Cotton in Context

- While cotton was a world-changing good in the early modern period, for producers, merchants, and consumers, it was but one of many different fabrics. This volume explores this dichotomy by contextualizing cotton within its contemporary culture of textiles. In doing, it focuses on a long, under-researched region: the German-speaking world, particularly Switzerland, which transformed into one of the most prolific European regions for the production of printed cottons in the eighteenth century. Sixteen contributions investigate the (globally entangled) history of Indiennes, silk, wool, and embroideries, giving new insights into the manufacturing, marketing, and consumption of textiles between 1500 and 1900.

Kim Siebenhüner is a Professor for early modern History at Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena. Previously, she directed the SNF project 'Textiles and material culture in transition' at the University of Bern. She is the author of Die Spur der Juwelen. Materielle Kultur und transkontinentale Verbindungen zwischen Indien und Europa in der Frühen Neuzeit (Köln 2018).