Medieval broadcloth is defined as any cloth made mainly for export. The county of Flanders was known for this and the first essay in this book, by John Munro, covers the industry there from
roughly 1200-1500. His point of view is as an economist. The second essay is also about trade, in this case, in the Baltic. Another essay shows how the Hanseatic League was involved in cloth
exports. Pederson (textile research, University of Copenhagen) and Nosch, director of the Institute for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen, are interested in the material as well
as its distribution and the remaining essays are based in art and archaeology, with color images of material and clothing. This not only gives information on Scandinavia and northeaster Europe,
it helps to dispel the common belief that striped and multi-colored cloth wasn’t worn in the Middle Ages. They also depict changes in fashion and taste. Distributed in North America by The
David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
