CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF THE SILK MANUFACTURE FROM THE THIRD TO THE SIXTH CENTURY.

SPINNING, DYEING, AND WEAVING.--HIGH DEGREE OF EXCELLENCE ATTAINED IN THESE ARTS.

Fourth century--Curious account of silk found in the Edict of Diocletian--Extravagance of the Consul Furius Placidus--Transparent silk shifts--Ausonius describes silk as the produce of trees--Quintus Aur Symmachus, and Claudian’s testimony of silk and golden textures--Their extraordinary beauty--Pisander’s description--Periplus Maris Erythræi--Dido of Sidon. Mention of silk in the laws of Manu--Rufus Festus Avinus--Silk shawls--Marciannus Capella--Inscription by M. N. Proculus, silk manufacturer--Extraordinary spiders’ webs--Bombyces compared to spiders--Wild silk-worms of Tsouen--Kien and Tiao-Kien--M. Bertin’s account--Further remarks on wild silk-worms. Christian authors of the fourth century--Arnobius--Gregorius Nazienzenus--Basil--Illustration of the doctrine of the resurrection--Ambrose--Georgius Pisida--Macarius--Jerome--Chrysostom--Heliodorus--Salmasius--Extraordinary beauty of the silk and golden textures described by these authors--Their invectives against Christians wearing silk. Mention of silk by Christian authors in the fifth century--Prudentius--Palladius--Theodosian Code--Appollinaris Sidonius--Alcimus Avitus. Sixth century--Boethius. (Manufactures of Tyre and Sidon--Purple--Its great durability--Incredible value of purple stuffs found in the treasury of the King of Persia.)

FOURTH CENTURY.

Some curious evidence respecting the use of silk, both unmixed with linen and with the warp of linen, or some inferior material, is found in the EDICT OF DIOCLETIAN, which was published A. D. 303 for the purpose of fixing a maximum of prices for all articles in common use throughout the Roman Empire[46]. The passage pertaining to our present subject, is as follows:

Sarcinatori in veste soubtili replicat(u)ræ * sex Eidem aperturæ cum subsutura olosericræ * quinquaginta Eidem aperturæ cum subsutura su(b)sericæ * triginta (Sub)suturæ in veste grossiori * quattuor.

Denarii[47]. To the Tailor for lining a fine vest 6 To the same for an opening and an edging with silk 50 To the same for an opening and an edging with stuff made of a mixed tissue of silk and flax 30 For an edging on a coarser vest 4 _Colonel Leake’s translation._

[46] It was edited A. D. 1826, by Colonel Leake, as a sequel to his Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, and is also published in Tr. of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. i. p. 181.

[47] A Roman coin of the value of about sixteen or seventeen cents, called Denarii from the letter X upon it; which denoted _ten_.

This document proves, in exact conformity with the passages quoted from Solinus and Ammianus, that silk had come into general use at the commencement of the fourth century. It is also manifest from this extract, that silk was employed in giving to garments a greater proportion of intricacy and ornament than had been in use before.

The authors who make mention of silk in the fourth and following centuries are very numerous. We shall first take the heathen authors, and then the Christian writers, whose observations often have some moral application, which gives them an additional interest.

The unknown author of the Panegyric on the emperor Constantine, pronounced A. D. 317, thus mentions silk as characterizing oriental refinement.

Facile est vincere timidos et imbelles, quales amœna Græcia et deliciæ Orientis educunt, vix leve pallium et sericos sinus vitando sole tolerantes.

It is easy to vanquish the timid and those unused to war, the offspring of pleasant Greece and the delightful East, who, whilst they avoid the heat of the sun, can scarcely bear even a light shawl and folds of silk.

The testimony of the Roman historian FLAVIUS VOPISCUS, in reference to the practice of the emperor Aurelian and the dearness of silk during his reign, has already been produced. This author, in his life of the same emperor, makes the following remarks on a display of silk which he had himself recently witnessed.

We have lately seen the Consulate of Furius Placidus celebrated in the Circus with so great eagerness for popularity, that he seemed to give not prizes, but patrimonies, presenting tunics of linen and silk, borders of linen, and even horses, to the great scandal of all good men.

The exact period here referred to is no doubt the Consulship of Placidus and Romulus, A. D. 343.

In the Epistles of ALCIPHRON (i. 39.) Myrrhine, a courtesan, loosens her girdle, which probably fastened her upper garment or shawl. Her _shift_ was silk, and so transparent as to show the _color_ of her skin.

AUSONIUS

satirizes a rich man of mean extraction, who nevertheless made lofty pretensions to nobility of birth, pretending to be descended from Mars, Romulus, and Remus, and who therefore caused their images to be embossed upon his plate and _woven_ in a silken shawl.--Epig. 26.

In the following line, he alludes to the production of silk in the usual terms:

Vellera depectit nemoralia vestifluus Ser. _Idyll._ 12.

The Ser remote, in flowing garments drest, Combs down the fleeces, which the trees invest.

QUINTUS AUR SYMMACHUS.

This distinguished officer, in a letter to the Consul Stilicho, apologizes in the following terms for his delay in sending a contribution of Holoseric pieces, that is, webs wholly made of silk, to the public exhibitions.

Others have deferred supplying the water for the theatre and the Holoseric pieces, so that I have examples in my favor.--_Epist._ _l._ iv. 8.

