Figure 5. — Leaf from a book of court costumes showing back and front view of a gentleman's 

 dress. German, second lialf of the 16th century. {Courtcsv of Rijksniusi-um, Amsterdam.) 



Spanish, Milanese, or French styles. As for men, it 

 was said that they could not make up their minds what 

 to wear, and a popular caricature shows an English- 

 man standing naked with a roll of cloth under his arm 

 and a pair of tailor's shears in his hand, saying : '* 



I am an English man, and naked I stand here, 

 Musyng in my mynde what raimeiu I shal were, 

 For now I wyll were thys, and now I wyll were that: 

 Now I wyll were I cannot tel what. 



I.ondon, however, was not a fashion center, and the 

 first book on the fashions of nations was printed in 



■' Andrew Boorde, FyrsI Bokr nf the Inltoduction of Knouderlge 

 (1542). Reprinted by the Early Eni^li.sh Text Society, e.xtra 

 ser., vol. 10 (1870), p. 116. 



Paris in 1562.''' In his introduction to the book 

 Frant^ois Deserpz moralized : "' 



. . . noz vieux predecesseurs . . . out este plus ciiri- 

 cux de sumptueuse vesture que de rare vertu . . . 

 car tout ainsi qu'on cognoist le Moyne au froc, le Fol 

 au chaperon, & le Soldat aux armes, ainsi se cognoist 

 I'homme sage a Thabit non exce.ssif. 



.Acknowledgments were made to the late Captain 

 Rober\al and to an unnamed Portuguese, but it is not 

 knowti \\ hich of them contributed the portrait of the 



15 Recw'il lie la duersite des habits . . . (l.')62). The book was 

 reissued in 1564 and 1567. 



'6 Translated, this reads: "... our predecessors of old . . . 

 were more careful about suniptuous dress than rare virtue . . . 

 for as the monk was recognized by his frock, the jester by his cap, 

 and the soldier by his arms, so the wise man was known by 

 his moderate habit." 



P.APER 60 : ORIGIN .AXO E.ARLV HISTORY OK THE lA.SHIOX PLATE 



71 



