Editing Umbrella (section)

=== Europe ===
The [[Bronze Age Europe|Bronze Age]] [[Dupljaja|Dupljaja chariot]], a ceramic sculpture found in Serbia dating from c. 1300 BC (attributed to the [[Encrusted Pottery culture|Dubovac culture]]), depicts a male figure, interpreted as a solar deity, standing in a three-wheeled chariot with an attached parasol held above him.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pare |first=Christopher |date=1995 |title=From Dupljaja to Delphi: the ceremonial use of the wagon in later prehistory |url=https://www.academia.edu/1337535 |journal=Antiquity |volume=63 |pages=86}}</ref>

==== Ancient Greece ====

[[File:Pittore di penelope, donna in processione, 440 ac ca, da chiusi.JPG|thumb|Ancient Greek pottery from ca. 440 BC]]

Parasols are first attested on pottery shards from the [[Mycenaean Greece|late Mycenaean period]] ([[Mycenaean Greece#LH IIIB (c. 1320/1300 – 1190 BC|c. 1320–1190 BC]]).<ref>Joost Crouwel: A Note on Two Mycenaean Parasol Kraters, The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 71 (1976), pp. 55–56</ref> Ancient umbrellas could be opened and shut,<ref>William Smith: ''[[A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities]]'', John Murray, London, 1875: [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Umbraculum.html Umbraculum]; [[Charles Victor Daremberg]], [[Edmond Saglio]]: ''[[Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines]]'': [http://dagr.univ-tlse2.fr/consulter/3018/UDO/page_592 Umbella] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200112183324/http://dagr.univ-tlse2.fr/consulter/3018/UDO/page_592 |date=12 January 2020 }}</ref> but rigid examples may have also existed. The earliest archaeological evidence for a collapsible umbrella was unearthed in [[Samos]] in a context from about 700 BC and follows closely the shape of a slightly older [[Phrygia]]n specimen [[Gordion Furniture and Wooden Artifacts|excavated at Gordion]]. The sliding mechanism of the two pieces is remarkably similar to those in use today.<ref>Simpson, Elizabeth (2014): "A Parasol from Tumulus P at Gordion", in: Engin, Atilla; Helwing, Barbara;  Uysal, Bora (eds.): "Armizzi. Engin Özgen'e Armağan / Studies in Honor of Engin Özgen", Ankara, pp.&nbsp;237–246 (240), {{ISBN|978-605-5487-59-1}}</ref>

In [[Classical Greece]], the parasol (''skiadeion'', σκιάδειον),<ref>{{LSJ|skia/deion|σκιάδειον|ref}}.</ref> was an indispensable adjunct to a lady of fashion in the late 5th century BC.<ref>M. C. Miller, "The Parasol: An Oriental Status-Symbol in Late Archaic and Classical Athens", ''JHS'' 112 (1992), p. 91 [91–105].</ref> [[Aristophanes]] mentions it among the common articles of female use;<ref>Aristophanes, ''[[Thesmophoriazusae]]'' 823.</ref> they could apparently open and close.<ref>Aristophanes, ''Knights'', 1347–1348 and scholia.</ref> [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] describes a tomb near Triteia in [[Achaea|Achaia]] decorated with a 4th-century BC painting ascribed to Nikias; it depicted the figure of a woman, "and by her stood a female slave, bearing a parasol".<ref>Pausanias, 7.22.6.</ref> For a man to carry one was considered a mark of effeminacy.<ref>Pherecrates fr.70 PCG apud [[Athenaeus]], 13.612a and 15.687a.</ref> In Aristophanes' ''Birds'', [[Prometheus]] uses one as a comical disguise.<ref>Aristophanes, ''Birds'', 1549–1551.</ref>

