Refill is the name for an Islandic form of wall hanging that was decorated with embroidery. This type of wall hanging was popular from the late ninth until the end of the sixteenth centuries. The wall hangings were used to decorate the interiors of Icelandic secular dwellings. With the advent of Christianity in Iceland around AD 1000, refills were also used to decorate churches.
CIETA is an international textile society that was founded in 1954. The abbreviation CIETA stands for Centre International d'Études des Textiles Anciens.
Holland or Holland cloth is a tabby woven, matt linen cloth used as a furniture cover, window cover, jar cover, and so forth.
The 'Spanisshe stiche' was a mid-sixteenth century English term for a double running stitch (also known as the Holbein stitch). In Henry VIII’s inventory of 1547, for example, there is a reference to a cloth (either a napkin or coverpane) “wrought with redde Spanisshe stiche mailed betwixt two borders".
A coverpane (also written coverpaine) is a length of fine cloth that was used to cover the bread (Fr. pain), knife, salt, spoon and the trencher (together called the place setting) for the head of a household. In England coverpanes were popular during the Tudor period (1485-1603).
A maniple (also sometimes known as the fanon) is a liturgical vestment that consists of a band, often embroidered with silver thread, that hangs down the left arm of the wearer. It is a garment, usually made of silk, used mainly in the Catholic Church, during the celebration of the mass and worn together with the chasuble. Its colour follows that of the other liturgical garments and accords with the liturgical calendar.
Dextera Dei ('Right Hand of God'), also known as the Manus Dei or Dextera/Manus Domini, is an old symbol of the Christian Church, especially used in Late Classical and early medieval times. It was often applied to indicate God's intervention in the affairs in the world. The symbol of the Hand of God may be linked to an old dislike of representing anything divine as a human figure.
Agnus Dei ('Lamb of God') is an ancient symbol used in the Christian Church, which symbolises Christ and his sacrifice. It contains the lamb, which stands for innocence and sacrifice; the cross, which symbolises Christ's victory over sin, and the three-rayed nimbus, which refers to the divine character of the scene.
The Historical Needlework Resources is an ongoing project with digital information about pre-sixteenth century needlework and its technques.
St. Dunstan was an English priest and abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester (and London), and finally from 960 until his death in 988 Archbishop of Canterbury. He played an important role in English politics, and lived in exile in Flanders (955-957). In 973 he officiated at the coronation of King Edgar (the Peaceful), at Bath. The service, devised by Dunstan, still forms the basis of British coronation rituals.
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In 1827, the coffin of St. Cuthbert was opened, and in it were found, among other items (including the famous St. Cuthbert Gospel), the remains of a stole and maniple. The garments are nowadays recognised as the oldest extant medieval examples of English embroidery in the country.
Durham Cathedral in northern England, founded in AD 1093, houses a fascinating collection of medieval and later embroideries, including some early medieval examples of decorative needlework. These are a stole, maniple and girdle that date to the early tenth century.
Otto IV (1175-1218) was the son of the German ruler, Henry the Lion and Matilda, an English princess. He was also one of two rival kings of Germany between 1198 and 1208/9 (the other king was eventually murdered, probably at the instigation of Otto).
The Cope of St. Kunigunde is an eleventh century ecclesiastical garment that is now in the Diocesan Museum, Bamberg, Germany.