Silk economics and cross-cultural artistic interaction: Byzantium, the Muslim world, and the Christian West

Dumbarton Oaks Papers

Volumn 58, Issue , 2004, Pages 197-240

  Jacoby, David ^a  

^a HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

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EID: 63849276138     PISSN: 00707546     EISSN: 00707546     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.2307/3591386     Document Type: Review

References (324)

1. These topics are outside the chronological range of the present study. It should be noted, however, that even recent publications still contend that some Roman silk fabrics were woven of thread unwound from foreign silk textiles, a reading of the sources convincingly dismissed long ago by M.-Th. Schmitter, "Subsericae vestes," RA ser. 6, 9 (1937): 205-7.
2. The unwinding is also unlikely for practical and economic reasons, since the fabrics obtained from them would be of poor quality: see F. Crippa, "Dal baco al filo," in L. Molà, R. C. Mueller, and C. Zanier, eds., La seta in Italia dal Medioevo al Seicento. Dal baco al drappo (Venice, 2000), 9-10.
3. Procopius, De Bello Gothico 4.17, in Procopii Caesariensis Opera Omnia, ed. J. Haury, rev. G. Wirth, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1962-64), 2:576-77;
4. Theophanes of Byzantium in K. Müller, ed., Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, 5 vols. (Paris, 1841-83), 4:270, §3. Information on moriculture, the growing of the mulberry tree, and on sericulture is provided by all major encyclopaedias. Medieval silk yields around the Mediterranean are the subject of much debate, yet are not our concern here.
5. See comments by A. Muthesius, "The Byzantine Silk Industry: Lopez and Beyond," JMedHist 19 (1993): 19-23,
6. repr. in eadem, Studies in Byzantine and Islamic Silk Weaving (London, 1995), 270-74. The question requires further discussion.
7. N. Oikonomidès, "Silk Trade and Production in Byzantium from the Sixth to the Ninth Century: The Seals of the Kommerkiarioi," DOP 40 (1986): 33-51, assumes that from ca. 650 to ca. 800 the dated seals of the kommerkiarioi point to silk cultivation and trade in the specific regions in which these officers exercised their functions.
8. I do not share that interpretation: see D. Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium before the Fourth Crusade," BZ 84-85 (1991-92): 453-54,
9. repr. in idem, Trade, Commodities and Shipping in the Medieval Mediterranean (Aldershot, 1997), no. 7.
10. On the novella Peri metaxes and its dating, see Oikonomidès, "Silk Trade and Production," 34-35.
11. C. Zanier, "Un protettore scomodo. San Giobbe e la seta," in Molà et al., La seta in Italia (as above, note 3), 188-89, rightly argues that the production of fabrics in Mediterranean silk centers does not necessarily imply the contemporary practice of sericulture in the regions in which they were situated. However, one must reject his claim that until the mid-10th century the expansion of sericulture yielding high-quality silk thread was limited to small areas around the Mediterranean, since there are no sources attesting it until then. If this line of argumentation were correct, one should also take into account the absence of sources attesting the import of silk into the Mediterranean region in the 9th and 10th centuries. How, then, could we explain the fairly large production of high-grade silks in 10th-century Constantinople, some of which were exported to Muslim countries and others to the Christian West? I shall return elsewhere to this problem.
12. A. Muthesius, "The Impact of the Mediterranean Silk Trade on Western Europe before 1200 A.D.," in Textile in Trade, Proceedings of the Second Biennal Symposium of the Textile Society of America (Washington, D.C., 1990), 126, 130,
13. repr. in eadem, Studies, 135, 141-42, contends that Byzantium, "in return for silks, demanded Western military and naval aid";
14. see also eadem, "Silk, Power and Diplomacy in Byzantium," in Textiles in Daily Life, Proceedings of the Third Biennal Symposium of the Textile Society of America (Seattle, 1992),
15. repr. in eadem, Studies, 231-44. The citation mentioned above is clearly an overstatement and a gross misunderstanding of the role of silk gifts in diplomatic transactions, also found in the second study. On such gifts, see below.
16. On the introduction and extension of sericulture in al-Andalus, see M. Lombard, Les textiles dans le monde musulman du VIIe au XIIe siècles (Paris, 1978), 95-96;
17. V. Lagardère, "Mûrier et culture de la soie en Andalus au Moyen-Age (Xe-XIVe siècles)," Mélanges de la Casa Velásquez 26.1 (1990): 97-106;
18. idem, "Le ver à soie en Andalus à l'époque musulmane (VIIIe-XVe siècles)," in R. Durand, ed., L'homme et l'animal domestique et l'environnement du Moyen Age au XVIIIe siècle (Nantes, 1993), 343-49.
19. 2, 10:534-38, s.v. "Tiraz," by Y. K. Stillman and P. Sanders;
20. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 7-27, and passim;
21. P. L. Baker, Islamic Textiles (London, 1995), 53-62. On the workshops and the evolution of tcombining dot belowirāz inscriptions, see also below, pp. 215-17.
22. The "Spanish" veils are recorded in L. Duchesne, ed., Le Liber Pontificalis: Texte, introduction et commentaire, 2d ed., 3 vols. (Paris, 1955-57), 2:75 (note "vela cum argento spanisca XIIII"), 107, 122, 128.
23. A few later rectangular veils of silk of various provenances have been preserved in Spain, France, and Germany: latest treatment by S. Desrosiers in Trésors de la Cathédrale de Chartres, catalogue of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres (Chartres, 2002), 54-56.
24. See F. E. Day, "The Tcombining dot belowirāz Silk of Marwān," in G. Miles, ed., Archaeologica Orientalia in Memoriam Ernst Herzfeld (Locust Valley, N.Y., 1952), 39-62.
25. Ibn Hauqal, Kitab scombining dot belowūrat al-ardcombining dot below, 2d ed. J. H. Kramers (Leiden, 1938-39), 71;
26. Ibn Hauqal, Configuration de la terre (Kitab scombining dot belowūrat al-ardcombining dot below), trans. J. H. Kramers, rev. G. Wiet, 2 vols. (Beirut-Paris, 1964), 1:66.
27. See Lagardère, "Le ver à soie en Andalus," 101, 103-4.
28. S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society. The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 5 vols. (Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1967-93), 4:168 and 402 n. 129.
