This is a 600-year-old bra, part of a recently-publicized archaeological find of thousands of 15th century textiles in an Austrian castle. Until now, the modern bra form was thought to have been invented in the late 19th century. Also uncovered were men's underpants, seen below. University of Innsburck archaeologist wrote about the "medieval lingerie" in BBC History magazine:
There are some written medieval sources on possible female breast support, but they are rather vague on the topic. Henri de Mondeville, surgeon to Philip the Fair of France and his successor Louis X, wrote in his Cyrurgia in 1312–20: "Some women… insert two bags in their dresses, adjusted to the breasts, fitting tight, and they put them [the breasts] into them [the bags] every morning and fasten them when possible with a matching band."
These 'bags' served the same purpose as antique breast bands – that is to contain too large breasts. However, the "shirts with bags in which they put their breasts" that Konrad Stolle complained about in his chronicle of Thuringia and Erfurt in 1480 seem to have obtained the opposite effect, as he concludes his description with the words "all indecent".
"Medieval lingerie" (via Smithsonian)
