Diapositiva 1

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Fashion in History A Global Look Tutor Giorgio
Riello Week 4 Tuesday 27 October 2009 Curbing
Fashion Medieval Sumptuary Laws in Europe and
Beyond
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1. What is a Sumptuary Law

• Sumptuary Laws are
• The laws that since medieval times limited the
  consumption of certain items of apparel
• But
• They regulated not just ownership, but also
  display, especially at
• weddings (what types of gifts could be given,
  what type of food could be eaten, how much one
  could spend for ones wedding)
• funerals (the cost of the funeral, the types of
  cloth that could be used, the number of candles
  that could be burned)

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1. What is a Sumptuary Law
What type of consumption does it regulate? Not
all forms of consumption but what is
considered to be superfluous luxury The
definition of what luxury is changes depending on
the person
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1. What is a Sumptuary Law
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1. What is a Sumptuary Law
Venice
Florence
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2. Why were Sumptuary Laws Used?

• When
• Non existent before 1150
• After that date they emerged and continued to be
  produced in several parts of Europe
• 2. Where
• They are not to be found everywhere in Europe
• They concentrate in the most economically active
  parts of the continent (Italy, Southern France,
  Catalonia, and later England)

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2. Why were Sumptuary Laws Used?
Explanations 1. Maintaining the existing social
hierarchy Tool of social control 2. Upholding
moral values 3. Encouraging economic prosperity
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2. Why were Sumptuary Laws Used?

• Explanation 1 Tools of Social Control
• Re-establish the formal divisions between the
  different parts or classes in society.
• b. To stop certain parts of society from using
  dress as a way to better themselves.
• ?
• c. the sumptuary laws acted as a way to fight
  against fashion, against change and choice
  through the regulation of appearance

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2. Why were Sumptuary Laws Used?
Explanation 1 Tools of Social Control Not
just used by the social superiors (princes,
aristocrats, lawmakers) to exclude their social
inferior. Often sumptuary laws were used by
social inferiors (ex. artisans) to limit the
splendor and luxury of their social superior.
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2. Why were Sumptuary Laws Used?
Explanation 2 Moral conduct and good government
To ensure a good statum civitas (the well
being, or commonwealth of the population), by
preventing moral degeneration (through the
corruption of luxury) that in turn would have
created economic disaster and social unrest.
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2. Why were Sumptuary Laws Used?
Explanation 3 Encouraging Economic
Prosperity to guide expenditure ? Limit use of
luxuries (that are often imported goods) ? to
avoid expenditure on imported commodities ? give
work to local artisans ? Increase tax revenue
? More income for the state/city.
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3. Who was Regulated by the Sumptuary Laws
They were for the rich/elite who could afford to
wear forbidden items (such as silver and
precious silks) Rather than the majority of the
population who could not afford such items
Nobles were often exempted from Sumptuary
Laws but They were warned against the perils of
luxury and overindulgence
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3. Who was Regulated by the Sumptuary Laws
Sumptuary Laws and Women - Sumptuary Laws were
written by menalthough they were often target at
women - Women had inferior social position and
little agency (capacity to determine their
destiny) - Sumptuary Laws were seen as a way to
govern the female tendency to overvalue
appearance (as opposed to the intellectual, moral
and religious dimensions of life)
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3. Who was Regulated by the Sumptuary Laws

• Who was excluded from Sumptuary Laws?
• Foreigners people coming from different states
  or cities They were regulated by the laws of
  their city of provenance.
• Doctors people who attended university - a
  title not acquired by birth

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6. The Enforcement of Sumptuary Laws
The Law People should not wear gold
trimmings Students must submit their essays by
22 October at 11.35
The Practice People did not wear gold
trimmings Students submitted their essays
? ?
We tend to imply this because there is a law
establishing it. But the law does not tell us
what people really did What we need are
documents showing that people were prosecuted,
but these are few. What does it mean?
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6. The Enforcement of Sumptuary Laws

• Why are there so few documents on prosecution?
• The archival hypothesis
• The documents were not kept
• 2. The failure hypothesis
• They were inefective
• in spite of all these strong ordinances,
  outrages remained and though one could not have
  cut and figured cloth, they wanted striped cloth
  and foreign cloth, the most that they could have,
  sending as far as Flanders and Brabant for it,
  not worrying about the cost (Giovanni Villani,
  Cronica, 1330).
• those who are neither of the nobility, gentility
  nor yeomanry, no, nor yet any magistrate, or
  officer in the commonwealth, go daily in silks,
  velvets, satins, damasks, taffetas and such like,
  notwithstanding that they be both base by birth,
  mean by estate and servile by calling (Philip
  Stubbes, 1583).

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6. The Enforcement of Sumptuary Laws
Why are there so few documents on
prosecution? 2. The failure hypothesis
(continue) Who enforced the law? How did it
work? Many cities appointed officials to uphold
the law. Florence, for instance, appointed in
1330 the so-called Ufficiali delle Donne
(Clerks of Women) who had the power to stop
people and seach them. 3. The success
hypothesis There are no prosecutions as the laws
were widely respected