In a letter to Magnillus (_l._ v. 20.) he speaks of Subseric pieces, webs made only in part of silk, as presents;

At your instigation the Subseric pieces have been supplied, which my men kept back after the price had been settled; and likewise everything else pertaining to the prizes which were to be given.

CLAUDIAN

mentions silk in numerous passages. This poet, in describing the consular robes of the two brothers Probinus and Olybrius (A. D. 395.), represents the Gabine Cincture, by which the toga was girt over the breast, as made of silk.

In the following passage he represents the two brothers, Honorius and Arcadius, as dividing the empire of the world between them and receiving tributes of its productions from the most distant regions:

Vestri juris erit, quicquid complectitur axis. Vobis rubra dabunt pretiosas æquora conchas, Indus ebur, ramos Panchaia, vellera Seres. _De III. Cons. Honorii_, _l._ 209-211.

To you the world its various wealth shall send: Their precious shells the Erythrean seas; India its iv’ry, Araby its boughs, The distant Seres fleeces from the trees.

In a poem, which immediately succeeds this in the order of time, Claudian describes a magnificent toga, worn by Honorius on being appointed a fourth time consul, by saying, that it received its color (_the Tyrian purple_) from the Phœnicians; its woof (_of silk forming stripes or figures_) from the Seres; and its weight (_produced by Indian gems_) from the river Hydaspes[48]. Again, in his poem on the approaching marriage of Honorius and Maria, he mentions yellow silk curtains (_l._ 211.) as a decoration of the nuptial chamber.

[48] De IV. Cons. Honorii, i. 600, 601.

Again he says (_in Eutrop._ _l._ i. _v._ 225, 226. 304. _l._ ii. _v._ 337.):

Te grandibus India gemmis, Te foliis Arabes ditent, te vellere Seres.

Let India with her gems thy wealth increase, The Arabs with their leaves, the Seres with their fleece.

He also mentions with delight the use of gold in dress, as well as of silk. The following passage represents the manner in which Proba, a Roman matron, near the end of the fourth century, expressed her affectionate congratulations on the elevation of her two sons to the Consulship, by preparing robes _interwoven with gold_ for the ceremony of their installation.

With joy elated at this proud success, Their venerable mother now prepares The golden trabeas, and the cinctures bright With Seric fibres shorn from woolly trees: Her well-train’d thumb protracts the length’ning gold, And makes the metal to the threads adhere. _In Probini et Olybrii Consulatum_, _l._ 177-182.

From these verses we learn that Proba had herself acquired the art of _covering the thread with gold_, and that she then used her gold thread in the _woof_ to form the stripes or other ornaments of the consular trabeæ. These are afterwards called stiff togas (_togæ rigentes_, _l._ 205.), on account of the rigidity imparted to them by the gold thread.

The same poet gives an elaborate description of a Trabea which he supposes to have been woven by the Goddess Rome with the aid of Minerva for the use of the Consul Stilicho. Five different scenes are said to have been _woven_ in this admirable robe (_regentia dona, graves auro trabeas_), and certain parts of them were wrought in gold[49].

[49] In I. Cons. Stilichonis, L. ii. 330-359.

Again, Claudian supposes Thetis to have woven scarfs of gold and purple for her son Achilles:

Ipsa manu chlamydes ostro texebat et auro. (_Ep._ 35.)

The epigram in which this line occurs, seems to imply that Serena, mother-in-law of the Emperor Honorius, wove garments of the same kind for him.

Maria, the daughter of the above-mentioned Stilicho, was bestowed by him upon Honorius, but died shortly after, about A. D. 400. In February, 1544, the marble coffin, containing her remains, was discovered at Rome. In it were preserved a garment and a pall, which, on being burnt, yielded 36 _pounds of gold_. There were also found a great number of glass vessels, jewels, and ornaments of all kinds, which Stilicho had given as a dowry to his daughter[50]. We may conclude, that the garments discovered in the tomb of Maria were _woven_ by the hands of her mother Serena, since the epigram of Claudian proves that she wove robes of a similar description for Honorius, and probably on the same occasion. Anastasius Bibliothecarius says, that when Pope Paschal was intent on finding the body of St. Cæcilia, having performed mass with a view to obtain the favor of a revelation on the subject, he was directed A. D. 821 to a cemetery on the Appian Way near Rome, and there found the body enveloped in cloth of gold[51]. Although there is _no_ reason to believe, that the body found by Paschal was the body of the saint pretended, yet it may have been the body of a Roman lady who had lived some centuries before, and probably about the time of Honorius and Maria.

[50] Surii Comment. Rerum Gest. ab anno 1500, &c.

[51] “Aureis vestitum indumentis.” DE VITIS ROM. Pontificum Mogunt. 1602, p. 222.

Pisander, who belonged to the same period (900 B. C.) with Homer, speaks of the _Lydians_ as _wearing tunics adorned with gold_. Lydus observes, that the Lydians were supplied with gold from the sands of the Pactolus and the Hermus[52].

[52] De Magistratibus Rom. L. iii. § 64.

Virgil also represents the use of gold in weaving, as if it had existed in Trojan times. One of the garments so adorned was manufactured by _Dido_, the _Sidonian_, one by Andromache, and another was in the possession of Anchises[53]. In all these instances the reference is to the habits of Phœnice, Lycia, or other parts of Asia.

[53] Æn. iii. 483.; iv. 264.; viii. 167.; xi. 75.

