Bliaut from the Cîteaux Moralia in Job Manuscript: Figuring the Design

I've been thinking about making a new bliaut for a number of years now, and as I have finally reduced the number of active projects down to a more reasonable number (I can count them on one hand!) it is clearly time to add more.  And as I want something straightforwards to sew instead of the ridiculously complicated projects which have been my lot for the last year, as well as have yardage brown silk/wool blend I set aside for a bliaut some years ago...a bliaut--basically a tunic--sounds like a good plan.

Naturally, I can't simply do things anymore, and just begin construction.  I had to do some research and find a piece of inspiration first.  Document the colour brown being used for bliauts--at least in illuminations--, what colours it might be combined with in the hosen, and just refresh my memory on what it looks like since it has been a good 5 years since I last looked into the garment and I had some...interesting...thoughts on the patterning back then.
 

Moralia in Job; Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms 168:4v

Eventually, I was struck by a well known illumination in a copy of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job, the Cîteaux copy, residing in the Dijon bibliotech. The one above.

Not only is it close to the right colour, but the figure resembles me to the point that the comment when I showed it to a friend was "Holy Crap, it's you!".  So, yeah...that pretty much cemented it.  It also has the sleeves I rather like; while men's bliauts usually do not have pendulous sleeves as the lady's version does, they do show up on occasion as in this example--and that is one of the things which makes it a /bliaut/ to my mind, rather than simply a tunic.  There's a few interesting things going on with it as well, making it unusual, but not completely weird (it's not Spanish, after all).

In addition to this individual garment, I will be comparing it with the few other male garments found in the same manuscript, as well as a couple of contemporary ones.  Sadly, the Cîteaux copy of Moralia in Job is not available online, so I am limited to only a few of the illuminations...although, the copy of the second volume (in the British Library) I have gone through doesn't have all that many illuminations--the primary copy may not either.

I will start off with a description of the original inspiration--the Dragon-slayer--, then go through the various other examples in a bit less detail, before summarizing the similarities (and differences).  I will cover how I am interpreting my findings to create a pattern in a second post.

Bliauts in General:

While some my readers may know what a bliaut is, I do know many of you focus more on later period, tailored, clothing--as have I for the last few years.  The bliaut (an Old French word, and don't ask me to pronounce it) is the primary garment for much of the 12th century in Western Europe, with variations being worn in France, England, Germany, Sweden, and most other countries.  It is, at heart, a geometrically cut tunic...but with the beginnings of conspicuous consumption showing up in the closely fitted cut.

• The body was typically closely fitted in both male and female versions.  Some areas--Germany in particular, it seams--preferred a looser fit, as would lower class.
• Sleeves were closely fitted at the upper arm, and may or may not have had a variety of pendulous sleeves.  Sleeve shape was dependent on region, with men's garments usually having plain sleeves.
• Skirts were fairly full, and sometimes may have been pleated.  We are not talking about full circle skirts, however.
• Based on the drape of the garment, the fabric was fine, and may have been silk. Examples of patterned fabrics do show up.
• Keyhole necklines--sometimes quite deep ones--seem to have been the most common, but round also shows up.
• Trim is seen around the neckline, and the upper arm--where it is commonly supposed a seam is.  It may also show up at the cuff, hem, and possibly waist.

 For more in depth reading on the general style, take a read through The Bliaut throughout 12th Century Europe.  And for counter arguments on a number of misconceptions applied to the garment, go here: The Bliaut Revisited.

 The Frontispiece:

As you can see, the bloke slaying a dragon is wearing a bliaut in an orange-ish-brown.  Almost like a yellow russet.  Of course, it is an illumination, and a fairly early one--it cannot be taken as full documentation that it was a colour available and worn; to do that, you need to go into the dyeing of the period.  As I am making it with a stash fabric, that is of less concern to me--fully documenting the colour will come later, if I choose to do so.

Sleeves are tight to the upper arm and begin to flare dramatically from the elbow, draping in a complex fashion.  Even though the garment drapes beautifully, like a fairly lightweight fabric, the inside of both the sleeves and skirts show as a different colour, almost a fleshy peach.  Whether this is realistic or purely artistic is hard to say. 