Cultural changes among the [[Aristoi]] of Greece eventually led to a brief period, between 505 and 470 BC, when men used parasols.<ref>Jon Ploug Jørgensen, ''The taming of the aristoi – an ancient Greek civilizing process?'' [[History of the Human Sciences]]: July 2014 vol. 27 no. 3</ref> Vase iconography bears witness to a transition from men carrying swords, then spears, then staffs, then parasols, to eventually nothing. The parasol, at that time of its fashion, displayed the luxury of the user's lifestyle.<ref>{{cite book|last=van Wees|first=H.|year=1998|chapter=Greeks Bearing Arms: The State, the Leisure Class and the Display of Weapons in Archaic Greece|editor1-first=N.|editor1-last=Fisher|editor2-first=H.|editor2-last=van Wees|title=Archaic Greece: New Approaches and New Evidence|place=London|publisher=Classical Press of Wales|pages=361–62}}</ref> During the period of their usage, Greek style was inspired by the Persian and Lydian nobility's way of dressing: loose robes, long decorated hair, gold, jewellery, and perfume.<ref>Kurke, 1992: 96; cf. Neer, 2002: 19.</ref>

It also had religious significance. In the [[Scirophoria]], the feast of Athene Sciras, a white parasol was borne by the [[priest]]esses of the goddess from the [[Acropolis]] to the Phalerus. In the feasts of [[Dionysos]], the umbrella was used, and in an old bas-relief, the same god is represented as descending ''ad inferos'' (towards the [[underworld]]) with a small umbrella in his hand. In the [[Panathenaea]], the daughters of the [[Metics]], or foreign residents, carried parasols over the heads of Athenian women as a mark of inferiority.

During the Panathenaea, daughters of Metics carried the parasols of the Athenian maidens; this service was called ''sciadephoria'' (σκιαδηφορία).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=sciadephoria-harpers |title=Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Sciadephoria |access-date=9 October 2022 |archive-date=9 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009185355/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=sciadephoria-harpers |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Ancient Rome ====

[[File:-0325 Etruskische Trinkschale aus Chiusi Altes Museum anagoria.JPG|thumb|Etruscan drinking cup from [[Chiusi]], Italy, 350–300 BC]]

From Greece it is probable that the use of the parasol passed to Rome, where it seems to have been usually used by women, while it was the custom even for effeminate men to defend themselves from the heat by means of the ''Umbraculum'', formed of skin or leather, and capable of being lowered at will. There are frequent references to the umbrella in the Roman Classics, and it appears that it was, not unlikely, a post of honour among maid-servants to bear it over their mistresses. Allusions to it are tolerably frequent in the poets. ([[Ovid]] Fast. lib. ii., 1. 31 I.; [[Martial]], lib. xi., Ch. 73.; lib. xiv, Ch. 28, 130; Ovid Ars. Am., ii., 209). From such mentions the umbrella seems to have been employed as a defense from sun, but references to its use as a protection against rain, while rare, also exist ([[Juvenal]], ix., 50.).

According to Gorius, the umbrella came to Rome from the [[Etruscans]] who came to Rome for protection, and certainly it appears not infrequently on Etruscan vases and pottery, as also on later gems and rubies. One gem, figured by Pacudius, shows an umbrella with a bent handle, sloping backwards. [[Strabo]] describes a sort of screen or umbrella worn by Spanish women, but this is not like a modern umbrella.

==== Middle Ages ====
By the [[fall of the Roman Empire]], in the 5th and 6th centuries, the umbrella and parasol were largely forgotten in Europe, for the next few centuries. Beginning in the 8th century, there are numerous contemporary depictions and descriptions of umbrellas and parasols during the remainder of the [[Middle Ages]], predominantly used in the religious ceremonies of the church. By the 8th century, the umbrella and parasol was firmly established in the church, seen as honorific and symbolic. The earliest visual record is an "8th century image of [[John of Pavia|Bishop John of Pavia]], showing him followed by a servant carrying an umbrella." The earliest known written evidence of the parasol is also from the 8th century, when [[Pope Paul I]] (757-767) bestowed a jeweled parasol to [[Pepin the Short]] as part of a peace settlement.<ref>{{cite web |last=Roe |first=Margaret |title=A European History of the Parasol through the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries |work=Margaret Roe Designs |date= |access-date=2024-04-01 |url=http://margaretroedesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/ParasolHist.pdf }}</ref>

