I'm forwarding a contribution from a colleague who's not on the list (yet) to 
the thread about lace-making:
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Hi,
   
I'm not normally a reader of this list, but as a textile historian, I 
thought I might be able to offer some thoughts on the question of lace 
making in _Ancrene Wisse_.  (Julie Hotchin kindly forwarded me the original 
post and response, and is forwarding my reply.  If the thread keeps going, 
I'll subscribe for a while.)
   
>> I'm curious about a prohibition that occurs in the _Ancrene Wisse_.  In 
>> Part VIII the writer tells the anchoress that she may not make lace on a 
>> frame.  I am sure someone on the list must know why this prohibition
>> exists.  The anchoress is not prohibited from making lace--but lace 
>> requiring a frame.
   
This prohibition, at face value, is related to a number of similar 
prohibitions against nuns taking up all kinds of handwork.  I don't have 
references with me, but Jeffrey Hamburger in _Nuns as Artists_ quotes a 
number of examples of prohibitions on nuns undertaking handwork, since it 
is viewed as a distraction, wooing the nun away from her prayers. 
Conversely, there is also a body of documentation promoting textile work as 
appropriate work for nuns, because it is a guard against idleness.  As well 
as written literature, there is a large corpus of mostly German images 
showing the Virgin engaged in various textile work, including spinning, 
embroidery, weaving and knitting, which would suggest that this work is 
considered highly appropriate for women, presumably including nuns and 
anchoresses.
   
>Arlene's Modern English version is really a gloss on the Middle 
>English text rather than a translation; what the author says is that 
>the anchoresses should not _criblin_ (infinitive), a verb probably 
>derived from OF _cribler_ 'to sift, sieve'.
   
   
I too think that the word lace is a bad translation in this context. 
Textile terms are notoriously hard to pin down in both medieval and modern 
usage, and are often used with little precision.  The term 'lace' can be 
used to denote a number of things - one of the medieval usages is simply 'a 
cord' (in the same sense of a modern shoelace, or to lace something up); 
see _Gawain and the Green Knight_ for this sense.  Lace is also used to 
mean any form of textile which is inherantly open, and encompasses both 
bobbin lace, and needle lace.  Bobbin lace is an early modern phenomenon, 
and I know of no examples before the sixteenth century.  Needle lace 
encompasses a number of forms, some of which are worked on a pre-existing 
groundcloth and are therefore technically defined as embroidery.  Those 
worked on a bobbin made net date from the mid fifteenth century, so these 
meanings should probably be discounted.
   
   
> I don't
>think anyone has updated Joseph Hall's note (_Early Middle 
>English_(Oxford: Clarendon,1922), vol. 2 p. 397) 'It must mean some 
>kind of open work; either embroidery on a net foundation, 
>"filatorium", or drawn-thread work,
   
Drawn thread work, on the other hand, where some of the warp and weft 
threads are drawn out of the ground cloth, and the remaining threads 
embroidered in various ways, exists from the thirteenth century (am I right 
in thinking _Ancrene Wisse is a thirteenth century work?), but I only know 
of examples in Germany, specifically from Kloster Lune in Lower Saxony. (See 
Marie Schuette, _Gestickte Bildteppiche und Decken des Mittelalters_, 
Leipzig, 1927 and 1930)  Such work, like most embroidery of this period 
would have to be carried out on a frame to prevent distortion.
   
 or, what seems most probable,
>"tambour", wherein the strips of linen stretched in a ring frame, 
>with the pattern pierced by a bodkin and the edges of the hole thus 
>made framed in needlework, would above all things suggest a sieve .
   
I'm a bit sceptical about tambour - actually the description here does not 
match most modern descriptions of tambour which is actually an embroidery 
worked with a hook rather than a needle.  This sounds more like the work 
usually referred to as broderie anglais (it isn't necessarily English) 
which dates from the sixteenth century, to my knowledge.
   
So, for my money, I'd guess that if a specific type of textile work is 
envisaged, it's probably something like drawn thread work.  I think that the 
specification 'on a frame' is probably not meant to indicate that they were 
allowed to do it without a frame, but rather is there to provide amplitude.  
This sort of work (and the other types I've mentioned) couldn't really be 
done without a frame.  I suspect, though that it's probably meant as a more 
general direction against handwork, following the paradigm of handwork as 
distraction from prayer.  It may be the case that the rules for Anchoresses 
were more strict than those for nuns in this regard.
   
And a final note:  if memory serves me, the _Ancrene Wisse_ is itself a 
translation.  In that case, the textile terms are quite likely to be 
tangled (!) beyond recovery.
   
Hope this helps.  I'd be happy to discuss this further off list.
   
Sarah
   
   
   
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Sarah Randles                                    email: [log in to unmask] 
School of English                              phone: 02 6268 8842
University College ADFA                 fax:   02 6268 8899 
Canberra ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA
Web Page: http://www.adfa.oz.au/English/SOESarah.htm
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