2020 Essays

Black Color for Dyeing, and the Place of Textiles in Ms. Fr. 640

Pitman, Sophie

Throughout BnF Ms. Fr. 640, the author-practitioner attempts to create black oils, stains, varnishes, pigments and—in one recipe—dye. Contextualizing the importance of black in the manuscript and in early modern society, this essay explores a short black dye recipe on fol. 38v which uses lead and lye made from quicklime. It then follows the author-practitioner’s instruction to “try other colors with the lye made of lime.” The essay proposes that while this method of dyeing degrades the fibers of wool and hair (and does not work on linens or silks), there is a “material logic” to the author-practitioner’s choice of materials if we place this recipe in context with his other experiments. While there is no substantial discussion of textiles or dyeing in Ms. Fr. 640, textiles make frequent occurrences in recipes as objects of transformation (either to be dyed, or to be used as a source for pigments), as subjects for painters, as tools, as similes, and as the object of useful knowledge. This essay argues that the author-practitioner demonstrates his “textile literacy” throughout the manuscript, including notes on the expense of black textiles, the accounting practices of cloth merchants, and the visual effects of clothing. Given the importance of the woad industry in Toulouse and the economic and cultural value of textiles in the early modern period, such knowledge and interest is understandable, but this essay prompts further questions about how widespread dye experimentation was in this period, the nuanced meaning of color in the region, and even what the author-practitioner might have been wearing as he carried out his experiments.