29. The export of silk from Tunisia, without mention of its specific origin, is already attested somewhat earlier by the document mentioned in the next note. The Geniza was a storeroom attached to a synagogue of Fustcombining dot belowātcombining dot below or Old Cairo, discovered in the late 19th century, which served as repository of discarded Jewish writings. It contained thousands of documents, of which only a small portion has been published or translated so far: see Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 1:1-28. Goitein's monumental book is the most important work exploiting these documents.
30. M. Ben Sasson, ed., Yehudei Siscombining dot belowiliah 825-1068. Te'udoth u-mekoroth [= The Jews of Sicily 825-1068. Documents and Sources], Oriens Judaicus, ser. 1 (Jerusalem, 1991), 488-89, no. 101, line A24 (silk), A25 (cloth), in Judaeo-Arabic, with Hebrew trans., 493.
31. La géographie d'Edrisi, trans. P.-A. Jaubert, 2 vols. (Paris, 1836-40), 1:255.
32. The slow, progressive Muslim conquest of Sicily, which proceeded from west to east, ended only in 902: see M. Talbi, L'émirat aghlabide, 184-296/800-909. Histoire politique (Paris, 1966), 403-536. For lack of evidence it is impossible to reconstruct the pace at which sericulture spread within the island. See next note.
33. See D. Jacoby, "Seide und seidene Textilien im arabischen und normannischen Sizilien: der wirtshaftliche Kontext," in W. Seipel, ed., Nobiles Officinae. Die königlichen Hofwerkstätten zu Palermo zur Zeit der Normannen und Staufer im 12. and 13. Jahrhundert, exhibition catalogue of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Milan, 2004), 61-63.
34. Ben Sasson, Yehudei Siscombining dot belowiliah, 178-81, no. 43, line A/8; this document is a copy of the original one. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 41 note 9, 72, and passim, mistakenly considered dībāj a silk brocade, an interpretation still common in most recent studies, although it had been dismissed more than a half century ago. On the nature of the cloth, see R. Pfister, "Le rôle de l'Iran dans les textiles d'Antinoé," AI 13-14 (1948-49): 65 note 107,
35. Lombard, Les textiles dans le monde musulman, 241.
36. J. Johns in Seipel, ed., Nobiles Officinae, 292-94, no. 80.
37. See D. Jacoby, "Silk Crosses the Mediterranean," in G. Airaldi, ed., Le vie del Mediterraneo. Idee, uomini, oggetti (secoli XI-XVI), Università degli studi di Genova, Collana dell'Istituto di storia del medioevo e della espansione europea 1 (Genoa, 1997), 70-79,
38. repr. with corrections in Jacoby, Byzantium, Latin Romania and the Mediterranean, no. 10 (note also the Addenda and corrigenda to that study at the end of the volume);
39. D. Jacoby, "Genoa, Silk Trade and Silk Manufacture in the Mediterranean region (c. 1100-1300)," in A. R. Calderoni Masetti, C. Di Fabio, and M. Marcenaro, eds., Tessuti, oreficerie, miniature in Liguria, XIII-XV secolo, Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, Atti dei Convegni 3 (Bordighera, 1999), 16-18, 22-29;
40. D. Jacoby, "Dalla materia prima ai drappi tra Bisanzio, il Levante e Venezia: La prima fase dell'industria serica veneziana," in Molà et al., La seta in Italia (as above, note 3), 270-75.
41. See S. Desrosiers, "Les soieries comme source historique (Europe, XIIIe-XXe s.)," in S. Cavaciocchi, ed., La seta in Europa secc. XIII-XX, Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica "F. Datini," Prato, Pubblicazioni - Serie 2, Atti delle "Settimane di Studio" e altri Convegni 24 (Florence, 1993), 487-506.
42. On iconographic material, see, e.g., B. Klesse, Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts (Bern, 1967);
43. G. Cornu, "Sources iconographiques pour l'étude des tissus et costumes islamiques du IXe au XIIIe siècle," in Islamische Textilkunst des Mittelalters: Aktuelle Probleme, Riggisberger Berichte 5 (Riggisberg, 1997), 53-63;
44. G. Cornu and M. Martiniani-Reber, "Étoffes et vêtements dans le ménologe de Basile II. Reflets des courants d'échanges entre Byzance et le monde islamique," Quaderni di Studi Arabi 15 (1997): 45-64.
45. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, has collected a large amount of evidence for the period extending to the mid-13th century, yet his work is not exhaustive.
46. On problems related to colorants, see A. Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving AD 400 to AD 1200, ed. E. Kislinger and J. Koder (Vienna, 1997), 28-31;
47. D. Cardon, ed., Teintures précieuses de la Mé diterranée. Pourpre-kermès-pastel (Carcassonne, 1999), 24, 26-28, 34-36, where the author remarks that the plants from which indigoid colors were extracted cannot always be identified.
48. The laboratory analysis of a silk dress which had lost its color, found at Mistra, Greece, failed to yield any result with respect to the colorant used: see M. Martiniani-Reber, ed., Parure d'une princesse byzantine. Tissus archéologiques de Sainte-Sophie de Mistra (Geneva, 2000), 85.
49. On weaves, see this same collective work. On the numerous types of gold and silver threads, see M. Járó, "Goldfäden in der sizilischen (nachmaligen) Krönungsgewändern der Könige und Kaiser des Heiligen Römischen Reiches und im sogenannten Häubchen König Stephans von Ungarn - Ergebnisse wissenchaftlicher Untersuchungen," in Seipel, Nobiles Officinae, 311-15.
50. E. Weigand, "Die helladisch-byzantinische Seidenweberei," in (Athens, 1935), 503-14
51. is the only study ascribing silks to Thebes, yet it is limited in scope, outdated, and unconvincing: see Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 465.
52. On all these Byzantine inscribed silks, see Oikonomidès, "Silk Trade and Production," 51 and n. 108.
53. More extensively, on the fairly well datable pieces, see Muthesius, Byzantine Silk Weaving, 34-43.
54. H. Granger-Taylor, in D. Buckton, ed., Byzantium. Treasures of Byzantine Art and Culture from British Collections (London, 1994), 126-28, ascribes a silk from the tomb of St. Cuthbert with a woven, largely destroyed inscription to the first half of the 9th century.
