What is "mantua"

Mantua \Man"tu*a\, n.

1. A superior kind of rich silk formerly exported from Mantua in Italy. [Obs.]
   --Beck (Draper's Dict.).

2. A woman's cloak or mantle; also, a woman's gown. [Obs.]

loose gown worn by women 17c.-18c., 1670s, from French manteau "cloak, mantle," from Old French mantel (see mantle); form influenced in English by Mantua, name of a city in Italy. Mantua-maker (1690s) became the general early 19c. term for "dressmaker."

n. 1 An article of loose clothing popular in 17th- and 18th century France. 2 (context obsolete English) A superior kind of rich silk formerly exported from Mantua in Italy. 3 (context obsolete English) A woman's cloak or mantle. 4 (context obsolete English) A woman's gown.

n. loose gown of the 17th and 18th centuries

Mantua ( ; Emilian and Latin: Mantua) is a city and commune in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.

In 2016, Mantua is Italian Capital of Culture, as chosen by the Italian Government on Tuesday 27 October 2015. (The official opening ceremony was held on the 9th of April, 2016). In 2017, Mantua will also be European Capital of Gastronomy, included in the Eastern Lombardy District (together with the cities of Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona).

In 2007, Mantua's centro storico (old town) and Sabbioneta were declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family has made it one of the main artistic, cultural, and especially musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole. Mantua is noted for its significant role in the history of opera; the city is also known for its architectural treasures and artifacts, elegant palaces, and the medieval and Renaissance cityscape. It is the place where the composer Monteverdi premiered his opera L'Orfeo and where Romeo was banished in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. It is the nearest town to the birthplace of the Roman poet Virgil, who was commemorated by a statue at the lakeside park "Piazza Virgiliana".

Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes, created during the 12th century, as the city's defence system. These lakes receive water from the Mincio River, a tributary of the Po River which descends from Lake Garda. The three lakes are called Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore ("Upper", "Middle", and "Lower" Lakes, respectively). A fourth lake, Lake Pajolo, which once served as a defensive water ring around the city, dried up at the end of the 18th century.

The area and its environs are important not only in naturalistic terms, but also anthropologically and historically; research has highlighted a number of human settlements scattered between Barche di Solferino and Bande di Cavriana, Castellaro and Isolone del Mincio. These dated, without interruption, from Neolithic times (5th–4th millennium BC) to the Bronze Age (2nd–1st millennium BC) and the Gallic phases (2nd–1st centuries BC), and ended with Roman residential settlements, which could be traced to the 3rd century AD.

Mantua is the English form of the name of the city in Italy whose Italian name is Mantova.

Mantua may also refer to:

Mantua is a genus of moths belonging to the subfamily Tortricinae of the family Tortricidae. It contains only one species, Mantua fulvosericea, which is endemic to Kauai, Oahu, Molokai and Lanai.

The wingspan is 28–36 mm.

The larvae feed on Xylosma hawaiiense. They spin the leaves together.

A mantua (from the French manteuil or "mantle") is an article of women's clothing worn in the late 17th century and 18th century. Originally a loose gown, the later mantua was an overgown or robe typically worn over stays, stomacher and a co-ordinating petticoat.

The mantua or manteau was a new fashion that arose in the 1680s. Instead of a bodice and skirt cut separately, the mantua hung from the shoulders to the floor (in the manner of dresses of earlier periods) started off as the female version of the men's Banyan, worn for 'undress' wear. Gradually it developed into a draped and pleated dress and eventually evolved into a dress worn looped and draped up over a contrasting petticoat and a stomacher. The mantua-and-stomacher resulted in a high, square neckline in contrast to the broad, off-the-shoulder neckline previously in fashion. The new look was both more modest and covered-up than previous fashions and decidedly fussy, with bows, frills, ribbons, and other trim, but the short string of pearls and pearl earrings or eardrops worn since the 1630s remained popular.

The mantua, made from a single length of fabric pleated to fit with a long train, was ideal for showing the designs of the new elaborately patterned silks that replaced the solid-colored satins popular in mid-century.