This book makes a most important contribution to this fundamental aspect of European history. Some thirty experts in the field - or rather fields- from many different countries of origin have cooperated to survey Spanish fashion at home and the appetite for it in the rest of Europe, reflecting the various political relationships in which other countries stood to Spain. It will constitute an immensely valuable resource not least because it so richly illustrated, above all with portraits of the period.
Dress is a key marker of difference. It is closely attached to the body, part of the daily routine, and an unavoidable means of communication. The clothes people wear tell stories about their allegiances and identities but also about their exclusion and stigmatization. They allow for the display of wealth and can mercilessly display poverty and indigence. Clothes also enable people to play with identities and affinities: for instance, individuals can claim higher social status via their clothes. In many ways, dress is thus open to manipulation by the wearer and misinterpretation by the observer. Authorities—whether religious or secular, local or regional—have always aimed at imposing order on this potential muddle. This is particularly true for the early modern era, when the world became ever more complex. In Europe, the composition of societies diversified with the emergence of new social groups and increasing migration and travel. Thanks to intensified long-distance trade and technological developments, new fashionable clothes and accessories entered the market. With the emergence of a consumer culture, it was now the case that not only the extremely wealthy could afford at least the occasional indulgence in luxury items and accessories. Over recent years, research has focused on a variety of areas related to dress and appearance in the context of early-modern political, socio-economic, and cultural transformations both within Europe and related to its entanglement with other parts of the world. Nevertheless, a significant compartmentalization in the research on dress and appearance remains: research is often organized around particular cities and territories, and much research is still framed by modern national boundaries. This special issue looks at dress and its perception in Europe from a transcultural perspective and highlights the many differences that clothing can express.
Gegründet im Jahr 2000 widmet sich das Jahrbuch der Europäischen Geschichte von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur jüngeren Zeitgeschichte. Die große zeitliche Breite, thematische Vielfalt und methodische Offenheit zeichnen das Jahrbuch von Beginn an aus und machen es zu einem zentralen Ort wissenschaftlicher Debatten. Das bleibt künftig so. Mit dem Jahrgang 2014 verändert sich das Jahrbuch aber in mehrfacher Hinsicht: Das Jahrbuch erscheint mit der Ausgabe 2014 im Open Access. Jeder Band setzt einen thematischen Schwerpunkt. Das Forum bietet Platz für geschichtswissenschaftliche Reflexionen und Debatten. Jeder Beitrag des Jahrbuchs durchläuft ein strenges Peer-Review-Verfahren. Das Jahrbuch erweitert seinen Namen zum "Jahrbuch für Europäische Geschichte. European History Yearbook". und druckt künftig deutsch- und englischsprachige Beiträge, seit 2015 ausschließlich englischsprachige.
This is the first global history of dress regulation and its place in broader debates around how human life and societies should be visualised and materialised. Sumptuary laws were a tool on the part of states to regulate not only manufacturing systems and moral economies via the medium of expenditure and consumption of clothing but also banquets, festivities and funerals. Leading scholars on Asian, Latin American, Ottoman and European history shed new light on how and why items of dress became key aspirational goods across society, how they were lobbied for and marketed, and whether or not sumptuary laws were implemented by cities, states and empires to restrict or channel trade and consumption. Their findings reveal the significance of sumptuary laws in medieval and early modern societies as a site of contestation between individuals and states and how dress as an expression of identity developed as a modern 'human right'.
The first comprehensive study on the role of Italian fashion and Italian literature, this book analyzes clothing and fashion as described and represented in literary texts and costume books in the Italy of the 16th and 17th centuries. Writing Fashion in Early Modern Italy emphasizes the centrality of Italian literature and culture for understanding modern theories of fashion and gauging its impact in the shaping of codes of civility and taste in Europe and the West. Using literature to uncover what has been called the ’animatedness of clothing,’ author Eugenia Paulicelli explores the political meanings that clothing produces in public space. At the core of the book is the idea that the texts examined here act as maps that, first, pinpoint the establishment of fashion as a social institution of modernity; and, second, gauge the meaning of clothing at a personal and a political level. As well as Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier and Cesare Vecellio’s The Clothing of the Renaissance World, the author looks at works by Italian writers whose books are not yet available in English translation, such as those by Giacomo Franco, Arcangela Tarabotti, and Agostino Lampugnani. Paying particular attention to literature and the relevance of clothing in the shaping of codes of civility and style, this volume complements the existing and important works on Italian fashion and material culture in the Renaissance. It makes the case for the centrality of Italian literature and the interconnectedness of texts from a variety of genres for an understanding of the history of Italian style, and serves to contextualize the debate on dress in other European literatures.
While the Civil War of 1936-39 dominated Spain's twentieth-century history, the country's fateful and bloody division into left and right had its roots in the events of the Napoleonic era. In Modern Spain: A Documentary History, the first broad-ranging collection in English of writings from this entire period, Jon Cowans presents 76 documents to trace the history of Spain as it struggled for political and social stability and justice through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beginning with Napoleon's occupation of Spain in 1808, the selections include decrees of the liberal Cádiz Cortes of 1810-14, an 1841 plea for the revival of the Catalan culture and language, an 1873 anarchist manifesto, an 1892 argument for the education of women, a Basque nationalist's 1895 diatribe against Spaniards, José Ortega y Gasset's Invertebrate Spain, General Francisco Franco's 1936 manifesto and his 1940 letter to Hitler, the Spanish bishops' 1950 press release on immorality and indecency in the mass media, King Juan Carlos's speech on the attempted coup d'état of 1981, and a 1999 report by SOS Racismo on immigration and xenophobia in contemporary Spain. Covering political, cultural, social, and economic history, Modern Spain: A Documentary History provides a valuable opportunity to explore the history of Spain through primary sources from the Second Republic, the Civil War, and the Franco dictatorship, as well as from the period of Spain's profound transformation following the ascension of King Juan Carlos in 1975.
For women at the early modern courts, clothing and jewellery were essential elements in their political arsenal, enabling them to signal their dynastic value, to promote loyalty to their marital court and to advance political agendas. This is the first collection of essays to examine how elite women in early modern Europe marshalled clothing and jewellery for political ends. With essays encompassing women who traversed courts in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Habsburg Austria, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden, the contributions cover a broad range of elite women from different courts and religious backgrounds as well as varying noble ranks.
A lively and innovative collection of new and recent writings on the cultural contexts of textiles The study of textile culture is a dynamic field of scholarship which spans disciplines and crosses traditional academic boundaries. A Companion to Textile Culture is an expertly curated compendium of new scholarship on both the historical and contemporary cultural dimensions of textiles, bringing together the work of an interdisciplinary team of recognized experts in the field. The Companion provides an expansive examination of textiles within the broader area of visual and material culture, and addresses key issues central to the contemporary study of the subject. A wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the subject are explored—technological, anthropological, philosophical, and psychoanalytical, amongst others—and developments that have influenced academic writing about textiles over the past decade are discussed in detail. Uniquely, the text embraces archaeological textiles from the first millennium AD as well as contemporary art and performance work that is still ongoing. This authoritative volume: Offers a balanced presentation of writings from academics, artists, and curators Presents writings from disciplines including histories of art and design, world history, anthropology, archaeology, and literary studies Covers an exceptionally broad chronological and geographical range Provides diverse global, transnational, and narrative perspectives Included numerous images throughout the text to illustrate key concepts A Companion to Textile Culture is an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, instructors, and researchers of textile history, contemporary textiles, art and design, visual and material culture, textile crafts, and museology.