55. No other similar piece is known so far: see A. Jeroussalimskaja, "Un chef militaire byzantin dans le Caucase du Nord? Le ruban en soie de Moscevaja Balka," in. Studien zur byzantinischen Kunst und Geschichte. Festschrift für Marcell Restle (Stuttgart, 2000), 125-29, who supposes that the band was sewn onto a garment after being granted by the emperor. The latter assumption requires further consideration.
56. E. Molinier, ed., "Inventaire du trésor du Saint Siège sous Boniface VIII (1295)," BEC 46 (1885): 18-19, no. 811.
57. On that mission, see D. J. Geanakoplos, Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West, 1258-1282: A Study in Byzantine-Latin Relations (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 286-87.
58. Since the silk reflects the agreement of 1274, it cannot have been prepared before the council and presented during its sessions, as contended by P. Johnstone, The Byzantine Tradition in Church Embroidery (London, 1976), 76-77.
59. It bears the inscription EPISCOPUS HEINRICVS: see D. King, "Some Unrecognised Venetian Woven Fabrics," Victoria and Albert. Museum Yearbook 1 (1969): 56-58.
60. On the silk and the dating of the funerary site, see R.-P. Gayraud et al., "Istabl 'Antar (Fostat) 1994: Rapport de fouilles," Annales islamologiques 29 (1995): 8 and 19, fig. 17.
61. Maqrīzī, Itti'āzcombining dot below al-Hcombining dot belowunafā' bi-akhbar al-ā'immat al-Fātimyyīn al-Khulafā', ed. M. H. M. Ahmad (Cairo, 1971), 2:40.
62. I wish to thank Yaacov Lev, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, for drawing my attention to this important passage and providing me with its accurate translation. On the transfer of the ruler and his court to Egypt, see M. Brett, The Rise of the Fatimids. The World of the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the Fourth Century of the Hijra, Tenth Century CE (Leiden, 2001), 316-27. A further example of the use of a silk cloth long after its production appears below, note 40.
63. Old and damaged silks are sometimes recorded, as in the papal inventory of 1295: E. Molinier, "Inventaire du trésor du Saint Siège," BEC 47 (1886): nos. 1441, 1447.
64. See F. Piponnier, "Usages et diffusion de la soie," in Cavaciocchi, La seta in Europa (as above, note 23), 786-87.
65. See respectively R. Ettinghausen, O. Grabar, and M. Jenkins-Madina, Islamic Art and Architecture, 650-1250 (New Haven, Conn., 2001), 281 and 280, fig. 459;
66. A. Simon-Cahn, "The Fermo Chasuble of St. Thomas Becket and Hispano-Moresque Cosmological Silks: Some Speculations on the Adaptive Reuse of Textiles," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 1-5, a piece providing a further example of the chronological gap sometimes existing between the production and use of silks;
67. A. E. Wardwell, "Flight of the Phoenix: Crosscurrents in Late Thirteenth- to Fourteenth-Century Silk Patterns and Motifs," Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74 (January 1987): 22 and fig. 27.
68. H. Granger-Taylor, "Three Fragmentary Hats of around the Early 13th Century, One Incorporating Pieces of a Sicilian Tapestry, Found at Qasr Ibrim in Southern Egypt," in R. Varioli-Piazza, ed., Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study and Conservation of Medieval Textiles. Interim Meeting, Palermo 22-24 Ottobre 1998, Palazzo Steri (Preprints) (Rome, 1998), 44-49; on half-silks, see below, pages 208-9.
69. On these fragments, see O. Shamir and A. Baginski, "Medieval Mediterranean Textiles, Basketry, and Cordage Newly Excavated in Israel," in Y. Lev, ed., Towns and Material Culture in the Medieval Middle East (Leiden, 2002), 135-40 and pl. 1. I wish to thank both authors for supplying me with additional information and enabling me to examine some pieces.
70. Such were possibly the garment that a Jewish bride of Asia Minor received from her mother in 1022 (see below, p. 208) and the secondhand women's garments mentioned in several Jewish marriage contracts drafted in 11th- and 12th-century Egypt, on which see J. Olszowsky-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Documents from the Cairo Geniza. Legal Tradition and Community Life in Mediaeval Egypt and Palestine, Études sur le judaïsme médiéval 20 (Leiden, 1998), 227.
71. Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen. Einführung, Edition, Übersetzung und Indices, ed. and trans. J. Koder, CFHB 33 (Vienna, 1991) (hereafter EB), 90-106, chaps. 4-8.
72. G. C. Maniatis, "Organization, Market Structure, and Modus Operandi of the Private Silk Industry in Tenth-Century Byzantium," DOP 53 (1999): 263-332, is the latest study dealing extensively with the silk guilds of Constantinople.
73. E.g., the Venetian Capitulare samitariorum of 1265, which deals with silk weaving: G. Monticolo and E. Besta, eds., I capitolari delle Arti sottoposte alla Giustizia e poi alla Giustizia Vecchia dalle origini al MCCCXXX, 3 vols. (Rome, 1896-1914), 2:27-38;
74. for Lucca: D. and M. King, "Silk Weaves of Lucca in 1376," in I. Estham and M. Nockert, eds., Opera Textilia Variorum Temporum. To Honour Agnes Geijer on Her Ninetieth Birthday, 26th October 1988 (Stockholm, 1988), 67-76.
75. On Italian cities, see M. G. Muzzarelli, "Seta posseduta e seta consentita: Dalle aspirazioni individuali alle norme santuarie nel basso medioevo," in Molà et al., La seta in Italia (as above, note 3), 211-32;
76. M. G. Muzzarelli, Guardaroba medievale. Vesti e società dal XIII al XVI secolo (Bologna, 1999), 268-85, 306-49.
77. Sumptuary laws offer rich evidence about articles of clothing and fashions. On the association of luxurious feminine clothing with sin, its condemnation, and its limitation, regardless of social stratification, see also D. Owen Hughes, "La mode," in G. Duby and M. Perrot, gen. eds., Histoire des femmes en Occident (Paris, 1990-92), vol. 2, ed. C. Klapisch-Zuber, Le moyen âge, 155-65.
