The Velvets in the Collection of the Costume Gallery in Florence

Roberta Orsi Landini has treated specifically the 400 European-manufactured silk velvets and has dated them from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In this study she has correlated guild Regulations, tax legislation, sumptuary laws, and other types of archival documentation with a close technical investigation of the individual fabric structures.
Very importantly Landini has arrived at the attributions to specific weaving centres by comparisons to selvedge-cord statutes. Her research covers the major Italian production centres of Florence, Genoa, Lucca, Milan and Venice. Clearly this all took an enormous effort.