Tag: 1500’s

PGC2019: Baronessa Isabel Maria’s Spanish Hairstyle

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Category: To refine gold to paint the lily To throw a perfume on the violet.   At your toilette: hairstyling, make up, beauty products, skincare, ointments, unguents, perfumes, etc


Purpose

Where choosing jewellery is the final touch to completing an ensemble, selecting the hairstyle is often the first decision I make after choosing my wardrobe for an event.  I like to take my time and use good tools to ensure a secure, period-plausible hairstyle.  It gives me a moment to get used to the clothing, and let things settle before adding the accessories and jewellery.

As I am also partial to experimenting with different tools, jewels, headwear and hairstyles, this is a long-term and ongoing pet project.  New hairsticks, combs, pomades, needles, and threads are regularly acquired and tested (sometimes to destruction) to recreate something I have seen in a period source.

Tools

  • Combs of varying coarseness (for detangling and cleaning hair as well as smoothing hairstyles)
  • Brush (for smoothing hairstyles)
  • Needles & threads & snips (for tying off plaits, sewing hair into place, and getting it loose again)
  • Pomade (for holding ends together, and flyaways in place)
  • Mirror
  • Gravoir (for cleanly parting hair and holding sections out of the way)
  • Hairsticks (for holding and enhancing hairdos)
  • Ribbons and jewels (for enhancing hairstyles)
  • Lambs wool (for adding volume without much additional mass)
  • Bump clips (for adding volume, in place of wool, or hair rats)

The above is a selection of my most commonly used hair related items.  As the box has limited space, the kit is contains is normally carefully curated to reflect the wardrobe packed for an event such as Canterbury Faire.

Methods

Please watch this YouTube video from the Known World Colegio de Iberia to see how the various tools above are used, and my new favourite Spanish hairstyle is constructed: https://youtu.be/qlCoVQYTZQU

Verdict

Using the tools is great for getting into the mindset before an event, or for preparing for the day while camping. (However, I really must sharpen snips for getting out of hairstyles more expediently.)

This hairstyle is secure and comfortable.  As the majority of the mass is centered over my neck, my head is not continuously pulled backwards, resulting in less fatigue and fewer headaches that my usual large, coiled plait.

Additional Resources

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PGC2019: Mistress katherine kerr’s collection of documents

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Mistress katherine kerr submits the following for the recently added category:

“Sweet are the uses of adversity“, for research in or practice of an art, craft or past-time that your persona might have undertaken whilst whiling away a siege (or plague)…

…or a long sea voyage and incarceration, being a collection of documents covering the fateful Voyage of the Baskin-Kerrs in an Alternative Timeline.

http://webcentre.co.nz/kk/RatLettersVoyage.htm

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PGC2019: THL Joana de Bairros’ Moorish Chicken

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Joana de Bairros enters a delicious chicken dish in the category Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?

“There is one Portuguese cookbook from period called Um tratado da cozinha portuguesa do século XV or Livro de cozinha da Infanta D. Maria de Portugal which can be found, with an English translation at http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/tratado.html. This collection of recipes was written in the late 15th century and then taken to Italy with Maria, the grand daughter of Manuel I of Portugal, when she married Alessandro Farnese. It ended up in Naples. (See reference to this in At the First Table:Food and Social Identity in Early Modern Spain by Jodi Campbell).

I was having a friend of over for dinner so decided to cook the Moorish Chicken recipe from this book as I have tried it before and it is delicious.

Outra receita de galinha mourisca
Façam em pedaçosuma galinha bem gorda, e levem-na ao fogo brando, com duas colheres de sopa degordura, algumas fatias de toucinho, bastante coentro, um punhadinho de salsa,umas folhinhas de hortelã, sal e uma cebola bem grande. Abafem-na e deixem-na dourar, mexendo-a devez em quando. Em seguida cubram essagalinha com água, e assim que levante fervura acabem de temperá-la com sal,vinagre, cravo-da-índia, açafrão, pimenta-do-reino e gengibre. Logo que agalinha esteja cozida, derramem dentro 4 gemas batidas. Tomem uma travessa funda, forrada com fatiasde pão e derramem por cima a galinha.

