Having her hand in it? Elite women as ‘makers’ of textile art in the Middle Ages

“Clad in flesch and Blood”: The Sartorial Body and Female Self-Fashioning in The Book of Margery Kempe

“…Alexandra Gajewski and Stefanie Seeberg observe that the vitae of saintly queens and church inventories often categorize textiles specifically created manus feminarum (of female hands), although they observe that the common use of the term facere on textiles' inscriptions sometimes makes unclear whether a woman commissioned, supervised, or made the garment. 50 Clearly, the literal manipulation of the fabric was not a prerequisite for engaging in these transactions, with female beneficiaries relying on the basic expectation of reciprocity in the ritualized gift-economy. Although gift exchange would typically have required a haptic engagement, women of a higher social standing could receive the equivalent returns through their patronage.…”