Sumptuary Revisited

Interestingly enough, sumptuary, according to Dictionary.com didn't come into usage until the late 1500s to early 1600s. Therefore, if there were sumptuary laws of some type before this timeframe, they weren't called sumptuary. So what would they have been called or was this truely a new concept in the late middle ages? I suppose it's possible that before then they didn't have laws like that, but I find that hard to believe when I've seen other research to prove differently or at least, I have seen others claim otherwise. I recall there was an indication that ppl in Ireland were only allowed to wear a certain number of colors or certain colors, dependent on their station in life. I'll have to see what I can find, but using "sumptuary" will likely not get me there.

Sumptuary Beginning

With the difficulties I had finding 15th century Germanic sumptuary, I determined that 10th century Irish would be more difficult and thus far I've not been proven wrong. In my search tho, I found the following link. It's more general and explains some of the sumptuary practices, but without references, so it's more for an overview than anything. [http://www.geocities.com/davidbofinger/sumptuary.htm]

I have a book concerning the history of Ireland, so we'll see if there is anything of value in it before I expend too much more time on searching for something that some sites have indicated may not have been there during this timeframe.

Notes and Ideas

I have determined that my next area of research will be in the possible sumptuary laws that governed the Irish during my timeframe of study. Late period German research on sumptuary hasn't been amazingly productive, but who knows, maybe I'll get lucky with Irish. :D Most of the sumptuary I'm finding at least for the Germanic people seem to come from religious documents, therefore, that will be my first stop when determining Irish sumptuary and whether or not they had any laws governing the excess of their people.