He describes an ape ludicrously attired in a silk jacket; and, inveighing against the progress of luxury, he speaks of some to whom even silk garments were a burthen. In elaborate descriptions of the figured consular robes (the Trabeæ) of Honorius and Stilicho, he mentions the _reins and other trappings of horses_, as being wrought in silk[54].

[54] Rubra Serica, De VI. Cons. Honor. I. 577. Serica Fræna. In I. Cons. Stilichonis 1. ii. V. 350.

The frequent allusions to silk in the complimentary poems of Claudian, receive illustration from various imperial laws, which were promulgated in the same century, and in part by the very emperors to whom his flattery is addressed, and which are preserved in the CODE OF JUSTINIAN. Their object was not to encourage the silk manufacture, but, on a principle very opposite to that of modern times, to make it an imperial monopoly. The admiration excited by the splendor and elegance of silk attire was the ground, on which it was forbidden that any individual of the _male sex_ should wear even a silken border upon his tunic or pallium, with the exception of the emperor, his officers and servants. To confine the enjoyment of these luxuries more entirely to the imperial family and court, all private persons were strictly forbidden engaging in the manufacture, gold and silken borders were to be made only in the imperial Gynæcea[55].

[55] See the Corpus Juris Civilis, Lugduni 1627, folio, tom. v. Codex Justiniani, l. x. tit. vii. p. 131. 134.

THE PERIPLUS MARIS ERYTHRÆI.

In this important document on ancient geography and commerce, we find repeated mention of silk in its raw state, in that of thread, and woven[56]. These articles were conveyed down the Indus to the coast of the Erythrean Sea. They were also brought to the great mart of Barygaza, which was on the Gulf of Cambay near the modern Surat, and to the coast of Lymirica, which was still more remote. The author of the Periplus states, that they were carried by land through Bactria to Barygaza from a great city called _Thina_, lying far towards the North in the interior of Asia. He of course refers to some part of Serica. It is remarkable, that he makes no mention of silk as the native production of India.

[56] Arriani Opp., vol. ii. Blancardi, pp. 164. 170. 173. 177.

Silk is mentioned in two passages of the laws of Manu, viz. XI. v. 168, and XII. v. 64. It is, however, observed by Heeren, who quotes passages of the Ramayana that make mention of silk, that garments of this material are there represented as worn only on festive occasions, and that they were undoubtedly Seric or Chinese productions[57]. Indeed it appears that the cloth made from the thread of the native worms of Hindostan, although highly valued for strength and durability, is not remarkable for fineness, beauty, or splendor.

[57] Ideen über die Politik, &c. der alten Welt, i. 2. pp. 647. 648. 665-668. 677. 3rd edition. Göttingen, 1815.

RUFUS FESTUS AVIENUS.

This author, adopting the common notion of his time, supposes the Seres to spin thread from fleeces which were produced upon the trees. He also mentions silk shawls (_Serica pallia_, _l._ 1008.) as worn by the female Bacchantes of Ionia in their processions in honor of Bacchus; and it is worthy of remark, that they are not mentioned in the original passage of Dionysius, the author whom Avienus translates, so that we may reasonably infer, that the use of them on these occasions was introduced between the time of Dionysius (about 30 B. C.) and that of Avienus (A. D. 400).

MARTIANUS CAPELLA.

Beyond these (_the Anthropophagi_) are the Seres, who asperse their trees with water to obtain the down, which produces silk. L. vi. _p._ 223. _ed. Grotii_, 1599.

The following Inscription is given in Gruter, Tom. iii. p. DCXLV. It was found at Tivoli, and expresses that M. N. Proculus, _silk-manufacturer_, erected a monument to Valeria Chrysis, his excellent and deserving wife.

D. M. VALERIAE. CHRYSIDI. M. NVMIVS. PROCVLVS. SERICARIVS. CONJVGI. SVAE. OPTIMÆ. BENEM. FECIT.

Before proceeding to the Christian writers of the 4th and following centuries we may now introduce the remarks of Servius on the passage formerly quoted from Virgil. He is supposed to have written about A. D. 400.

Among the Indians and Seres there are on the trees certain worms, called Bombyces, which draw out very fine threads after the manner of spiders; and these threads constitute silk.

It will be seen hereafter, that these “Indian Seres” were the inhabitants of Khotan in Little Bucharia.

The frequent comparison of Bombyces to spiders by the ancients suggests the inquiry whether they employed the thread of any kind of spider to make cloth, as was attempted in France by M. Bon. The failure of his attempt is sufficient, as it appears, to show, that the extensive manufacture of garments from this material must have been scarcely possible in ancient times. It is also to be observed, that the ancients, when they compare the silk-worm to the spider, refer to the spider’s _web_, whereas M. Bon, not finding the web strong enough, made his cloth from the thread with which the spider envelopes its eggs[58].

[58] The most extraordinary account of a spider’s web, which we have ever seen, is that given by Lieutenant W. Smyth. He says, “We saw here (_viz._ at Pachiza, on the river Huayabamba in Peru) a gigantic spider’s web suspended to the trees: it was about 25 _feet in height_, and near 50 _in length_; the threads were very strong, and it had the empty sloughs of thousands of insects hanging on it. It appeared to be the habitation of a great number of spiders of a larger size than we ever saw in England.” Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para, London, 1836, p. 141.