78. Interestingly, some Italian cities, such as Siena in 1343, allowed prostitutes to wear types of clothing prohibited by sumptuary laws, including silks, in the hope that the association would discourage other women from adopting them; the urban legislation of 1444 in Terni limited velvet, a costly silk cloth, as well as silk to the sleeves of women's dresses: see D. Owen Hughes, "Distinguishing Signs: Ear-Rings, Jews and Franciscan Rhetoric in the Italian Renaissance City," Past and Present 112 (1986): 25, 27-28.
79. See also Jacoby, "Dalla materia prima," 269-70,
80. The domestic production of small pieces outside the guild system must also have been common in Constantinople; it will be discussed elsewhere. On silk weaving in Constantinopolitan workshops other than those of guild members, see for the time being Jacoby, "The Jews and the Silk Industry of Constantinople," 3-17.
81. ODB 2: 1005, s.v. "Inventory," and 3:2198, s.v. "Wills." Several Byzantine inventories and wills listing silks have been analyzed by N. Oikonomidès, "The Contents of the Byzantine House from the Eleventh to the Fifteenth Century," DOP 44 (1990): 205-14,
82. repr. in idem, Byzantium from the Ninth Century to the Fourth Crusade. Studies, Texts, Monuments (Aldershot, 1992), no. 8.
83. For the translation of such documents, see J. Thomas and A. Constantinides Hero, eds., Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents. A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders' Typika and Testaments, 5 vols., DOS 35 (Washington, D.C., 2000). A Jewish document from Byzantine Asia Minor, dated 1022, should also be taken into account: see below, p. 208 and note 56.
84. idem, "Silk Crosses the Mediterranean," 62-63; above, note 36.
85. Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 471-78, on Byzantium;
86. See Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 4:150-200 (clothing), 105-32, 297-309 (furnishings of the home);
87. Y. K. Stillman, "Textiles and Patterns Come to Life through the Cairo Geniza," in Islamische Textilkunst (as above, note 23), 35-52;
88. Olszowsky-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Documents, 231-32.
89. J. Lemaistre uses the expression "mobilier textile" in G. Cornu and M. Martiniani-Reber, eds., Tissus d'Égypte, témoins du monde arabe, VIIIe-XVe siècles. Collection Bouvier (Geneva-Paris, 1993), 30-34.
90. See also R. Ettinghausen, "The Man-Made Setting," in B. Lewis, ed., The World of Islam (London, 1976), 71-72, on the importance of textiles and their aesthetic impact on other aspects of Islamic material culture.
91. On their use in Byzantium, see M. G. Parani, Reconstructing the Reality of Images. Byzantine Material Culture and Religious Iconography (11th-15th Centuries) (Leiden-Boston, 2003), 77-78,
92. Constantini Porphyrogeniti imperatoris De ceremoniis aulae byzantine, 2.45, ed. J. J. Reiske, 2 vols. (Bonn, 1829-30), 1:678, lines 4, 7-8.
93. J. F. Haldon, "Theory and Practice in Tenth-Century Military Administration. Chapters II, 44 and 45 of the Book of Ceremonies," TM 13 (2000): 234, translates "silken garments" and "silken leggings," without taking into account the specific nature of the cloth.
94. See D. Jacoby, "What Do We Learn about Byzantine Asia Minor from the Documents of the Cairo Genizah?" in H [= Byzantine Asia Minor (6th-12th cent.)], Institute for Byzantine Research, National Hellenic Foundation (Athens, 1998), 84-86, repr. in idem, Byzantium, Latin Romania and the Mediterranean, no. 1. This was either a double-weave cloth consisting of two different layers woven one above the other or a double-faced weave, both faces of which could be displayed.
95. N. Oikonomidès, ed., Actes de Docheiariou, Archives de l'Athos 13 (Paris, 1984), no. 49, 264, lines 29-30.
96. See mainly Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 249, 255, Index of technical terms, s.vv. "Kandjī," "Mulhcombining dot belowam."
97. See also below, note 64. A Jewish bride in Egypt had a dabīqī hcombining dot belowarīrī dress, according to a document presumably of the 1060s: see Olszowsky-Schlanger, Karaite Marriage Documents, 227. Since dabīqī linen is often mentioned, this must have been a mixed cloth made of silk and linen, not a "silkened" linen dress as stated by that author.
98. See King, "Some Unrecognised Venetian Woven Fabrics," 53-63, esp. 55-56;
99. D. King, "Types of Silk Cloth Used in England 1200-1500," in Cavaciocchi, La seta in Europa (as above, note 23), 459-61, on kanjī, similar to satin, and some Italian samites (on samite, see below, note 165) with linen or hemp warp;
100. M. F. Mazzaoui, The Italian Cotton Industry in the Later Middle Ages, 1100-1600 (Cambridge, 1981), 166 and 199 n. 9;
101. for the blending of silk and linen in 13th-century Spain, see C. Herrero Carretero, Museo de Telas Medievales, Monasterio de Santa Maria la Real de Huelgas (Madrid, 1988). On Venetian and Lucchese half-silks, see also below, p. 230.
102. O. Elsner, "Solution of the Enigmas of Dyeing Tyrian Purple and the Biblical Tekhelet," Dyes in History and Archeology 10 (1992): 14-15.
103. Recent studies appear in O. Longo, ed., La porpora. Realtà e immaginario di un colore simbolico, Atti del Convegno di Studio, Venezia, 24 e 25 ottobre 1996 (Venice, 1998),
104. in D. Cardon, Le monde des teintures naturelles (Paris, 2003), 421-34, 438-49.
105. On shades, see Cardon, Teintures précieuses, 22. On dyeing with genuine purple according to the recipe of Pliny the Elder, see J. E. Doumet, "De la teinture en pourpre des anciens," 46-57.
106. Michel Psellos, Chronographie ou histoire d'un siècle de Byzance (976-1077), ed. E. Renauld, 2 vols. (Paris, 1926-28), 1:20 (bk. 2.31.22-24).
107. A. Carile, "Produzione e usi della porpora nell'impero bizantino," in Longo, La porpora (as above, note 65), 243-69;
108. Michael Choniates, Epistulae, ed. F. Kolovou, CFHB 41 (Berlin-New York, 2001), 222, no. 135, lines 9-10;
109. dating by G. Stadtmüller, "Michael Choniates, Metropolit von Athen (c. 1138-c. 1222)," OC 33.2 = 91 (1934): 260.