[[File:Konstanzer Richental Chronik Der Hut des Papst 5r.jpg|thumb|Medieval knight using an umbrella, 15th century ]]
The use of parasols and umbrellas reemerged in Europe by the 14th century, gaining particular popularity among mounted knights.<ref name=":0" />


==== 16th century ====

[[File:Girolamo dai Libri - Madonna dell'ombrello (in trono con Bambino Gesù tra san Giuseppe - san Raffaele Arcangelo e Tobiolo-Tobia) - Verona - Museo di Castelvecchio 1530 - 1530 - Photo Paolo Villa 2006 - MiBAC disclaimer warning.jpg|thumb|Madonna dell'Ombrello, by [[Girolamo dai Libri]], 1530]]

A 1530 depiction is in [[Girolamo dai Libri]]'s painting [[:File:Girolamo dai Libri - Madonna dell'ombrello (in trono con Bambino Gesù tra san Giuseppe - san Raffaele Arcangelo e Tobiolo-Tobia) - Verona - Museo di Castelvecchio 1530 - 1530 - Photo Paolo Villa 2006 - MiBAC disclaimer warning.jpg|''Madonna dell Ombrello'']] ("Madonna of the Umbrella"), in which the Virgin Mary is sheltered by a cherub carrying a large, red umbrella (see image). Umbrellas were regarded as marks of distinction for the pope and clergy.<ref name="Tikkanen">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Tikkanen |first=Amy |title=Umbrella |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |access-date=2024-08-01 |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/umbrella }}</ref>

==== 17th century ====

[[File:Anthonis van Dyck 016.jpg|thumb|Marchesa Elena Grimaldi, by [[Anthony van Dyck]], 1623]]
[[Thomas Wright (antiquarian)|Thomas Wright]], in his ''Domestic Manners of the English'', gives a drawing from the Harleian MS., No. 604, which represents an Anglo-Saxon gentleman walking out attended by his servant, the servant carrying an umbrella with a handle that slopes backwards, so as to bring the umbrella over the head of the person in front.<ref name=sangster1/> It probably could not be closed, but otherwise it looks like an ordinary umbrella, and the ribs are represented distinctly.<ref name=sangster1/>

By the 17th century parasols from China were being imported into Europe. <ref name=sangster1>{{cite book | last=Sangster | first=William | title=Umbrellas and their history | orig-year=Published in 1871 | year=2005 | publisher=Elibron Classics | isbn=978-1-4021-6168-1 | pages=35–37}}</ref> At that period, pictorial representations of it are frequently found, some of which exhibit the peculiar broad and deep canopy belonging to the large parasol of the Chinese Government officials, borne by native attendants.<ref name=sangster1/>

[[John Evelyn]], in his ''[[John Evelyn's Diary|Diary]]'' for 22 June 1664, mentions a collection of rarities shown to him by "Thompson", a [[Roman Catholic]] [[priest]], sent by the [[Jesuit]]s of Japan and China to France.<ref name=sangster1/> Among the curiosities were "fans like those our ladies use, but much larger, and with long handles, strangely carved and filled with Chinese characters", which is evidently a description of the parasol.<ref name=sangster1/>

In [[Thomas Coryat]]'s ''[[Coryat's Crudities|Crudities]]'', published in 1611, about a century and a half prior to the general introduction of the umbrella into England,<ref name=sangster1/> is a reference to a custom of riders in Italy using umbrellas:

<blockquote>And many of them doe carry other fine things of a far greater price, that will cost at the least a duckat, which they commonly call in the Italian tongue umbrellas, that is, things which minister shadowve to them for shelter against the scorching heate of the sunne. These are made of leather, something answerable to the forme of a little cannopy, & hooped in the inside with divers little wooden hoopes that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compasse. They are used especially by horsemen, who carry them in their hands when they ride, fastening the end of the handle upon one of their thighs, and they impart so large a shadow unto them, that it keepeth the heate of the sunne from the upper parts of their bodies.<ref name=sangster1/></blockquote>

In [[John Florio]]'s "A WORLD of Words" (1598), the Italian word Ombrella is translated

