n ^«n| " ll m ..c/ % "^^pff^ TEXTILE FABRICS. u J ■■ob ■B S o < o o '<3 o ^^ ffi g SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. TEXTILE FABRICS; A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE Of the ColleBion of Church-vejiments, Drejfes, Silk Stuff's, Needlework and Tapejiries, forming that Sedlion of the Mufeum. BY THE VERY REV. DANIEL ROCK, D. D. Publi/lied for the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1870. LECOEATIVE ART L7A5 CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION. Section I. — Textiles. HE Geography of the Raw Materials. Wool, X. Cotton, xiii. Hemp, xiii. Flax, xiii. Silk, xvi. Gold, XXV. Cloth of Gold, XXV. Tiflue, xxxi. Silver, xxxiii. Wire-drawing, xxxiii. . Gold thread, xxxiv. Silks had various Names : Holofericum, xxxvii. Subfericum, xxxvii. Examitum, xxxvii. Xamitum, xxxvii. Samit, xxxvii. Ciclatoun, xxxix. Cendal, xl. TafFeta, xli. Sarcenet, xiii. Satin, xiii. Cadas, xliii. Camoca, xliv. Cloth of Tars, xliv. Velvet, xlv. Diaper, xlvi. Chryfoclavus, xlix. Stauracin, 1. Polyftauron, 1. Gammadion, 1. De quadra polo, 11. De oftapolo, li. De fundato, liii. Stragulatae, liv. Imperial, Iv. Baudekin, Ivi. Cloth of Pall, Iviii. Lettered filks, lix. The Eagle, Ixi. Styles of Silks. Chinefe, Ixiii. Perfian, Ixiii. Byzantine, Ixiv. Oriental, Ixv. Syrian, Ixv. Saracenic, Ixvi. Morefco-Spanifh, Ixvi. ivi856'129 VI Contents of the IntroduEiion, Places weaving Textiles. Sicily, Ixvii. Lucca, Ixxi. Genoa, Ixxii. Venice, Ixxiii. Florence, Ixxv, Milan, Ixxvi. Great Britain, Ixxvi. Ireland, Ixxix. Flanders, Ixxix. France, Ixxx. Cologne, Ixxxi. Acca or Acre, Ixxxiii. Buckram, Ixxxv. Burdalifaunder, Ixxxv. Fuftian, Ixxxvi. Muflin, Ixxxvii. Cloth of Arefte, Ixxxvii. Silh diftinguijhed through their Colours and Jhades of Colour. Cloth of Tars, Ixxxix. Indicus, or fky-blue, xc. Murrey, xc. Changeable, or (hot, xci. Marble, xci. Section II. — Embroidery. Of the Egyptians, xcii. Of the Ifraelites, xcii. Of the Greeks and Latins, or Phry- gionic, xciii. Opus plumarium, or feather-ftitch, xcv. Opus pulvinarium, or cuftiion-ftyle, xcvi. Opus peftineum, or comb-drawn, xcvi. Opus Anglicum, or Englifh work, xcviii. Opus confutum, or cut work, cii. Acceflbries of gold and filver, civ ; glafs, cv ; enamel, cv. Diapering, cviii. Thread embroidery, cix. Quilting, ex. Section III.— Tapestry. Egyptian, ex. Afiatic, cxi. Englifh, cxi. Flemifli, cxii. Arras, cxii. Saracenic, cxii. Imitated Tapeftry—" ftayncd cloth," cxiv. Carpets, cxv. Section IV. Ufefulnefs of the Colkaion To the Hiftorian, cxvi. The mifcalled Bayeaux Tapeftry, cxvi. Section V. — Liturgy. Liturgical rarities, cxxiii. Section VI. Ufefulnefs of the Colkaion to Artifts, cxxx. Manufafturers, cxxx. Section VII. Symbolifm, cxxxv. The Gammadion, cxxxvii. Vow of the Swan, the Peacock, &c.. cxii. Contents of the IntroduEiion. Vll Section VIII. Ufefulnejs of the Colleaion To Literature and Languages, clii. The Cyrillian alphabet, clii. Section IX. — Heraldry. Armorial bearings worked upon veft- ments, cliii. The Scrope and Grofvenor claims for the bend or on a field azure, cliii. Cafe of the Countefs of Salifbury, civ. Cafe of the Earl of Surrey, civ. Section X.^— Botany and Zoology. The giraffe, clvi. The pheafant, clvi. The cheetah, clvi. The hom, clvii. The pine-apple, clix. The artichoke, clix. The paffion-flower, clx. INTRODUCTION. IKE every other fpecific colle6tion of art labour among the feveral fuch brought together within thefe fplendid halls of the South Kenfington Mufeum, this extenfive one made from woven ftufFs, tapeftry, and needlework, is meant to have, like them, its own peculiar ufeful pur- pofes. Here, at a glance, may be read the hiftory of the loom of various times and in many lands. Here may be feen a proof of the onward march of trade and its confequent civilizing influences. Here we take a peep at thfe private female life in ages gone by, and learn how women, high-born and lowly, fpent or rather ennobled many a day of life in needlework, not merely graceful but artiftic. Here, in fine, in ftri£t accordance with the intended induftrial purpofes of this public inftitution, artizans, defigners, and workers in all kinds of embroidery, may gather many an ufeful leflbn for their refpeilive crafts, in the rare as well as beautiful famples fet out before them. The materials out of which the articles in this collection were woven, are feverally wool, hemp, flax, cotton, filk, gold, and filver. The filken textures are in general wholly fo ; in many inftances they are wrought up along with either cotton, or with flax ; hence, in ancient documents, the diftin6lion of " holofericum," all filk, and " fubfericum," not all filk, or the warp — that is, the longitudinal threads — of cotton or flax, and the woof — that is the crofs-threads of filk. Very feldom is the gold or the gilt filver woven into thefe textiles found upon them in a folid wire- drawn form, but almoft always, after being flattened very thin, the precious metal was wound about a very fmall twift of cotton, or of flax, and thus became what we call gold thread. As a fubflitute for this, the Moors of Granada, and after them the Spaniards of that kingdom, employed ftrips of gilded parchment, as we fhall have to notice. b X IntroduEiion . Section I— TEXTILES. |NDER its wideft acceptation, the word "textile" means every kind of ftufF, no matter its material, wrought in the loom. Hence, whether the threads be fpun from the pro- duce of the animal, vegetable, or the mineral kingdom — whether of fheep's wool, goats' hair, camels' wool, or camels' hair — whether of flax, hemp, mallow, Spanifh broom, the filaments drawn out of the leaves of the yucca — Adam's needle — and other plants of the lily and afphodel tribes of flowers, the fibrous coating about pods, or cotton ; whether of the mineral amianthus, of gold, filver, or of any other metal, it fignifies nothing, the webs from fuch materials are textiles. Unlike to thefe are other appliances for garment-making in many countries ; and of fuch materials, not the leaft curious, if not odd to our ideas, is paper, which is fo much employed for the purpofe by the Japanefe. At the outfet of our fubjedl: a word or two may be of good ufe, upon The Geography of the Raw Materials. one or other of which we fhall always find wrought up in the textiles in this colledlion. We will then begin with Wool. After gleaning out of the writings of the ancients all they have faid about the phyfical geography of the earth, as far as their knowledge of it went, and cafting our eyes upon a map of the world as known of old, we fhall fee at once the materials which man had at hand, in every clime, for making his articles ofdrefs. In all the colder regions the well-furred flcins of feveral families of beafls could, by the ready help of a thorn for a needle, and the animal's own finews for thread, be faftiioned, after a manner, into the requifites of drefs. Throughout by far the longefl: length and the wideft breadth of the earth, fheep, at an early period, were bred, not fo much for food as for raiment. At firft, the locks of wool torn away from the animal's back by brambles, were gathered : afterwards {hearing was thought of and followed in fome countries, while in others the wool was not cut off, but plucked by the hand away from the living creature, as we learn from Pliny :^ *' Oves non ubique tondentur: durat quibufdam in locis vel- ' Lib. vlii. c. 47. IntroduEiion, xi lendi mos." Got in either method the fleeces were, from the earlieft times, fpun by women from the diftaff At laft fo wiftiful were the growers to improve the coats of their lambs that they clothed them in fkins ; a procefs which not only fined the ftaple of the wool, but kept it clean, and better fitted it for being wafhed and dyed, as we are told by many ancient writers, fuch as Horace and the great agricultural authority Varro. In uttering his wifh for a fweet peaceful home in his old age, either at Tibur, or on the banks of the pleafant Gelasfus, thus fings the poet : Dulce pelliiis ovibus Gelasfi Flumen.' And what were thefe " oves pellitae," or " tedlae " and " molles," as they were called, in contradiftincStion to " hirtae," we underftand from Varro, who fays, "oves pellitas ; quas propter lanae bonitatem, ut funt Taren- tinas et Atticae, pellibus integuntur, ne lana inquinetur quo minus vel infici re(Sle poffit, vel lavari ac parari."'