Call for Papers for the Workshop “Lists and Inventories of Textiles from Ancient to Modern Times”

Call for papers

Workshop

Lists and Inventories of Textiles from Ancient to Modern Times

Organised by Dimitria Andrianou (GR) Louise Quillien (FR) and Joana Sequeira (PT)

Online, 9th-10th October 2023

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?

We welcome 20 min presentations. Please send your proposals (title and short abstract describing the type of list or inventory you are studying) to Dimitria Andrianou <dandr@eie.gr> Louise Quillien <louise.quillien@cnrs.fr> and Joana Sequeira <sequeira.joana@gmail.com>, by the 31st of July 2023.