Report on the Textiles from Burgos Cathedral - Middelalder Centret

<strong>Report</strong> on the Textiles in Patrimonio National,
Palacio Real
Notes on the Visual Appearance of the Frilled Textiles from Burgos
and the Methods of Constructing Frilled Edges.
From textile studies in Palacio Real, Madrid, 4-6.9.2006
Camilla Luise Dahl, The Medieval Centre, Nykøbing
The collection of clothes and textiles excavated
from Burgos Cathedral, now in Patrimonio
Nacional: Palacio Real in Madrid, includes a group
of fragmented strips of silk cloth excavated from
Burgos Cathedral. 1 The fragments varies in size
from just a quarter of a meter to up to six metres in
length.
Only a few of the fragments share obvious
similarities in visual appearance and most of them
creates the overall perception of a variety of styles in
appearance and technique. The long pieces have all
formed part of women’s headwear. All of them are
made of varying lengths of narrow strips of fabric
and they were used to wrap around chin, neck and
head. Due to the lack of method when the textiles
were excavated in the mid-20th century, only a
few of the pieces can now be linked to a specific
grave. Non of the extant samples in the collection
have intact endings, the actual length of the pieces
is therefore unknown.
Some of the pieces are plain whites, others have
colourful stripes woven into them at the endings
varying from many rows of multicoloured stripes to
just a few stripes of a single colour. The width of the
pieces various from 10 to 15 cm, some wider than
20 cm has been folded along the length of the fabric
1 Manuel Gomez-Moreno: El Panteón Real de
las Huelgas de Burgos. Madrid, 1946, Concha Herrero
Carretero: Museo de Telas Medievales. Monasterio de
Santa María la Real de Huelgas. Madrid, 1988, Concha
Herrero Carretero: El Museo de Telas Medievales de
Santa María la Real de Huelgas. Colecciones textiles de
Patrimonio Nacional. In: Vestduras Ricas, Madrid, 2005.
In september 2006 the textiles were examined by Concha
Herrero Carretero, Patrimonio National, Marianne Vedeler,
Oldsakssamlingen, Oslo and Camilla Luise Dahl, The
Medieval Centre for The Medieval Centre, Nykøbing,
Denmark.
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Fig. 1
Inv. No 00653742 in full length. Photograph: Marianne
Vedeler.