For some interesting notices of the great spider of Brazil the reader is referred to Caldcleugh’s Travels in South America, London 1825, vol. i. ch. 2. p. 41; and to the Rev. R. Walsh’s Notices of Brazil, London 1830, vol. ii. p. 300, 301. Mr. Caldcleugh “_assisted in liberating from a spider’s net a bird of the size of a swallow, quite exhausted with struggling, and ready to fall a prey to its indefatigable enemies_.” Mr. Walsh had his light straw hat removed from his head by a similar web extending from tree to tree in an opening through which he had occasion to pass. He wound upon a card several of the threads composing the web; and he observes, that, as these spiders are gregarious, the difficulties experienced by M. Bon from the ferocity of the solitary European spiders in killing and devouring one another, would not exist if the attempt were made to obtain clothing from the former.

In the forests of Java Sir George Staunton “found webs of spiders, woven with threads of so strong a texture as not easily to be divided without a cutting instrument.”--Account of Lord Macartney’s Embassy to China, London 1797, vol. i. ch. 7. p. 302. (See Chap. IX.)

But, although we have no reason to believe, that the web of any spider was anciently employed to make cloth, yet these accounts may have referred to worms, possibly varieties of the silk-worm, which spun long threads floating in the air. The common silk-worm spins and suspends itself by its thread, long before it begins its cocoon. It appears probable, therefore, that there may have been wild varieties of this creature, or perhaps other species of the same genus, which in the earlier stages of their existence spun threads long enough for use. We ground this conjecture partly on the following passage from Du Halde’s History of China[59].

[59] Vol. ii. p. 359, 360, 8vo. edition, London, 1736.

“The province of Chan-tong produces a particular sort of silk, which is found in great quantities on the trees and in the fields. It is spun and made into a stuff called _Kien-tcheou_. This silk is made by little insects that are much like caterpillars. They do not spin an oval or round cocoon, like the silk-worms, but very long threads. These threads, as they are driven about by the winds, hang upon the trees and bushes, and are gathered to make a sort of silk, which is coarser than that made of the silk spun in houses. But these worms are wild, and eat indifferently the leaves of mulberry and other trees. Those who do not understand this silk would take it for unbleached cloth, or a coarse sort of drugget.

“The worms, which spin this silk, are of two kinds: the first, much larger and blacker than the common silk-worms, are called _Tsouen-kien_; the second, being smaller, are named _Tiao-kien_. The silk of the former is of a reddish gray, that of the latter darker. The stuff made of these materials is between both colors, it is very close, does not _fret_, is very lasting, washes like linen, and, when it is good, receives no damage by spots, even though oil were to be shed on it.

“This stuff is much valued by the Chinese, and it is sometimes as dear as satin or the finest silks. As the Chinese are very skilful at counterfeiting, they make a false sort of _Kien-tcheou_ with the waste of the Tche-kiang silk, which without due inspection might easily be taken for the genuine article.”

This account affords a remarkable illustration of many of the expressions of the ancient writers, such as “Bombyx pendulus urget opus,” _Martial_; “Per aerem liquando aranearum horoscopis idoneas sedes tendit,” _Tertullian_; “In aranearum morem tenuissima fila deducunt,” _Servius_.

In further illustration of the subject, and as tending to show that the _Kien-tcheou_ is manufactured from the thread of a silk-worm, modified in its habits and perhaps in its organization by circumstances, we shall now quote a few passages from a work having the following title: “_China; its costume, arts, manufactures, &c., edited from the originals in the cabinet of M. Bertin, with observations by M. Breton. Translated from the French. London, 1812._” _Vol._ iv. _p._ 55, _&c._

“The wild silk-worms are found in the hottest provinces of China, especially near Canton. They live indifferently on all sorts of leaves, particularly on those of the ash, the oak, and the fagara, and spin a greyish and rarely white silk. The coarse cloth manufactured from it is called _Kien-tcheou_, will bear washing, and on that account persons of quality do not disdain to wear clothes of it. With this silk also the strings of musical instruments are made, because it is stronger and more sonorous.

“Entomologists treat but very superficially of the habits of the wild silk-worms, while they dwell in minute detail on the method of rearing them in Provence.

“It is between the nineteenth and twenty-second day of their existence, that they undertake the great work of spinning their cocoon. They curve a leaf into a kind of cup, and then form a cocoon as large and nearly as hard as a hen’s egg! This cocoon has one end open like a reversed funnel; it is a passage for the butterfly, which is to come out.

“The oak-worms are slower in making their cocoon than those of the fagara and ash, and they set about it differently. Instead of bending a single leaf, they roll themselves in two or three and spin their cocoon. It is larger, but the silk is inferior in quality, and of course not so valuable.

“The cocoons of wild silk-worms are so strong and compact, that the insects encounter great difficulty in extricating themselves, and therefore remain inclosed from the end of the summer, to the spring of the following year. These butterflies, unlike the domestic insect, fly very well.--The domestic silk-worm is but a variety of the wild species. It is fed on the leaves of the mulberry tree.” (See chap. VIII.)

The circumstance that the worms were sometimes fed with oak-leaves is mentioned in Du Halde’s History of China, vol. ii. p. 363.

Here then we have a justification of the ancients in asserting, both that the silk-worms produced _long threads and webs floating in the air like those of spiders_, and that they fed upon the leaves of the oak, the ash, and many other trees. It may be recollected, that Pliny expressly mentions both the oak (_quercus_) and the ash (_fraxinus_).

