Velvets were extremely elaborate and sumptuous fabrics. For this reason they were subject to particular attention from the silk guilds of the cities where they were woven – Florence, Lucca, Venice, Genoa and Milan. From the fourteenth century onwards regulations prescribed the exact technical characteristics of velvets. By comparing the surviving regulations with the data derived from technical analyses of all four hundred velvets conserved in the Costume Gallery in Florence the author is able to suggest attributions of the fabrics to individual cities. The results represent an important step forward in the study of Italian textiles. In a series of introductory essays the author discusses different categories of velvets, including velvets intended for furnishings and clothing. The text is accompanied by many illustrations of contemporary portraits and interiors.

Jointly published by the Abegg-Stiftung and Mauro Pagliai Editore, Florence | Text in English and Italian | 328 pages, 433 colour illus, cloth-bound with dust jacket, 25 × 32 cm, 2017, ISBN 978-3-905014-65-5