Another recipe for moorish chicken – literal translation
Cut a very fat chicken into pieces, and cook it over low heat, with two soup spoons of fat, a few slices of bacon, lots of cilantro, a bit of parsley, a few mint leaves, salt and a very large onion. Cover it (abafar means smother) and let it brown, stirring once in a while. Next cover that chicken in water, and as soon as it reaches a boil finish seasoning it with salt, vinegar, cloves, saffron, black pepper and ginger. When the chicken is cooked, add 4 beaten egg yolks. Take a deep serving tray, lined with bread slices and put the chicken over top.

My redaction to feed 4   

500gm chicken breast
1T olive oil
100gm bacon
¼ cup of coriander
2T parsley
1T mint
Pinch of salt
2 cups of chicken stock
1T white wine vinegar
1 t salt
1t each of cloves, pepper and ginger
A pinch of saffron
4 egg yolks
1 loaf of bread.

  1. Cut chicken and bacon in to chunks (I used chicken breasts as I wanted it to cook quickly) ‘
  2. Roughly cut the herbs and dice the onion. (I didn’t add coriander the first time as my guest did not like it so included more parsley. I did up it in in a later attempt at this recipe and it added a nice flavor)
  3. Heat up the oil in a thick based casserole dish on the stove top
  4. Brown chicken and bacon
  5. Add in herbs, salt and onion
  6. Put the lid on the casserole dish and cook at medium heat for about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to stop the chicken from sticking.
  7. Add in the stock (I used stock rather than just water as I was using breast meat which doesn’t have the flavor of chicken drums)
  8. When the stock boils add in the vinegar, salt and spices. Leave to cook for 5 minutes
  9. Separate the egg yolks and whisk together
  10. Pour the egg yolks into the casserole and mix up the sauce thoroughly. If you do not the egg will cook in lumps rather than being spread through sauce.
  11. Slice a loaf of good bread up. Either serve the chicken in a deep dish with bread underneath or serve the chicken to the table in a pot with a loaf of bread so guests can assemble their own. The bread is very delicious when soaked in the sauce!”
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PGC2019: Signora Onorata Elisabetta Foscari’s cena con amici

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The Honorable Lady Elisabetta Foscari details her recent intimate Italian dinner for friends in her entry in the category Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?  In her words:

“I chose to cook a dinner party for some friends using recipes from Scappi.  Below are the pdfs of my write up of the meal.
Introduction and Course one: cena1
Course 2: cena2
Course 3 and Reference list: cena3“

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PGC2019: Mistress katherine kerr’s Printers’ Mark

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I do remember an apothecary…
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff’d, and other skins
Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scatter’d to make up a show.

Mistress katherine kerr’s printers’ mark is an item used in an occupation, trade, or task, e.g. a tool, equipment, etc, and she describes it purpose and developmet:

“Father was always interested in Things Mechanikal and invested some money in a printing operation in Venice. When we returned to Scotland, he brought a small press with him and I grew up watching the activity in the workshop. It stood me good stead for taking over the operations, and I now have a printers’ mark of my own which will appear on my works.

Printers’ marks arrived with the birth of printing as a means of identifying the printer responsible for the works. The most famous is that of Aldus Manutius, the anchor and the dolphin of the Aldine Press in Venice (Williams pg 220-222). Many examples of printers’ marks bear a close resemblance to each other (eg Georg Wolf Paris 1494; de Bougne Angers 1500, Julian Notary London 1507, Jean Granjon Paris 1517).

They include a tripartite circle standing for the globe (being Europe, Asia and Africa), and a 4; the meaning of the latter is not definitively known. I have heard it said it is the alchemical symbol for antimony, the “magic” substance which made lead type functional, but it doesn’t match the symbol I’ve seen for the substance.

I’ve based my printers’ mark on the extant example, with some subtle references. It has the tripartite world containing my initials (as per Wolf, Notary and Granjon); the K is taken from the first Roman type used, the 1470 Venetian type designed by Nicholas Jenson.

The 4 comes from the Aldine typeface Bembo, made by Francesco Griffo in 1495, and used in the fabulous Hypnerotomachia Poliphi, still considered one of the most beautiful examples of the printers’ art ever.

