Textiles and the Medieval Economy: Production, Trade, and Consumption of Textiles, 8th–16th Centuries (Ancient Textiles)

Archaeologists and textile historians bring together 16 papers to investigate the production, trade and consumption of textiles in Scandinavia and across parts of northern and Mediterranean Europe throughout the medieval period. Archaeological evidence is used to demonstrate the existence or otherwise of international trade and to examine the physical characteristics of textiles and their distribution in order to understand who was producing, using and trading them and what they were being used for. Historical evidence, mainly textual, is employed to link textile names to places, numbers and prices and thus provide an appreciation of changing economics, patterns of distribution and the organization of trade. Different types and qualities of cloths are discussed and the social implications of their production and import/export considered against a developing background of urbanism and increasing commercial wealth.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction. Conference: ‘Textiles and Economy in the Middle Ages’,
Copenhagen, 19–21 April, 2012
Carsten Jahnke
2. Textile Production, Organisation and Theoretical Perspectives on Trade
in the Scandinavian Viking Age
Eva Andersson Strand
3. Weaving Wealth: Cloth and Trade in Viking Age and Medieval Iceland
Michèle Hayeur Smith
4. Technology and Textile Production from the Viking Age and the Middle Ages: Norwegian Cases
Ingvild Øye
5. Brides, Donors, Traders: Imports into Anglo-Saxon England
Gale R. Owen-Crocker
6. Silk Trade to Scandinavia in the Viking Age
Marianne Vedeler
7. Luxury for Everyone? Embroideries on Leather Shoes and the Consumption
of Silk Yarn in 11th–13th Century Northern Europe
Gitte Hansen
8. The Flax and Linen of Medieval Novgorod
Heidi M. Sherman
9. The Dual Crises of the Late-Medieval Florentine Cloth Industry, c. 1320–c. 1420
John Munro†
10. The Trade with Fustian from Germany to Denmark in the Late Middle Ages
Kilian Baur
11. Cloth Production and Cloth Trade in Hanseatic Towns with Regional
and Non-Regional Products Reflected in Normative and other Sources
Rudolf Holbach
12. Cloth in the Large Cities of Medieval Poland: Production and Trade
Jerzy Maik
13. Hanseatic Textile Production in 15th Century Long Distance Trade
Angela Ling Huang
14. Noble Customers of Cloth at the Frankfurt Fairs Around the Year 1500
Thomas Ertl and Michael Rothmann
15. The Missing Link: The Distribution Revolution of the 15th Century
Stuart Jenks