Sylvester, Louise M., Mark C. Chambers, and Gale R. Owen-Crocker, eds., Medieval Dress and Textiles in Britain: A Multilingual Sourcebook (Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: The Boydell Press)
Text name(s): The Ecclesiastical History; Le Manuel des Pechiez; Handlyng Synne; Loci e Libro Veritatum; Summa Predicantium; "A Dispitison bitwene a God Man and the Devil"; The Regiment of Princes; "A Dyte of Womenhis Hornys"; "The Good Wyfe Wold a Pylgremage"; "The Thewis of Gud Women"; Instructions to His Son; Beowulf; The Lives of Two Offas; The Life of Constance; The Tale of the Wife of Merelaus the Emperor; Emare; John Gower's Tale of Constance; The Man of Law's Tale; Lanval; Sir Landevale; Sir Launfal; Lai Le Fresne; Lay Le Freine; Sir Degrevant; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Number of pages of primary source text: 345
Author(s):
- Nicholas Trivet
- Marie de France
- Gower, John
- Chestre, Thomas
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- William of Waddington
- Ordericus Vitalis
- Mannyng, Robert of Brune
- Lydgate, John
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Gascoigne, Thomas
Dates: 900 - 1464
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- Latin
- English - Scots
- English - Middle English
- English - Anglo-Saxon / Old English
- Anglo-Norman
Translation:
- Translated into English.
- Original language included.
Translation Comments: In this edition, abbreviations are expanded and italicized, letters ash, eth, thorn, and yogh have been preserved, and question marks indicate unknown or presumed translations.
Geopolitical Region(s):
- Scotland
- England
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Literature - Verse
- Treatise - Instruction/Advice
- Account Roll
- Inventory
- Literature - Prose
- Law - Legislation
- Sermons
- Will
- Court Roll
Subject Headings:
- Women / Gender
- Theology - Moral / Ethics
- Royalty / Monarchs
- Nobility / Gentry
- Literature - Arthurian
- Literature - Comedy / Satire
- Material Culture: Food Clothing, Household
- Literature - Epics Romance
- Literature - Didactic
- Law - Secular
- Economy - Guilds and Labor
Apparatus:
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
This volume aims to provide students and scholars with excerpts of a variety of types of sources—wills, petitions, inventories, romances, laws—so that they may better understand the reality of daily life in medieval England. Each chapter begins with an introduction particular to the text type of the chapter. This diversity of text types helps to form a more complex and complete picture of they way people dressed, the value of clothing and other household textiles, how dress affected how people were perceived and how they perceived others, and how people attempted to regulate social classes through legislation. This volume is particularly useful as it not only provides Modern Standard English translations after the excerpts in their original language, but also translates verse into verse and prose into prose. The focus on clothing and materiality helps even those familiar with the texts, such as the romances, acquire new meaning by looking at them from another perspective. A helpful list of included documents (vi-vii) and a thorough bibliography (401-412) and glossary (357-399) are included.
Introduction Summary:
The introduction (1-8) describes the various ways that the sources of the volume—wills, romances, laws that regulate clothig—shed light on the daily lives of people in medieval England.
Cataloger: SKG
