The Devil's Cloth A History of Stripes

To stripe a surface serves to distinguish it, to point it out, to oppose it or associate it with another surface, and thus to classify it, to keep an eye on it, to verify it, even to censor it.Throughout the ages, the stripe has made its mark in mysterious ways. From prisoners' uniforms to tailored suits, a street sign to a set of sheets, Pablo Picasso to Saint Joseph, stripes have always made a bold statement. But the boundary that separates the good stripe from the bad is often blurred. Why, for instance, were stripes associated with the devil during the Middle Ages? How did stripes come to symbolize freedom and unity after the American and French revolutions? When did the stripe become a standard in men's fashion? "In the stripe," writes author Michel Pastoureau, "there is something that resists enclosure within systems." So before putting on that necktie or waving your country's flag, look toThe Devil's Clothfor a colorful history of the stripe in all its variety, controversy, and connotation.

Michel Pastoreau is a leading authority on medieval iconography. He is the director of studies at the Sorbonne's Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes where he has served since 1983 as a professor of the history of Western symbols. He is the author of The Devil's Stripe and Blue: The History of a Color (Princeton University Press.)

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface to the American Edition

Order and Disorder of the Stripe

The Devil And His Striped Clothes
(13th16th centuries)

The Carmel Scandal

Striped Fabric, Bad Fabric

Saint Joseph¹s Breeches

Plain, Striped, Patterned, Spotted

The Figure and the Background: Heraldry and the Stripe

From The Horizontal To The Vertical And Back
(16th19th centuries)

From the Diabolic to the Domestic

From the Domestic to the Romantic

The Revolutionary Stripe

To Stripe and to Punish

Stripes For The Present Time
(19th20th centuries)

Hygiene of the Stripe

A World in Navy Blue and White

Oddball Zebras

Striped Surface, Dangerous Surface

From the Trace to the Mark

Bibliographic Orientation

About the Author

Notes

Index

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The Devil's Cloth A History of Stripes

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials