The book was originally published in French in April 1991, under the title L'étoffe du diable : une histoire des rayures et des tissus rayés.

[1] The English edition, translated by Jody Gladding,[2] was published in July 2001.

When the first Carmelites arrived in France from the Holy Land, the religious order required its members to wear striped habits, prompting turmoil and denunciations in the West that lasted fifty years until the order was forced to accept a quiet, solid color.

The medieval eye found any surface in which a background could not be distinguished from a foreground disturbing.

This article about a non-fiction book on European history is a stub.