Our 14th century reconstructions

OUR 14TH CENTURY RECONSTRUCTIONS

sources, study and observations

Reference area and period.

Studying a possible reconstruction, it's always necessary to identify a period and a reference area from which to start. We are in a particular area of Italy, the north-east tip, a crossroads between peoples who have never considered themselves Italian enough. In the fourteenth century, while Italy was engaged between municipalities and lordships, Friuli was a region under the control of the Holy Roman Empire, known as the "Patriarchate of Aquileia". It had a completely different structure compared to other Italian regions: a feudal system still existed and the territory was dotted with hundreds of minor nobles and as many castles. Even if there was a lot of competition among the nobility—which often resulted in small military conflicts—there was an all-encompassing parliament of all the nobility: the "Patriae Foriiulii" from which our association takes its name. For this area of Italy, unlike others, the fourteenth century period is particularly complicated to study partly because historical and archaeological research has not yet been deepened, partly because with the fall of the Patriarchate into the hands of Venice in 1420, many documents were lost.

However, we still have several frescoes, some noteworthy manuscripts, some inventories and dotal deeds. The presence of a sumptuary law issued in 1342 is also attested, but there are no documents attesting its execution, and no other sumptuary laws are mentioned in the citizens' statutes subsequent to these dates.

We are used to considering history as a sequence of certain and intangible data, probably due to the way we studied it in schools: books are written as if everything is certainly true and verified. Actually, this makes even more difficult to understand that history, as a science (social and human), like the "hard sciences" it is built through hypotheses and theories that can be continually disproved by new discoveries. That's why the first thing to keep in mind when working on a reconstruction is that all reconstructions are hypotheses; we will never be sure about anything: we are just able to make more or less valid attempts. History is not steady just because the past and cannot change. There are a lot of archaeological discoveries that rewrote history, and there will be more: it's the reason why even history books become obsolete, and so do reconstructions.

Anyway, back on the main topic: given the study limits of our area, we had to compare local sources with foreign sources in order to be able to produce a possible all-round reconstruction.

About the sources in Friuli.

As I said in "how to start your own research", for an all-round reconstruction it's necessary to cross-reference different types of sources. The Udinese fourteenth century has fortunately left us some images such as the frescoes of Palazzo Antonini now preserved in the Civic Museums of Udine and the sumptuary laws of 1342 that are certainly interesting.

The sumptuary laws of 1342 appears as an unicum in Friuli as regards the medieval period. It was found just a single copy of the original document, with no evidence of application, no subsequent editions or citations—not even in the Udinese city statute which dates back to 1366. 

In the parish registers that have come down to us there is no entry that suggests the collection of this fine, nor in the families account books that we possess, but the penalty for breaking the law amounted to 40 denarii, significantly lower than the value of the established limits, therefore paying the fine would not have been out of reach for those who could afford to exceed the limits. Still, the fact that no traces of fines were found does not mean that they were not imposed, nor that people were frightened by the threat of excommunication added to the fine, because the inventories of goods that have come down to us would say exactly the opposite.

Regardless of its application or its longevity, since every law is done primarily for lawbreakers, the sumptuary laws of 1342 gives us a very interesting information: if the need for such a law was felt it means that many were displaying clothes and jewelery deemed excessive; curious also that the law was aimed at men and women, and not only nobles but also commoners; but the most important part for us reconstructors, it gives us an idea of what was considered rich in this area and the types of garments that were in vogue. Which becomes very interesting since we can see garments mentioned that belong to the European panorama, such as the design of the dress with "windows".

Elements distant from the region can also be found in the frescoes of Palazzo Antonini, or at least in what remains of a cycle of frescoes that probably represented the twelve months of the year, whose style seems to refer to the Florentine painters. Today we can only admire part of the month of October and some other sporadic fragments, but this does not stop us from asking ourselves how it is possible for a region on the borders of Italy and the empire, suffocated by the nearby Venice which governs the maritime trade routes leaving little space for the once important port of Aquileia, having collected all these important contacts so far away.

Well, probably all these hints are an example of how the medieval Europeanisation worked. Despite being less rich and sumptuous than municipal Italy, the Friulian land has remained the bridge between municipal Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. But that's not all: in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the city of Udine also welcomed the migration of several Florentine families who moved away from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany for political reasons.

It is precisely the movement of peoples that makes fashions circulate, not only to the edges of the Italian peninsula but throughout all Europe.

Practical observations useful for reconstruction.

One of the greatest misfortunes of our area is that there was no climate suitable for the conservation of textile finds that could provide us with information on the pattern of clothing. However, there is a particular fresco in Avio, in the province of Trento, which allows the comparison of the dress of northern Italy with the finds of London and those of Northern Europe.

This fresco is interesting precisely because it shows the entire construction of the dress: from the way in which the sleeve is attached to the shoulder with the gusset, to the way in which the gusset on the side is applied; it also allows us to make reconstructive hypotheses on the sewing stitches used for the dress based on the aesthetic appearance of the features.

Studies on Nordic techniques and London finds come to our aid: there are many meeting points that allow us to have a more complete picture. If we also add the images of the reference area and the sumptuary law mentioned before which attest to the use of some elements such as pearls, buttons and so on, proceeding with a reconstructive hypothesis becomes decidedly easier!

To conclude.

Even though there are not many, we still managed to cross-reference the Friulian iconographic sources with the written ones, and thanks to some northern Italian frescoes (Avio) we were able to make a comparison with the most famous fourteenth-century textile finds in Europe, attesting the depth of what we commonly called "Europeanisation". At this point we have enough information to attempt some reconstructive hypotheses.

→ Bibliography ←