Until very lately the use of silk among the ancients was investigated only by philologists. Within a few years M. Latreille, an entomologist of the highest distinction, has directed his attention to the subject and has examined particularly the above-cited passages of Aristotle, Pliny, and Pausanias[60]. He never supposes the ancient Sericum to have been the produce of anything except the silk-worm. But of this there are several varieties, partly perhaps natural, and partly the result of domestication. He endeavors to explain some parts of Pliny’s description by showing their seeming correspondence with some of the practices actually observed by the Orientals in the management of silk-worms.

[60] M. Latreille’s paper is published in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, tome xxiii. pp. 58-84.

An account of the wild silk-worms of China is to be found in the “Mémoires concernant l’Histoire, les Sciences, les Arts, &c., des Chinois,” compiled by the missionaries of Peking[61]. This account is principally derived from the information of Father D’Incarville, one of the missionaries. It coincides generally with the accounts already quoted from Du Halde and Breton. We extract the following particulars as conveying some further information:

[61] Tome ii. pp. 579-601. Paris, 1777, 4to. This Memoir is reprinted with abridgments as an Appendix to Stanislas Julien’s Translation of the Chinese Treatise on the Breeding of Silk-worms, Paris, 1837, 8vo.

“The Chinese annals from the year 150 B. C. to A. D. 638 make frequent mention of the great quantity of silk produced by the wild worms, and observe that their cocoons were as large as eggs or apricots.”

The following passage is also deserving of attention: “Le papillon de ces vers sauvages, dit le Père d’Incarville, est à ailes vitrées.” This information, if correct, would prove that there was at least one kind of wild silk-worms in China, which was a different species from the Phalæna Mori; for that has no transparent membranes in its wings, and would not be likely to receive them in consequence of any change in its mode of life.

We now proceed to take the Christian authors of the fourth and following centuries in the order of time.

ARNOBIUS (A. D. 306.)

thus speaks of the heathen gods:

They want the covering of a garment: the Tritonian virgin must spin a thread of extraordinary fineness, and according to circumstances put on a tunic either of mail, or silk[62].

[62] Adv. Gentes, l. iii. p. 580, ed. Erasmi.

GREGORIUS NAZIENZENUS, CL., A. D. 370.

The following passage contains, we believe, the earliest allusion to the use of silk in the services of the Christian Church.

Ἄλλοι μὲν χρυσόν τε καὶ ἄργυρον, οἱ δὲ τὰ Σηρῶν Δῶρα φέρουσι θεῷ νήματα λεπταλέα. Καὶ Χριστῷ θυσίην τὶς ἁγνὴν ἀνέθηκεν ἑαυτον· Καὶ σπένδει δακρύων ἄλλος ἁγνὰς λιβάδας.

_Ad Hellenium pro Monachis Carmen._ _tom._ ii. _p._ 106. _ed. Par._ 1630.

Silver and gold some bring to God Or the fine threads by Seres spun: Others to Christ themselves devote, A chaste and holy sacrifice, And make libations of their tears. Yates’s Translation.

BASIL, CL., A. D. 370.

Although this celebrated author was a native of Asia Minor, and had studied in Syria and Palestine, he appears to have known the silk-worm only from books and by report. His description of it in the following passage, in which we first find the beautiful illustration of the doctrine of a _resurrection_ from the change of the chrysalis, is chiefly copied from Aristotle’s account as formerly quoted.

Τί φάτε οἱ ἀπιστοῦντες τῷ Παύλῳ περὶ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἀλλοιώσεως, ὁρῶντες πολλὰ τῶν ἀερίων τὰς μορφὰς μεταβάλλοντα; ὁποῖα καὶ περὶ τοῦ Ἰνδικοῦ σκώληκος ἱστορεῖται τοῦ κερασφόρου· ὃς εἰς κάμπην τὰ πρῶτα μεταβαλὼν, εἶτα προϊὼν βομβυλιὸς γίνεται, καὶ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ ταύτης ἵσταται τῆς μορφῆς, ἀλλὰ χαύνοις καὶ πλατέσι πετάλοις ὑποπτεροῦται. Ὅταν οὖν καθέζησθε τὴν τούτων ἐργασίαν ἀναπηνιζόμεναι αἱ γυναῖκες, τὰ νήματα λέγω, ἃ πέμπουσιν ὑμῖν οἱ Σῆρες πρὸς τὴν τῶν μαλακῶν ἐνδυμάτων κατασκευὴν, μεμνημέναι τῆς κατὰ τὸ ζῶον τοῦτο μεταβολῆς, ἐναργῆ λαμβάνετε τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἔννοιαν, καὶ μὴ ἀπιστεῖτε τῇ ἀλλαγῇ, ἣν Παῦλος ἅπασι κατεπαγγέλλεται.--_Hexahemeron_, _p._ 79. _A. Ed. Benedict._

What have you to say, who disbelieve the assertion of the Apostle Paul concerning the change at the resurrection, when you see many of the inhabitants of the air changing their forms? Consider, for example, the account of the horned worm of India, which (i. e. the silk-worm) having first changed into a caterpillar (_eruca_, or _veruca_), then in process of time becomes a cocoon (_bombylius_, or _bombulio_), and does not continue even in this form, but assumes light and expanded wings. Ye women, who sit winding upon bobbins the produce of these animals, namely the threads, which the Seres send to you for the manufacture of fine garments, bear in mind the change of form in this creature; derive from it a clear conception of the resurrection; and discredit not that transformation which Paul announces to us all.--Yates’s Translation.

