Prematica y Nueva Orden de los Vestidos y trajes, assi de hombres como de mujeres: The 'excess' in the clothes that people were able purchase as a result of the arrival of vast amounts gold and silver from America

Prematica y Nueva Orden de los Vestidos y trajes, assi de hombres como de mujeres. En Madrid. En casa de Pedro Madrigal. Año M.DC. Vendese en casa de Francisco de Robles librero del Rey nuestro señor. Exlibris L. Cervera Vera.

The text provides a rich record of the enormous variety of clothes and ornaments that the upper classes and their servants both wore and were not allowed to wear at the end of the reign of Philip II and at the start of that of his son Philip III. The decree was prompted by what the king termed as the 'excess' in the clothes that people were able purchase as a result of the arrival of vast amounts gold and silver from America.

It begins by admitting that previous decrees, from the first of 1563, had remained unheeded. The bans, which applied to all except the royal family, ranged from the use of gold and silver in many clothes, to ornamentations. For example, an idea of the ornate richness of the clothing of the period is indicated by the ban on the use of 'entonchado, ni torcido, ni gandaxado, ni franjas, ni cordoncillos, ni cadenillas, ni gorviones, ni lomillos, ni passadillos, ni carrujados, ni abollados, ni requibes, ni guarnicion alguna de avalorio, ni de azero, ni ropa, ni otra cosa alguna, cincelada, ni raspadas'. The king, however, did permit a great variety of clothes and ornaments, especially for women, based on silk which are described at length in the decree. Prostitutes ('malas mujeres'), on the other hand, were not allowed to wear rich clothing in the streets. It was, however, the tailors and not the wearers who suffered the serious punishments for contravening the decree. They faced not only financial penalties but being banned from exercising their trade.

Two copies traced in USA, OCLC: Los Angeles CNTY Mus of Art, Univ of Chicago