^ This latter very ancient daily work followed by women of all de- grees, fpinning from off the diftaff, was taught to our Anglo-Saxon fitters among all ranks of life, from the king's daughter downwards. In his life of Eadward the elder, a. d. 901, Malmefbury writes: ** Filias fuas ita inftituerat ut Uteris omnes in infantia maxime vacarent, mox etiam colum et acum exercere confuefcerent, ut his artibus pudice im- pubem virginitatem tranfigerent."^ The fame occupation is even now a female favourite in many countries on the Continent, particularly fo all through Italy. Long ago it beftowed the name of fpindle-tree on the Euonymus plant, on account of the good fpindles which its wood affords, and originated the term " fpinfter," yet to be found in our law-books as meaning an unmarried woman even of the gentleft blood, while every now and then from the graves that held the aflies of our fifters of the Britifh and the Anglo-Saxon epochs, are picked up the elaborately orna- mented leaden whorls which they fattened at the lower end of their fpindles to give them a due weight and tteadinefs as they twirled them round. Beginning with the Britifh illands on the wett, and going eattward on a line running through the Mediterranean fea, and ttretching itfelf out far into Afia, we find that the peoples who dwelt to the north of fuch a boundary wrought feveral of their garments out of fheep's wool, goats' hair, and beavers' fur, while thole living to the fouth, including the ' Lyric, c. vi. vi. ' De Re Ruftica, ii. 2. ^ Gefta Regum Anglorum, t. i. lib. ii. p. 198, ed. Hardy. xii IntroduBion. inhabitants of North Africa, Arabia, and Perfia, befides the above-named animal produce, employed for thefe purpofes, as well as tent-making, the wool and hair which their camels gave them : the Baptift's garment was of the very coarfeft kind. Of the ufe of woollen ftufF, not woven but plaited, among the older ftock of the Britons, a curious inftance was very lately brought to light while cutting through an early Celtic grave-hill or barrow in Yorkfhire : the dead body had been wrapped, as was fhown by the few unrotted fhreds ftill cleaving to its bones, in a woollen fhroud of coarfe and loofe fabric wrought by the plaiting procefs without a loom.^ As time crept on, it brought along with it the loom, fafhioned though it was after its fimpleft form, to the far weft, and taught its ufe through- out the Britifli iflands. The art of dyeing very foon followed ; and fo beautiful were the tints which our Britons knew how to give to their wools, that ftrangers, while they wondered at, were not a little jealous of the fplendour of thofe tones. From the heavy ftrefs laid upon the rule which taught that the official colour in their drefs affigned to each of the three ranks into which the bardic order was diftinguiflied, muft be of one fimple unbroken fhade, whether fpotlefs white, fymbolic of fun-light and holinefs, for the druid or prieft — whether Iky-blue, emblem of peace, for the bard or poet — or green, the livery of the wood and field, for the Ovydd or teacher of natural hiftory and leech-craft, yet at the fame moment we know that party-coloured fluffs were woven here, and after two forms : the poftulants a(king leave to be admitted into bardifm might be recognized by the robe barred with ftripes of white, blue, and green, which they had to wear during all the term of their initiation. With regard to the bulk of our people, according to the Greek hiftorian of Rome — Dion Caffius, born a.d. 155 — the garments worn by them were made of a texture wrought in a fquare pattern of feveral colours ; and fpeaking of our brave-hearted Britifti queen, Boadicea, that fame writer tells us that fhe ufually had on, under her cloak, a motley tunic, %iT(i)v TraiA.TToim'Koi^ that is, checkered all over with many colours. This garment we are fairly warranted in deeming to have been a native ftufF, woven of worfted after a pattern in tints and defign exaftly like one or other of the prefent Scotch plaids. Pliny, who feems to have gathered a great deal of his natural hiftory from fcraps of hearfay, moft likely in- cluded thefe ancient forts of Britifh textiles along with thofe from Gaul, when he wrote : — " Plurimis vero liciis texere quae polymita appellant, Alexandria inftituit : fcutuUis dividere, Gallia." But to weave with a ' Journal of the Archaeological Inftitute, t. xxn. p. 254. IntroduEiion, xiii good number of threads, fo as to work the cloths called polymita, was firft taught in Alexandria ; to divide by checks, in Gaul.^ The native botanical home of Cotton is in the Eaft. India almoft everywhere throughout her wide-fpread countries, and many kingdoms of old, arrayed, as (he ftill arrays herfelf, in cotton, which fhe gathered from a plant of the mallow family, that had its wild growth there; and in this fame vegetable produce the lower orders of the people dwelling ftill further to the eaft were fain to clothe themfelves. Hemp, a plant of the nettle tribe, and called by botanifts ** cannabis fativa," was of old well known in the far north of Germany, and all over the ancient Scandinavia. Full two thoufand five hundred years ago, Herodotus^ thus wrote of it : *' Hemp grows in the country of the Scythians, which except in the thicknefs and height of the ftalk, very much refembles flax ; in the qualities mentioned, however, the hemp is much fuperior. It grows in a wild ftate, and is alfo cultivated. The Thracians make clothing of it very like linen cloth ; nor could any perfon, without being very well acquainted with the fubftance, fay whe- ther this clothing is made of hemp or flax." From ** cannabis," its name in Latin, have we taken our own word " canvas," to mean any texture woven of hempen thread. Flax now follows. Who that has ever feen growing a patch of beautilefs, fad-looking hemp, and as he wandered a few fteps further, came upon a field of flax all in flower, with its gracefully-drooped head, ftrewing the breeze, as it ftrayed over it, with its frail, light-blue petals, could at firft have thought that both thefe plants were about to yield fuch kindred helps for man in his wide variety of wants ? Yet fo it is. Befides many other countries, all over this our native land flax is to be found growing wild. Though every fummer its handfome bloom muft have caught the eye of our Celtic Britifti forefathers, they were not aware for ages of the ufe of this plant for clothing purpofes, elfe had they left behind them fome ftired of linen in one or other of their many graves ; fince, following, as they did, the ufage of being buried in the beft of the garments they were accuftomedto, or moft loved when alive, their bodies would have been found arrayed in fome fmall article of linen texture, had they ever worn ' Plin lib. viii. ' Herod, book iv. 74. xiv IntroduEiion. fuch. That at length they became acquainted with its ufefulnefs, and learned to prepare and fpin it, is certain ; and in all likelihood the very name *' lin-white thread," which thofe Celts gave it in its wrought fhape, furniftied the Greeks with their word ?i(Vov, and the Latins their linum^ for linen. The term *' flax," which we ftill keep, from the Anglo- Saxon tongue, for the plant itfelf and its raw material, and the Celtic "linen," for the fame vegetable produce when fpun and woven into cloth, are words for things akin in our prefent language, which, as in many fuch like inftances, (how the footprints of thofe races that, one after another, have trod this land. To the valley of the Nile muft we go if we wifli to learn the earlieft hiftory of the fineft flaxen textiles. Time out of mind were the Egyptians famous as well for the growth of flax, as for the beautiful very fine linen they wove out of it, and which became to them a moft profitable, becaufe fo widely fought for, article of commerce. Their own word, " byfl'us," for the plant itfelf, became among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latin nations, the term for linens wrought in Egyptian looms. Long before the oldeft book in the world was written, the tillers of the ground all over Egypt had been heedful in fowing their flax, and anxious about its harvefl:. It was one of their ftaple crops, and hence was it that, in punifliment of their hard-hearted Pharaoh, the hail plague which, at the bidding of Mofes, fhowered down from heaven, hurt throughout the land the flax jufl: as it was getting ripe.' Though the Jordan grew flax upon its banks, and all over the land that would foon belong to Abra- ham's children, the women there, like Rahab, carefully dried it when pulled, and ftacked it for future hackling upon the roofs of their houfes;*/ flill, it was from Egypt, as Solomon hints,^ that the Jews had \o draw their fine linen. At a later period, among the woes foretold to Egypt, the prophet Ifaiah warns her that they fhall be confounded who wrought (there) in combing and weaving fine linen.