Abstract

Descriptions of material culture offer a point of entry into the circulation of textual and visual knowledge from the Ottoman to the French Empire and Italy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This article analyzes, discusses, and connects three different sources: Ignatius Mouradgea d’Ohsson’s Tableau général de l’Empire Ottoman (1787-1820), Giulio Ferrario’s Il costume antico e modern (1817-1834) and Carolina Lattanzi’s Il Corriere delle Dame (1804-1874). The texts shed light on the fashion for cashmere shawls and cashmere cloth imported from India to the Ottoman Empire and Europe in the Napoleonic era. They also outline the crucial role of translation from Turkish to French and Italian as well as the role of dragomans, printers, engravers and editors in spreading the culture of fashion.