When St. Basil says of the new-born moth, that “it assumes light and expanded wings,” the beauty of the comparison in illustrating the Christian doctrine of the resurrection is enhanced, when we consider that in its _wild_ state the moth flies very well, although, when domesticated, its flight is weak and its wings small and shrivelled[63]: but still more beautiful does the figure become, if we suppose a reference to those larger and more splendid Phalænæ which produce the coarser kinds of silk in India, and probably in China also.

[63] The Phalæna Atlas, apparently a native of China, measures eight inches across the wings from tip to tip.

Basil is the _first_ writer, who distinctly mentions the change of the silk-worm from a Chrysalis to a moth. In his application of that fact he addresses himself to his countrywomen in Asia Minor, and his language represents them sitting and winding on bobbins the raw silk obtained from the Seres and designed to be afterwards woven into cloth.

Between these two authors, Aristotle and Basil, we observe a difference of phraseology which appears deserving of notice. While they both describe the women, not as spinning the silk, but as _winding it on bobbins_, they designate the material so wound by two different names. Basil uses the term νήματα, which might be meant to imply that the silk came from the Seres in skeins as it comes to us from China: Aristotle, on the contrary, uses the term βομβύκια, which can only refer to the state of silk before it is wound into skeins. As it might appear impossible to convey it in this state to Cos, we shall here insert from the authorities already quoted, the Chinese Missionaries, an account of the process by which the cocoons are prepared for winding, and it will then be seen, that the cocoons might have been transported to any part of the world.

“To prepare the cocoons of the wild silk-worms, the Chinese cut the extremities of them with a pair of scissors. They are then put into a canvass bag, and immersed for an hour or more in a kettle of boiling lye, which dissolves the gum. When this is effected, they are taken from the kettle; pressed to expel the lye, and then laid out to dry. Whilst they are still moist, the chrysalises are extracted; each cocoon is then turned inside out, so as to make a sort of cowl. It is necessary only, to put them again into lukewarm water, after which ten or twelve of them are capped one upon another like so many thimbles, to insert a small distaff through them, when the silk may be reeled off.”

Basil, in one of his Homilies, (_Opp. tom._ ii. _p._ 53. 55. _ed. Benedict._) inveighs against the ladies of Cæsarea, who employed themselves in weaving gold; and he is no less indignant at their husbands who adorned even their horses with cloths of gold and scarlet as if they were bridegrooms.

The author of a Treatise “De disciplinâ et bono pudicitiæ,” which is usually published with Cyprian, and which may be referred to the fourth or fifth century, thus speaks (_Cypriani Opera, ed. Erasmi, p._ 499.):

To weave gold in cloth is, as it were, to adopt an expensive method of spoiling it. Why do they interpose stiff metals between the delicate threads of the warp?

The same censure is implied in the following address of Alcimus Avitus to his sister.

Non tibi gemmato posuere nonilia collo, Nec te contexit, neto quæ fulguratauro Vestis, ductilibus concludens fila talentis: Nec te Sidonium bis coeti muricis ostrum Induit, aut rutilo perlucens purpura succo, Mollia vel tactu quæ mittunt vellera Seres: Nec tibi transfossis fixerunt auribus aurum.

No threaded gems have pressed thy sparkling neck: No cloth, with lines incased in ductile gold, Or twice with the Sidonian murex dyed, Has glittered on thee: thou hast never worn The fleeces soft which distant Seres send: Nor are thy ears transfixed for pendent gold.

The effect of such exhortations as the preceding, was to induce piously disposed persons to apply pieces of gold cloth to _public_ and _sacred_, instead of private purposes. After this period we find continual instances of their use in the decoration of churches and in the robes of the priesthood.

AMBROSE, CL. A. D. 374.

Sericæ vestes, et auro intexta velamina, quibus divitis corpus ambitur, damna viventium, non subsidia defunctorum sunt.--_De Nabutho Jezraelitâ_, _cap._ i. _tom._ i. _p._ 566. _Ed. Bened._

Silken garments, and veils interwoven with gold, with which the body of the rich man is encompassed, are a loss to the living, and no gain to the dead.

Here we think it not out of place to introduce the account of the silk-worm by Georgius Pisida, who flourished about A. D. 640, although he lived at Constantinople after the breeding of silk-worms had been introduced there. According to him the silk-worm pines or moulders almost to nothing in its tomb, and then returns to its former shape. The verses are however deserving of attention for their elegance, and for the repetition of Basil’s idea, which Ambrose has left out, of the analogy between the restoration of the silk-worm and the resurrection of man.

