Silk

A history of medieval Italian textiles and their production .

This comprehens ive report represents a landmark in the publicatio n of medieval finds from excavation s in York. It encompasse s very large assemblage s of medieval artefacts of a wide variety of materials, including iron, non-ferrou s metal, stone, jet, amber, fired clay, glass and textile. These were recovered from four major sites in York.

Bibliographic entries compiled to serve my research purposes on the subject of costume rhetoric in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Sections include: sumptuary laws; history of costume; accessories/accoutrements; miscellaneous (fur, embroidery, buttonholes, narrow wares, etc.); fabric, clothmaking, and prices; costumes depicted in two- and three-dimensional visual arts; costumes depicted on funeral brasses; costumes depicted in literature; and dictionaries for costume terms.

Procopius describes how the silk industry was first introduced into Europe from the Orient.

A series of engravings that bring to us the very clear representation of the crafts and technology of his time, and the relative importance which these discoveries and inventions had in the mind of a well-informed layman of the 16th century.

New Discoveries includes illustrations of: The Lodestone, The Magnet; The Astrolabe; America; Gunpowder; Printing Books; Iron Clocks; Guaiacum (a New World remedy for syphilis); Distillation; Silk, or the Silkworm; Stirrups, or Foot Rests; the Watermill; the Winged Mill (windmills); Olive Oil; Sugar; Oil Colors (oil-painting); Spectacles (eyeglasses); Longitudes of the Earth Found from the Deviation of the Magnet from the Pole; Polishing Armor; Engraving on Copper; and the travels & discoveries of Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Ferdinand Magellan.

Could silk have been used when the stories Yellow Book of Leinster are supposed to have taken place -- before the 4th century AD?

The history and manufactur e of silk.

For more than a thousand years, long-distance trade in silk flourished over trade routes passing through some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth. Commerce in silk persisted for two main reasons. First, silk became a status symbol in several important states. Both China during the Sui and Tang dynasties and the Byzantine empire established dress codes in which silk indicated high status in bureaucratic and ecclesiastical hierarchies. Both states also enacted sumptuary laws banning the wearing of silk and other unwarranted clothing by commoners. Second, silk became a sacred object and a token of sacred objects among both Buddhists and Christians. Buddhist monks and merchants carried silk to India out of devotion. Meanwhile, silk costumes became necessary regalia for Christian priests, and silk fabrics served as ceremonial covers for the relics of saints.

Throughout the Middle Ages, fiber preparation and handspinning were occupations open to women, and rarely pursued by men. This article discusses the silkwomen of Italy, Paris, London, and Cologne.

Types of silk, silk in the SCA and period. silk noil, raw silk, dyeing silk.

Medieval cloth. Silks, wool, cotton, linen.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if textured silk was used in the time frame relative to the SCA and whether it would have been used by persons of first estate.

Artserve photos from Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Three silk compound twill fragments found in France: 8th-9th c. from Western Asia, 10-11th c. Byzantium, 7th-8th c. Central Asia.