Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 18683
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Ashley , Kathleen.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Material and Symbolic Gift-Giving: Clothes in English and French Wills [The practice of bequeathing clothing to friends, relatives, and others in one’s will was common in late medieval and Early Modern England and France. Major differences in how clothing is dispensed in the wills arise not when one compares the gender of particular testators but the socioeconomic class of the individual. Among lower class people, items of clothing function as commodities (objects of use or value to be passed along), but for bourgeois and aristocratic people clothing carries both material and symbolic value. In these social classes, giving clothing can signify a sentimental attachment to a person or it can constitute a spiritual act of almsgiving. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Clothwork, and Other Cultural Imaginings.  Edited by E. Jane Burns.  Palgrave, 2004.  Pages 137 - 146.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Clothing Economics Friendship Gifts Material Culture Noble Women Social Class Social Networks Textiles Widows Wills
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: British Isles;France
  • Century: 15- 16
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  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2004.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 1403961867