Neckline is a modest keyhole, with trim an estimated two fingers wide surrounding it.  There is matching wider trim around the bicep, and another row a bit above the bottom hem, which is nearly ankle length.  Unusually, there is a chevron shaped piece of trim roughly even with the bottom of his ribcage.

The body of garment is closely fitted as per the style, and appears to be extra long.  While some of the lady's versions appear to have horizontal wrinkles across the belly, which have been interpreted as rucking produced by side lacing and pulling it up, I see blousing on the men's versions.  Which would also be produced by having a longer than needed torso measure, then blousing it over a belt, which results in the belt being hidden.

The skirts are obviously split to the upper thigh (at least) on at least one side.  Based on other garments in the manuscript, I suspect it is on both sides.  The folds of the skirts are interesting, showing the folds running all the way up under the blousing at the waist, but not evenly all the way around.

At his waist, there appears to be...something.  It is definitely wider in the back than in the front, where it is tied in a simple knot.  For simplicity, I will call it a girdle.

Underneath the bliaut, we can see closely fitted hosen in a lovely shade of sky blue, and at his wrists another undergarment in blue.  Curiously, there are horizontal lines worked there; while I have seen this interpreted as meaning that it is quilted, I believe the undertunic simply has extra long, close fitting sleeves which are pushed up.  They additionally have a bit of narrow trim at the cuff.  Unfortunately, I cannot see any sign of the skirts of the undergarment...I suspect they are of the same cut as the bliaut, albeit possibly shorter.

Shoes are extremely pointed, and are open topped. They appear to be a nice burgundy in colour.

Onwards to the Other Bliauts:

In order to verify that the chosen bliaut is in line with fashion--or at least artists' interpretations thereof--I need to go through can analyze the elements of the garments from comparable sources; both the same book, and others from roughly the same time and place. 

The following are from the Cîteaux copy of Moralia in Job, residing in Dijon, France. 
Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137).

Dijon, BM, 0173 f.007

While this one is rather on the allegorical side, one of the figures at least is wearing proper clothing.  His green bliaut is about knee length with moderate blousing at the waist.  Sleeves are closely fitted.  No usual trim is visible, but there is a hint of a keyhole neckline (again, without trim).  Strangely, there is a band about his waist in a contrasting colour; it could be a belt or wrap rather than trim, however.  It is hard to tell whether it is effecting the drape of the fabric.  Both vents are visible, and appear to be slightly more forwards than truly on the side.

Dijon, BM, 0173 f.020

His outer garment is only knee length, but is still closely fitted.  Blousing at the waist appears to be less, but is still present.  An odd band in the same colour is visible at the waist--is this a sign of a seam?  Skirts do not appear to be slit, nor as full.  Interestingly, sleeves are short, only bicep length, and have a hint of trim at the cuff.  Underneath is another closely fitted sleeve (garment), which has some rucking at the wrist.

Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.029

Like the original figure, his bliaut is closely fitted, and has blousing at the waist, with the sleeves having wide cuffs.  Here, they are shown more clearly than with our original bearded dragon-slayer, giving more hints to the drape.  The garment appears almost certainly lined...but again, it could be artistic interpretation to give definition to the folds of fabric.  No trim is visible on the garment, which is somewhat unusual.  It also appears that the slit in the skirts is in the center front...the skirts are also not quite as wide.

He is wearing the same kind of shoes as the dragon-slayer, as well as a closer sleeved undergarment.

Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.041

The monk is not of interest to us...but the fellow stuck in the tree is.  His bliaut is much shorter, only knee length, although it does have good bit of blousing at the waist.  His sleeves are closely fitted, with no visible rucking, nor trim on the garment.

Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.047

Again, he is wearing a quite simple, probably lower class bliaut or tunic.  Knee length, some blousing, close fitting sleeves--does it still count as a bliaut with close fitting sleeves?  I think it might, if only to differentiate that overly long and closely fitted torso from standard tunics.  No slits are visible, the skirt is not particularly large, and minimal trim is visible on his left wrist.

Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.066

Tall Nobleman: Of the nine or so other garments, this particular one is most definitely the closest in style, even if it is narrow cuffed.  The overall cut is more or less the same, although both side slits are visible.  You can see the blousing clearly, as well as that the drape is "centered" at the four points--front/back and sides.  The neckline and cuff are both trimmed in red, and that strange girdle shows up clearly at his waist...it almost appears like back support?
While the outer garment is green, you can see blue at the vents...and a pale yellow at other places.  I am not sure what is going on there, perhaps the artist was trying to show that he is wearing another layer under it of the same cut?

His shoes are quite pointed, ankle high, and appear to have a seam down the center.

Neckless Old Guy: The fit of his bliaut is somewhat looser than the other, possibly due to either rank or just not being as fashion forwards.  There is a significant amount of blousing at the waist, and his garment is ankle length (after blousing) and has no slits.  The skirts also appear to be fairly full.  The garment is clearly lined, as the outer is yellowish, and blue shows at the folds.  Sleeves are closely fitted, with no signs of trim.

Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.111

The body of the garment is quite closely fitted, showing off his "rippling pectorals".  The keyhole neckline is modest, like the others shown in this manuscript, and is trimmed with a contrasting colour.  I believe there may be a wide band of trim at the hem as well.  Sleeves are closely fitted, with no decoration.  Skirts appear to be moderately full, and show no signs of slits.

Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.122

He's...biting the dragon's ear?  That'll teach it! 
This is the first time a neckline shows clearly as being round.  His bliaut has no decoration, but appears to be quite well fitted with deep blousing all around.  Skirts are fuller, and showing as white inside the red garment.  Sleeves are closely fitted, and the garment is barely knee length after blousing--the excessive blousing is likely to free up the legs for ease of movement, and I wouldn't be surprised if this individual garment was normally worn longer.  Because of the heavy blousing, we can actually make out more details of the drape than normal...the fall of the skirts--what has been interpreted as pleats by others--is caused /by/ the blousing.  The 16th century Irish leines give a similar effect and has been similarly interpreted as being pleated...I should have noted it sooner on the bliauts.

Dijon, BM, 0173 f.148

A contorting farmer, I see?  His bliaut is again, closely fitted and only knee length (after blousing).  The keyhole neckline is trimmed in red, as are the cuffs with a nice, wide, band.  As in f.066, you can also see a hint of white at the cuffs, which in this case matches the potential lining of the garment.  More likely, it may be an undershirt.

Dijon, BM, 0173  f.174

Quite closely fitting on the bodice of the bliaut, and his sleeves have that bell shaped cuff.  He doesn't have much blousing going on at all, making me suspect the garment is about ankle length to begin with and only mid-calf as is.  The side vent is visible, and actually appears to be more towards the front than the back--it only shows up to mid though if that...another hint that his garment isn't bloused particularly deeply.  Unlike the others, the inside of the skirts doesn't show a different colour--however, that could be laziness on the artist's part, since the sleeves do show a different colour inside.
Nice little detail on the hawking glove there, too, for those interested in such things.

Next is a piece from Evangéliaire d'Averbode, 127f.  University of Liege, Ms363.  While as you can see, the artwork is much more stylized, I found a couple things of interest.  Their garments are of similar form, although not quite as closely fitted, and without any vents.  The sleeves have modest bells on them, and clearly are slightly longer on the top (slight bit folded back).  Interestingly, the lefthand figure appears to be wearing a gold sash or belt, which is what caught my eye.  The overall length of the bliaut also seems to be in line with the others, if you take into account the blousing seen on the other manuscript.

British Library.  Royal MS 6 C VI.  f.152v

From the second book of Moralia in Job, in the British Library, I caught this capital.  It's in sadly poor shape, but we can see the slightly belled sleeves, and bloused waist, as well as the keyhole neckline.  I believe there is some slight decoration or facings going on at the neckline and cuffs.

Latin 2288.  f.65v

Our last image is from another copy of Gregory's work, the Registrum epistolarum.  From the third quarter of the 12th century, and currently in the national library of France.