<blockquote>a fan, a canopie. also a testern or cloth of state for a prince. also a kind of round fan or shadowing that they vse to ride with in sommer in Italy, a little shade. Also a bonegrace for a woman. Also the husk or cod of any seede or corne. also a broad spreding bunch, as of fenell, nill, or elder bloomes.<ref name=sangster1/></blockquote>

In [[Randle Cotgrave]]'s ''Dictionary of the French and English Tongues'' (1614), the French Ombrelle is translated

<blockquote>An umbrello; a (fashion of) round and broad fanne, wherewith the Indians (and from them our great ones) preserve themselves from the heat of a scorching sunne; and hence any little shadow, fanne, or thing, wherewith women hide their faces from the sunne.<ref name=sangster1/></blockquote>

In [[Fynes Moryson]]'s ''Itinerary'' (1617) is a similar allusion to the habit of carrying umbrellas in hot countries "to auoide the beames of the Sunne". Their employment, says the author, is dangerous, "because they gather the heate into a pyramidall point, and thence cast it down perpendicularly upon the head, except they know how to carry them for auoyding that danger".<ref name=sangster1/>

During [[Streynsham Master]]'s 1676 visit to the [[East India Company]]'s factory in [[Masulipatnam]] he noted that only the governor of the town and the next three officials in seniority were allowed to have "a roundell [i.e. umbrella] carried over them."<ref name=Bowrey>{{Cite book|last=Bowrey|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Bowrey|editor-last=Temple|editor-first=Richard Carnac|editor-link=Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet|title=A Geographical Account of Countries Round the Bay of Bengal, 1669 to 1679 |url=https://archive.org/details/ageographicalac00bowrgoog|year=1895|page=86|publisher=Printed for the Hakluyt Society}}</ref>

In France, the umbrella (''parapluie'') began to appear in the 1660s, when the fabric of parasols carried for protection against the sun was coated with wax. The inventory of the French royal court in 1763 mentioned "eleven parasols of taffeta in different colours" as well as "three parasols of waxed ''toile'', decorated around the edges with lace of gold and silver". They were rare, and the word ''parapluie'' ("against the rain") did not enter the dictionary of the Académie française until 1718.{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=1047}}

==== 18th and 19th centuries ====

[[File:Passer-payez-Boilly-ca1803.jpg|thumb|Parisians in the rain with umbrellas, by [[Louis-Léopold Boilly]] (1803)]]

Kersey's Dictionary (1708) describes an umbrella as a "screen commonly used by women to keep off rain".

The first lightweight folding umbrella in Europe was introduced in 1710 by a Paris merchant named Jean Marius, whose shop was located near the barrier of Saint-Honoré. It could be opened and closed in the same way as modern umbrellas and weighed less than one kilogram. Marius received from the King the exclusive right to produce folding umbrellas for five years. A model was purchased by the Princess Palatine in 1712, and she enthused about it to her aristocratic friends, making it an essential fashion item for Parisiennes.  In 1759, a French scientist named Navarre presented a new design to the French Academy of Sciences for an umbrella combined with a cane. Pressing a small button on the side of the cane opened the umbrella.<ref>Fierro, Alfred, ''Histoire et Dictionnaire de Paris'', (1996), Robert Laffont, {{ISBN|2-221-07862-4}}</ref>

Their use became widespread in Paris. In 1768, a Paris magazine reported: <blockquote>"The common usage for quite some time now is not to go out without an umbrella, and to have the inconvenience of carrying it under your arm for six months in order to use it perhaps six times. Those who do not want to be mistaken for vulgar people much prefer to take the risk of being soaked, rather than to be regarded as someone who goes on foot; an umbrella is a sure sign of someone who doesn't have his own carriage."{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=1047}} </blockquote>
[[File:Gustave Caillebotte - Paris Street; Rainy Day - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Paris Street; Rainy Day'', by [[Gustave Caillebotte]] (1877)]]
In 1769, the Maison Antoine, a store at the Magasin d'Italie on rue Saint-Denis, was the first to offer umbrellas for rent to those caught in downpours, and it became a common practice. The Lieutenant General of Police of Paris issued regulations for the rental umbrellas; they were made of oiled green silk, and carried a number so they could be found and reclaimed if someone walked off with one.{{sfn|Fierro|1996|page=1047}}