The flowery cross is a reference to the map convention of pointing towards a cardinal point (typically a cross for East and Jerusalem, a fleur-de-lis for North); cartography is a strong interest of mine. The actual cross artwork is based on the croce used on the obverse of the Venetian scudo coin, this particular one having been issued by Doge Andrea Gritti (in office 1528-1538, or for most of katherine’s time in Venice 1526-1536)”

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PGC2019: Mistress katherine kerr’s Box of Games

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What revels are in hand? Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?  Mistress katherine kerr enters a box of “games, toys, and other such entertainments”.  In her own words:

“To keep me amused as a child, my father would play dice with me, using the games common in the Venetian lands in which we lived. I have a set of dice, as well as some French playing cards and jetons and other tokens to play the Game of Goose, Marienbad and other games, though of course I do not gamble when playing.

I have made up a small box of games of the kind Katherine may have played, including rules for various dice and card games; a set of Pierre Marechal’s playing cards (France, 1567); a set of juggling balls and some dice and throwing sticks presented to me by the very creative Lord Ronan mac Briain.”

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PGC2019: Maestra Isabel Maria’s Games Box

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PGC2019: Maestra Isabel Maria’s Games Box

Baronessa Isabel Maria enters her games box in the category “What revels are in hand?  Is there no play, To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?”

Purpose
“At longer events it is not unusual to find yourself with nothing specific to do.  While many times a pleasant conversation can be found, sometimes it is necessary to find a way to while away the time.  As a child, I was usually directed towards board or card games, so I was curious to know what similar pastimes Isabel Maria might be familiar with. Once I started looking, I found there was a variety of amusements from the 16th century, many of which I have slowly been collecting. 

Game Box Contents
Alquerque board (not shown), Gluckhaus board (based on the one found here), chessboard, decks of cards (in both the German and Spanish styles), pewter dice, knucklebones (my childhood set), Nine Men’s Morris (a gift from my parents), noughts & crosses (a gift) and dominos, as well as some instructions for various games – particularly card games. 

Also included are jettons and limited numbers of various imitation Spanish coins of the 16th century, with which to better enjoy the period passtime of gambling, but without the attendant risk of financial ruin.

As many games and accoutrement as possible are stored in appropriate wooden boxes, metal containers or cloth bags of varying refinement.

Construction & Shopping
This project is more of a journey than a destination – this collection is constantly being added to, refined and curated to meet the needs of either my persona or various events.  For example, a recent addition is the the alquerque board (see a forthcoming entry for that), and before that, a deck of late 16th German cards, (printed on card but without plastic coatings) to complement my Spanish deck (printed with modern finishes).

Verdict
I like having a variety of ways to pass the time between activities at events, or during the evenings at Canterbury Faire.  Gluckhaus is a particular favourite.”

Resources

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PGC2019: Meisterin Christian’s Festa de Natale, Late 16th C Italian feast

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PGC2019: Meisterin Christian’s Festa de Natale, Late 16th C Italian feast

Not just an item of food or drink your persona may have grown, prepared, consumed, or known of, Meistern Christian has entered a whole feast in the category “Do you think because you are virtuous, that there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

Final course on the sideboard
Photo by Isabel Maria

Persona period inspiration and use:

A friend wanted to host a Christmas event with a meal (Southron Gaard, Festa de Natale, December 2018).  He wanted a menu suitable for his Lady’s persona, i.e. late 1570’s Italian noblewoman.  I chose to follow Scappi, a chef to various cardinals and pope’s, whose Opera dell’arte del cucinare was published in 1570.

I used Scappi’s recipes and menus to construct a feasibly accurate light summer celebration meal for Italy in the 1570’s.

Design, Materials and Construction:

I reviewed all the translated menus from Scappi I could find, and established the appropriate number of courses and dishes for a light feast.  I reviewed the dishes on those menus, and arranged them as to the appropriate course in which they should appear (certain dishes appear only in certain courses).  From those lists I selected a long list of the dishes I preferred.  Christmas in Italy is obviously not in summer, so some flexibility was necessary in selecting recipes from both the summer and December menus.

