Title: Woven Words, Embroidered Stories: Inscriptions On Textiles
Abstract:Textiles are of great importance both for the aristocratic courtly culture as well as for the clerical culture of the Middle Ages because they are usually used to mark and shape a visual border betwee...Textiles are of great importance both for the aristocratic courtly culture as well as for the clerical culture of the Middle Ages because they are usually used to mark and shape a visual border between the inside and outside.1 Stone, metal, glass and wood are also used for the purpose of marking and shaping a visual border.Compared to these materials, however, textiles excel in this capacity because they are flexible and can be produced and designed in a variety of ways.What they do less well is protect the interior from external violence or unwanted access.2There are three specific properties and functions of textiles, which are also relevant for inscriptions on the textiles: 1. Flexibility: On the one hand, textiles are locomobile, i. e. a cloth, a dress, a tent can easily be moved from one place to another as a whole.On the other hand, they are also elastic, i. e. they adapt to the interior they create or encase.Therefore, textiles are typically used to cover movable objects such as human or animal bodies (clothing, horse blankets, etc.) or to create ephemeral interiors (tents).2. Drawing a line: Textiles do not create limits that are insurmountable, but primarily borders that restrict a person's vision.In most cases (tents, clothes, curtains, wrapping), this creates an interior protected from the eyes of those standing outside.In reverse, a special interior space can also be conceived and imagined when the border to the outside is highlighted by textile boundaries (tapestries).3. Symbolicity: The textiles that draw these boundaries have surfaces that are particularly suitable for making symbolic statements, either by the material design of the surfaces (colours, use of special threads made of wool, silk, gold, etc.) or by the application of signs of any kind (images, texts).3The semantics of colours and precious fabrics (silk, brocade, velvet, etc.) and ornamentation through woven or dyed patterns or fabric combinations are particularly popular in chasubles and clothes worn by the nobility.1 Cf. the exemplary studies in Coatsworth/Owen-Crocker 2018 and the survey in Heller 2017.Naturally, textiles are also required to protect from environmental factors (cold, wind, the sun, rain etc.).As this aspect does not play a prominent role for script-bearing textiles, it will be disregarded in this chapter.2 Cf.Read More