EAA 2022: Abstract

In the Medieval and Early modern period, Iberian was renowned for its sericulture and silk textiles, among its Medieval heritage the Treasury from the Royal Colegiate of San Isidoro in León is noteworthy, silver and ivory caskets and boxes; reliquaries and silk textiles summarised the riches of this Royal foundation and pantheon by the Leonese dynasty. Leon was the head of the Leonese kingdom, repopulated at the end of the 9th century by the Christian inhabitants from the Northern kingdom of Asturias. The city and dynasty were the most important in Iberia until the end of the 13th century.
The silks preserved in the Royal Colegiate (nowadays museum) are some of the earliest examples of silk textiles from abroad in Iberia. Among them, the silk samite and silk and metal thread embroidery on linen tabby lining the silver casket of San Isidoro are the earliest of this treasury.
These two textiles have been characterized (fibres, dyes, metallic threads and weaves), including radiocarbon datation, due to their uniqueness among the Iberian early medieval textiles preserved. Both have early dates, between the late 9th to early 11th century AD and the embroidery´s motifs are foreign to the local tradition.
The possibility to present these two silks from the Royal Colegiate of San Isidoro (León), especially the embroidery on this session, will bring the opportunity to share and exchange ideas about workshops, chronology, textile raw materials and provenance on these textiles, an exceptional assemble on Iberia.

Acknowledgement: The Medieval Iberian Treasury in Context: Collections, Connections, and Representations on the Peninsula and Beyond (PI Therese Martin, RTI2018-098615-B-100, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation/AEI /10.13039/501100011033/ FEDER).

Medieval silks, Iberia, Radiocarbon datation, Textile characterization, Medieval treasury

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Ana Cabrera-Lafuente¹