strawbeary-boy:thegentlemanscloset:erikkwakkel:Wearing a bookBooks are objects to read from. This is
strawbeary-boy:thegentlemanscloset:erikkwakkel:Wearing a bookBooks are objects to read from. This is true now, and so it was in medieval times. Between then and now, however, medieval books were recycled, old-fashioned as they had become after the dawn of printing. These three items show one particular function served by recycled manuscript material: as lining of clothes - and a hat. All three images show linings cut from parchment leaves: the shape of a vest cut from an Icelandic manuscript dating to 1375-1400 (middle a late-fifteenth century dress of a Cistercian nun in the convent of Wienhausen supported by a 13th-century Latin text (top and the lining of a bishop’s miter cut from 13th-century Norse love poetry (bottom) - I blogged about the latter here. While the stiff properties of animal skin made it perfect for supporting soft materials such as clothes and hats, it is an odd idea that someone would walk around wearing medieval books - not to mention a bishop preaching with love poetry on his head. On the bright side, thanks to all this recycling, at least parts of these precious books survive. Pic: Vest: Arnamagnæan Samling (University of Copenhagen and Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, Reykjavík), manuscript 122b, fol. II, more information here and here; Dress with manuscript lining: source unknown to me, but featuring in a lecture by Dr. Henrike Lähnemann and discussed in this blog (source of pic Bishop’s miter: Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, MS AM 666 b 4to, more here.When you just can’t bear to be separated from your favorite stories. Late medieval clothing made either wholly or in part from earlier medieval texts. For some reason the bishop’s mitre made from Norse love poetry strikes me as particularly funny.lorenzocheneyCool! I wish I could do this with my old books. -- source link
#recycling#fascinating#clothing#parchment#medieval#books#extant garments