The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances; / Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving.

MACARIUS, CL., A. D. 373.

This author gives us an additional proof (Homil. 17, § 9,) that the use of silken clothing was characteristic of dissolute women.

JEROME, CL., A. D. 378.

This great author mentions silk in numerous passages.

In his translation of Ezekiel xxvii. he has supposed silk (sericum) to be an article of Syrian and Phœnician traffic as early as the time of that prophet.

In his beautiful and interesting Epistle to Læta on the Education of her Daughter (Opp. Paris, 1546, tom. i. p. 20. C.), he says:

In the following he further condemns the practice of wrapping the bodies of the dead in cloth of gold:

CHRYSOSTOM, CL., A. D. 398.

Chrysostom also inveighs against the practice of embroidering shoes with silk thread, observing that it was a shame even to wear it woven in shawls. Such is the change of circumstances, that now even the poorest persons of both sexes, if decently attired, have silk in their shoes.

HELIODORUS, CL., A. D. 390.

This author, describing the ceremonies at the nuptials of Theagenes and Chariclea, says, “The ambassadors of the Seres came, bringing the thread and webs of their spiders, one of the webs dyed purple (!), the other white.” Æthiopica, lib. x. p. 494. Commelini.

Salmasius (in Tertullianum de Pallio, p. 242.) quotes the following passage from an uncertain author.

This writer, whoever he was, appears to have had a correct idea of the manner in which the silk-worm wraps itself in a leaf of the tree, on which it feeds, and spins its tomb within[64].

FIFTH CENTURY.

PRUDENTIUS, CL., A. D. 405.

The following sentence occurs in a speech of St. Lawrence at his martyrdom:

In another Hymn to the honor of St. Romanus we find the following lines:

In the same Hymn (l. 1015.) Prudentius describes a heathen priest sacrificing a bull, and dressed in a silken toga which is held up by the Gabine cincture (Cinctu Gabino Sericam fultus togam). Perhaps, however, we ought here to understand that the cincture only, not the whole toga, was of silk. It was used to fasten and support the toga by being drawn over the breast.

In two other passages this poet censures the progress of luxury in dress, and especially when adopted by men.

PALLADIUS.

A work remains under the name of Palladius on “The Nations of India and the Brachmans.” Whether it is by the same Palladius, who wrote the Historia Lausiaca, is disputed. But, as we see no reason to doubt, that it may have been written as early as his time, we introduce here the passages, which have been found in it, relating to the present subject. The author represents the Bramins as saying to Alexander the Great, “You envelope yourselves in soft clothing, like the silk-worms.” (p. 17. ed. Bissœi.) It is also asserted, that Alexander did not pass the Ganges, but went as far as Serica, where the silk-worms produce raw-silk (p. 2.).

In the London edition this tract is followed by one in Latin, bearing the name of St. Ambrose and entitled De moribus Brachmanorum. It contains nearly the same matter with the preceding. The writer professes to have obtained his information from “Musæus Dolenorum Episcopus,” meaning, as it appears from the Greek tract, Moses, Bishop of Adule, of whom he says,

These notices are not devoid of value as indicating what were the first steps to intercourse with the original silk country. It may however be doubted, whether the last account here quoted is a modification of the ideas previously current among the Greeks and Romans, or whether it arose from the mistakes of Moses himself, or of other Christian travellers into the interior of Asia, who confounded the production of silk with that of cotton.

THE THEODOSIAN CODE,

published A. D. 438, mentions silk (sericam et metaxam) in various passages.

APOLLINARIS SIDONIUS, CL., A. D. 472.

Describing the products of different countries, this learned author says (Carmen. v. l. 42-50),

In a passage (Carmen. xv.), he mentions a pall,

The expression here used, indicates that the silk thread was brought from the country of the Seres to be dyed in Phœnice. In Horace we have already noticed the “Coæ purpuræ.”

A passage from the Burgus Pontii Leontii (Carmen. xxii.), shows that the same article (Serica fila) was imported into Gaul.

In the same author (l. ii. Epist. ad Serranum) we meet with “Sericatum toreuma.” The latter word probably denoted a carved sofa or couch. The epithet “sericatum” may have referred to its silken cover.