By 1808 there were seven shops making and selling umbrellas in Paris; one shop, [[Sagnier]] on rue des Vielles-Haudriettes, received the first patent given for an invention in France for a new model of umbrella. By 1813 there were 42 shops; by 1848 there were three hundred seventy-seven small shops making umbrellas in Paris, employing 1400 workers. One of the well-known makers was [[Boutique Bétaille]], which was located at rue Royale 20 from 1880 to 1939. Another was [[Revel (brand)|Revel]], based in Lyon. By the end of the century, however, cheaper manufacturers in the [[Auvergne (region)|Auvergne]] replaced Paris as the centre of umbrella manufacturing, and the town of [[Aurillac]] became the umbrella capital of France. The town still produces about half the umbrellas made in France; the umbrella factories there employ about one hundred workers.{{Sfn|Fierro|1996|page=1047}}

[[File:John Singer Sargent - Morning Walk.jpg|thumb|A parasol depicted in ''Morning Walk'', by [[John Singer Sargent]] (1888)]]
In [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', Crusoe constructs his own umbrella in imitation of those that he had seen used in Brazil, covered with skins "so that it cast off the rains like a penthouse, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest".<ref>{{cite book|author=Defoe, Daniel |year=1719|edition=1992 reprint|title=Robinson Crusoe|location=London |publisher=Everyman's Library|page= 114}}</ref> From this description the original heavy umbrella came to be called "Robinson" for many years in England.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Captain [[James Cook]], in one of his voyages in the late 18th century, reported seeing some of the natives of the South Pacific Islands with umbrellas made of palm leaves. In the highlands of [[Mindanao]] in the [[Philippines]], the large fronds of ''[[Dipteris conjugata]]'' are used as an umbrella.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chia |first1=Lee Kong |title=Dipteris conjugata |url=https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/dna/organisms/details/604 |url-status=dead|website=lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg |access-date=30 September 2019 |archive-date=30 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930012523/https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/dna/organisms/details/604}}</ref>

The use of the umbrella or parasol (though not unknown) was uncommon in England during the earlier half of the eighteenth century, as is evident from the comment made by General (then Lieut.-Colonel) [[James Wolfe]], when writing from Paris in 1752; he speaks of the use of umbrellas for protection from the sun and rain and wonders why a similar practice did not occur in England. About the same time, umbrellas came into general use as people found their value and got over the shyness natural to its introduction. [[Jonas Hanway]], the founder of the Magdalen Hospital, has the credit of being the first man who ventured to dare public reproach and ridicule by carrying one habitually in London. As he died in 1786, and he is said to have carried an umbrella for thirty years, the date of its first use by him may be set down at about 1750. [[John Macdonald (footman)|John Macdonald]] relates that in 1770, he used to be addressed as, "Frenchman, Frenchman! why don't you call a coach?" whenever he went out with his umbrella.<ref name="sangster"/> By 1788 however they seem to have been accepted: a London newspaper advertises the sale of "improved and pocket Umbrellas, on steel frames, with every other kind of common Umbrella."<ref name="Times1">{{cite news|title=advert|work=The Times|date=13 February 1788|page=3}}</ref>

Since then, the umbrella has come into general use, in consequence of numerous improvements. In China people learned how to waterproof their paper umbrellas with wax and lacquer. The transition to the present portable form is due, partly, to the substitution of silk and gingham for the heavy and troublesome oiled silk, which admitted of the ribs and frames being made much lighter, and also to many ingenious mechanical improvements in the framework. [[Victorian era]] umbrellas had frames of wood or baleen, but these devices were expensive and hard to fold when wet. [[Samuel Fox (industrialist)|Samuel Fox]] invented the [[steel]]-ribbed umbrella in 1852; however, the ''[[Encyclopédie Méthodique]]'' mentions metal ribs at the end of the eighteenth century, and they were also on sale in London during the 1780s.<ref name="Times1"/> Modern designs usually employ a [[Telescoping (mechanics)|telescoping]] steel trunk; new materials such as [[cotton]], plastic film and [[nylon]] often replace the original silk.