[MR] medieval sumptuary laws (Fwd: Aoife-Links Digest, Vol 5, Issue 3)

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Greetings my Faithful Readers!

This week we turn our eye to that  most Medieval of attitudes: Appearances 
are everything. While modern-day  medievalists might have trouble with the idea 
that they can't wear any costume  they like at any function (and that costume 
can be as fancy as they can afford  or can make their garb to be, regardless 
of what other people of higher  station are wearing), our medieval cousins 
weren't so lucky. In the Middle  ages and Renaissance--heck, up to the French 
Revolution, even---the idea that  one should dress in a manner befitting their 
station in life is one of the  bedrocks of society. Even today, we tend to judge 
a person by their clothing.  Actresses at the Academy Awards ceremony are 
compared according to the  effectiveness of their dress and designers are made or 
broken depending on  that success. How often have you heard this comment: 
"Looking prosperous!"?  How many times have your read in fable, fairy tale or 
literary allusion about  someone dressed in a golden gown? I remember a particular 
poem from the modern  AA Milne (James James...) wherein the foolish mother 
went to town in a gown of  gold, and had to be rescued by her wiser child. Or 
how about that Paul Simon  song about a woman with Diamonds on the soles of her 
shoes...silly of course,  but obviously she had money to burn. Our medieval 
counterparts would have  instantly recognized those images. Obviously the people 
referred to were  fabulously wealthy and very important.

So if appearance is everything,  why wouldn't everyone wear clothing to the 
highest level of their ability to  afford? I like to think of it as a form of 
medieval driver's license: Young  unmarried ladies wore their hair down. With 
her hair up and/or covered, she  must be married or a spinster. Instant ID; 
That child playing in the street  has ermine cuffs. You'd better not run him over 
with your carriage. He's  wearing his Social ID, and there'll be hel to pay; 
The young man selling penny  loaves is wearing a fine woolen cloak. He must be 
a member of his baker's  guild to afford such apparel, and thus safe to 
purchase from. You know your  loaves won't be shorted because he's wearing his ID. 
And, if for some reason  he isn't a member of his guild, obviously he's a 
fraud, considering himself  above his station!

I hope you enjoy the following web articles, and  will share them wherever 
they will find a ready audience. It's all food for  thought on how we play this 
game we call the SCA.

Cheers

Aoife,  the incredibly bad seamstress who always looks well UNDER her  
station.

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
Canton of Riverouge
Barony  of the Endless Hills
Kingdom of Aethelemarc

Renaissance English  Sumptuary Law Chart
http://www.renaissancedancewear.com/chart.html
(Site  Excerpt) None shall wear in his apparrell any: woolen cloth made 
outside the  realm: except: Dukes, Marquesses or their children, Barons or Knights 
or their  Order.

Elizabethan Sumptuary  Statutes
http://renaissance.dm.net/sumptuary/
(Site Excerpt) The other  concern was that letting anyone wear just anything 
must lead inexorably to  moral decline. If you couldn't tell a milkmaid from a 
countess at a glance,  the very fabric of society might unravel.

Sumtuariae Leges (Sumptuary  law in Rome)
Article by George Long, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College  
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Sumtuariae
_Leges.html
(Site  Excerpt) In the states of antiquity it was considered the duty of 
government  to put a check upon extravagance in the private expenses of persons, 
and among  the Romans in particular we find traces of this in the laws 
attributed to the  kings and in the Twelve Tables. 

Regulating the Body: A Brief History  of Sumptuary  Law
http://www.jolique.com/social_status/regulating_body.htm
(Site  Excerpt) The sumptuary laws most often discussed in books on dress and 
costume  are, naturally, those that deal with dress and costume. While 
arguments for  sumptuary laws governing the consumption of drink and drugs can 
perhaps be  more easily made, arguments for the regulation of dress are more 
tenuous, and  it's not surprising that their enforcement has been difficult.  

Sumptuary Laws in the SCA
by Lady Nastasiia Ivanova  Medvedeva
http://sca-garb.freeservers.com/articles/sumptuary.htm
(Site  Excerpt) Many newcomers to the Society, having been to a Renaissance 
Faire or  half-remembering something about ancient Roman restrictions on the 
wearing of  purple, often assume that there are such restrictions in the SCA 
Usually,  there are not, but there are misconceptions that seem to get 
propagated as  quickly as they can be invented. 

Frankish Sumptuary Law: A Pearl of a  Law
http://www.tyler-adam.com/139.html
(Site Excerpt) 1345. Germany. The  city of Ulm. No women, married or single, 
high birth or low birth...no women  at all folks...were allowed to wear pearls 
on their dresses. Don't say nuthin'  about naked bods...but that's my mind at 
work...so take no heed. By  1411...things had progressed. They were now 
allowed to wear a single pearl  wreath on their heads...and I guess as many pearls 
as they wanted on their  naked bods. Oh lordy lord. I can not stop this train 
of  thought.

Stefan's Florilegium: Pearls--An Example of Sumtuary Law
by  Lord Anton de Stoc, mka Ian  Whitchurch
http://www.florilegium.org/files/ACCESS/Pearls-Law-art.html
(Site  Excerpt) BE IT RESOLVED that all who have pearls and wish to make use 
of them  in Venice shall be obliged within the next eight days to go to the  
Provveditori sopra le Pompe, and declare their number, weight and quality of  
thos pearls. They shall have them registered in thir name, and within the next  
twenty days after that they must have them sealed with the seal of the  
Sopraprovveditori and Provveditori shall approve and which shall be kept in  the 
office, so that if from time to time the strings get brokn they can be  resealed 
with the same seal after first making sure they are in the sme weight  and 
are of the same number and quality. 

Bibliography of works about  Sumptuary  Laws
http://www.stopcrime.net/scaarts/sumptuary.html

Medieval  Sumptuary  Laws
http://www.geocities.com/davidbofinger/sumptuary.htm
(Site Excerpt)  The sumptuary laws of mediæval Europe are probably the most 
spectacular  example of the difference in attitudes between western society 
then and today.  They are the expression of the antithesis of several key 
principles, listed  below, that our society has incorporated so thoroughly that we 
have come to  feel them natural and inevitable. 

Press On

Nothing in the world  can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common  than unsuccessful individuals with 
talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded  genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of  educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are  omnipotent.
----Anonymous



If you wish to correspond  with Aoife directly, please send mail to: mtnlion 
at ptd dot net as she is  unable to respond in this account