Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

When Cesare Vecellio's guide to the dress and customs of the world appeared in Venice in 1590, it was a publishing sensation.

It has taken four hundred years for this remarkable work to be translated into English.

This new edition features all the original text and woodcuts, as well as the New World entries, preserving the charming layout of the original.

Packed with fascinating images, as well as enchanting (and often amusing) descriptions of the costume and habits of the peoples of the world as seen in the late 16th century, this book will appeal to all those interested in the history of dress, travel, antiquarian books, Renaissance art and cultural history.

The original publication was aimed in part at artists who might use it as a pattern book (Vecellio had himself trained with his cousin the painter Titian), but its appeal soon proved more widespread, not least because the book recognized that clothing, as well as acting as an identifier of rank, was also 'fashion' - constantly changing, crossing borders and transforming the way people lived.

After a brief history of dress in Ancient Rome, the book first concentrates on the clothing of Italy, before extending its scope to Europe and beyond. It describes in captivating detail the dress and customs of the inhabitants, from the loftiest rulers down to gravediggers, beggars and orphans, and stretches to the farthest reaches of Japan, China, Africa and India. A second, extended edition, published in 1598, added the New World of the Americas.

This outstanding feat of scholarship is accompanied by an in-depth illustrated introduction by the translators, two of the foremost authorities on Italian literature and dress of the time, as well as an illustrated glossary of terms.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Anyone interested in historical costume probably knows the inexpensive Dover paperback of the classic Vecellio's Renaissance Costume Book (1977) that contains 500 woodcut illustrations of the 16th century, covering most European countries (including Turkey), Africa, Asia, and America. This new edition makes available the same black-and-white images but with the accompanying descriptions translated into English and with interpretation of Vecellio's environment in Venice. While historical clothing and global maps were depicted in many 16th-century illustrated publications, Vecellio's 1698 two-volume work covering ancient and modern styles was by far the most comprehensive. Vecellio, distant cousin of Titian, became the first 16th-century artist/author to embellish his black-and-white images with customs and cultures of faraway places. His commentary on antiquity, variety, and wealth also provided later artists with detailed explanations of clothing cut, fabric, and trim, including headdresses, coiffures, and accessories. Sources were Venetian residents, travelers and diplomats, architectural and sculptural monuments, frescoes and portrait paintings, and living artists, along with ancient writers such as Plutarch and Suetonius. A new glossary of Renaissance costume and fabrics, 77 carefully chosen complementary color reproductions, and lengthy footnotes and bibliography add to this reprinting, which is a collector's treasure and valuable library reference. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. B. B. Chico Regis University