Ποῖος δὲ καὶ σκωλήκα Σηρικὸν νόμος Πείθει τὰ λαμπρόκλωστα νήματα πλέκειν, Ἃ, τῇ βαφῇ χρωσθέντα τῆς ἁλουργίδος, Χαυνοῖ τὸν ὄγκον τῶν κρατούντων ἐμφρόνως; Μνήμη γὰρ αὐτοὺς εὐλαβῶς ὑποτρέχει, Ὅτι πρὸ αὐτῶν τῆς στολῆς ἡ λαμπρότης Σκώληκος ἦν ἔνδυμα καὶ φθαρτὴ σκέπη, Ὃς, τῇ καθ’ ἡμᾶς μαρτυρῶν ἀναστάσει, Θνῆσκει μὲν ἔνδον τῶν ἑαυτοῦ νημάτων, Τὸν αὐτὸν οἶκον καὶ ταφὴν δεδεγμένος, Σχεδὸν δὲ παντὸς τοῦ κατ’ αὐτὸν σαρκίου Σαπέντος ἢ ῥυέντος ἢ τετηγμένου, Χρονόυ καλοῦντος ἐκ φθορᾶς ὑποστρέφει, Καὶ τὴν πάλαι μόρφωσιν ἀῤῥήτως φύει Ἐν τῷ περιττεύσαντι μικρῷ λειψάνῳ, Πρὸς τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς σωματούμενος πλάσιν. _l._ 1265-1282.

What law persuades the Seric worm to spin Those shining threads, which, dyed with purple hue, Inflate, yet check the pride of mighty men? For, whilst they blaze in grand attire, the thought Steals on,--This splendid robe once cloth’d a worm: Type of our resurrection from the grave, It dies within the tomb itself has spun, That perishing abode, which is at once Its house and tomb; in which it rots away, Till at the call of time it gladly leaves Corruption, and its ancient shape resumes. A little remnant of its mould’ring flesh, By processes unspeakable and dark, Restores the wonders of its earliest form. Yates’s Translation.

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:

Let her learn also to spin wool, to hold the distaff, to place the basket in her bosom, to twirl the spindle, to draw the threads with her thumb. Let her despise the webs of silk-worms, the fleeces of the Seres, and gold beaten into threads. Let her prepare such garments as may dispel cold, not expose the body naked, even when it is clothed. Instead of gems and silk, let her love the sacred books, &c.

Because we do not use garments of silk, we are reckoned monks; because we are not drunken, and do not convulse ourselves with laughter, we are called restrained and sad: if our tunic is not white, we immediately hear the proverb, He is an impostor and a Greek.--_Epist. ad Marcellum, De Ægrotatione Blesillæ, tom._ i. _p._ 156, _ed. Erasmi_, 1526.

You formerly went with naked feet; now you not only use shoes, but even ornamented ones. You then wore a poor tunic and a _black_ shirt under it, dirty and pale, and having your hand callous with labor; now you go adorned with linen and silk, and with vestments obtained from the Atrebates and from Laodicea.--_Adv. Jovinianum, l._ ii. _Opp. ed. Paris_, 1546, _tom._ ii. _p._ 29.

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

Why do you wrap your dead in garments of gold? Why does not ambition cease amidst wailings and tears? Cannot the bodies of the rich go to corruption except in silk?--_Epist._ L. ii.

You cannot but be offended yourself, when you admire garments of silk and gold in others.--_Epist._ L. ii. No. 9, _p._ 138, _ed. Par._ 1613, _12mo._

CHRYSOSTOM, CL., A. D. 398.

Ἀλλὰ σηρικὰ τὰ ἱμάτια; ἀλλὰ ῥακίων γέμουσα ἡ ψυχή. _Comment. in Psalm 48. tom._ v. _p._ 517. _ed. Ben._

Does the rich man wear silken shawls? His soul however is full of tatters.

Καλὰ τὰ σηρικὰ ἱμάτια, ἀλλὰ σκωλήκων ἐστὶν ὕφασμα. (_Quoted by Vossius, Etym. Lat. p._ 466.)

Silken shawls are beautiful, but the production of worms.

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_.

Ὁμοία ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ παρόντος βίου τερπνότης Ἰνδικῷ σκωληκιῷ, ὅπερ τῷ φυλλῷ τοῦ δένδρου συντυλιχθὲν, καὶ τῇ τροφῇ ἀσχοληθὲν, συνεπνίγη ἐν αὐτῷ τοῦ μεταξίου κουκουλίῳ.

The pleasure of the present life is like the Indian worm, which, having involved itself in the leaf of the tree and having been satisfied with food, chokes itself in the cocoon of its own thread.--Yates’s Translation.

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].

[64] In the Royal Museum of Natural History at Leyden are eight or ten cocoons of the Phalæna Atlas from Java. They consist of a strong silk, and are formed upon the leaves of a kind of Ficus. The first layer of the cocoon covers the whole of a leaf, and receives the exact impress of its form. Then two or three other layers are distinctly perceptible. Two or three leaves are joined together to form the cocoon. In regard to the looseness of the layers these cocoons do not correspond to M. Breton’s description of the cocoons of the wild silk-worms of China, which are very strong and compact, and therefore more resemble those of the Phalæna Paphia.

FIFTH CENTURY.

PRUDENTIUS, CL., A. D. 405.

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

Hunc, qui superbit serico, Quem currus inflatum vehit; Hydrops aquosus lucido Tendit veneno intrinsecus. _Peristeph. Hymn._ ii. _l._ 237-240.

See him, attir’d in silken pride, Inflated in his chariot ride; The lucid poison works within, Dropsy distends his swollen skin.

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

Aurum regestum nonne carni adquiritur? Inlusa vestis, gemma, bombyx, purpura, In carnis usum mille quæruntur dolis. _Peristeph. Hymn._ x.

To please the flesh a thousand arts contend: The miser’s heaps of gold, the figur’d vest, The gem, the silk-worm, and the purple dye, By toil acquir’d, promote no other end.

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.

