686 tapestry
Further reading: Raimundus de Agiles, Historia
Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem,trans. John Hugh Hill
and Laurita L. Hill (Philadelphia: American Philosophical
Society, 1968); Michael Foss, People of the First Crusade
(New York: Arcade, 1997); John France, Victory in the
East: A Military History of the First Crusade(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1994); Robert L. Nicholson,
Tancred: A Study of His Career and Work in Their Relation
to the First Crusade and the Establishment of the Latin
States in Syria and Palestine(1940; reprint, New York:
AMS Press, 1978).
tapestry This textile is created by sewing patterns with
different colored threads of wool or needlework to create
a desired iconographical representation, design, or motif
across a cloth canvas stretched on a loom, a technique
that resembles carpet making.
The art or craft of tapestry originated in the East,
probably in central Asia. The oldest surviving example in
Europe dates from the 11th century. Its real development
began in the 14th century, when tapestry was seen not
just as a fabric but as a way to preserve stories, as in
mural painting. Tapestry was portable and was warmer
than other media used for painting, especially when it
could cover large, drafty wall surfaces in chambers in
castles or churches.
The rooms of the wealthy in Europe soon became
covered with tapestries made in FLANDERSand BRABANT,
in such towns as Arras, Tournai, and Brussels. The
tapestry market was brokered by MERCHANTSwho took
orders. Painters worked out models to be placed behind
the loom as models or patterns for weavers. Several
weavers and workshops were then needed to accomplish
the labor needed for any single hanging. A single weaver
could create square yard or meter in a year. The threads
were of wool, silk for light colors, silver, and gold, all
within a restricted range of natural colors. In the later
Middle Ages and Renaissance, tapestry began merely to
reproduce already known paintings; thus weavers lost
their autonomy as designers and tapestry lost much of its
individuality and originality.
Further reading:Anna G. Bennett, ed., Five Centuries
of Tapestry from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
1992); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Medieval
Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,ed. Adolfo
Salvatore Cavallo (New York: H. N. Abrams, 1993); Vic-
toria and Albert Museum, The Tapestry Collection:
Medieval and Renaissance, ed. George Wingfield Digby
and Wendy Hefford (London: H.M.S.O., 1980).
Tatars (Tartars) SeeMONGOLS ANDMONGOLEMPIRE.
Tauler, John SeeJOHNTAULER.
taverns SeeINNS AND TAVERNS.taxation, taxes, and tribute Medieval taxation, or
sometimes tribute, were required payments in kind or
coin to a public authority for protection or other services.
It was not repayable. Taxation was fundamental to the
development of the national state, the rise of parliamen-
tary institutions, the consequent limiting of royal power,
economic development, innovation in commercial and
banking techniques, and demands for reform of the
church. Taxes could be direct on wealth or indirect on
consumption.
The history of taxation in the barbarian kingdoms
of the early Middle Ages involved the disappearance
many of the fiscal practices of the Roman Empire, by
the time of CHARLEMAGNE, all that remained were tolls
and taxes on goods transported by land and water. At
the same time, the armed service required from freemen
was giving way to or being traded for the payment of a
replacement tax, such as SCUTAGE. The collapse of the
central Carolingian government from the second half of
the ninth century led to the weakened of the collection
system of the tax structure and fiscal authority. Until the
13th century, feudal rights and seigniorial rents contin-
ued to make up the greater part of the revenues of the
royal treasuries. The papacy tried to help or manipulate
and motivate princes financially by organizing proposed
Crusades in the 12th century and offering to tax the
clergy. During the 13th century, as the revenues of
princes became insufficient, states and bureaucracies
were to seek new sources of income in various forms of
direct and indirect taxes on property and commerce.
New taxation systems of states were established, but
they sometimes then had to be legitimized and eventu-
ally approved by the subjects of the Crown or state.
PARLIAMENT and the representation of social estates
became necessary involved and tended to set conditions
and limits of taxation, either direct or indirect taxes. In
cities, representative bodies became similarly involved.
There were disagreements about sources of revenue,
methods of evaluation, and means of collection. Their
consent, although not always needed, was clearly cru-
cial to tax collection.BYZANTINE TAXATION
The Byzantine fiscal system rested on a land tax that was
in turn based on an assessment, on a variety of customs
taxes, and on municipal sales taxes. The most essential
role was played by a cadastral land tax linked with
defined pieces of property. This tax was calculated in cash
but sometimes paid in kind. In the middle Byzantine
period, these land taxes of peasants were calculated in
terms of surface area of their holding according to a fiscal
value established by periodic surveys. In about 1300,
livestock began to be taxed.