110. Evidence in M. Shatzmiller, Labour in the Medieval Islamic World (Leiden, 1994), 101, 103, 119.
111. See Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 493.
112. New ed. of the Arabic text with Hebrew trans. by M. Gil, Erets Israel ba-tequfa ha-muslemit ha-rishona (634-1099) [= Palestine during the First Muslim Period (634-1099)], 3 vols. (Tel Aviv, 1983) [Hebrew], 3:511-14, no. 599, esp. lines 37-38, who dates the document to ca. 1115, whereas the previous editor, S. D. Goitein, ascribed it to ca. 1180.
113. See also Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 493 and n. 232.
114. On its dating and attribution, see D. Jacoby, "A Venetian Manual of Commercial Practice from Crusader Acre," in G. Airaldi and B. Z. Kedar, eds., I comuni italiani nel Regno crociato di Gerusalemme, Collana storica di fonti e studi, diretta da G. Pistarino 48 (Genoa, 1986), 403-28,
115. repr. in D. Jacoby, Studies on the Crusader States and on Venetian Expansion (Northampton, 1989), no. 7.
116. U. Tucci, "Venezia senza porpora," in Longo, La porpora (as above, note 65), 388, stresses
117. Kermes ilicis also belongs to the same group of insects: see D. Cardon, "Le 'ver' du rouge. Essai d'entomologie historique," Cahiers d'histoire et de philosophie des sciences n.s. 28 (1990): 1-178;
118. idem, Le monde des teintures naturelles, 469-83.
119. On kermes and kermes-dyed silks in Byzantium before 1204, see Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 464, 483, 485, 496, 498;
120. D. Jacoby, "The Production of Silk Textiles in Latin Greece," in [= Technology in Latin-Occupied Greece] (Athens, 2000), 26-28.
121. See Cardon, Le monde des teintures naturelles, 503-6;
122. idem, "Du 'verme cremexe' au 'veluto chremesino': Une filière vénitienne du cramoisi au XVe siècle," in Molà et al., La seta in Italia (as above, note 3), 64-73.
123. See Jacoby, "Dalla materia prima," 273 and 298 n. 61.
124. See Cardon, "Du 'verme cremexe'," 71.
125. See L. Molà, The Silk Industry of Renaissance Venice (Baltimore-London, 2000), 111 and 359 n. 10. In order to avoid confusion, note that Molà wrongly applies the term "kermes" to chermisi.
126. On such techniques, see Z. C. Koren, "Microscopic and Chromatographic Analyses of Decorative Band Colors on Nabatean 'En Rahel Textiles - Kermes and Shaded Bands," 'Atiqot 38 (1999): 129-36.
127. Cardon, Teintures précieuses, 105-9, offers examples of Coptic linen fabrics dyed with substitute purple.
128. On this silk and its purple, see A. Muthesius, "A Practical Approach to the History of Byzantine Silk Weaving," JÖB 34 (1984): 241-44, 247, 249
129. repr. in eadem, Studies, 59-60, 63;
130. See M. T. Lucidi, ed., La seta e la sua via (Rome, 1994), 167 and 202, no. 31;
131. A. Jeroussalimskaja, "Soieries sassanides," in Splendeur des Sassanides. L'empire perse entre Rome et la Chine [224-642] (Brussels, 1993), 114, 117-18, who points out that the appellation senmurv is incorrect.
132. Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 460 n. 36;
133. Jacoby, "Silk Crosses the Mediterranean," 61, 64. It has been suggested that the Byzantine term was applied to a specific type of silks to which official seals were attached. This interpretation is excluded, since seals were apparently attached to all the silks manufactured in workshops supervised by the city eparch in Constantinople and presumably by state officials elsewhere in the empire, before these fabrics were marketed. I shall return elsewhere to this issue. Cornu and Martiniani-Reber, "Étoffes et vêtements," 50-51, include silks with square and octagonal motifs in the category of siqlātcombining dot belowūn, yet without any supporting evidence to that effect.
134. See Lucidi, La seta e la sua via, 176 and 208, no. 64.
135. "Textiles in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," BMMA 53 (Winter 1995-96): 36, also published separately (New York, 1995).
136. M. Martiniani-Reber, Lyon, Musée historique des tissus. Soieries sassanides, coptes et byzantines, Ve-XIe siècles (Paris, 1986), 111-13, no. 97.
137. O. Grabar, "The Shared Culture of Objects," in H. Maguire, ed., Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 (Washington, D.C., 1997), 125-29;
138. R. Cormack, "But Is It Art?" in J. Shepard and S. Franklin, eds., Byzantine Diplomacy. Papers from the Twenty-Fourth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Cambridge, March 1990 (Aldershot, 1992), 228-36, at 236, dwells on the role of artistic gifts in diplomatic exchanges;
139. I. Bierman, "Inscribing the City: Fatimid Cairo," in Islamische Textilkunst (as above, note 23), 111-12, argues that in the public space the commodity value of gifts dominated their display value;
140. same argument by P. Sanders, "Robes of Honor in Fatimid Egypt," in S. Gordon, ed., Robes of Honor. The Medieval World of Investiture (New York, 2001), 230-32.
141. A. Cutler, "Gifts and Gift Exchange as Aspects of the Byzantine, Arab, and Related Economies," DOP 55 (2001): 245-51, offers a detailed discussion of these issues.
142. Book of Gifts and Rarities, 100-101, § 73.
143. For what follows, see Cutler, "Gifts and Gift Exchange," 260-78.
144. In this framework it is noteworthy that Byzantine diplomatic envoys sailing between Constantinople and Egypt seem to have mostly used ships engaging in commercial transportation. Alternatively, vessels sent on special missions took on board merchants and their goods, so as to cover partly or entirely the voyage's cost: see D. Jacoby, "Diplomacy, Trade, Shipping and Espionage between Byzantium and Egypt in the Twelfth Century," in C. Scholz and G. Makris, eds.,. Miscellanea für Peter Schreiner zu seinem 60. Geburtstag, ByzArch 19 (Munich-Leipzig, 2000), 84-87, 100-101.
145. Though outside the geographic and chronological range of this paper, a case in point is worth mentioning. After receiving a silk and gold textile from King Hormizd IV of Persia in 581, Emperor Wen-ti of China ordered an expatriate silk weaver from Samarkand to reproduce the fabric: see K. Otavsky, "Zur kunsthistorische Einordnung der Stoffe," in K. Otavsky, ed., Entlang der Seidenstiasse: Frühmittelalterliche Kunst zwischen Persien und China in der Abegg-Stiftung, Riggisberger Berichte 6 (Riggisberg, 1998), 185.
