Cochineal and the Changing Patterns of Consumption of Red Dyes in Early Modern European Textile Industries

This chapter presents the results of a decade-long study on the appropriation of American cochineal in early modern European textile industries. The comparative study is based on in-depth archival research and a new scientific approach that allows, for the first time, the accurate distinction of insect dyes in historical textiles. Revealing the gradual adoption of New World dyestuff, the chapter shifts established narratives and calls for attention to the very material composition of in-between textiles. Actual matter inhabited these fabrics’ Third Space, whose material composition changed in response to early modern colonialism and consumerism.