Sericaque in fractis fluitent ut pallia membris _Psychomachia, l._ 365.

The silken scarfs float o’er their weaken’d limbs.

Sed pudet esse viros: quærunt vanissima quæque Quîs niteant: genuina leves ut robora solvant, Vellere non ovium, sed Eoo ex orbe petitis Ramorum spoliis fluitantes sumere amictus, Gaudent, et durum scutulis perfundere corpus. Additur ars, ut fila herbis saturata recoctis Inludant varias distincto stamine formas. Ut quæque est lanugo feræ mollissima tactu, Pectitur. Hunc videas lascivas præpete cursu Venantem tunicas, avium quoque versicolorum Indumenta novis texentem plumea telis: Ilium pigmentis redolentibus, et peregrino Pulvere femineas spargentem turpitur auras. _Hamartigenia, l._ 286-298.

They blush to be call’d men: they seek to shine In ev’ry vainest garb. Their native strength To soften and impair, they gaily choose A flowing scarf, not made of wool from sheep, But of those fleeces from the Eastern world, The spoil of trees. Their hardy frame they deck All o’er with tesselated spots: and art Is added, that the threads, twice dyed with herbs, May sportively intwine their various hues And mimic forms, within the yielding warp. Whatever creature wears the softest down, They comb its fleece. This man with headlong course Hunts motley tunics which inflame desire, _Invents new looms_, and weaves a feather’d vest, Which with the plumage of the birds compares: That, scented with cosmetics, basely sheds Effeminate foreign powder all around.

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,

Sericam ferè universam regionem peragravit: in quâ refert arbores esse, quæ non solum folia, sed lanam quoque proferunt tenuissimam, ex quâ vestimenta con ficiuntur, quæ Serica nuncupantur. _p._ 58.

He travelled through nearly all the country of the Seres, in which, he says, that there are trees producing not only leaves, but the finest wool, from which are made the garments called Serica.

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),

Fert Assyrius gemmas, Ser vellera, thura Sabæus.

Th’ Assyrian brings his gems, the Ser His fleeces, the Sabean frankincense.

In a passage (_Carmen._ xv.), he mentions a pall,

Cujus bis coctus aheno Serica Sidonius fucabat stamina murex.

The Tyrian murex, twice i’ th’ cauldron boil’d, Had dyed its silken threads.

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:

Ipse medius incessit, flammeus cocco, rutilus auro, lacteus serico.

_L._ iv. _Epist. p._ 107. _ed. Elmenhorstii_.

He himself marched in the midst, his attire flaming with coccus, glittering with gold, and of milky whiteness with silk.

Describing the heat of the weather, he says:

One man perspires in cotton, another in silk.

_L._ ii. _Epist._ 2.

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

The Emp’ror, just as powerful, ordains That silks with palms be given, crowns with chains: Thus marks high merit, and inferior praise In brilliant _carpets_ to the rest conveys. _Carmen._ xxiii. _l._ 423-427.

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

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

Ipse cothurnatus gemmis et fulgidus auro Serica bis coctis mutabat tegmina blattis. _L._ iii. 222.

In jewell’d buskins and a blaze of gold, Silk shawls, or twice in scarlet dipt, he wore.

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

SIXTH CENTURY.

BOETHIUS, CL., A. D. 510

Nor honey into wine they pour’d, nor mix’d Bright Seric fleeces with the Tyrian dye. _De Consol. Philos._ ii.

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.

The Phrygian queen to her rich wardrobe went Where treasured odors breathed a costly scent; There lay the vestures of no vulgar art-- Sidonian maids embroider’d every part, Whom from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore With Helen, touching on the Tyrian shore. Here, as the queen revolved with careful eyes The various textures and the various dyes, She chose a veil that shone superior far, And glow’d refulgent as the morning star. _Iliad_, vi.

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:

[65] Plin. viii. 48.

Then both their mantles button’d to their breast, Their skilful fingers ply with willing haste, And work with pleasure, while they cheer the eye With glowing purple of the Tyrian dye: Or justly intermixing shades with light, Their colorings insensibly unite As when a shower, transpierced with sunny rays, Its mighty arch along the heaven displays; From whence a thousand different colors rise Whose fine transition cheats the clearest eyes; So like the intermingled shading seems And only differs in the last extremes. Their threads of gold both artfully dispose, And, as each part in just proportion rose, Some antic fable in their work disclose.--_Metam._ vi.

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].

[66] Plin. Lib. vi. c. 36.

[67] Plutarch, chap. 36.

[68] The true value of the talent cannot well be ascertained, but it is known that it was different among different nations. The Attic talent, the weight, contained 60 Attic minæ, or 6000 Attic drachmæ, equal to 56 pounds, 11 ounces, English troy weight. The mina being reckoned equal to £3 4_s._ 7_d._ sterling, or $14 33 cents; the talent was of the value of £193 15_s._ sterling, about $861. Other computations make it £225 sterling.

The Romans had the great talent and the little talent; the great talent is computed to be equal to £99 6_s._ 8_d._ sterling, and the little talent to £75 sterling.

2. _Talent_, among the Hebrews, was also a gold coin, the same with a shekel of gold; called also stater, and weighing only four drachmas. But the Hebrew talent of silver, called _cicar_, was equivalent to three thousand shekels, or one hundred and thirteen pounds, ten ounces, and a fraction, troy weight.--_Arbuthnot._