Never let anyone dull your sparkle

July 08, 2023

Never let anyone dull your sparkle

Subtle, n'est ce pas?

A while ago (like, probably nearly a decade, but what even is time?), I nabbed a fabulous dark green, velvety bycocket hat from my friend Annisa, with grand plans to tart it up a bit, based on a few illustrations and extant things I'd seen, as soon as I could find the time.

Apparently that time was now. After a whirlwind of unexpected motivation and activity, I just plowed through the whole thing, and now I have a sparkly hat that is loosely appropriate for 1390s Italy (for which I now need an outfit. Oh noes!).

So, while I can't point at an illustration or an extant example and say "I totally copied this," I did research, however cursory, and extrapolated my choices from primary evidence. Here's how it all went down...

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Embellished bycockets, and other bits and bobs

Yes! The image that kicked this whole thing off, for me, is from a folio in Albucasis. Observations sur la nature et les propriétés de divers produits alimentaires et hygiéniques, sur des phénomènes météorologiques, sur divers actes de la vie humaine, etc., one of many copies of the Tacuinum Sanitatis.

Folio 20r

Thank the gods for high-resolution digital facsimiles

Clearly, there's decoration on the crown, and potentially on the brim as well. It's difficult to tell whether it's applied, painted or embroidered, but it's a good starting point.

Embellished bycockets pop up in other places, too.

Totilla and St. Benedict, Nardo di Cione c.1400-1410

Hat, Italian, 16th c. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Luttrell Psalter (Brit. Lib. Add. 42130), c. 1325-1340

Sequins (from the Arabic sikka and the Italian zecchino, both which broadly mean 'coin') can be dated back as far as Ancient Egypt - loads of them were found in Tutankhamun's tomb, for example. In Venice, in the 13th century, people had taken to literally sewing gold coins onto their clothing in an ostentatious display of wealth as well as a way to keep their money where they could see it. By the early renaissance, wearing sequins instead of actual coins served the same purpose and was so popular that Leonardo da Vinci had sketched out a plan for a machine that would punch sequins out of sheets of thin metal.

Brooches with feathers on hats have a long and glorious history, but here is a smattering of more images from Albucasis, because they're great.