Erasmus' bonnet (original) (raw)

2016, Kostuum

The black bonnet worn by Desiderius Erasmus, the great Dutch humanist (1466 -1536), in his portraits by Quentin Massys, Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein, appears not just similar, but identical, in all surviving portraits made from life, while varying quite widely in the portraits made from memory or from another portrait. This iconic bonnet is instantly recognizable, but has never been studied from a technical point of view. The first part of this article traces Erasmus' bonnet in the extant portraits; the second investigates the typology of men's bonnets before and circa 1500 in contemporary depictions; the third explores descriptions of such bonnets and their making in archival sources; the fourth summarizes the relevant data from archaeology; and the fifth builds on these for experimental work to gain new and fundamental insights in bygone technologies and materials. The evidence indicates that Erasmus' bonnet was neither sewn from woven fabric, nor shaped from felt, but rather knitted, then fulled and moulded, napped and finished. Typologically, it appears as an interesting intermediate stage between the cup-like shapes seen from the early 14th century, and the disc-shaped bonnets of the 16th century. Erasmus chose his own favourite from among the varied, but finite, choice of bonnets considered proper for a scholar of his generation, at a time when knitted bonnets had specific variants for men of all ages in nearly all walks of life. Both the prices commanded by such bonnets in inventories, and the fact that surviving bonnets number over one hundred, testify to the (previously underestimated) economic importance of the knitted bonnet, and it special significance for the female workforce. Further study of the surviving bonnets, and further experimental research, are expected to bring growing mutual benefits as they focus more on exact and thorough scientific data. The authors hope that the writer of the Praise of Folly would spare a smile for such attention lavished on his bonnet. After all, he was the man who wrote to a friend: '...as soon as I receive the money, I shall first get some Greek authors, and then some clothes'.