Moral Materials: Veiling in Early Modern Protestant Cities. The Cases of Basel and Zurich

Throughout the early modern period, veils remained a common garment for women all over Europe. This article deals with the economy of veil production, changing fashions of veil wearing, and identity political struggles surrounding the question of the church veil in the Swiss textile cities of Basel and Zurich. The site of a moral battleground, the church veil reveals, in particular, how much attentiveness certain Protestant cultures paid to material issues. Alongside a variety of other sources, analysis of an extant church veil at the Swiss National Museum allowed for the inclusion of hands-on methods from dress history, considerably sharpening our attention to embodied experiences and the emotional effects of dress codes and their regulation.