Sberna Diary

I'll be recreating the Sbernia (an Italian mantle with arm slits) from, "Portrait of a Lady," by Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis (1485).

Portrait of a lady, Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis

1/27/2019

I was researching mantles in my Facebook sca groups. A few years ago, some one posted the details to a blog, Here. 

After reading this article, looking at more art and seeing half circle cloaks in person, it seems that a Sbernia is a half circle as well. Alcega's tailoring book (which you can down load here) has quite a few mantle patterns and lay outside in it. I'm having a small problem with choosing which pattern to use.

St. Catherine, Botticelli, 1475

Lady with an ermine, da Vinci, 1490

4/27/2019

After some serious thought, Mr. Badger and I made the pilgrimage up to the Washougal to hunt for some wool. 

Glorious, glorious wool. We bought two varieties for this sbernia project. The first  was one I wasn’t entirely happy with, and the second only had 3 yards. After washing the yardages in the washer.. the first piece came out beautifully. Lightly fulled and soft, with a beautiful drape. 

The second? Fulled to a big fluff. 

I’m going to end up using the first fabric. 

I’ve made a mock up, which I am relatively happy with... my couching work, however, is a different story. 

1/13/2020

this project has been in the works for so long that it has completely morphed! I'm using a historical Alcega pattern. I traced it onto my fabric with tallow soap, since Alcega mentioned using it in his book. 

I fold my fabric in half (long was)  and traced an egg shape. 

I cut each section along the line, and along the top fold. I machine sewed each seam with a straight stitch and hand finishing the edges with a whip stitch.

I have a nice gold silk that I will be using for the lining.  I will cut it the same way as above, but without the center back seam. I'll be felling the silk seams.

As in the Elenora di Toledo burial dress, I will be adding the lining in by folding in the outside edges, and whip stitching the two together.


3/30
Amid the pandemic quarantine, I have received my gold purl! I ordered 6 quantities from Here, which sells glut purl by the 50cm section. While the product is lovely, I think I will have to order more.

Of Names and Devices

After a few years of fiddling around in my local SCA group, I figured it's about time to formalize my persona.

I was originally interested in 1480 - 1495 venice, but given the resources available, I have decided to recreate Florence instead - there is just so much more to look at. I also decided to flash forward few years to about 1505 - 1510. This small time gap allows me to wear the best of both worlds (late period cioppas, but no fuss hair coverings? Yes please).

Every good Italian woman needs a fantastic name. A quick Google search brought up quite a few resources (these will be listed in my collection of links and tutorials). I had a lot of luck with the first article I read - Late Period Italian Women's Names: Venice by Juliana de Luna. In addition to listing names with dates, Juliana also talks about Italian name formats. You will often see a given name (up to three in later period) .."either paired with a family name or with their father's name and a family name (in the form di <father's name> <family name>)." Please note, if you use a locative, "da" is used instead of "di."

Using Juliana's article, I came up with, "Francesca di Marco Luppi." Sounds pretty great, right? >.<  I totally spaced that a friend of mine had used Francesca as her name! So, rather then give up a good thing completely (Franchesca was my grandmothers middle name and I'm horribly attached), I went ahead and decided to add another first name. I found this article, Names of Jews in Rome In the 1550's, which lists Luna as a given name (it also states that hebrew women were often named in the local language, thusly these names are usable for italian personas as well). I loved it.

Luna Francesca di Marco Luppi.


So, Luna means "moon" and Luppi means "wolf." I had to make a a sly joke about werewolves with my device.

Gules between a crescent and two bicranial wolves rampant addorsed Or, a pall pean

Simple, low key werewolf implication. :D I designed this by myself, after looking at multiple registered devices. Interestingly, I couldnt find any examples of bi-cranial wolves. I find that kinda excited and slightly nerve wracking.

I am working on my badge this weekend, and then will be submitting this all in the next few days.