Roast pork tenderloin presented
before being carved by Sir Tycho
Photo by Isabel Maria

I then narrowed down the long list of recipes balancing an authentic light Scappi summer menu with the modern constraints / considerations of the event: a menu of light dishes and salads appropriate for a warm summer evening, a balanced menu (for modern tastes), recipes I liked, available seasonal produce, preparation time and cooking facilities, recipes with a nod to Christmas (period or modern Christmas) and keeping a low ticket price in mind.

Here is the menu from the feast:

Primo servitio di credenza (First service from the sideboard):

  • Uva fresca di piu sorte (Fresh grapes of various sorts)
  • Formaggio (Cheese)
  • Olive di piu sorte (Olives of various sorts)
  • Insalata di citrioli et cipollette (Cucumber and onion salad)
  • Insalate di cedro tagliate in fettoline, servite con zuccaro, sale & acqua rosa (Orange salad with sugar, salt, and rosewater)
  • Prosciutto cotto in vino, tagliata, servitto freddo (Ham cooked in red wine, with a dressing of capers, currants, sugar, vinegar)
  • Amaretti (Almond cookies)
  • Pane con buttiro (Bread butter)

Primo et ultimo servito di cucina (First and last service from the kitchen)

  • Polli arrostite (Roast chicken)
  • Il lomboletto di porco domstico in piu modi (Roast pork tenderloin)
  • Mostardo amabile (Sweet mustard)
  • Sapore vino di melangranate (Pomegranate wine sauce)
  • Minestra di tagliatelle (A thick soup of Tagliatelle)
  • Bolognese tourte ((for vegetarians) Cheese and chard tart)
  • Cuocere Broccoli asciutti et cauli (Broccoli and cauliflower with sour orange juice, oil and garlic)
  • Insalata di misto (Mixed salad)

Secondo et ultimo servitio di credenza (Second and last service from the sideboard):

A closer look at the final course
Photo by Isabel Maria
  • Mele et pere crudo di piu sorte (Raw pears and apples)
  • Formaggio (Cheese)
  • Grani di melegranate et Fragole (Pomegranate seeds and strawberries)
  • Mandole (Almonds)
  • Neve di latte(A dish of Snow)
  • Per fare pizza a un’altro modo (A dried fruit tart: pastry)
  • Ciambelle (Italian cookies)
  • Gelo di cotogne (Quince paste)

Here is a link to an article in FTT with some recipes from the event.

Final course from the sideboard. Photo by Isabel Maria del Aguila

Reference:

The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco (The Art and Craft of a Master Cook), Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library, University of Toronto Press, 2011, Terence Scully.

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PGC2019: Meisterin Christian Baier’s Double Dolphins Brustfleck

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As a companion piece to the “M&M” dress, Meisterin Christian enters a beaded brustfleck as an accessory her persona may have owned, made, used, or gifted in the category “With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery, With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery.”

Persona period inspiration and use:

Christian is a woman of the court in early 16th C Saxony.  Clothing of women of this court are recorded in art of the time, most notably (but not exclusively) in the portraits of Lucas Cranach.
The Brustfleck (Breast piece) or Brusttuch (Breast cloth) is the decorated piece that covered the front openings of clothing, over the linen layer, found in many styles, in early to mid 16thC German women’s clothing, including the clothing of Saxony.

Brustflecks for Saxon court gowns of this period are generally made from brocade and are variously decorated with slashing, pearls, and embroidery.  Pearl embroidery could be in geometric or floral/pictorial designs.

Christian has a number of brustflecks, but not a floral/pictorial one.  I’ve been meaning to do one of these for ages, but I’m fairly inexpert at embroidery, and there were times in the past where obtaining small real pearls was difficult and expensive. This brustfleck was made for the M&M dress (one of the illustrated dresses has a floral/pictorial brustfleck, while the other has a geometric design).

Design, Materials and Construction:

Design: the particular design here is copied from the dress of Emilia in Lucas Cranach the Elder’s portrait of Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia of Saxony, 1535.  This is a fairly common design, with scrolling flowers and two heraldic dolphins.  I am a member of the Order of the Dolphin of Caid, in fact I received two Dolphins, so this design seemed appropriate.

Materials: the Brustfleck is from made from a gold metal thread and black silk brocade (matching that of the dress guards), interlined with linen canvas, and is lined with fine linen.

Construction: the brocade was interlined with canvas.  The design was simplified and modified to fit the size of the brustfleck and the available pearls.  The design was transferred to the fabric, the embroidery is done in several sizes and shapes of freshwater pearls, and outlined in fine gold cord.  The whole was then lined with linen.

Reference:

  • A number of brustflecks (and their value) are recorded in wills are included in Textiler Hausrat, Kleidung und Textilien von Nurnberg, 1500 – 1650 by Jutta Zander-Seidel, pages 149-150.
  • Portrait of Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia of Saxony, 1535, Lucas Cranach the Elder.
  • Illustration of Maria and Margarete in the Saxony Stammbuch: Das Sächsische Stammbuch 1546, http://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/56803/1/cache.off
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PGC2019: Master Christian Baier’s “M&M” dress

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Master Christian enters her stunning gown into the category “With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings, with ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things.” She describes the garment her persona would have worn:

Persona period inspiration and use:

Christian is a woman of the court in early 16th C Saxony. Clothing of women of this court are recorded in art of the time, most notably in the portraits of Lucas Cranach.

I had intended to make this gown originally for Midwinter Coronation in Cluain in 2017, but my modern work commitments became overwhelming and I did not get the dress finished at that time. The gown then spent time in the “naughty corner” waiting on another event for which a velvet, high-necked court gown would be appropriate, which presented itself in the shape of Midwinter Coronation 2019 in Southron Gaard. I had completed the bodice and skirt of the gown, so it was a fairly small job to assemble those, attach the fastenings, and make the breast patch. Sadly I was enjoying that event too much to get photographs, but I am told the play of firelight across the velvet and silk was lovely.

The dress is nicknamed the “M & M” dress, not only because the design comes from an illustration of ‘Maria and Margareta’, but also because there are 413 (or perhaps more) individual pattern pieces for the dress across the fabric, interlining, and lining. (Why a nickname? I have quite a few black and gold Saxon gowns, so it’s useful to have an easy way to identify each.)

The dress design comes from an illustration of Maria and Margareta, daughters of John the Steadfast, Elector of Saxony in the Das Sächsisches Stammbuch (the Saxon family / friendship book) of 1546, in the Dresden archives, which features drawings of the extended families of the Dukes of Saxony and their ancestors.

The dowry of Magdalene of Saxony (daughter of Duke George the Bearded of Saxony, and his wife Elizabeth) from her wedding to Joachim Hektor II, the Margrave of Brandenburg (heir to the Electorate) in 1524 lists approximately two dozen gowns. As a peer of the realm, this seems like a useful sized wardrobe for Christian! Magdalene’s dowry includes gowns of velvet and silk brocade, trimmed with pearls, similar to the M&M gown.

Design, Materials and Construction:

Design:the design is taken directly from the Stammbuch illustration of Maria and Margareta, although with the cuffs of one dress and the brustfleck design of the other. The dresses in the Stammbuch are similar to Saxon court gowns seen in other portraits of this period, so can be assumed to be an accurate representation of clothing of noble women of the period.

Materials and construction:  the gown is made of a natural fiber high quality velvet, which is about as close to period velvets as it is possible to get at an affordable price. Of course the joke is on me, because the pile is very thick, which makes it fiddly to sew (hence the “naughty corner”). The brocade is gold metal thread and black silk in a traditional brocade design. The gown is interlined with linen canvas, and lined in linen.

References:

  • 1526 Nuremberg wedding record: H. Doege, “Das von Questzische Hochzeistbüchlein, 1526”, Waffen und Costumekunde, 1922. Also see school regulations, textbooks, and pedagogical miscellanes from the lands of the German tongue: on behalf of the society for German educational and school history, Volume 34. Translated here .
  • Saxony family book: The Saxon family book 1546, http://digital.slub-dresden.de/werksicht/dlf/56803/1/cache.off
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