The Medieval Broadcloth: Changing Trends in Fashions, Manufacturing and Consumption

by Kathrine Vestergard Pedersen, Kathrine Vestergard Pedersen (Editor)

The eight papers presented here provide a useful introduction to medieval broadcloth, and an up-to-date synthesis of current research. The word broadcloth is nowadays used as an overall term for the woven textiles mass-produced and exported all over Europe. It was first produced in Flanders as a luxurious cloth from the 11th century and throughout the medieval period. Broadcloth is the English term, Laken in Flemish, Tuch in German, Drap in French, Klæde in the Scandinavian languages and Verka in Finish. As the concept of broadcloth has deriving from the written sources it cannot directly be identified in the archaeological textiles and therefore the topic of medieval broadcloth is very suitable as an interdisciplinary theme. The first chapter (John Munro) presents an introduction to the subject and takes the reader through the manufacturing and economic importance of the medieval broadcloth as a luxury item. Chapter two (Carsten Jahnke) describes trade in the Baltic Sea area, detailing production standards, shipping and prices. Chapters three, four and five (Heini Kirjavainen, Riina Rammo and Jerzy Maik) deal with archaeological textiles excavated in the Baltic, Finland and Poland. Chapters six and seven (Camilla Luise Dahl and Kathrine Vestergård Pedersen) concern the problems of combining the terminology from the written sources with archaeological textiles. The last chapter reports on an ongoing reconstruction project; at the open air museum in Eindhoven, Holland, Anton Reurink has tried to recreate a medieval broadcloth based on written and historical sources. During the last few years he has reconstructed the tool for preparing and spinning wool, and a group of spinners has produced a yarn of the right quality. He subsequently wove approximately 20 meters of cloth and conducted the first experiment with foot-fulling.

Table of Contents

Introduction ( Kathrine Vestergård Pedersen and Marie-Louise B. Nosch )
Three Centuries of Luxury Textile Consumption in the Low Countries and England, 1330-1570: Trends and Comparisons of Real Values of Woollen Broadcloth (Then and Now) ( John Munro )
Some Aspects of Medieval Cloth Trade in the Baltic Sea Area ( Carsten Jahnke )
A Finnish Archaeological Perspective on Medieval Broadcloth ( Heini Kirjavainen )
Searching for Broadcloth in Tartu (14th -15th century) ( Riina Rammo )
The Influence of Hanseatic Trade on Textile Production in Medieval Poland ( Jerzy Maik )
Mengiað klæthe & tweskifte klædher. Marbled, Patterned and Parti-coloured Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Scandinavia ( Camilla Luise Dahl )
Archaeological Evidence of Multi-coloured Cloth and Clothing ( Kathrine Vestergård Pedersen )
Reconstructing 15th century Laken ( Anton Reurink & Kathrine Vestergård Pedersen )

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2010

Reviews

[Heather Jones]

This is a collection of papers from an interdisciplinary symposium on the subject of "broadcloth" -- the archetypal high-end woolen fabric of the high middle ages. We start with a technical discussion of the physical and procedural differences between different types of wool fabrics, and specifically the consequences to the finished fabric of the difference between a long-staple, "spun in the grease" worsted fabric, and the shorter staple but higher quality "dry spun" woolen yarns used for broadcloth. But these short-staple threads then needed to be re-oiled for the weaving process and then fulled after weaving, not only to removing the oil "dressing" but to felt the fibers together to strengthen the finished cloth (a strengthening unnecessary with long-staple threads). The final part of broadcloth production was to raise a nap on the surface of the fabric. This created the defining look-and-feel of broadcloth with its smooth, rich texture (contrasted with the visual effects of fancy twill patterns common to the earlier woolen weaves).

Because broadcloth became an important focus of international trade, much of the available data on its production, value, and circulation comes from commercial records. Comparative price-lists and production totals for different weaving centers take up a fair chunk of the collection. Similarly, shipping records not only indicate sources and destinations but the amount of cloth shipped and often color and quality as well. Two articles use the technical descriptions of how broadcloth was produced to identify archaeological textile fragments that most likely represent this type of cloth. Another article looks at the visual and linguistic evidence for striped and other multicolored forms of broadcloth which diverge from the prototypical image of a plain solid-color fabric.

The collection concludes with some experimental work in re-creating Laken the broadcloth produced in Leiden, Netherlands, using historic technology. (The illustrative photos show the experimenters in appropriate historic clothing as well, though I don't know that this was the case for the entire reconstruction process.)

This is not a book for the generalist or the casual clothing historian. But for those who also geek out on economics and trade, it's a nicely focused group of presentations organized to illustrate a topic central to the medieval textile scene.