The 1275 Sumptuary Law in the Livre des sermens of Montauban: An Interpretive Edition and Translation

Abstract: An interpretive edition and English translation of Montauban's sumptuary law of 1275 provides tools for studying the medieval Occitan lexicon of women's apparel. At this relatively early moment in the history of European sumptuary legislation, the edict's framers fined husbands who permitted their wives to wear trim and brooches of gold and silver trim as well as certain silks and furs in units of a thousand teules , bricks or tiles. These teules were to be dedicated to completing the construction of the bourgeois church of Saint Jacques and the bridge over the Tarn. Building the bridge was a provision of the city's charter of 1195 granted by the count of Toulouse. The sumptuary law was passed a few years after the town came under French royal dominion. In this context and considering its preservation in two of the town's cartularies, the edict was arguably intended to display the townsmen's intentions to faithfully uphold the promise of construction in order to maintain their municipal self-governance. Discouraging women from wearing apparel containing precious metals decreased the impression that the city had plenty of wealth to devote to the building projects.