* How far the reputation of Egyptian workmanfhip in the craft of the loom had fpread abroad is (hown us by the way in which, befide facred, heathenifh antiquity has fpoken of it. Herodotus fays : — " Amafis King of Egypt gave to the Minerva of Lindus, a linen corflet well worthy of infpedlion,"^ and further on," telling of another corflet which Amafis had fent the Lacedaemonians, obferves that it was of linen, and had a vaft number of figures of animals inwoven into its fabric, and was likewife embroidered with gold and tree-wool. What is more worthy ' Exodus ix. 31. ' Jofhua ii. 6. ' Proverbs vii. 16. ^ Ifaiah xix. 9. * Herodotus, b. ii, c. 182, Rawlinfon's Tianflation, t. ii. p. 275. * lb. b. iii. c. 47. IntroduEiton. xv of admiration in it is that each of the twifts, although of fine texture, contains within it 360 threads, all of them clearly vifible.* By thefe truftworthy evidences we clearly fee that in thofe earlj^imes, Egypt was not only widely known for its delicately woven byflus, but it fupplied all the neighbouring nations with the fineft fort of linens. From written let us now go to material proofs at hand. During late years many mummies have been brought to this country from Egypt, and the narrow bandages with which they were found to have been fo admi- rably, even according to our modern requirements of chirurgical fitnefs, fo artiftically fwathed, have been unwrapped ; and always have they been fo fine in their texture as to fully verify the praifes of old beftowed upon the beauty of the Egyptian loom- work. Moreover, from thofe who have taken a nearer and, fo to fay, a trade-like infight into fuch an article of manufa£ture, we learn that, " The fineft piece of mummy-cloth, fent to England by Mr. Salt, and now in the Britifti Mufeum, of linen, appears to be made of yarns of near 100 hanks in the pound, with 140 threads in an inch in the warp and about 64 in the woof."^ Another piece of linen which the fame diftinguifhed traveller obtained at Thebes, has 152 threads in the warp, and 71 in the woof.^ Here ftarts up a curious queftion. Though, from all antiquity up- wards till within fome ^e."^ years back, the unbroken belief had been that fuch mummy-clothing was undoubtedly made of linen woven out of pure unmixed flax, fome writers led, or rather mifled, by a few ftray words in Herodotus about tree-wool, while fpeaking of the corflet of Amafis, quoted juft now, took at once the expreffion of that hiftorian to mean wool, and then Ikipped to the conclufion that all Egyptian textiles wrought a thoufand years before were mixed with cotton. When, how- ever, it be borne in mind that even feveral hundred years after the Greek hiftorian wrote, the common belief exifted that, like cotton, filk alfo was the growth of a tree, as we are told by Virgil : Quid nemora .^thiopum, molli canentia lana Velleraque ut foliis depeftant tenuia Seres ?* Soft wool from downy groves the .^thiop weaves, And Seres comb their filken fleece from leaves — the il^toKTi acTTo ^uKov of Herodotus may be underftood to mean filk, juft as well as cotton ; nay, the rather fo, as it feems very likely that, at the ' Herodotus, t. ii. pp. 442-43. ' "Ancient Egypt," by Sir Gardiner Wilkinfon, t iii. p. 122. * lb. p. 125. * Georg. lib. ii. 120-111. II xvi IntroduBion. time when Amafis lived, fillc, in the fliape of thread, had found, through traders' hands, its way to the markets of Egypt, and muft have been thought a more fitting thing, from being a new as well as coftly material, to grace a royal gift to a religious fan6luary of high repute, than the lefs precious and more common cotton. While this queftion was agitated, fpecimens of mummy-cloth were fubmitted to the judgment of feveral perfons in the weaving trade deemed moft competent to fpeak upon the matter. Helped only by the fingers' feel and the naked eye, fome an)ong them agreed that fuch textures were really woven of cotton. This opinion was but fhortlived. Other individuals, more philofophical, went to work on a better path. In the firft place, they clearly learned, through the microfcope, the exa6l and never-varying phyfical ftruc- ture of both thefe vegetable fubftances. That of cotton they found in its ultimate fibre to be a tranfparent tube without joints, flattened fo that its inward furfaces are in conta6l along its axis, and alfo twifted fpirally round its axis ; that of flax, a tranfparent tube, jointed like a cane, and not flattened or twifted fpirally.^ Examined in the fame way, feveral old famples of byfTus or mummy-bandages from Egypt in every one inftance were afcertained to be of fine unmixed flaxen linen. Ages before French Flanders had dreamed of weaving fine lawns, ages before one of her induftrial cities — Cambray — had fo far taken the lead as to be allowed to beftow her own name, in the fhape of " cambric," on the fineft kind that modern European ingenuity could produce, Egypt had known how to give to the world even a yet finer fort, and centuries after fhe had fallen away from her place among the kingdoms of the earth, her enthralled people ftill kept up their ancient fuperiority in fpin- ning and weaving their fine, fometimes tranfparent, byfliis, of which a fpecimen or two may be feen in this colle6lion.* For many reafons the hiftory of Silk is not only curious, but highly interefting. In the early ages, its very exiftence was quite unknown, and when found out, the knowledge of it ftole forth from the far eaft, and ftraggied weftward very very flowly. For all that lengthened period during which their remarkable civilization lafted, the older Egyptians never once beheld filk : neither they, nor the Ifraelites, nor any other of the moft ancient kingdoms of the earth, knew of it in any ftiape, either as a fimple twift, or as a woven ftufF. Not ' Thomfon in the Philofophical Magazine, 3rd feries, t. v. num. 29, Nov. 1834. » No. 152. IntroduEiion . xvii the fmalleft fhred of fillc has hitherto been found in the tombs, or amid the ruins of the Pharaonic period. No where does Holy Writ, old or new, tell anything of filk but in one fingle place, the Apocalypfe, xviii. 12. True it is that, in the Englifh authorized verfion, we read of " filk " as if fpoken of by Eze- kiel, xvi. lo, 13; and again, in Proverbs, xxxi. 22; yet there can be no doubt, but that in both thefe paflages, the word filk is wrong through the tranflators mifunderftanding the original Hebrew ''^^ (mefchi). Oi this word, Parkhurft fays: "As a noun, ^Ji^(!D, according to our tranflation (is) filk, but not fo rendered in any of the ancient verfions. Silk would indeed well enough anfwer the ideal meaning of the Hebrew word, from its being drawn forth from the bowels of the filk-worm, and that to a degree of finenefs, fo as to form very flender threads. But I meet with no evidence that the Ifraelites in very early times (and to thefe Ezekiel refers) had any knowledge oi ftlk^ much lefs of the manner in which it was formed; ^Si^/tD, therefore, I think, means fome kind oi fine linen or cotton cloth^ fo denominated from the finenefs with which the threads whereof it confifted were drawn out. The Vulgate, by ren- dering it in the former pafTage, ' fubtilibus ' y?n^, as oppofed to coarfy has nearly preferved the true idea of the Hebrew."^ Braunius, too, no mean authority, after beftowing a great deal of ftudy on the matter, gives it as his well-weighed judgment that, throughout the whole Hebrew Bible, no mention whatever can be found of filk, which was a material utterly unknown to the children of Ifrael." Once only is filk fpoken of in the New Teftament,and then while St. John' is reckoning it up along with the gold, and filver, and precious ftones, and pearls, and fine linen — byffus — and purple which, with many other coftly freights merchants were wont to bring in (hips to that mighty city which, in the Apoftle's days, ruled over the kings of the earth. Long after the days of Ezekiel was it that filk, in its raw form only, made up into hanks, firft found its way to Egypt, weftern Afia, and eaftern Europe. To Ariftotle do we owe the earlieft notice, among the ancients, of the filk-worm, and although his account be incorrect, it has much value, fince, along with his defcription, the celebrated Greek phiiofopher gives us information about the original importation of raw filk into the weftern world. Brought from China, through India, till it reached the Indus, the filk came by water acrofs the Arabian Ocean, up the Red Sea, and ' Hebrew and EngliJh Lexicon. London, 1813, p. 415. * De Veftitu Heb. Sac, lib. I. cap. viii. %%. ' Apoc. xviii. 