Landsknecht Guild

An interesting little note I found whilst looking up 15 century clothing for my show:

CHERMISI
Also referred to as Cremisi (Venetian), Quermes (Spanish), Kermes (English), Qirmizi (Arabian).
Considered the finest and most endurable source for red colour, and with good reason. The name means insect or worm. It refers to the process of making the colour which comes from crushed pregnant females of kermes lice; Coccus illicis (Frick 2002: 305).

The most expensive fabrics, such as brocaded silk velvets, were always dyed with kermes if they were to be red. A statute of 1464 forbade women of Florence to own more than one overgarb (chioppa or giornea) dyed with kermes (Herald 1981: 214). Further on, Pope Paul II decided in 1464 that chermisi should be used as the cardinals' purple instead of cheaper substitutes.

Velvet dyed with chermisi cost app. 2 florins per square braccio to produce (in Florence). A large mantello worthy a ruler or emperor required app. 25 braccia of fabric, and that alone cost 1,5 times more than what a stonemanson earned in a (good) year in Florence (Woods 2007: 49).

In Flemish it was referred to as schaarlaken (possibly meaning “shorn cloth”), and it came to be known in English as “Scarlet” and as “Skarlagen” in Scandinavia (Woods 2007: 31). “Scarlet” can mean both crimson red and a more purplish hue. It reflects the origins of the colour. Originally the colour name referred to how it was made, not the actual shade it gave. As so many other colour descriptions from the Renaissance, the name can mean both the actual dyestuff, the colour it makes, and the fabric dyed with chermisi (Herald 1981: 212, Woods 2007: 31). Still, there are limits to how many shades a specific colour substance can produce, so it gives an idea of what is meant.