"Epancha Was Made in that Wool": Felt Clothes in the Upper Volga Region and Neighboring Territories in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time.

Abstract

The article considers felt clothing, widely used by the Russian population during the Middle Ages and early Modern times. The data of written sources of the XV-XVII centuries are analyzed – scribal descriptions and assembly material, including documents of the patrimony of monasteries and secular landowners. The data of the archeology of an earlier period are involved. In written sources there is information about woolworkers, felters, half–timbers and epaulettes - artisans who specialized in the production of felt products. Among them, the clothing manufacturers were epanechniki. Evidence is given that in the XVI-XVII centuries. The epancha was felt clothing. It was a cape with a rounded neckline, without sleeves. There are archaeological finds of the Old Russian period corresponding to this form of clothing. This form of clothing existed from the early Middle Ages to Modern times. Written sources of the late XV – XVII centuries reflect the spread of the craft of making felt and epanches. There is a development of specialization in the manufacture of felt products in the western part of the Upper Volga and Upper Podvinye during the late Middle Ages and early Modern times - in the cities of Staritsa, Toropets and the village of Knyazh Vladimirovo Gorodishche - the former patrimony center of the Princes Mikulinsky. For the production of felt, local raw materials were used – products of universally developed sheep breeding. At the end of the XV – XVII century in the structure of a large patrimonial economy, the volume of income from wool allowed the production of felt products from raw materials collected in different parts of the patrimony.