146. This was also the case of silks produced in the royal workshop of Palermo for the Norman court of Sicily: see Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium" (as above, note 6), 463-65;
147. N. Oikonomidès, "Title and Income at the Byzantine Court," in Byzantine Court Culture (as above, note 88), 200-206, 210-12, who assumes that the regular imperial distributions of silks stopped under Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118).
148. On the beginning and spreading of khil'a grants in Muslim courts, see D. Sourdel, "Robes of Honor in 'Abbasid Baghdad during the Eighth to Eleventh Centuries," in Gordon, Robes of Honor (as above, note 88), 138-45;
149. Y. K. Stillman, "The Medieval Islamic Vestimentary System. Evolution and Consolidation," in Kommunikation zwischen Orient und Okzident. Alltag und Sachkultur, SBWien 619 (Vienna, 1994), 293, 298-99;
150. Sanders, "Robes of Honor in Fatimid Egypt," 225-39.
151. On robes of honor and silks in Fātcombining dot belowimid ceremonial, see P. Sanders, Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid Cairo (New York, 1994), 29-30, 83-119, passim.
152. See Sanders, "Robes of Honor in Fatimid Egypt," 231-33, who notes (229) that these robes "were at the site at which economies of prestige value and market value converged"; L. A. Mayer, Mamluk Costume (Geneva, 1952), 56-64.
153. Depictions of robes in R. Ettinghausen, Arab Painting (Geneva, 1977), 65, 77, 97, 107, 114, 116, 118.
154. Baker, Islamic Textiles, 55-56;
155. Shatzmiller, Labour in the Medieval Islamic World, 243-47;
156. J. A. Sokoly, "Towards a Model of Early Islamic Textile Institutions in Egypt," in Islamische Textilkunst (as above, note 23), 115-22, esp. 116 and 120, who also dwells on weaves and quality.
157. A Geniza letter of ca. 1130 mentions robes made of an Indian fabric, which were specifically taken on a maritime voyage for this last purpose: S. D. Goitein, trans., Letters of Medieval Jewish Traders (Princeton, 1973), 181-85, esp. 184, sec. C.
158. See also Goitein, A Meditenanean Society, 1:122, 4:464 n. 248.
159. See Mayer, Mamluk Costume, 56-64.
160. Stillman, "The Medieval Islamic Vestimentary System," 293;
161. Sanders, "Robes of Honor in Fatimid Egypt," 233.
162. E. Ashtor, Histoire des prix et des salaires dans l'Orient médiéval (Paris, 1969), 166, did not take these practices into account when the speculated that the appearance of robes of honor in Geniza trousseaux of the 12th century resulted from the sale of garments by dismissed officials. Such sales obviously occurred.
163. See B. Shoshan, "On Costume and Social History in Medieval Islam," in B. Z. Kedar and A. L. Udovitch, eds., The Medieval Levant. Studies in Memory of Eliyahu Ashtor (1914-1984) = Asian and African Studies 22 (1988): 39-40;
164. S. Blair, "Inscriptions on Medieval Islamic Silks," in Islamische Texlilkunst (as above, note 23), 95-104.
165. Some Egyptian Jews had garments embroidered with their name or with biblical verses in Hebrew script: Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 4: 197-98.
166. On the use of yellow silk, see V. Gervers, "Rags to Riches: Medieval Islamic Textiles," Rotunda 11 (1978/79): 26.
167. See J. O. Voll, "Islam asa Special World System," Journal of World History 5 (1994): 213-26.
168. Al-Idr̄sī, Nuzhat al-Mushtāq fi khtirāq al-Āfāq (Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne par Edrisi), ed. and trans. R. Dozy and M. J. De Goeje (Leiden, 1866), text 197, French trans. 239-40.
169. also Lagardère, "Le ver à soie en Andalus," 99.
170. See F. E. Day, "The Inscription of the Boston 'Baghdad' Silk," Ars Orientalis 1 (1954): 191-94;
171. F. L. May, Silk Textiles of Spain. Eighth to Fifteenth Century (New York, 1957), 11-13, with references to contemporary French literature, 36, 67;
172. L. von Wilckens, Die textilen Künste. Von der Spätantike bis um 1500 (Munich, 1991), 74-75, on German epic poetry of the 12th and early 13th centuries and the attribution of a silk to the city;
173. C. Partearroyo, "Almoravid and Almohad Textiles," in J. D. Dodds, ed., 'Al-'Andalus. The Art of Islamic Spain (New York, 1992), 105-9, 318-22;
174. O. R. Constable, Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain. The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500 (Cambridge, 1994), 145-46, 173-81;
175. Ettinghausen et al., Islamic Art and Architecture, 243, 281-82, and 280, figs. 458-59.
176. For 1201: Genoa, Archivio di Stato, Cartolari Notarili, no. 102, fol. 209v; for 1197
177. G. Jehel, Les Génois en Médilerranée occidentale (fin XIème-début XIVème siècle). Ébauche d'une stratégie pour un empire (Amiens-Paris, 1993), 137.
178. For the background, see Jacoby, "Genoa, Silk Trade and Silk Manufacture," 14-16, 39. On sendal, see below, note 128.
179. French trans. M. Canard, Histoire de la dynastie des H'amdanides de Jazîra et de Syrie, Publications de la Faculté des Lettres d'Alger, ser. 2, 21 (Algiers, 1951), 833-36, esp. 835, § 20;
180. English trans. W. Farag, The Truce of Safar A.H. 359, December-January 969-970, Eleventh Spring Symposium (Birmingham, 1977), 2-5, esp. 4, §20. On sundus, see below, note 128.
181. Th. Bianquis, "Notables ou malandrins d'origine rurale à Damas à l'époque fatimide," BEODam 26 (1973): 207 (French trans.).
182. See Stillman, "The Medieval Islamic Vestimentary System," 299-300;
183. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 4:131, 184-86.
184. Byzantine hoarding including luxury silks: M. F. Hendy, Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy, c. 300-1450 (Cambridge, 1985), 209-20;
185. J.-Cl. Cheynet, "Fortune et puissance de l'aristocratie (Xe-XIIe siècle)," in V. Kravari, J. Lefort, and C. Morrisson, eds., Hommes et richesses dans l'Empire byzantin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1989-91), 2:199-213. On the purchase of foreign silks, see below, and note 119.
