Sumptuary Laws in Italy and England (the Middle of the 13th – the End of the 14th Century)

Authors:

Pages: 203-219
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/SJIP2641

Abstract:

The chronological framework of the present research follows the period from the middle of the 13th century to the end of the 14th century – a time of most intensive promulgation of sumptuary laws in West Europe. The paper aims at presenting in a comparative aspect sumptuary laws legislated in several Italian cities, on the one hand, and such laws passed by the English Parliament in 1363, on the other. The presented comparative study leads to conclusions, which confirm the observations in some of the research works cited in this paper. There are similarities and differences between the approaches to the formulating and addressing of sumptuary laws demonstrated by the lawmakers in Italy and in England. Part of the reasons for this have been pointed out in the historiographic survey in the first part of the present paper. The author’s observations confirm the conclusions of the researches of this phenomenon in medieval legislation as far as its characteristics for the period between the middle of the 13th and the end of the 14th century are concerned. There is another possible reason for the different way of addressing sumptuary laws respectively in Italy and in England: the texts of the Italian laws analysed in this paper were directed mainly to the “middle class” growing rich in the prospering Italian cities and were formulated within the relatively consolidated urban communities on the initiative of the conservative town authorities in defence of the well-being of the well-to-do male part of the population for restricting superfluous extravagance. In England, on the other hand, we come across a state bill by the promulgation of which an effort was made to include all the various social strata in the country proceeding from the concern for the common well-being and for the protection of home production. Such an approach necessitated orientation towards less detailed formulations about cuts, textiles, materials etc., in comparison to the cited Italian laws but at the same time required determining of strict borders between the social groups with the aim of preserving the established social hierarchy.

Keywords:

sumptuary laws; Italian cities; acts of apparel; Statute Concerning Diet and Apparel 1363.

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