THE FABRICS OF THE GALLEGO-PORTUGUESE CANTIGAS: NEW READINGS

The Galician-Portuguese cantigas are an important source of knowledge of the medieval fabrics used for men's and women's clothing in the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century. This article surveys texts where such fabrics are mentioned and takes into account the symbolic and referential value that the troubadours give the fabrics. These lyric poems have documentary and historical value regarding the age of the mentioned fabrics and the garments that were made from them. Moreover, certain terms that could refer to little-documented fabrics, terms that seem badly copied in the manuscripts, are given new readings. Thus, we offer a more detailed study of cantiga En este son de negrada, which is an essencial part of the extensive cycle where the troubadour Lopo Lias dedicated to mock some knights of Lemos unter the pretext that tehey were always badly dressed. It is the most unique piece of the cycle, both for its strophics form and its rethorical construction, but especially for our interest here, it presents a term that has not been documented to date, which seems to refer to a type of fabric, i. e.: soceri. lm view of the context in which it is quoted, it can be inferred that we could be dealing with a misreading of the codices, behind which is hidden a silk fabric of Persian manufacture, which appears documented at the time with an infinite number of lexical varians, and which has been collected by Gual Camarena and Corriente unter the form Doxtoni.

Automated summary

The Galician-Portuguese cantigas are a valuable source for understanding medieval fabrics used in clothing during the 13th and 14th centuries. This article examines the mention of fabrics in these texts and explores their symbolic and referential significance. It also offers new interpretations for poorly copied terms and provides a detailed study of a particular cantiga, En este son de negrada, which introduces a previously undocumented term for a type of fabric. This term is believed to be a misreading of the codices and may refer to a silk fabric of Persian origin.