Dear Conrad,
I envy your students; I would love to study such a selection of texts!
One thing about one of the words you noted:
*********
"sciugatoio", which my dictionary gives me as a towel, or bath towel,
but which a maid in my play puts on her head nicely before going out of
the house, which to me indicates it is not a towel but some sort of
headgear used by 15th-cent. maids
*********
I would have thought that since it would have been necessary for a
person (normally at that time a woman, I think) to carry heavy objects
over a certain distance on one's head, then it would make sense simply
to leave the word in English as 'towel'. Or is it the case that people
who carry heavy items on their head have special headgear in order to
fulfil their tasks? Perhaps it's the case that the maid in your play had
to put the towel on her head 'nicely' or carefully with the intent of it
being properly placed so that it would not move or slip.
All the best,
George
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