Covered Women? Veiling in Early Modern Europe

The meanings of early modern veiling in western European societies have been manifold, contradictory and changing over time. This article analyses the recodification of the covering of women from the Reformation to the Enlightenment, discussing and juxtaposing rich visual material, normative regulations and court cases. It thereby demonstrates how concealing and uncovering has been deeply entangled in the history of the West. Early modern costume books demonstrate the potential of the veil to map locally specific cultural differences manifested in dress. Veiled women could stand for propriety, yet veils might also be read as a sign of lust, disorder and seduction. Case studies of Reformation Basel and Zürich develop these broader findings in detail. They show not only that the veil provided a screen onto which could be projected strangeness and danger, but also how in practice it marked women as respectable or dishonourable, rich or poor, married or unwed. Furthermore, it was read as an index of morality and gained much attention in a fashion policy critical of luxury. The veil was thus central to an identity politics preoccupied with social ordering, moral standards, and also fashio

Moral Materials: Veiling in Early Modern Protestant Cities. The Cases of Basel and Zurich

Throughout the early modern period, veils remained a common garment for women all over Europe. This article deals with the economy of veil production, changing fashions of veil wearing, and identity political struggles surrounding the question of the church veil in the Swiss textile cities of Basel and Zurich. The site of a moral battleground, the church veil reveals, in particular, how much attentiveness certain Protestant cultures paid to material issues. Alongside a variety of other sources, analysis of an extant church veil at the Swiss National Museum allowed for the inclusion of hands-on methods from dress history, considerably sharpening our attention to embodied experiences and the emotional effects of dress codes and their regulation

Building Paradise. A Basel Manor House and its Residents in a Global Perspective

In the middle of the 18th century, the Basel silk ribbon manufacturer Achilles Leissler (1723-1784) had an impressive summer house built on Riehenstrasse, which became known as the «Sandgrube». The building fits in with the considerable number of richly residences that lined the road from Kleinbasel to Riehen. With their remarkable gardens full of exotic plants, they not only represented the economic elites of a wealthy city, they were also located in the direct vicinity neighbourhood of the production sites that made cotton and silk through special dyeing and printing processes, thus serving a global market. This publication explores the heritage-listed «Sandgrube» and its internationally active inhabitants. This opens the view of Basel's early participation in a global market and for the effects that the production and trade of global goods had on the city's community and its self-image