12. C xviii IntroduEiion. thence over the Ifthmus of Suez, or, perhaps, rather by the overland route, through Perfia, to the fmall but commercial ifland of Cos (now Kofs), lying ofF the coaft of Afia Minor. Pamphile, daughter of Plates, is reported to have firft woven it (filk) in Cos,^ Here, by female hands, were wrought thofe light thin gauzes which became fo faftiionable among fome high dames, but while fo often fpoken of by the poets of the Auguftan period, were ftigmatized by fome among them, as well as by the heathen moralifts of after ages, as anything but feemly for women's wear. Thus TibuUus fays of this fort of clothing: Ilia gerat veftes tenues, quas foemina Coa Texuit, auratas difpofultque vias,^ She may thin garments wear, which female Coan hands Have woven, and in ftiipes difpofed the golden bands. Years afterwards, thus laments Seneca, the philofopher: " Video fericas veftes, fi veftes vocandae funt, in quibus nihil eft, quo defend! aut corpus aut denique pudor poffit." I behold filken garments, if garments they can be called, which are a protedlion neither for the body nor for ftiame.' And later ftill, and in the Chriftian era, an echo to the remarks of Seneca do we hear in the words of Solinus : *' Hoc illud eft fericum in quo oftentare potius corpora quam veftire, primo feminis, nunc etiam viris perfuafit luxuriae libido."* This is filk, in which at firft women but now even men have been led, by their cravings after luxury, to ftiow rather than to clothe their bodies. While looking over fome precious early mediaeval MS., often do we yet find that its beautifully limned and richly gilt illuminations, to keep them from harm, or being hurt through the rubbings of the next leaf, have fattened befide them a covering of the thinneft gauze, juft as we put in flitets of filver paper for that purpofe over engravings. The likelihood is that fome at leaft of thefe may be flireds from fome of thofe thin tranflucent textiles which found fuch favour in the faftiionable world for fo long a time during the claflic period. To fome at leaft of our readers, the curious example of fuch gauzy interleafings in the manufcript of Theodulph, now at Puy en Velay, will occur. Not only thefe tranfparent filken gauzes wrought in Cos, but far more tafty ftuffs, and flowered too, from Chinefe looms, found their way to Afia Minor and Italy. In telling of the barbarous nations then called the Seres, Dionyfius Periegetes writes that they comb the varioufly coloured flowers of the defert land to make precious figured garments, • Hift. Anim. V. c. 19, p. 850, ed. Duval. * Tibullus, 1. ii. 6. ' De Beneficiis, 1. vii. c. * Solinus, c. i. IntroduEiion, xix refembling in colour the flowers of the meadow, and rivalling (in fine- nefs) the work of fpiders.^ As may be eafily imagined, filken garments were brought, at an early period, to imperial Rome. Such, however, were the high prices afked for them, that it^ either would or could afFord to buy thefe robes for their wives and daughters ; fince, at firft, they were looked upon as quite unbecoming for men's wear; hence, by a law of the Roman fenate under Tiberius, it was enabled: "Ne veftis ferica vicos foedaret." While notic- ing how womanifti Caligula became in his drefs, Suetonius remarks his filken attire : "Aliquando fericatus et cycladatus."^ An exception was made by fome emperors for very great occafions, and both Titus and Vefpafian wore drefles of filk when they celebrated at Rome their triumph over Judaea. Of the emperors who adopted whole filk for their clothing, Heliogabalus was the firft, and fo fond was he of the material, that, in the event of wifhing to hang himfelf, he had got for the occafion a rope, one ftrand of which was filk, and the other two dyed with purple and fcarlet: "Paraverat funes, blatta et ferico, et cocco intortos, quibus fi necefle efTet, laqueo vitam finiret."^ The abnegation of another Roman Emperor, Aurelian, both in refpedt of himfelf and his emprefs, is, however, very remarkable : *' Veftem holofericam neque ipfe in veftiario fuo habuit neque alteri utendam dedit. Et cum ab eo uxor fua peteret, ut unico pallio blatteo ferico uteretur, ille refpondit abfit, ut auro fila penfentur. Libra enim auri tunc libra ferici fuit."* Aurelian neither had himfelf in his wardrobe a garment wholly filk, nor gave one to be worn by another. When his own wife begged him to allow her to have a fingle mantle of purple filk, he replied, " Far be it from us to allow thread to be reckoned worth its weight in gold." For then a pound of gold was the price of a pound of filk. Here it ought to be mentioned that, for fome time before this period a very broad diftin£tion had been drawn, even in the fumptuary laws of the empire, between garments made wholly, and partially of filk ; in the former, all the web, both woof and warp, is woven of nothing but filk ; in the latter, the woof is of cotton or of thread, the warp only of filk. This difference in the texture is thus well fet forth by Lampridius, in his life of Alexander Severus, of whom he fays : he had few garments of filk — he never wore a tunic woven wholly of filk, and he never gave away cloth made of filk mixed with lefs valuable fluff. " Veftes fericas ipfe raras habuit; holofericas nunquam induit fubfericam nunquam donavit."^ ' Quoted by Yates, Textrinum Antiquorum, p. 181. * Suetonius, c. 52. ' Lampridius, c, 26. * Vopifcus, c. 45. * Severus, c. 40. XX IntroduBion, Clothing made wholly or in part out of filk, became every year more and more fought for. So remunerative w^as the trade of vi^eaving the raw material into its various forms, that, by the Juftinian pandefts, the revifed code of laws for the Roman Empire, drawn up and pub- lifhed A. D. 533 — a monopoly in it was given to the court, and looms worked by women were fet up in the imperial palace. Thus Byzantium became, and long continued famous for the beauty of its filken ftufFs. Still, the raw filk itfelf had to be brought thither from abroad ; but a remedy was very near at hand. Two Greek monks, while fpending many years among the Chinefe, had well learned the whole procefs of rearing the worm. They came home, and brought back with them a goodly number of eggs hidden in their walking-ftaves, likely made of that hollow tough fort of reed or tall grafs, the Arundo Donax ; and, carrying them to Conftantinople, they prefented thefe eggs to the Emperor, who gladly received them. When hatched, the worms were diftributed all over Greece and Afia Minor, and very foon the weftern world reared its own filk. Not long afterwards, Perfia and India alfo became filk-growing countries. In fome places, at leaft in Greece, the weaving not only of the finer kinds of cloth, but of filk, got at laft into the hands of the Jews. Writing of his travels, a. d. ii6i, Benjamin of Tudela tells us that the great city of Thebes contained about two thoufand Jewifti inhabitants. Thefe are the moft eminent manufac- turers of filk and purple cloth in all Greece.^ Telling us how the fleet of our firft Richard coafted the fhores of Spain on its voyage to the Holy Land, Hoveden fays of Almeria and its filk factory : " Deinde per nobilem civitatem quae dicitur Almaria ubi fit nobilefericum et delicatum quod dicitur fericum de Almaria."^ So prized were thefe fine delicate textiles that they were paid as tribute to princes : " Infula de Maiore reddit ei (regi Arragoniae) trecentos pannos fericos de Almaria per annum de tributo," &c.^ South Italy wrought rich filken ftufFs by the end of the eleventh century ; for we are told by our countryman, Ordericus Vitalis, who died in the firft half of the twelfth century, that Mainerius, the abbot of his monaftery of St. Evroul, at Uzey, in Normandy, on coming home, brought with him from Apulia feveral large pieces of filk, and gave to the Church four of the fineft ones, with which four copes were made for the chanters : " De pallis quas ipfe de Apulia detulerat quatuor de pre- ' Early Travels in Palcftine, ed. T. Wright, p. 71. * Rog. Hoveden, Ann. ed. Savile, Rer. Ang. Script., p. 382. ' lb. p. 382, b. IntroduSiion, xxi ciofioris S. Ebrulfo obtulit ex quibus quatuor cappae cantorum in eadem fa6la£ funt ecclefia."