The same author describes Prince Sigismer, who was about to be married, going in a splendid procession and thus clothed:

Describing the heat of the weather, he says:

Lastly, in the following lines he alludes to the practice of giving silk to the successful charioteers at the Circensian games:

ALCIMUS AVITUS, CL., A. D. 490.

Describing the rich man in the parable of Lazarus, this author says:

Avitus also mentions “the soft fleeces sent by the Seres.”

SIXTH CENTURY.

BOETHIUS, CL., A. D. 510

The Tyrians are chiefly known to us in commercial history for their skill in dyeing; the Tyrian purple formed one of the most general and principal articles of luxury in antiquity: but dyeing could scarcely have existed without weaving, and though we have no direct information respecting the Tyrian and Sidonian looms, we possess several ancient references to their excellence, the less suspicious because they are incidental. Homer, for instance, when Hecuba, on the recommendation of the heroic Hector, resolves to make a rich offering to Minerva, describes her as selecting one of Sidonian manufacture as the finest which could be obtained.

Tyre appears to have been the only city of antiquity which made dyeing its chief occupation, and the staple of its commerce. There is little doubt that purple, the sacred symbol of royal and sacerdotal dignity, was a color discovered in that city; and, that it contributed to its opulence and grandeur. It is related that a shepherd’s dog, instigated by hunger, having broken a shell on the sea shore, his mouth became stained with a color, which excited the admiration of all who saw it, and that the same color was afterwards applied with great success to the dyeing of wool. According to some of the ancient writers, this discovery is placed in the reign of Phœnix, second King of Tyre (five hundred years before the Christian era); others fix it in that of Minos, who reigned 939 years earlier or, 1439 B. C. The honor of the invention of dyeing purple, is however, generally awarded to the Tyrian Hercules, who presented his discovery to the king of Phœnicia; and the latter was so jealous of the beauties of this new color, that he forbade the use of it to all his subjects, reserving it for the garments of royalty alone. Some authors relate the story differently: Hercules’ dog having stained his mouth with a shell, which he had broken on the seashore, Tysus, a nymph of whom Hercules was enamored, was so charmed with the beauty of the color, that she declared she would see her lover no more until he had brought garments dyed of the same. Hercules, in order to gratify his mistress, collected a great number of the shells, and succeeded in staining a robe of the color she had demanded. “Colored dresses,” says Pliny[65], “were known in the time of Homer (900 B. C.), from which the robes of triumph were borrowed.” Purple habits are mentioned among the presents made to Gideon, by the Israelites, from the spoils of the kings of Midan. Ovid, in his description of the contest in weaving between Minerva and Arachne, dwells not only on the beauty of the figures which the rivals wove, but also mentions the delicacy of shading by which the various colors were made to harmonize together:

The Tyrian purple was communicated by means of several species of univalve shell-fish. Pliny gives us an account of two kinds of shell-fish from which the purple was obtained. The first of these was called buccinum, the other purpura[66]. A single drop of the liquid dye was obtained from a small vessel or sac, in their throats, to the amount of only one drop from each animal! A certain quantity of the juice thus collected being heated with sea salt, was allowed to ripen for three days, after which it was diluted with five times its bulk of water, kept at a moderate heat for six days more, occasionally skimmed, to separate the animal membranes, and when thus clarified, was applied directly as a dye to white wool, previously prepared for this purpose, by the action of lime-water, or of a species of lichen called fucus. Two operations were requisite to communicate the finest Tyrian purple; the first consisted in plunging the wool into the juice of the purpura, the second into that of the buccinum. Fifty drachms of wool required one hundred of the former liquor, and two hundred of the latter. Sometimes a preliminary tint was given with cocus, the kermes of the present day, and the cloth received merely a finish from the precious animal juice. The color appears to have been very durable; for Plutarch observes in his life of Alexander[67], that, at the taking of Susa, the Greeks found in the royal treasury of Darius a quantity of purple stuffs of the value of five thousand talents, which still retained its beauty, though it had lain there for one hundred and ninety years[68].