1st Edition

Byzantine Dress: A Guide

Edited By Jennifer Ball Copyright 2025
260 Pages 86 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

260 Pages 86 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

260 Pages 86 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book offers approaches to the study of Byzantine dress of elites and non-elites, in sacred and secular modes, from the beginning of the Empire in the fourth century until the fifteenth century. Byzantine dress is considered from within and outside of the Empire and examines both artifactual remains as well as emphasizing studies that elucidate Byzantine dress when few or no artifacts exist.... Read more

Introduction

Jennifer Ball

 

SECTION I: Perspectives on Byzantine Dress

 

Chapter 1. Byzantine Identity and Dress

Maria G. Parani

 

Chapter 2. Uniformity and Distinction

Jennifer Ball

 

Chapter 3. Dressing Beyond Byzantium: Negotiating Identity Through Local and Imported Fashion

Cristina Stancioiu

 

SECTION II. Value and Construction

           

Chapter 4. Jewelry

Georgios Makris

 

Chapter 5. Dressing the Non-Elite in the Byzantine Empire

Arielle Winnick

 

Chapter 6. The Construction and Re-Use of Clothing in the Late Antique Period               

Faith Pennick Morgan

             

SECTION III. Clothing Rituals

 

Chapter 7. Byzantine Dress in Marriage Rituals

Gabriel Radle

 

Chapter 8. Liturgical Dress

Warren T. Woodfin

 

Chapter 9. Ceremonial and Diplomatic Dress

Tim Dawson

 

Chapter 10: The Byzantine Fashion System

Jennifer Ball

 

Chapter 11: Displaying Byzantine Dress

Kathrin Colburn and Elizabeth Dospěl Williams

Biography

Jennifer Ball is a professor of Early Christian and Byzantine Art History at The City University of New York. Her research interests encompass textiles and dress, and portrait representations of dress. Much of her research considers the movement of textiles, and other material culture, around Afro-Eurasia, in the Byzantine, Islamic, and Western medieval worlds. She is a frequent lecturer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and has held fellowships at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Princeton University’s Program in Hellenic Studies. She is the recipient of teaching awards including the Claire Tow Distinguished Teacher Award at Brooklyn College.