^ From a feeling alive in every heart throughout the length and breadth of Chriftendom that the beft of all things ought to be given for the fervice of its religious rites, the garments of its celebrating priefthood, from the far eaft to the uttermoft weft, were, if not always, at leaft very often wholly of filk — holofericus. To this fadl we have pointed for the fake of remembering that were it not fo, we had been, at this day, without the power of being able to fee through the i^"^ but tattered fhreds before us, what elegantly defigned and gorgeous fluff's the foreign mediaeval loom could weave, and what beautiful embroidery our own countrywomen knew fo well how to work. Thefe fpecimens help us alfo to rightly underftand the defcription of thofe fplendid veftments and ritual appli- ances enumerated with fuch exaitnefs in the old inventories of our venerable cathedrals and parifli churches as well as the early wardrobe accompts of our kings, the wills and bequefts of our dignified ecclefiaf- tics and nobility, to fome of which documents we (hall have to refer a little later. In coming weftward among us, all thefe fo much coveted ftuiFs brought along with them their own feveral names by which they were commonly known throughout the eaft, whether Greece, Afia Minor, or Perfia. Hence when we read of Samit, ciclatoun, cendal, baudekin, and other fuch terms quite unknown to trade now-a-day, we ftiould bear in mind that notwithftanding the wide variety of fpelling, or rather miflpelling, each of thefe appellations has run through, we reach at laft their true derivations, and fo happily get to know in what country and by whofe hands they were wrought. As trade grew up, ftie brought thefe fine filken textiles to our markets, and articles of drefs were made of filk for men's as well as women's wear among the wealthy. At what period the raw material came to be im- ported here, not fo much for embroidery as to be wrought in the loom, we do not exactly know ; but from feveral fides we learn that our countrywomen of all degrees bufied themfelves in weaving. Among the home occupations of maidens dedicated to God, St. Aldhelm, at the end of the feventh century, feems to number : " Cortinarum five ftragularum textura."'^ In the council at Cloveftioo, under Archbiftiop Cuthberht, A. D. 747, nuns are exhorted to fpend their time in reading or finging pfalms rather than weaving and knitting vainglorious garments of many ' Ordericus Vitalis, Ecc. Hift., 1. v. p. 584. ° De Laudibus Viiginitatis, Opp. cd. Giles, 15. xxii IntroduSiion, colours : '' Magifque legendis libris vel canendis pfalmis, quam texendis et plecSlendis vario colore inanis gloriae veftibus ftudeant operam dare."^ ^y that curious old Englifli book, the" Ancren Riwle," written towards the end of the twelfth century, ankreffes are forbidden to make purfes to gain friends therewith, or blodbendes.* Were it not that the weaving efpecially of filk, was fo generally followed in the cloifter by Englifti women, it had been ufelefs to have fo ftrongly difcountenanced the practice. Thofe " blodbendes," or narrow ftrips for winding round the arm after bleeding, are curioufly illuftrative of an old national cuftom for health- fake kept up in the remembrance of fome old folks ftill living, of periodical blood-letting. To his pradtices upon the heads and chins of people the barber at no remote period, added that of bleeding them ; and the old Englifli barber furgeons held a high pofition among the gilds of London. To fhow where he lived each member of that brotherhood had hanging out from the walls of his houfe a long thin pole painted fpirally black and white, the white in token of the blodbende or bandage to be winded and kept about the patient's arm. But on filk weaving by our women in fmall hand-looms, a very im- portant witnefs, efpecially about feveral curious fpecimens in this collection, is John Garland, born at the beginning of the thirteenth century in London, where his namefakes and likely of his ftock, were and are known. Firft, a John Garland, A. d. 1170, held a prebend's ftall in St. Paul's Cathedral.^ Another, a. d. I2II, was fherifF, at a later period.* A third, a wealthy draper of London, gave freely towards the building of a church in Somerfetfliire.^ A fourth, who died a. d. 146 i, lies buried in St. Sythe's j« and, at the prefent day, no fewer than twenty-two tradef- men of that name, of whom fix are merchants of high (landing in the city, are mentioned in the London Poft Office Directory for this year 1868. We give thefe inftances as fome have tried to rob us of John Garland by faying he was not an Englifliman, though of himfelf he had faid : " Anglia cui mater fuerat, cui gallia nutrix," &c. In a fort of very fliort didlionary, drawn up by that writer, and printed at the end of" Paris fous Philippe Le Bel," edited by M. H.Geraud,our countryman fays : " Textrices quae texunt ferica texta projiciunt fila aurata officio cavillarum et percuciunt fubtcmina cum linea (lignea?) fpata : de textis vero fiunt cingula et crinalia divitum mulierum et flole facerdotum."^ Though fliort, this pafTage is curious and valuable. From ' Concil. Ecc.Brit, ed. Spelman, i. 256. * P. 421. * Dugdale's St. Paul's, p. 264. * Liber de Antiq. Legibiis, pp. 3, 223. * Leland's Itinerary, t. 7, p. 99. * Stowe's Survey, B. iii. p. 31. 'lb. 607. IntroduEiion . xxiii it we learn that, befides the ufual homely textiles, thofe more coftly cloth- of-goid webs were wrought by our women, and very likely, among their other produdions — cingula — were thofe " blodbendes," the weaving of which had been forbidden to ankrefles and nuns ; perhaps, too, of thofe narrow gold-wrought ribbons in this colledlion, pp. 24,33, 38,217,218, 219, 221, &c.,fome may have been fo employed by our high-born dames on occafion of their being bled, fince as late as the fixteenth century fome feafons were deemed fit, others quite unfitting for the operation. Hence, in his Richard II. aft i, fcene i. Shakefpeare makes the king to warn thofe wrath-kindled gentlemen, Bolingbroke and Norfolk: Our doftors fay this is no month to bleed. And our moft popular books in olden time, one the Shepherd's Kalendar, fpeaking about the figns of the zodiack, tell us which of the twelve months are either good, evil, or indifferent for blood-letting. John Garland's " cingula " may alfo mean thofe rich girdles or fafhes worn by our women round the waift, and of which we have one in this colleftion. No. 857i,p. 218. Of this fort, is that border — amber coloured filk and diapered— round a veftment found in a grave at Durham, and like " a thick lace, one inch and a quarter broad — evidently owing its origin, not to the needle, but to the loom," &c.^ For the artift wiftiful to be corredl concerning the head-gear of ladies from Anglo-Saxon times till the end of the later Plantagenets, this collection can furnifh examples of thofe bands in thofe narrow textiles fpoken of by our John Garland. For an after-period thofe bands are fhown on the ftatuary, and amid the limning in illuminated MSS. of the thirteenth century ; as inftances of the narrow girdle, may be viewed a lady's effigy, in Romney church, Hants ; and that of Ann of Bohemia, in Weftminfter Abbey ; both to be found in Hollis's Monumental Effigies of Great Britain ; for the band about the head, the examples in the wood-cuts in Planche's Britifli Coftumes, p. 116. Of fuch head-bands we have one at number 8569, p. 217, and other three mentioned upon p. 221. They are, no doubt, the old fnod of the Anglo-Saxon period. For high-born dames they were wrought of filk and gold ; thofe of lower degree wore them of fimpler fluff. The filken fnood, affedled to the prefent hour by young unmarried women in Scot- land, is a truthful witnefs to the fafhion in vogue during Anglo-Saxon and later times in this country. With regard to what John Garland fays of ftoles fo made, there is one here, No. 1233, p. 24, quite entire. Raine's St. Cuthbert, p. 196. xxiv IntroduEiion. From what has been here brought forward, it will be feen that of filk, whence it came or what was its kind, nothing was truly underftood, even by the learned, for many ages. While, then, we fmile at Virgil and the other ancients for thinking that filk was a fort of herbaceous fleece growing upon trees, let us not forget that not fo many years ago our own Royal Society printed a paper in