As the blog software somehow refused to take the comment, I received mail from Beatrix where she tells me that it's not only fourteen, but 24 items on the list of occurrences in the article. 

Well, well, well. I had been so focused on the first page (which included the references to the re-drawn women's depictions) that I did forget to check the second page - where, indeed, there are more non-executioners, but mostly wrestlers and fencers. 

There are more executioners on the first page, but that does indeed shift things a little. There's definitely much fewer executioners in the later of the sources listed, dating to the late 1490s and later,  than to the middle of the 1490s (which is why I wrote about it being mostly executioners before), but overall it's a rather short timespan, and it would probably need more individual sources to see if there's a shift in who is wearing the pieces, or whether it is just a (random) selection effect.

Beatrix has also given the link to the digital version available on her researchgate account, so you can read it for yourselves.

I've gotten the information that there's a new open access book out, about - natural dyes! The book is the result of an EU project to help revive natural dyeing, but is mainly geared towards educational and artistic users. 

You can download the pdf for free from this website. I hope you enjoy it (and thank you Mari for the information!)

Thanks to my lovely textile colleague Sarah Goslee, I've been pointed to the DOAB - the Directory of Open Access Books. And yes, it does contain quite a number of textile-related books!

You will probably have to filter down if you only search for "textile", as there's a lot about modern speciality textiles and modern textile manufacture in the list, but fortunately an "archeology" filter exists, as do several others.

You can find the main directory at https://www.doabooks.org/en. I hope it will be helpful for you!

There's a book out, published at Brepols, with essays in honour of Eva Andersson-Strand - and the very good news is: It's not only available to buy in printed form, but also as a free e-book!

The book has 24 chapters, and you can find it (including the open access link) here.

For a nice change, here's some really lovely news for those of you involved in braiding! If you've done research about historical braids, especially regarding their structures, you will surely have come across the name "Noémi Speiser". Sadly, Noémi died last year, but she has left as her legacy, among other things, four books about loop braiding.

Thanks to the efforts of several other people, among them braiding specialists Joy Boutrup and Carol James, The European LoopManipulation Braiding books are now available for free on Carol James' website www.SprangLady.com. You will find them under store, then educational materials, then books by others. Their titles are European Loop Braiding Vol I, II, III, and IV. The direct link to the books is https://www.spranglady.com/store/c10/Other_Books.html.

You will have to put the books into your cart and then go through the checkout procedure; you will then get to a page with direct download links, plus receive an email with the download links.

I hope you'll enjoy them - and a big, big thank you to Carol, Joy, and the others involved who made this possible!

After pointing you to French articles last week, here's another wonderful piece of news regarding publications: 

The York Archaeology Trust is very happy to announce that the fascicules AY17/5 Textiles, Cordage and Raw Fibre from 16-22 Coppergate, and AY17/11 Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate are now available on their Collections website by kind permission of the Estate of Penelope Walton Rogers! 

These are wonderful resources - so if you don't happen to have them already in printed version, go head over there and enjoy. And thank you, York Archaeology Trust! 

Sometimes I feel a little like the ball in a pinball machine - something happens, so I roll to a specific something, and then three pings and one bing later, there I am, having discovered something entirely different and very nice.

Today, I pinballed to this French journal special issue: Se vêtir au premier Moyen ÂgeActes des 41^es Journées internationales de l'AFAM. Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) – 29 septembre au 2 octobre 2021. Vol. 1. It's a supplementary volume, it's all in French, and it is available to read for free online (if you want to download, you will have to pay). I've not gotten around to reading it yet, but the articles definitely sound interesting, so it's on my list now...