Ideal manners for a 13th century lady

[transemacabre]

I found this interesting information about Chastoiement des dames, a mid-13th century ettiquete book by Robert de Blois, in "Courtly culture: literature and society in the high middle ages" by Joachim Bumke. Here's what was expected of a well-born lady

Comments

[loupnoir]

I wonder what they really meant by "veiled?"

[silverwhistle]

In 13C it covers the head, not the face as a rule.

[loupnoir]

In this listing, it says that she should "lift her veil," which certainly sounds like a partial face covering. Plus, this bit about ugly ladies should be veiled often and a beauty not at all. This also implies covering a face.

[silverwhistle]

This would be out of doors only, though. It was common for ladies to draw their veils over their faces as protection from sun/wind/dust. (In 16-17C art, I've seen a sort of fabric ski-mask used for travel wear.)

[loupnoir]

Go back and reread. This also applies to church as well as in the street, and it's 13th century, not 16th-17th.

13th century veiling, at least the French depictions that I've seen thus far, aren't set up to be lifted. They're set back from the face, thus the "lifting" makes little sense.

[silverwhistle]

Go back and reread. This also applies to church as well as in the street, and it's 13th century, not 16th-17th.

I know that. I'm just trying to work out any possible way of making some kind of sense of it, because it doesn't make sense to me in terms of visual depictions of 13C dress. Protecting the complexion out of doors would be logical, but I've never seen anything about covering faces (as opposed to heads) in church.