According to Cambridge academic Victoria Miller, the BBC’s 2015 adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Henry VIII palace procedural Wolf Hall was not only “fantastic” but generally quite historically accurate—except for one, not-so-small omission. The codpieces, she told The Guardian, were “way too small to be accurate—they should be at least double the size.” Miller is a leading expert on the codpiece, a relatively flash-in-the-pan fashion trend that no chivalrous young gentleman in the early- and mid-16th century would have been caught dead without. Initially, incredibly, the codpiece—a pouch of structured fabric placed over the genitals—was designed to be a modesty garment as more revealing styles of hose and doublets came into vogue. But as the advent of chivalry required men to loudly herald their gallantry, the codpiece changed also, into an attention-grabbing showpiece. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Two Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 46 Object Matters An unperfumed history of the scented candle. Arts & Culture Issue 45 Object Matters A curious history of novelty objects. Arts & Culture Issue 43 Object Matters A fuzzy history of the carpet. Arts & Culture Issue 41 Object Matters The strange, hermitic history of the garden gnome. Arts & Culture Issue 38 Object Matters A macabre history of memento mori. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts.
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