Workshop “Lists and Inventories of Textiles from Ancient to Modern Times” – programme now available

Workshop

Lists and Inventories of Textiles from Ancient to Modern Times

Online, 9th-10th October 2023

To attend, please write to : louise.quillien@gmail.com, sequeira.joana@gmail.com, dandr@eie.gr

Organising committee:

Dimitra Andrianou (GR), National Hellenistic Research Foundation
Louise Quillien (FR), CNRS, ArScAn laboratory
Joana Sequeira (PT), Lab2PT, University of Minho

Host Institution:

ArScAn laboratory, UMR 7041, MSH Mondes, 21 allée de l’Université, 92000 Nanterre, France.
CA 19131 Euroweb – WG3 Textile and Clothing Terminologies

Lists and inventories form an important part of the historical written sources concerning textiles, from the beginning of writing to the catalogues and databases of textiles artefacts kept in Museums. The objective of this workshop is to focus on this particular type of text as
a material for writing textiles history. Textile lists and inventories can be defined as texts, written on different media, recording objects made of textiles one beside or under the other. The particularity of these documents lies on their specific format, and on their content which
is often allusive. However, these lists and inventories are found across time and it is therefore important to conduct a comparative study in order to understand what historical data can be drawn from these texts.

The following points will be addressed:

– What kind of information can be found in textile lists and inventories: terminology of textiles, way of describing these objects (material, colour, type, price, etc.), way of numbering them (weight, quantity, etc.), ownership and uses of these objects, etc.

– Is there a specific order, a classification or hierarchy in the way the inventories are made (from the more expensive to the cheaper, from outer to inner garments, order based according to the owners, etcetera).

– Is the classification based on the format, layout, writing of such documents (tables, rows, columns etc.)? Are these rules determining the contents, and the missing information?

– Who commissioned the writing of these texts and for what purpose? Who made the inventory in practice? Who keep/archived these texts, for how many time and why? What can we deduce for the value of textiles in these ancient societies?

 

PROGRAMME

Monday 9th October

NOTE: ALL SCHEDULES ARE ON CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME (Paris Time)

9h00 – 9h30 : Introduction

Session 1: Lists and Inventories of textiles in Antiquity

Chair: Susanne Lervad

9h30 – 10h00 : Tina Boloti (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), “Textile records in the Mycenaean palaces”;
10h00 – 10h30 : Louise Quillien (CNRS, ArScAn laboratory, France), “Lists and inventories of textiles in 6th century BCE Babylonia”;

10h30 – 11h00 : BREAK

11h00 – 11h30 : Ergün Lafli (Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir), “Classical epigraphic references on textile inventories”;
11h30 – 12h00 : Dimitra Andrianou (National Hellenistic Research Foundation), “Furnishings in ancient Greek temple inventories and private lists”;

12h00 – 13h30 : LUNCH BREAK

Session 2: Medieval inventories of churches and religious personnel

Chair: Joana Sequeira

13h30 – 14h00 : Meghan Korten (University of Iceland), “Textiles Listed in Medieval Icelandic Documentary Sources”;
14h00 – 14h30 : Milena Bravermanová & Helena Březinová (Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague), “Medieval textiles in the inventories of the St Vitus Church Treasury at Prague Castle”.

Session 3: Household textiles in Medieval and Early modern times: dowries, testaments, and accounts

Chair: Dimitra Andrianou

14h30 – 15h00 : Valentina Costantini & Serena Galasso (University of Glasgow), “Listing pannos, garments and household linen in testaments and inventories: a perspective from the Tuscan Archives (13th-16th c.)”

15h00 – 15h15 : BREAK

15h15 – 15h45 : Aina Palarea Marimon (independent researcher), “Weaving Words: Clothing and Textiles in Fifteenth-Century Catalan After-Death Inventories”;
15h45 – 16h15 : Cláudia Costa Pires (Faculty of Arts and Humanities of University of Porto), “The wardrobe and textiles in the dowry of Beatrice of Portugal, Duchess of Savoy (1504-1538)”;
16h15 – 16h45 : Jasemin Nazim (Museum of Macedonia – Skopje), “Data on Fabrics, Garments and Household Textiles in the Ottoman Judicial Records –  Sicils from Bitola/Monastir (17th and 19th c.)”.

Tuesday 10th October

9h00 – 9h30 : Roxana Coman (Royal Historical Society in London), “Inheriting textiles. Dowry and estate inventories in the research on 18th century textiles in Wallachia”;

Sessions 4: Lists of textiles in commercial and fiscal sources, Early modern period

Chair: Joana Sequeira

9h30 – 10h00 : Lluís Sales i Favà (IEM – Universidade Nova de Lisboa), “Woolen cloth in the accounts of the Lleuda de Mediona, the main tax on trade in the city of Barcelona (c.1430-1500)”;
10h00 – 10h30 : Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli (University of Florence), “Account-books and business documents as a source for the study of textiles in the Renaissance (15th-16th c.)”;

10h30 – 11h00 : BREAK

11h00 – 11h30 : João Teles e Cunha (Centre for Classical Studies, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon), “The inventories of Nossa Senhora da Luz shipwreck (1615) as a way to study Asian textile trade to early modern Europe”;

Session 5: Inventories and lists in museum contexts

Chair: Louise Quillien

11h30- 12h00 : Anne Labourdette (Musée du Louvre), “Recorded on lists of looted art: the “OAR” tapestries”;

12h00 – 13h30 : LUNCH BREAK

13h30 – 14h00 : Ieva Pigozne (Institute of Latvian History, University of Latvia), “Inventory and Index Cards as a Source: Case of the 19th-20th Century Textiles at the National History Museum of Latvia”;
14h00 – 14h30 : Agnès Bos (Musée du Louvre), “On various documents listing the textiles of the Order of the Holy Spirit (1580s)”.

Session 6: From ancient documents to modern databases

Chair: Kalliope Sarri

14h30 – 15h00 : Jane Malcolm-Davies (University of Copenhagen & The Tudor Tailor), “Add-dressing data in documents: Taking a quantitative approach to evidence for early modern dyes”;

15h00 – 15h15 : BREAK

15h15 – 15h45 : Paula Nabais (Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry REQUIMTE and Department of Conservation and Restauration, NOVA School for Sciences and Technology, Portugal) with the contribution of Rita Salvado, Graça Filipe, Elisa Pinheiro, and Helena Correia, “REVIVE and the ARQUEOTEX database: the production of uniforms for the Portuguese army in the Pombaline Royal Manufacture of Wool of Covilhã, 1764-1850”;

15h45 – 16h15 : discussion and conclusion

 

Full programme available here.