186. On the semantic evolution of this term, see Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 458 n. 29.
187. Note the importance attached to silk garments, clearly Islamic, next to gold and silver pieces and aromatics, as one of three components of the booty collected by John Tzimiskes during his Mesopotamian campaign of the early 970s: Leo Diaconus, Historia 10.2, ed. C. Hase (Bonn, 1828), 163, lines 1-7.
188. see Parani, Reconstructing the Reality of Images, 54;
189. Cornu and Martiniani-Reber, "Étoffes et vêtements, " 51-53, and for the cloth esp. 52 n. 35.
190. Theophanes Continuatus, Vita Basilii 5.74, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838), 318, lines 13-15.
191. Book of Gifts and Rarities, 101, §73 and 109, §82.
192. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles, 56, 63, 158, 159, has misinterpreted the reference to a piece of green gold-embroidered sundus as a definition of the fabric, which he considers to be a green brocade. The recent translator of the Book of Gifts and Rarities (see above, note 83), 437, speaks of a thin brocade. However, the treaty of 969/70, on which see above, note 113, distinguishes between sundus and brocade and various sources mention colors other than green; see for instance the description of sundus in the first list of gifts mentioned above, note 127. Sendes/sundus (Latin cendatum and other versions, English sendal, French cendal, Italian zendado) was a lightweight cloth in tabby weave: see D. King, "Types of Silk Cloth Used in England 1200-1500," in Cavaciocchi, La seta in Europa (as above, note 23), 458-59.
193. For the dating of this text, see A. Miquel, La géographie du monde musulman jusqu'au milieu du 11e siècle, 4 vols. (Paris-La Haye, 1967-88), 1: 110-11, 332-33.
194. Abu qalamūn appears to derive From Greek, "striped" cloth: R. Dozy, Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, 2d ed. (Paris, 1927), 1:9;
195. Nāscombining dot belower-e Khosraw's Book of Travels (Safamāma), trans. W. M. Thackston, Jr. (Albany, N.Y., 1986), 39.
196. See Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 1:46, 4:167, 191, 315, 320, 329-30. Mandīl al-wajh designated a face veil;
197. To be sure, in the period examined here "Rūm" was applied both to Byzantines and western Christians: see D. Jacoby, "Byzantine Trade with Egypt from the Mid-Tenth Century to the Fourth Crusade," Thesaurismata 30 (2000): 27-29.
198. Yet the well-documented context of imports of Byzantine textiles into the Muslim Middle East clearly points to the Byzantine origin of fabrics and clothing items called "Rūmī," all the more so since western imports are not recorded before 1283, when the Senate of Venice authorized the shipment of Venetian samites to Alexandria: R. Cessi, ed., Deliberazioni del Maggior Consiglio di Venezia, 3 vols. (Bologna, 1931-50), 3:32-33, §76.
199. On costly and decorated kerchiefs, see Baker, Islamic Textiles, 41.
200. Kerchiefs were also included in 1022 in the trousseau of a Jewish bride of Byzantine Asia Minor, already mentioned above: see Jacoby, "What Do We Learn about Byzantine Asia Minor," 85.
201. On the bathrobe, see Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 4:415-16 n. 311 and 452 n. 36.
202. Evidence in Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 4:191, 323, 324. Goitein wrongly assumed that both were "European," i.e., of western origin or in western style, yet see above, note 132.
203. Ed. Z. Falk, "From the Cairo Genizah," Sinai 85 (1979): 147-48 (Hebrew);
204. On the exchange of motifs and ornamental patterns between textiles and other artistic media, see L. W. Mackie, "Toward an Understanding of Mamluk Silks: National and International Considerations," Muqarnas 2 (1984): 143-44; Ettinghausen, as above, note 52; and below, note 195.
205. See Jacoby, "Genoa, Silk Trade and Silk Manufacture," 29-31, 37-39.
206. Evidence for Egypt in Goitein, A Mediterranean Society, 1: 106-7,
207. for the terms, see Shatzmiller, Labour in the Medieval Islamic World, 119-23, 243.
208. See Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 482 n. 169, based on a new reading of the relevant Geniza document.
209. See L. Molà, La comunità dei Lucchesi a Venezia. Immigrazione e industria della seta nel tardo medioevo, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Memorie, Classe di Scienze Morali, Lettere ed Arti 53 (Venice, 1994), 159-60, who assumes that the dyer acquired the expertise in Persia; yet Christian Armenia, one of the principal sources of cochineal exported to the Christian West, appears far more likely.
210. For the approximate dating of his visit, see D. Jacoby, "Benjamin of Tudela in Byzantium," in P. Schreiner and O. Strakhov, eds., Essays Presented to Ihor Ševčenko on His Eightieth Birthday by His Colleagues and Students (Cambridge, Mass., 2002) = Palaeoslavica 10.1 (2002): 180-83.
211. See D. Jacoby, "The Jews of Constantinople and Their Demographic Hinterland," in C. Mango and G. Dagron, eds., Constantinople and Its Hinterland. Papers from the Twenty-Seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993 (Aldershot, 1995), 223-26,
212. repr. in Jacoby, Byzantium, Latin Romania and the Mediterranean, no. 4.
213. See Jacoby, "The Jews of Constantinople," 223-28.
214. See Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 485, 487.
215. On the abjuration of Islam in Byzantium, see A. Rigo, "Una formula inedita d'abiura per i musulmani (fine X-inizi XI secolo)," RSBN n.s. 29 (1992): 163-71, who suggests that the formula was related to the Byzantine offensive in eastern Asia Minor and Syria in the late 10th-early 11th century, mentioned above.
216. However, there must have been earlier formulae for Muslim prisoners accepting baptism, regardless of their social status. Constantini Porphyrogeniti imperatoris De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae, 2.49, ed. Reiske, 2: 694-95, deals only with the conversion of high-ranking Muslims around the mid-10th century.