which it is fet forth that the yet-called Barnacle Goofe comes from a mufTel-like bivalve fhell, known as the "Anatifa," or Barnacle, an origin for the bird ftill believed in by fomeof ourfeafaring folks, and foftered after a manner by well-read people by the fcientific nomenclature of the fhell and the vernacular epithet for the goofe. In the twelfth century, our countryman, Alexander Neckham, fofter- brother to our Richard I., wrote of this marvel thus : " Ex lignis abiegnis falo diuturno tempore madefa£lis originem fumit avis quae vulgo dicitur bernekke," &c.' Such, however, was the Cirencefter Auguf- tinian friar's knowledge of natural hiftory, that, at leaft four hundred years ere the Royal Society had a being amongft us, he thus fpurns the popular belief upon the fubjeft : — Ligna novas abiegna falo madefa61a, jubente Natura, volucres edere fama refert. Id vifcofus agit humor, quod publica fama Afferit indignans philofophia negat.' Of a truth the Record Commiffion is doing England good fervice by drawing out of darknefs the works of our mediaeval writers. The breeding of the worm and the manufacture of its filk both fpread themfelves with fteady though flow fteps over moft of thofe countries which fkirt the fliores of the Mediterranean ; fo that, by the tenth century, thofe procefles had reached from the far eafl; to the uttermoft wefl:ern limits of that fame fea. Even then, and a long time after, the natural hiftory of the filkworm became known but to a very i^wf. Our aforefaid countryman, Alexander Neckham, made Abbot of Cirencefter, a. d. 1213, was, it is likely, the firft who, while he had learned, tried in his popular work, " De Natura Rerum," to help others to underftand the habits of the infedl: : " Materiam veftium fericarum contexit vermis qui bombex dicitur. Foliis celfi, quae vulgo morus dicitur, vefcitur, et materiam ferici digerit ; poftquam vero operari cceperit, efcam renuit, labori deli- ciofo diligentem operam impendens. Calathi parietes induftrius textor circuit, lanam educens crocei colons quae nivei candoris efficitur per ablutionem, antequam tindtura artificialis fuperinduitur. Confummato ' De Natura Rerum, p. 99, publifhed under the diredlion of the Matter of the Rolls. * lb. p. 304. IntroduEiton. xxv autem opere nobilis textoris, thecam in opere proprio involutam centonis in modum fubintrat jamque fi mills papilioni, &c."' Of thofe feveral raw materials that have, from the earlieft periods, been employed in weaving, though not in fuch frequency as filk, one is Gold, which, when judicioufly brought in, brings with it, not a barbaric, but artiftical richnefs. The earlieft written notice we have about the employment of this pre- cious metal in the loom, or of the way in which it was wrought for fuch a purpofe, we find fet forth in the Pentateuch, where Mofes tells us that he (Befeleel) made of violet and purple, fcarlet and fine linen, the veft- ments for Aaron to wear when he miniftered in the holy places. So he made an ephod of gold, violet, and purple, and fcarlet twice dyed, and fine twifted linen, with embroidered work ; and he cut thin plates of gold and drew them fmall into ftrips, that they might be twifted with the woof of the aforefaid colours.'^ Inftead of " ftrip," the authorized verfion fays, "wire," another tranflation reads *' thread;" but neither can be right, for both of thefe Englifh words mean a fomething round or twifted in the fhape given to the gold before being wove, whereas the metal muft have been worked in quite flat, as we learn from the text. This brings us to a fhort notice of Cloth of Gold, or Tissue. The ufe of gold for weaving, both along with linen or quite by itfelf, exifted, it is likely, among the Egyptians, long before the days of Mofes. In either way of its being employed, the precious metal was at firft wrought in a flattened, never in a round or wire fhape. To this hour the Chinefe and the people of India work the gold into their fluffs after the firft and ancient form. In this fafhion, to even now, the Italians love to weave their lama d'oro, or the more gliftening toca — thofe cloths of gold which, to all Afiatic and many European eyes, do not glare with too much gariflinefs, but ftiine with a glow that befits the raiment of perfonages in high ftation. Among the nations of ancient Afia, garments made of webs dyed with the coftly purple tint, and interwoven with gold, were on all grand occa- fions worn by kings and princes. So celebrated did the Medes and Per- fians become in fuch works of the loom, that cloths of extraordinary ' Ed. T.Wright, p. 272. * Exodus xxxix. i, 2, 3. xxvi IntroduSiion, beauty got their feveral names from thofe peoples, and Medean, Lydian, and Perfian textiles came to be everywhere fought for with eagernefs. Writing of the wars carried on in Afia and India by Alexander the Great, almoft four centuries before the birth of Chrift, Quintus Curtius often fpeaks about the purple and gold garments worn by the Perfians and more eaftern Afiatics. Among the many thoufands of thofe who came forth from Damafcus to the Greek general, Parmenio, many were fo clad: " Veftes. . . . auro et purpura infignes induunt.''^ All over India the fame fafliion was followed in drefs. When an Indian king, with his two grown-up fons, came to Alexander, all three were fo arrayed : '* Veftiseratauro purpuraque diftinfta, &c."* Princes and the high nobility, all over the Eaft, are by Quintus Curtius called, " purpu- rati."^ Not only garments but hangings were made of the fame coftly fabric. When Alexander wiftied to afford fome ambaffadors a fplendid re- ception, the golden couches upon which they lay to eat their meat were fcreened all about with cloths of gold and purple: " Centum aurei lecli modicis intervallis pofiti erant : le6lis circumdederat (rex Alexander) aelasa purpura auroque fulgentia, &c."^ But thefe Indian guefts them- felves were not lefs gorgeoufly arrayed in their own national coftume, as they came wearing linen (perhaps cotton) garments refplendent with gold and purple : "Lineae veftes intexto auro purpuraque diftindlae, &c."* The drefs worn by Darius, as he went forth to do battle, is thus de- fcribed by the fame hiftorian : The waift part of tlie royal purple tunic was wove in white, and upon his mantle of cloth of gold were figured two golden hawks as if pecking at one another with their beaks : " Pur- pureas tunicae medium album intextum erat : pallam auro diftin6lam aurei accipitres, velut roftris inter fe concurrerent, adornabant."^ From the eaft this love for cloth of gold reached the fouthern end of Italy, called Magna Graecia, and thence foon got to Rome ; where, even under its early kings and much later under its emperors, garments made of it were worn. Piiny, fpeaking of this rich textile, fays : — Gold may be fpun or woven like wool, without any wool being mixed with it. We are informed by Verrius, that Tarquinius Prifcus rode in triumph in a tunic of gold ; and we have feen Agrippina, the wife of the Emperor Claudius, when he exhibited the fpeftacle of a naval combat, fitting by him, covered with a robe made entirely of woven gold without any other ' Qj^Curtii Rufi, lib. in. cap. xiii. 34., p. 26, ed Fofs. * lb. lib. IX. cap. i. p. 217. ^ lb. lib. in. cap. ii. p. 4, cap. viii. p. 16. * lb. lib. IX. cap. vii. p. 233. * lb. cap. vii. p. 233. * lb. lib. Ill, cap. iii. p. 7. Introdu&ion, xxvii material.' In fa6l, about the year 1840, the Marquis Campagna dug up, near Rome, two old graves, in one of which had been buried a Roman lady of high birth, inferred from the circumftance that all about her re- mains were found portions of fuch fine gold flat thread, once forming the burial garment with which (he had been arrayed for her funeral : *' Di duefepolcri Romani, del fecolo di Augufto fcoverti tra la via Latina e I'Appia, preflb la tomba degli Scipioni." Now we get to the Chriftian epoch. When Pope Pafchal, a.d. 821, fought for the body of St. Cecily, who underwent martyrdom a. d. 230, the pontiff found, in the catacombs, the maiden bride whole, and drefled in a garment wrought all of gold, with fome of her raiment drenched in blood lying at her feet: "Aureis illud (corpus) veftitum indumentis et linteamina martyris ipfius fanguine plena."