Heritage

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paula Nabais

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Guest Editor

Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: natural dyes; historical reconstructions; analytical techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Rita Salvado

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Guest Editor

LabCom – Communication & Arts / Wool Museum, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal
Interests: textile materials and technologies; textile industrial heritage

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to participate in this Special Issue. The textile industry of the modern period faces important challenges regarding sustainability and circular economy goals. Despite a rich history and a fashionable stimulus, these topics still lack thorough research, although efforts have been developed in these directions. The centuries preceding the advent of synthetic colourants were filled with mastery, invention and knowledge on how to work with natural fibres and natural colourants. Today in the 21st century, much of this savoir-faire is lost. In order to move forward, one must look to the past, and learn from it in order to innovate.

This Special Issue aims to gather recent studies of textile manufacturers, focusing on a period from the 16th to the 19th century. It will be crucial to unveil knowledge and create synergies for future studies, as well as to understand where particular strands of work intersect.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: analytical investigation of textiles and swatches from these manufactures; characterization of artworks; identification and characterization of natural colourants; art technological source research into recipes, procedures and dyeing masters; and the interpretation of historical sources.

I/We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Paula Nabais
Prof. Dr. Rita Salvado
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

textiles
manufactures
natural colorants
analytical characterization
written sources

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

23 pages, 1947 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Domesticating Colour in the Early Modern Age: Dyeing Wool in Black in Portugal

by Luís Gonçalves Ferreira

Heritage 2024, 7(2), 873-895; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7020042 - 10 Feb 2024

Viewed by 1759

Abstract

Mastering a colour—as such, its ‘domestication’—involves a weft of technological and symbolic relationships encompassed in the human ability to reproduce a visible colour using the techniques of textile dyeing. The Regimento dos panos or Regimento dos trapeiros (‘regulation of fabrics’ or ‘regulation of drapers’), published in 1573 and expanded in 1690, is a document made up of 107 chapters aiming to standardise the various stages of the production chain of woollen goods in Portugal. In the sections relating to the finishing of fabrics, the regulation carefully details the dyeing of the colour black. The main aim of this text is to discuss the four recipes presented in that document. The system presupposed a phase exogenous to the rules, since the fabrics had to be previously dyed blue (‘celestial blues’) by means of successive immersions of the cloth in a vat with indigo. The dyeing itself was achieved by mixing mordants and auxiliaries (alum, tartar, iron sulphate, and tannins) with a red dye (madder). The main conclusion is that the formulae presented do not constitute, in their general principles, a characteristic Portuguese methodology. In addition, the article includes an inventory of the raw materials used for dyeing in the Early Modern Age, produced, through a qualitative method, through cross-reference with other manuscript and printed sources, as well as an interpretation of their social and economic importance, and a systematisation of the types of Portuguese wools. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Insights into Modern Textile Production: Natural Colourants, Historical Textiles, Analytical Characterization and Technological Source Research)

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