For any people from the College of St Bartholemew who may be reading - Two pictures of St Bartholemew on Bildindex.
http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/mi02399f06a.JPG
From: Periscope book, Nonnberg Abbey, around 1140 (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 15903)
http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/mi02388e01a.JPG
From: Brevary, Michaelburn Abbey, 1161-1171 (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. lat. 8271) In the Salzburg school of painting.
As a non-12th century person, what about the patterned stockings being made from sprang? I know it's possible to get diamond-y, diagonal-lined patterns with that. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have hose from naalbinding, so it wasn't a one technique thing.
ReplyDeleteWe have so little evidence of sprang in central and western europe around then. Collingwoods "Techniques of Sprang" lists only peruvian sprang between the 9th and 15th C. But I see glimses/hear rumours of eastern european sprang right through the period. I think sprang was there, it just falls appart easier. There are three main ways things get preserved - rubbish dumps, graves and reliquaries. Sprang probably falls appart a bit too easily to show up in hte low numbers of published 12th C rubbish dumps we have. I haven't heard of any 12th C graves being dug up (I think we westerners get too worreid about that) and what tombs we have are emporers and were opened in the late 19th C - so the fragile textiles perished. The reliquaries generally are preserving high class finest stuff. So if we say sprang was more of a middle to low class thing, it could easily evade leaving emuch evidence of itself.
So I think sprang existed. I'd like to know how easy it is to make sprang stockings - to make fitted legs and feet. Have you read about anyone who has done this, or any examples from any period?
I think i could sew a pair of hose in nearly a day now, and I've seen estimates that a period tailor could do so in half a day or less. That surely is quicker than a sprang pair, and might account for why the majority of stuff found is sewn.