* In making the foundations for the new St. Peter's at Rome, they came upon and looked into the marble farcophagus in which had been buried Probus Anicius, prefe6l of the Pretorian, and his wife, Proba Faltonia, each of whofe bodies was wrapped in a winding-fheet woven of pure gold ftrips,^ Maria Stilicho's daughter, was wedded to the Emperor Honorius, and died fometime about A.D. 400. When her grave was opened, ad. 1544, the golden tiflues in which her body had been (hrouded were taken out and melted, when the yield of precious metal amounted to thirty-fix pounds.* The late Father Marchi found, among the remains of St. Hyacinthus, martyr, feveral fragments of the fame kind of golden web, winding flieets of which were often given by the opulent for wrapping up the dead body of fome poor martyred Chriftian brother, as is fhown by the example fpecified in Boldetti's " Cimiteri de' fanti martiri di Roma."^ Childeric, the fecond and perhaps the moft renowned king of the Merovingean dynafty, died and was buried a.d. 485, at Tournai. In the year 1653 his grave was found out, and amid the earth about it fo many remains of pure gold ftrips were turned up, that there is every reafon for thinking that the Frankifli king was wrapped in a mantle of fuch golden ftuff for his burial. ^ That the ftrips of pure gold out of which the burial cloak of Childeric was woven were not anywife round, ' Book. XXXIII. c. 19. Dr. Boftock's Tranflation. ' Liber Pontificalis, t. ii. p. 332, ed. Vignolio, Roma?, 1752 ; Hierurgia, 2nd ed. P- *75- ' Batelli, de Sarco. Marm. Probi Anicii et Probae Faltonije in Temp. Vatic. Romae. 1705. * Cancellieri, De Secretariis Bafil. Vatic, ii. 1000. ' T. II. p. 22. ® Cochet, Le Tombeau de Childeric I", p. 174, xxviii IntroduEiion, but quite flat, we are warranted in thinking, from the fa6t that, while digging in a Merovingean burial ground at Envermeu, a. d. 1855, the diftinguifhed archasologift I'Abbe Cochet came upon the grave once filled, as it feemed, by a young lady whofe head had been wreathed with a fillet of pure golden web, the tiflue of which is thus defcribed : *' Ces fils auffi brillants et aufli frais que s'ils fortaient de la main de I'ouvricr, n'etaient ni etires ni cordes, lis etaient plats et fe compofaient tout femplement de petites lanieres d'or d'un millimetre de largeur, coupee a meme une feuille d'or epaifTe de moins d'un dixieme de millimetre. La longueur totale de quelques-uns atteignait parfois jufqu'a quinz-e ou dix- huit centimetres."* Our own country can furnifh an example of this kind of golden textile. At Cheffel Down, in the Ifle of Wight, when Mr. Hillier was making fome refearches in an old Anglo-Saxon place of burial, the diggers found pieces of golden ftrips, thin, and quite flat, which are figured in M. I'abbe Cochet's learned book juft quoted/^ Of fuch a rich texture muft have been the veftment covered with precious ftones, given to St. Peter's Church, at Rome, by Charles of France, in the middle of the ninth century : " Carolus rex fandlo Apoftolo obtulit ex puriflimo auro, et gemmis conftruftam veftem, &c."^ In the working of fuch webs and embroidery for ufe in the Church, a high-born Anglo-Saxon lady, .^Ithelfwitha, with her waiting maids, fpent her life near Ely, where, " aurifrixoriae et texturis fecretius cum puellulis vacabat, quae de proprio fumptu, albam cafulam fuis manibus ipfa talis ingenii peritiflima fecit," &c.* Such a weaving of pure gold was, here in England, followed certainly as late as the beginning of the tenth century; very likely much later. In the chapter library belonging to Durham Cathedral may be feen, along with feveral other very precious liturgical appliances, a ftole and maniple, which happily, for more reafons than one, bear thefe infcriptions : "JElfflaed Fieri Precepit. Pio Epifcopo Frideftano." Queen to Alfred's fon and fucceflbr, Edward the elder was our .^Ifflaed who got this ftole and maniple made for a gift to Frideftan, confecrated bifhop of Win- chefter A. D. 905. With thefe webs under his eye, Mr. Raine, in his "Saint Cuthbert,"^ writes thus: In the firft, the ground work of the whole is woven exclufively with thread of gold. I do not mean by thread of gold, the filver-gilt wire frequently ufed in fuch matters, ' Cochet, Le Tombeau de Childeric I*"" p. 175. ^ lb. p. 176. ' Liber Pontificalis, 1. iii., p. 201, ed. Vignolia. * Liher Elienfis, ed. Stewart, p. ao8. ' P. 202. IntroduEiion. xxix but real gold thread, if I may fo term it, not round, but flat. This is the characSler of the whole web, with the exception of the figures, the undulating cloud-ftiaped pedeftal upon which they ftand, the infcriptions, and the foliage ; for all of which, however furprifing it may appear, vacant fpaces have been left by the loom, and they them- felves afterwards inferted with the needle. Further on, in his defcrip- tion of a girdle, the fame writer tells us : Its breadth is exa6Uy feven- eighths of an inch. It has evidently proceeded from the loom ; and its two component parts are a flattifti thread of pure gold, and a thread of fcarlet filk, &c,^ Let it be borne in mind that Winchefter was then a royal city, and abounded, as it did afterwards, with able needle- women. The employment, till a late period, of flattened gold in filk textiles is well fhown by thofe fraudulent imitations, and fubftitution in its ftead of gilt parchment, which we have pointed out among the fpecimens in this colleflion, as may be feen at Nos. 7095, p. 140 ; 8590, p. 224 ; 8601, p. 229 ; 8639, p, 244, &c. That thefe Durham cloth-of-gold fluffs for veftments were home made — we mean wrought in Anglo-Saxondom — is likely, and by our women's hands, after the way we fliall have to fpeak about further on. This love for fuch glittering attire, not only for liturgical ufe but fecular wear, lafted long in England. Such golden webs went here under different names ; at firfl they were called " ciclatoun," '* figlaton," or " fiklatoun," as the writer's fancy led him to fpell the common Perfian word for them at the time throughout the eafl. By the old Englifh ritual, plain cloth of gold was allowed, as now, to be taken for white, and worn in the Church's ceremonials as fuch, when that colour happened to be named for ufe by the rubric. Thus in the reign of Richard II., among the veflments at the Chapel of St. George, Windfor Caftle, there was " unum veflimentum album bonum de panno adaurato pro principalibus feflis B. Mariae," &c.- St. Paul's, London, had, at the end of the thirteenth century, two amices J one an old one, embroidered with folid gold wire: **Ami * « « Et longum tenues traftus producit in aurum •. I Filaque concreto cogit fqualere metallo.* The joyful mother plies her learned hands, And works all o'er the trabea golden bands, Draws the thin ftrips to all their length of gold, To make the metal meaner threads enfold. A confular figure, arrayed in the purple trabea, profufely embroidered in gold, is fhown in *' The Church of our Fathers." ^ That, in the thirteenth century our own ladies, like the Roman Proba, themfelves ufed to make the gold thread needed for their own embroidery is certain ; and the procefs which they followed is fet forth as one of the items among the other cofts for that magnificent frontal wrought a.d. 127 1, for the high altar at Weftminfter Abbey. As that bill itfelf, to be feen on the Chancellor's Roll for the year 56 of Henry III., affords fo many curious and available particulars about the whole fubje * * * The other knights everichone. In famyte green of heathen land, And their kirtles, ride alone.^ In his " Romaunt of the Rofe," Chaucer defcribes the drefs of Mirthe thus : — Full yong he was, and merry of thought And in famette, with birdes wrought, ' Pp. 282-88, * Dugdalc's St. Paul's, new ed. pp. 316, &c. * Wills and Inventories, part i. p. 3, publifhed by the Surtees Society. * Lives of the Bifhops of Exeter, and a Hiftory of the Cathedral, by Oliver, pp. 297, 298. * Ibid. 313. * Ellis's Metrical Romances, i. 360. IntroduBion, xxxix And with gold beaten full fetoufly. His bodie was clad full richely.' Many of the beautifully figured damafks in this colledion are what anciently were known as "famits;" and if they really be not "fix- thread," according to the Greek etymology of their name, it is becaufe, that at a very early period the fluffs fo called ceafed to be woven of fuch a thicknefs. Thofe flrong filks of the prefent day with the thick thread called " organzine " for the woof, and a flightly thinner thread known by the technical name of " tram " for the warp, may be taken to reprefent the ancient " examits." Juft as remarkable for the lightnefs of its texture, as happened to be ** famit " on account of the thick fubflance of its web, yet quite as much fought after, was another kind of thin glofTy filken fluff " wrought in the orient " by Paynim hands, and here called firfl by its Perfian name which came with it, ciclatoun, that is, bright and fhining ; but afterwards ficklatoun^ figlaton^ cyclas. Often a woof of golden thread lent it more , glitter flill j and it was ufed equally for ecclefiaflical veflments as for fecular articles of flately drefs. In the " Inventory of St. Paul's Cathedral, London," a. d. 1295, there was a cope made of cloth of gold, called *' ciclatoun :" — *'capa de panno aureo qui vocatur ciclatoun."