CIETA Vocabularies

Since the CIETA’s foundation its members have sought to establish a precise terminology for the tools, processes and structures of silk-weaving. Since the 1950s they have published a number of vocabularies, each focusing on one particular language, with the definitions of the terms listed and their equivalents in a set of other languages.

New editions of the English, French, German, Italian and Portuguese vocabularies have been completed during the last years; you can download the documents attached here. Currently, a new edition is being prepared for the Spanish vocabulary. It will probably be available online next year.

We are pleased to announce here the website and the terminology that our Scandinavian colleagues created. The website covers different approaches, with the “Textile Dictionary (Tekstilmuseet Dictionary)” page giving textile terms in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic and Finnish (and English, German and French, too). The dictionary was first created at the Swedish Textile Museum in Borås and provides definitions of the terms in Swedish. The Danish terminology has recently been updated.

We congratulate our colleagues for this achievement!

For the analyses and technical description of tapestries André Brutillot, specialist tapestry conservator and Member of the CIETA, has developed a system of elements to observe and questions to explore (in four languages) that you find attached here. You can download the document. If you use it for your own research, please do not forget to credit André Brutillot as its author; if you wish to ask questions or make comments, please contact André Brutillot directly (brutillotandre@gmail.com).