While somewhat stylized (yet again.  Pesky monkish medieval art!), you can see the few details.  Closely fitted to the body, close sleeves, and keyhole neckline.  Trim (red, with white dots?) shows up at the cuffs and hem, with a variation around the neckline.  There don't appear to be any slits for ease of movement, and his skirts are fairly full.  I am not sure what is going on at his waist...my first thought was a sash or similar--obviously it is not trim since the monster's head is under it--but I am half wondering if it is part of the hem of his bliaut, wrapped around his waist.  The trim does match--it is something I will have to test out once I make mine. 

While he is wearing lovely, bias cut plaid hosen, I won't take that as an excuse to do so (not yet, anyways!).

Summary:

Of the fifteen bliauts examined in this survey:

• Body:  12 of the 15 were closely fitted in the body.  The exceptions being the old guy in Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.066, the monks in Ms363 f.127, and potentially the guy in Royal MS 6 C VI.  f.152v.  All of whom are older and/or holy.
• Blousing: 13 of the 15 had the garment bloused over a hidden belt, more or less.  The exceptions are Latin 2288.  f.65v where I don't know what is going on at his waist, and again, the monks in Ms363 f.127.
• Neckline: 7 of the 15 had keyhole necklines.  3 were rounded, and the neckline was not visible on the remaining 5.
• Sleeves:  The majority (10/15) of the sleeves were closely fitted to the wrist.  There was a tendency for the closely fitted sleeved bliauts to be less decorated than those with belled sleeves...but the belled sleeves weren't necessarily as heavily decorated as the Dragon-Slayer, either.  So, while I feel that wide sleeves may be a more upper class thing, narrow ones aren't indicative of being poor (although the more heavily active people in the illuminations also generally had tighter sleeves, as is practical).  One illumination (Dijon, BM, 0173 f.020) had short sleeves, with a longer tight sleeved garment under it.
• Trim: 7 of the garments had no trim at all, including 3 of the belled sleeve bliauts (one of which is monkish, so may not count).  
• 6 had trim at the neckline, all but 2 of which also showed trim at the cuffs
• Only 1 garment--the original inspiration--had trim at the bicep.  Bicep trim does show up in other sources, however.
• 7 of the garments had trim at the cuffs.  All but 1 of these also had trim at the neckline.
• 3 examples showed trim at or near the hem.  All also had trim at the neck, but not necessarily anywhere else.
• 5 of the garments showed something going on at the waist, either the tied girdle (2 examples), trim, or I don't know what.
• Skirt Fullness: Only 2 of the examples showed less than full skirts.  Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.029, and Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137) f.047. Both could be down to artistic interpretation, rather than meaning the skirts are actually less full.
  
• Skirt Slits:  9 of the examples had no visible slits in the skirts of the bliaut.  5 had visible side slits.  And 1 has what I believe is a front/back slit.

Essentially, what all that tells me is that the original inspiration piece is not as atypical as I thought at first.  The amount of trim is odd, yes--no other example had decoration in five different locations--, and I still don't know what is going on with the apparent chevron trim at the upper waist, but there are examples of all of its elements elsewhere (including the potential waist trim).  Which means that yes...it is definitely still an option to use for my main inspiration!

I also had an Eureka! moment on the skirt pleats--a breakthrough for me anyways.  I'm sure others have already figured it out before, but it does take a major weight off my mind when it comes to patterning the skirts, and how much complexity is required there.

Bibliography:

‘BnF. Département Des Manuscrits. Latin 2288 | Polonsky’ <https://manuscrits-france-angleterre.org/view3if/pl/ark:/12148/btv1b10546761x/f1> [accessed 9 April 2019]

ingen Dairmata, Aibell, ‘The Bliaut throughout 12th Century Europe’, 2009 <http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~lwittie/sca/garb/europe_class/europe_bliaut.html> [accessed 9 April 2019]

‘Dijon, BM, 0173 (0137)’ <http://initiale.irht.cnrs.fr/codex/1851> [accessed 10 April 2019]

‘Evangéliaire d’Averbode.’, 2014 <http://donum.uliege.be/handle/2268.1/1509> [accessed 9 April 2019]

‘St Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job’, The British Library <https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/st-gregory-the-great-moralia-in-job> [accessed 9 April 2019]

‘The Bliaut Revisited’, HOUSE WILD ROSE <https://housewildrose.weebly.com/the-bliaut-revisited.html> [accessed 9 April 2019]

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