion/sale of textiles in period. There are also many Coptic examples, as well as Sassanid.

The full text of the English translation, featuring recipes for artists' supplies, and instructions for techniques.

An article on the history and manufacturing processes for cloth of gold.

Subjects covered in this issue: cloth types in the late 15th century; notes on medieval cloth measures; the nature of swords; and tents.

Photos of embroidery, brocades, and lace patterns from the 12th-16th centuries.

Artserve. Photos of exhibits in Cairo Museum. Silk Textiles from the Mamluk Period Egypt 14th-15th c., pieces of linen and silk with Kufic inscriptions Abassid Period 3rd-4th c., & textiles from the Fatimid Period (1129-1171 AD.)

Italian words for various types of fabrics, with definition s and places of origin.

A website from a past exhibition which explored the role of textiles in medieval manuscripts.

An article on embroideri ng napkins with heraldic motifs, with a photo of a Flemish damask napkin circa 1500, featuring the arms of Henry VII of England.

A museum of medieval fabrics, with a collection of textiles woven in Christian Spain as well as Muslim al-Andalus .

Photos of extant medieval Islamic textiles, and a brief description of textiles in the Middle East.

Always wanted to know what those splendiferous fabrics in the Fifteenth-Century paintings were like? I had a chance to find out. Here's a travelogue.

From the catalogue of the Byzantine Exhibit at the British Museum "Byzantium: Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture" ed. David Buckton

Medieval cloth. Silks, wool, cotton, linen.

An online exhibit, including textile fragments and archeological finds of tools related to textile manufacture.

by Matteo Compareti. Excerpt, "The archaeological objects discovered in the desert territory situated in the Xinjiang Uighurs' Autonomous Province (China) -or Eastern Turkestan- include a large quantity of textiles and other organic materials preserved thanks to the particular climatic conditions of the zone...The fumian discovered in the graves but not the robe worn by the dead is composed of a set of more interesting textiles because of their decoration. These show mostly a pattern called "pearl roundel design" composed of circular frames embellished with white discs which resemble pearls. The frames can enclose many themes (human, animal, vegetal, etc.) and are tangent to each other. At the point where two roundels touch instead of the smaller discs there are squares or crescents. In the interstice created by the encounter of four roundels are vegetal motifs, often arranged with zoomorphic ones..."