The Project Gutenberg EBook of Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle
Ages and During the Renaissance Period, by Paul Lacroix

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Title: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Author: Paul Lacroix

Release Date: February 4, 2004 [EBook #10940]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

[Illustration: The Queen of Sheba before Solomon

(_Costume of 15th century_.)

Fac-simile of a miniature from the _Breviary_ of the Cardinal Grimani,
attributed to Memling. Bibl. of S. Marc, Venice. (From a copy in the
possession of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.)

The King inclines his sceptre towards the Queen indicating his
appreciation of her person and her gifts; five ladies attend the Queen and
five of the King's courtiers stand on his right hand.]

Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages, and During the
Renaissance Period.

By Paul Lacroix
(Bibliophile Jacob),
Curator of the Imperial Library of the Arsenal, Paris.

Illustrated with
Nineteen Chromolithographic Prints by F. Kellerhoven
and upwards of
_Four Hundred Engravings on Wood_.

Preface.

The several successive editions of "The Arts of the Middle Ages and Period
of the Renaissance" sufficiently testify to its appreciation by the
public. The object of that work was to introduce the reader to a branch of
learning to which access had hitherto appeared only permitted to the
scientific. That attempt, which was a bold one, succeeded too well not to
induce us to push our researches further. In fact, art alone cannot
acquaint us entirely with an epoch. "The arts, considered in their
generality, are the true expressions of society. They tell us its tastes,
its ideas, and its character." We thus spoke in the preface to our first
work, and we find nothing to modify in this opinion. Art must be the
faithful expression of a society, since it represents it by its works as
it has created them--undeniable witnesses of its spirit and manners for
future generations. But it must be acknowledged that art is on