In my search

For Byzantine silverware, I found this:

Ecclesiastical Silver Plate in Sixth-Century Byzantium

Dry, no? Well, it's full of all kinds of fun details about the silver trade in early Byzantium, and it's good for culture, if nothing else. There's a bit of a preview online, and then you can buy or ILL the whole book.

Can anybody locate a catalog for this exhibit? They apparently have common household items (*ahem* silverware) on display. It could be useful.

Gotta go. More later.

Ebay Store

This merchant has drool-worthy trim and appliques. I've bought bullion wire from them.
Unfortunately, the stuff I like the best is 24.99 a yard. :)
http://stores.ebay.com/Heritage-Trading

Looks really Interesting

In looking for more Biz. food books I stumbled across this:

And the summary is:

Written by specialists in several disciplines, this volume explores the parameters and significance of magic in Byzantine society, from the fourth century to after the empire's fall. The authors address a wide variety of questions, some of which are common to all historical research into magic, and some of which are peculiar to the Byzantine context.

The authors reveal the scope, the forms, and the functioning of magic in Byzantine society, throwing light on a hitherto relatively little-known aspect of Byzantine culture, and, at the same time, expanding upon the contemporary debates concerning magic and its roles in pre-modern societies.

***

The publisher is Dumbarton Oaks and the ISBN is 978-0884022305

I really want to ILL this - now when can I get to the Library?

Tickle anyone else's fancy?

Aha!

Okay, okay. I found this book:



I looked through the table of contents, and it's in English (which is good, because I don't read, um Dutch? German? If I can't tell what it is, I certainly can't read it). It's full of really obscure information that is useful to us, such as types of incense, material culture, clothing, houses, and other interesting subjects. It's essentially a collection of academic papers from an international conference on the subject.

It's 78 Euro to purchase, so if anybody finds a source that's cheaper, that would be awesome.

The wikipedia article on Byzantine dress is mostly an overview, but is interesting because of the photo of a glove about halfway down the page, which, although late in the Byzantine period, shows an excellent example of the ostentation of the embroidery:



Some of the links at the bottom of the article contain images from the same exhibit at Palermo, (such as this one:

)

and also an exhibit at the Met. The rest of the links are mostly things that I think the ChickenGoddess has mentioned previously, but the article collects them into one single list quite nicely.

And then after I posted, I found this:



Plates and things, and I'm looking for something that shows me eating utensils (there is the legend about the Byzantine princess/queen introducing the fork to the uncivilized peoples of Europe, so I'll see if that has any truth).

And that's all I've got for now, folks. Let me know if I'm repeating anything...

In The Beginning

I've ordered a couple of books from Amazon. I figured that if I'm going to be doing this for a year, I should at least own a couple of books on the subject.

Everyday Life in Byzantium by Rice, Tamara Talbot
Ancient Greek, Roman & Byzantine Costume by Houston, Mary G.

I'm hoping the second one can give me some better ideas about design elements for the embroidery.

I've also ILL'd
Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Luke 12:19) Food and Wine in Byzantium (Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies)

I wasn't prepared to pay $90 for it.
Also, when I discussed clothing with Young Ploppy, he wants his Dalmatica to be light gold with orange clavi and segmentae. God help my burning eyeballs. I didn't ask him about a paludamentum color, I was worried he'd want fuchsia.

Perhaps, when we all start talking about clothing a colors, we can look into buying bolts of silk. Silk Connention has Chinese Dupioni on 50yd bolts for $6.95 a yard. We'd have to dye it, but that could be a fun project as well. :) I've always wanted to use this stuff:
jacquard products

And, last but not least, I highly recommend this site for Linen:
fabrics-store.com
I'm sure that the majority of you already know about it...but just in case :)

And now that the Ambien haze has settled over me....I'm going to bed.

But I'm definitely at excitement factor 5, Captain.

Lets get started!

Hello, everybody! I am setting up a blog for us to use for communication and to chronicle the project. This isn't mandatory, but I think it will be helpful, and ultimately, we will have our project out there where other folks can see what we're doing (and what we've done). I have sent out invites to everyone I have an email address for, and I would encourage you to accept the invites even if you don't think you'll be posting. I have the comments limited to members only both to cut down on spam and to keep random pointless feedback from strangers to a minimum. If there is anyone on this project who needs to be added, that can happen, all I need is an email address. I will be arranging our first meeting soon, and we will get this ball rolling.

I'm really excited about this and I am happy that so many other folks seem excited as well. Thanks for supporting this concept, I think we will all have fun and learn a lot.