| Page | |
| Indian woman reeling silk | 13 |
| Ladies in fifteenth century spinning and weaving | 34 |
| Mortuary cloth | 44 |
| Silk damask with imitated Arabic letters | 46 |
| Ladies in fourteenth century carding and spinning | 48 |
| Byzantine Dalmatic | 51 |
| Sicilian silk damask | 57 |
| Florentine silk damask | 62 |
| Part of the Syon Cope | 84 |
| Embroidered saddle-cloth | 87 |
| Ancient banner of the city of Strasburg | 91 |
| Embroidered hangings of a bed | 94 |
| Banner of the tapestry workers of Lyons | 97 |
| Tapestry of the fourteenth century | 98 |
| The weaver, in 1574 | 100 |
| Tapestry of the fifteenth century | 102 |
| State gloves of Louis the thirteenth | 112 |
About This Book
The handbook surveys textiles broadly, defining them as woven stuffs made from animal, vegetable, or mineral fibres, including metal thread, and traces the technologies and materials used worldwide. It outlines early spinning with distaff and spindle, the domestic role of women in producing cloth, the adoption of the loom, and the development of dyeing. Regional fibres such as wool, cotton, hemp, and flax are considered alongside archaeological and documentary evidence that illustrates techniques like plaiting, damask, patterned weaving, and funerary or ceremonial garments. Illustrated examples and historical notes show how materials, tools, and designs evolved and varied across cultures.