^ Among the booty carried off by the Englifh when they facked the camp of Saladin, in the Holy Land, King Richard took the pavillouns Of fendal, and of cyclatoun. They were fhape of caftels ; Of gold and filver the pencels.' In his " Rime of Sire Thopas," Chaucer fays of the doughty fwain, Of Brugges were his hofen broun His robe was of ciclatoun.* Though fo light and thin, this cloak of *' ciclatoun " was often em- broidered in filk, and had fewn on it golden ornaments ; for we read of a young maid who fat. In a robe ryght ryall bowne Of a red fyclatowne Be hur fader fyde ; ' Poems, ed. Nicolas, t. iv. p. 26. * Dugdale's St. Paul's, new ed. p. 318. ' Ellis's Metrical Romances, t. ii. p. 253. * Poems, ed. Nicolas, t. iii. p. 83. xl IntroduEiion, A coronell on hur hedd fet, Hur clothys with beftes and byrdes wer bete All abowte for pryde.* When in the field, over their armour, whether of mail or plate, knights wore a long fleevelefs gown flit up almoft to the waifl on both fides : fometimes of" famit," often of" cendal," oftener ftiil of" cicla- tourn," becaufe of its flowing fhowy texture was this garment made, and from a new and contradted way of calling it, the name of the gown, like the fhortened one for its fliuff, became known as " cyclas," nothing akin to the Kv)i>.ag — the full round article of drefs worn by the women of Greece and Rome. When, a. d. 1306, before fetting out to Scotland, Edward I. girded his fon, the prince of Wales, with fo much pomp, a knight, in Weftminfter Abbey ; to the three hundred fons of the nobility whom the heir to the throne was afterward to dub knights in the fame church, the king made a moft fplendid gift of attire fitting for the cere- mony, and among other textiles fent them were thefe "clycafes" wove of gold : — " Purpura, bifllis, fyndones, cyclades auro textae," &c. as we learn from Matthew Weflminfter, " Flores Hifl:oriarum," p. 454. How very light and thin mufl: have been all fuch garments, we gather from* the quiet wit of John of Salifbury while jeering the man who affedled to perfpire in the depth of winter, though clad in nothing but his fine "cyclas :" — "dum omnia gelu confl:ri6la rigent, tenui fudat in cylade.'"^ Not fo coftly, and even fomewhat thinner in texture, was a filken fluff known as cendal^ cendallusy fandaly fandalin^ cendatus^ fyndon^ fyndonusy as the way of writing the word altered as time went on. When Sir Guy of Warwick was knighted, And with him twenty good gomes • Knightes' and barons' fons. Of cloth of Tars and rich cendale Was the dobbing in each deal.' The Roll of Caerlaverock tells us that among the grand array which met and joined Edward I. at Carlifle, a. d. 1300, on his road to invade Scotland, there was to be feen many a rich caparifon embroidered upon cendal and famit : — La ot meint riche guarnement Erode fur fendaus e famis/ And Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, leading the firfl fquadron, hoifled his banner made of yellow cendal blazoned with a lion rampant purpre.^ ' Ancient Englifli Met. Rom., ed. Ritfon, t. iii. pp. 8, 9. ' Polycraticus, lib. viii. c. xii. ' Ellis's Met. Rom. i. 15. * Roll of Caerlaverock, ed. Wright, p. i. * Ibid. p. 2. IntroduSiion . xli Baner out de un cendal fafrin, O un lioun rampant purprln. Moft, if not all the other flags were made of the fame cendal filic. When the ftalworth knight of Southampton wifhed to keep himfelf unknown at a tournament, we thus read of him — Sir Bevis difguifed all his weed Of black cendal and of rede, Flourifhed with rofes of filver bright, &c.' Of the ten beautiful filken albs which Hugh Pudfey left to Durham, two were made of famit, other two of cendal, or as the bifhop calls it, fandal : " Quae dicuntur fandales."- Exeter cathedral had a red cope with a green lining of fandal : " Capa rubea cum linura viridi fandalis j"^ and a cape of fandaline ; " Una capa de fandalin."* Chafubles, too, were, it is likely, for poorer churches, made of cendal or fandel ; Piers Plough- man fpeaks thus to the high dames of his day — And ye lovely ladies With youre long fyngres, That ye have filk and fandal To fowe, whan tyme is. Chefibles for chapeleyns, Chirches to honoure, &c.* A ftronger kind of cendal was wrought and called, in the Latin in- ventories of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, cendatus afForciatus, and of fuch there was a cope at St. Paul's ;^ while another cope of cloth of gold was lined with it,7 as alfo a chafuble of red famit given by Biftiop Henry of Sandwich. Syndonus or Sindonis^ as it would feem, was a bettermoft fort of cendal. St. Paul's had a chafuble as well as a cope of this fabric : " Cafula de findone purpurea, linita cendata viridi f " capa de fyndono Hifpanico."" Taffeta^ it is likely, if not a thinner, was a lefs coftly filken fluff than cendal ; which word, to this day, is ufed in the Spanifh language, and is defined to be a thin tranfparent textile of filk or Hnen : " Tela de feda 6 lino muy delgada y trafparente." As the Knights' flags : Ther gonfanens and ther penfelles Wer well wrought ofF grene fendels ; ' Ellis's Met. Rom. ii. 156. ' Wills and Inventories, p. 3. * Oliver, p. 299. * lb. p. 315. * The Vifion, Paffus Sextus, t. i. p. 117, ed. Wright. « P. 317. ^ P. 318. « P. 323. f xHi IntroduEiion, as their long cyclafes which they wore over their armour were of cendal, fo too were of cendal, all blazoned with their armorial bearings, the houfing of the fteeds they ftrode. Of cendal, alfo, was the lining of the church's veftments, and the peaceful citizen's daily garments. Of his "Doftour of Phifike," Chaucer tells us :— In fanguin and in perfe he clad was alle Lined with taft'ata, and with lendalle/ For the weaving of cendal, among the Europeans, Sicily was once celebrated, and a good example from others in this collection, is No. 8255, p. 163. Sarcenet^ during the fifteenth century took by degrees the place of cendal, at leaft here in England. By fome improvement in their weaving of cendal, the Saracens, it is likely in the fouth of Spain, earned for this light web as they made it, or fold it, a good name in our markets, and it became much fought for here. Among other places, York Cathedral had feveral fets of curtains for its high altar, " de farcynet." ^ At firft we diftinguifhed this ftuff by calling it, from its makers, " faracenicum." But while Anglicifing, we fhortened that appellation into the diminutive 'Tarcenet ;" and this word we keep to the prefent day, for the thin filk which of old was known among us as " cendal." Satiny though far from being fo common as other filken textures, was not unknown to England, in the middle ages j and of it thus fpeaks Chaucer, in his " Man of Lawes Tale :" In Surrie whilom dwelt a compagnie Of chapmen rich, and therto fad and trewe, That wide were fenten hir fpicerie, Clothes of gold, and fatins riche of hewe.' But as Syria herfelf never grew the more precious kinds of fpices, fo we do not believe that ftie was the firft to hit upon the happy mechanical expedient of getting up a filken texture fo as to take, by the united adion at the fame moment of ftrong heat and heavy prefliire upon its face, that luftrous metallic j[hine which we have in fatin. No. 702, p. 8, is a good example of late Chinefe manufa6lure, a procefs which this country is only now beginning to underftand and fuccefsfully employ. When fatin firft appeared in trade, it was all about the fhores of the Mediterranean called "aceytuni." This term flipped through early Italian lips into " zetani j" coming weft ward this, in its turn, dropped its Prologue, Poems, ed. Nicolas, ii. 14. '' Fabric Rolls, &c. p. 227. ' Poems, ii. 137. IntroduEiion. xliii *' i," and fmoothed itfelf into " fatin," a word for this filk among us Englifh as well as our neighbours in France, while in Italy it now goes by the name of " rafo," and the Spaniards keep up its firft defigna- tion in their di