The Armour Archive

Hey folks.

A little background for my question: I've gone back to college (after a 15 year hiatus) and am taking a History class. We have been assigned a paper on any topic we wish, as long as it is pre-1550. So, I thought: what better time to research my interest in the cotton trade in the early 14th century?

My research is specifically oriented to cotton imports in Northern Europe (England and France more specifically) in the early 14th century (pre-plague) - and even more specifically, the lack of evidence for use of cotton fabrics in those areas during that time. I have already read the Mazzoui book (The Italian Cotton Industry in the Later Middle Ages 1100-1600), and I have looked at various other textile-related sources.

I know lots about 14th century textiles, but not so much about 14th century economics. Does anyone out there have any further source material that they can direct me to? Any help you can give is greatly appreciated!

Gwyneth

Where are you?

If you're going back to college, go talk to the librarian. Ask directly if they have access to JSTOR. If so, then using the "browse" option, search under the terms "cotton" and "medieval" and "trade." You could also search under the term "fustian" and "trade."

If you don't have JSTOR--contact me.

Good Luck,

Mord.

I'm in Little Rock, Arkansas, attending the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (Hey - it's where my house, job and family are).

Thanks for the suggestion about JSTOR - I'll ask.

Did I mention that I am having to relearn how to use a library? Although it should have been *obvious* to me that I needed to talk to a librarian, apparently it wasn't. [slaps self on forehead]

Talk about teaching an old dog old tricks..............


Gwyneth

Ok,

Look at JSTOR.

Look at ORB (try google).

Look also at the International Medieval Bibliography, stored, if your library uses Library of Congress catalogging, in D 111, if I remember correctly. IMB started in the early 1970s (1974?), and is a subject/numeric based index. Each entry clustered under a heading, and then an entry is given a number. You go to the back, look-up the subject term, and then on scrap paper which entry is applicable. Be patient. IMB comes out twice a year.

You can also back through the bibliographes of the books and articles you've already found.

Good luck, and give me a shout when ya get stuck.

Mord.

A couple of thoughts.

Firstly, when looking at France you may find that most of the best material is in French and untranslated.

I have found general literature on trade in the middle ages can sometimes be useful when looking at a particular good. These works sometimes give primary sources, such as trader's accounts.

Here's a bibliography that may be of use;

http://www.eh.net/coursesyllabi/syllabi ... extBib.htm

All the best with your studies.

Erik

Erik -

Yes, I am afraid of non-translated sources. But as long as they are in modern French I should be OK - I used to be fluent in French at one time, and still can get the sense of most modern French.

Thanks enormously for the bibliography!

I'll keep ya'll updated on how the research goes. So far, the main problem has been keeping myself from going off on interesting tangents!

Gwyneth

Gwyneth wrote:Hey folks.


I know lots about 14th century textiles, but not so much about 14th century economics. Does anyone out there have any further source material that they can direct me to? Any help you can give is greatly appreciated!

Gwyneth

You might find something useful in :

Wool, Cloth and Gold, John H. Munro, UofToronto Press, 1973 ISBN 0-0802-1897-1

The Economic Development of Medieval Europe, Robert-Henri Bautier, Thames Hudson, 1971 (translation from French), ISBN 0500320217

The Medieval English Economy 1150-1500, J.L. Bolton, Dent-London, 1980, ISBN 0460-15274-2

There was also a bit in The Merchant of Prato but that is slightly later on.

Good luck with it.

You may be interested in a (slightly later 14th c.) book about an Italian textile trader, which pulls its information from his diary, if I remember it correctly. I found it mostly fascinating for the grotesque peasant games he details when traveling through Tuscany and France:

Origo, Iris. The Merchant of Prato: Francesco Di Marco Datini, 1335-1410. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1957.

If your library has access to Athena online resource system I would look there. Only I hope that you can read italian and Latin as the majority of documents are not translated. Also see if your Library has any redactions of Codice Diplomatice (diplomatic Codice) as they have a huge amount of information on Monopolies that where granted and to whom. Again you will have to be able to read latin.

Unfortunately for many, all the really good stuff is for the most part still in the language of origin. This gives many english only speaks and readers a blind spot on the complete picture of what was happening in period. My wife and i are fortunate enough to live in Italy and read/speak more than one language. For those who study trade in the three regions of "Italy" (HRE, Papal States, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) getting good sources in english that are not HEAVILY biasised towards the HRE areas is near impossible. I would strongly suggest taking a few classes in either latin or Italian and if you have satillite TV subscribing to the international package and watching Italian or german speaking TV alot (alot of HRE documents are in German/Latin)

I hope this is helpful.

In Service,

Micheal

May I suggest:
http://www.regesta-imperii.org/

Word of Warning, the database is in German
Zuchen = search
databanken = database

Jean-Michel

Whoops, just visited the site and they have updated it, there is an English page as well.

Use?

What about:
The Armourer’s Company of Londons, 1322:
“It was ordeyned for ye comon proffyt and assented that from henceforth all Armour made in ye Cytie to sell be good and concenable after ye forme that henceforth That is to saie that an Akton and Gambezon covered with sendall or of cloth of Silke be stuffed with new clothe of cotten and of cadar and of olde sendall and not otherwise. And that ye wyite acketonnes be stuffed of olde lynnen and of cottone and of new clothe wth in and wth out.It is ordeyned that all ye crafte of ye citie of London be truely ruled and governed every person in his nature in due maner so that no falsehood ne false workemanshipp nor Deceipt be founde in no maner wise in any of ye foresaid crafte for ye worship of ye good folke of all ye same crafte and for the common proffytt of ye peopleâ€Â

Endre- wonderful resource!

I wonder about cotton's status. From these ordinances it seems that cotton was OK for stuffing but not for covering and aketon. Why? Functionality? Economic factors? The Guild rules making sure that the sellers od sendal had a market?

I need to read the Mazzoui book.

Captain Jamie

In the London Memeoranda and plea rolls they list at one debt case a bale of cotton being held as well as other materials. I think this is a very interesting topic for sure that is so quickly brushed under the carpet and dismissed.

RPM

Cotton is not a very strong fabric due to the extremely short "staple" ; ok for padding but for a hard wearing surface something like a linen or hemp would be better. Silk is an excellent strong cloth if not heavily weighted by metallic salts; but does degrade in sunlight.

Thomas