Book Arts

The History and Technique of Lettering
Alexander Nesbitt

Clothing and Textiles

Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men and Women C1560-1620
Janet Arnold

I don’t know that I could say anything about this that hasn’t been said a billion times before. Invaluable source, but not perfect and scaling patterns up directly is a bad idea.

The Tudor Tailor: Reconstructing sixteenth- century dress
Ninya Mikhaila and Jane Malcolm-Davies

While I’m glad I have this book, I find the directions to be rather frustrating. There just aren’t enough pictures for some of the trickier bits, in my opinion. I also find some of the pattern layouts to be very puzzling when compared to Patterns of Fashion. I think I have a minority view on this book, though–lots of people think it’s easy to use. But I am also allergic to other people’s directions, as well as commercial patterns.

Medieval Tailor’s Assistant: Making Common Garments 1200-1500
Sarah Thursfield

I love this book with a blinding fiery passion. Not because it’s the be-all-and-end-all of medieval clothing making (it’s not–there are some notable garments not covered because it starts at 1200, the instructions for headwear are lousy, and it’s more about how to recreate the look of the paintings than based on extant garments, so no Moy bog gown or 12-gore Greenland dresses).

I love it because this is the book that taught me how to draft and fit patterns, including sleeves. My very first sleeve pattern fits closely but with full range of motion in the shoulder (I made the wrist a bit too tight, but that’s easy to fix on the second iteration)! Wonderfully clear directions on making a body block and modifying it to create the various styles of clothing.

It is a good practical introduction to making medieval clothing, and I found it very easy to use. For those who want a higher level of autheticity–say, based off extant garments–it’s not really the book.

Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589
Juan de Alcega, J. L. Nevinson (trans.), Jean Pain (trans.), Cecilia Bainton (trans.)

This is actually Melchior’s. Anyway, it’s more of a guide for tailors to lay out fabric than a pattern book in the modern sense of patterns. While guidelines for sizes are included, scaling the pieces up directly would be a bad idea. It’s really useful for getting an idea of the shapes of pattern pieces, as well as of the yardages that went into period clothes (less than most people think). There are some interesting garments in here that I don’t often see recreated.

Textiles and Clothing : Medieval Finds from Excavations in London, c.1150-c.1450
Elisabeth Crowfoot

A wonderful scholarly source on archaeological finds in London. Dense but fascinating.

Dress Accessories, c.1150-c.1450 (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London)
Geoff Egan

A necessary complement to Textiles and Clothing, Dress Accessories covers non-fabric buttons, belts and fittings, veils, circlets, and a variety of other items. Dense but fascinating.

Islamic Textiles
Patricia L. Baker

Embroidery

Embroidered Gardens
Thomasina Beck

The New Carolingian Modelbook: Counted Embroidery Patterns from Before 1600
Kim Brody Salazar

An indispensable resource for pre-1600 counted thread embroidery, containing patterns charted from patternbooks, paintings, and extant garments and furnishings. While the majority of the patterns are for blackwork, there are also patterns that could be used for cross stitch, tent stitch, or in some cases brick stitch. Primarily European sources (particularly Italian, German, and English–not as much Spanish as I would personally like), a few patterns from an Egyptian sampler.

Some patterns are originals by Salazar, but in my opinion they are very true to the look of period designs.

German Renaissance patterns for embroidery: A facsimile copy of Nicolas Bassée’s New Modelbuch

An excellent facsimile copy of a German patternbook from 1568. Patterns for blackwork, cross-stitch or tent stitch, and freeform embroidery. A lot of overlap with other German and Italian pattern books.

Needlework Patterns from Renaissance Germany
Kathryn Newell

A collection of German embroidery patterns recharted from historical patternbooks, suitable for cross stitch, long-armed cross stitch, tent stitch, and perhaps brick stitch with some creativity.

The Embroideries at Hardwick Hall: A Catalogue
Santina M. Levey

The Bible of Elizabethan home furnishings. Loaded with detailed color photos, packed with information, and one of the very few sources on Elizabethan embroidery that discusses the stitches competently and in detail.

Natural History

Food

Food in History
Reay Tannahill

Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book: Elizabethan Country House Cooking
Elinor Fettiplace and Hilary Spurling

More commentary on Elizabethan daily life than recipe book, and apparently not all of the recipes date to 1604 or earlier. But the sole recipe I’ve tried thus far (lamb in wine and orange sauce) was not only excellent but quite easy.

Society and Economics

Literature and Letter-Writing

Queen Elizabeth I: Selected Works
Steven W. May (ed.)

A fantastic collection of letters, poems, and other works of Elizabeth I. Well-annotated. The spelling is modernized.

Wish List

Queen Elizabeth’s Wardrobe Unlock’d: The inventories of the Wardrobe of Robes prepared in July 1600, edited from Stowe MS 557 in the British Library, MS LR 2/121 in the Public Record Office, London, and MS V.b.72 in the Folger Shakespeare Library
Janet Arnold

Atypical clothing, perhaps, but loaded with information. I badly want a pair of blackworked linen gloves.

Hispanic Costume 1480-1530
Ruth M. Anderson

Moda a Firenze 1540-1580: Lo stile di Eleonora di Toledo e la sua influenza
Roberta Orsi Landini and Bruna Niccoli

Dress in Renaissance Italy, 1400-1500
Jacqueline Herald

Seeing how impossible this is to find, I am kicking myself for not bidding on it at the Caerthan Twelfth Night auction.

A Schole-house for the Needle
Richard Shorleyker (1632)

Facsimile.

1381 – The Peel Affinity: An English Knight’s Household in the Fourteenth Century

Tailor’s Pattern Book 1589
Juan de Alcega, J. L. Nevinson (trans.), Jean Pain (trans.), Cecilia Bainton (trans.)

I want my own copy, okay?

Medieval Calligraphy
Mark Drogin