217. The author did not visit Constantinople and does not mention his sources of information, yet his account appears nevertheless credible: al-Muqaddasī, Ahcombining dot belowsan al-taqāsīm fi ma'rifat al-aqālim, ed. M. J. de Goeje, Biblioteca Geographica Arabicorum 3 (Leiden, 1906), 147-48;
218. French trans. in A.A. Vasiliev and M. Canard, Byzance et les Arabes (Brussels, 1935-50), 2.2:423;
219. inaccurate English translation or rather paraphrase by B. A. Collins, reviewed by M. Hamid al-Tai, in al-Muqaddasī, The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions (Reading, 1994), 135.
220. Two Muslim goldsmiths were nevertheless among the prisoners exchanged in 860: al-Tcombining dot belowabarī, Ta'rīkh al-rusul wa'l-mulūk, ed. M.J. de Goeje, 15 vols. (Leiden, 1879-1901), 2:1451,
221. trans. J. L. Kraemer, The History of al-Tcombining dot belowabarī (Ta'rīkh al-rusul wa'l-mulūk), vol. 34 (Albany, N. Y., 1985), 170.
222. He was followed by E. H. Freshfield, Ordinances of Leo VI c. 895 from the Book of the Eparch (Cambridge, 1938), 26, who translates "foreman craftsman." See also Maniatis, "Organization," 294.
223. See R. Bauer in M. D'Onofrio, ed., I Normanni, popolo d'Europa 1030-1200 (Venice, 1994), 279-90.
224. idem, "Seide und seidene Textilien," 63-64. Samite (from Byzantine Greek, "six-threaded") was a rather heavy, strong, and glossy silk cloth in twill weave based on a weave unit of six threads.
225. On the embroidery and its dating, see T. Al Salman, "Arabische Inschriften auf den Krönungsgewändern des Heiligen Römischen Reiches" JbKSWien 78 (1982): 31-34.
226. Yet for a new reading of the inscription, see J. Johns, "Die arabischen Inschriften der Normannenkönige Siziliens: eine Neuinterpretation," in Seipel, Nobiles Officinae, 48-49. Even recently scholars dealing with the mantle have not always distinguished between the cloth, the manufacturing of the cape, and the latter's embroidered decoration and inscription, executed after King Roger's coronation in 1130.
227. See Jacoby, "Silk in Western Byzantium," 462-67 and n. 80,
228. idem, "Seide und seidene Textilien," 64-65.
229. La Historia o Liber de Regno Sicilie e la epistola ad Petrum Panormitane ecclesie thesaurarium di Ugo Falcando, 2d ed., ed. G. B. Siragusa, FStI Scrittori secolo XII, 22 (Rome, 1897), 178-80.
230. See T. T. Allsen, Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire (Cambridge, 1997), 30-45, and below, p. 231 and note 195.
231. See Allsen, Commodity and Exchange, 11-26, 102-4;
232. T. T. Allsen, "Robing in the Mongolian Empire," in Gordon, Robes of Honor (as above, note 88), 305-13.
233. M. McCormick, Origins of the European Economy. Communications and Commerce, AD 300-900 (Cambridge, 2001), 285, 719-28.
234. idem, "Genoa, Silk Trade and Silk Manufacture," 11-40.
235. See Jacoby, "Silk Crosses the Mediterranean," 66, 71;
236. P. Mainoni, "La seta in Italia fra XII e XIII secolo: Migrazioni artigiane e tipologie seriche," in Molà et al., La seta in Italia (as above, note 3), 379-80.
237. Mainoni, "La seta in Italia fra XII e XIII secolo," 372-77, 381, is still somewhat hesitant to dismiss the role of the Jews in the initial phase of the Lucchese silk industry.
238. See B. Tietzel, Italienische Seidengewebe des 13., 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts (Cologne, 1984), 58;
239. von Wilckens, Die textilen Künste, 111, who, however, fails to clarify the nature and practical aspects of that impetus. On Genoese imports of silks from Islamic Spain, see above, p. 218.
240. See M. F. Mazzaoui, "The Emigration of Veronese Textile Artisans to Bologna in the Thirteenth Century," Atti e memorie della Accademia di agricoltura, scienze e lettere di Verona ser. 6, 19 (1967-68): 2-6, 40, 43-45, nos. 60, 67-69, 123-24, 127-35;
241. Mainoni, "La seta in Italia fra XII e XIII secolo," 382-83.
242. See Molà, La comunità dei Lucchesi, 24-31;
243. Note that some Byzantine glass painters arrived in Venice from unknown locations in the empire in the late 13th century: see A. E. Laiou, "Venice as a Center of Trade and Artistic Production in the Thirteenth Century," in H. Belting, ed., Il Medio Oriente e l'Occidente nell'arte del XIII secolo, Atti del XXIV Congresso Internazionale di Storia dell'Arte, Bologna, 1975 (Bologna, 1982), 2:14-15, 18-19.
244. On the exotic element, see briefly D. Jacoby, "Nuovi e mutevole orizzonti: Verso ed oltre l'Oriente mediterraneo," in G. Ortalli, ed., Storia d'Europa, vol. 3. Il Medioevo (Turin, 1994), 1187-88.
245. See D. Jacoby, "Il ruolo di Acri nel pellegrinaggio a Gerusalemme," in M. S. Calò Mariani, ed., Il cammino di Gerusalemme (Atti del II Convegno Internazionale di Studio, Bari-Brindisi-Trani, 18-22 maggio 1999) (Rotte mediterranee della cultura 2) (Bari, 2002), 31-50;
246. D. Jacoby, "Society, Culture and the Arts in Crusader Acre," in D. H. Weiss, ed., France and the Holy Land: Frankish Culture at the End of the Crusades (Baltimore, 2004), 97-137.
247. On 12th- and 13th-century trade between the Levantine coast and its Muslim hinterland, see D. Jacoby, "Mercanti genovesi e veneziani e le loro merci nel Levante crociato," in Genova, Venezia, il Levante nei secoli XII-XIV, Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Genova-Venezia, 10-14 marzo 2000, ed. G. Ortalli and D. Puncuh = Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria n.s. 41 (115.1) (2001): 233-36.
248. Raschid-Eldin, Histoire des Mongols de la Perse, ed. and trans. E. Quatremère (Paris, 1836), 337-39, reports that the Il-Khan of Persia, Hülagü, deported artisans from Aleppo after capturing the city in 1260, yet does not specify in which crafts they worked.
249. On Syrian refugees, see Jacoby, "Mercanti genovesi e veneziani," 234.
250. Molinier, "Inventaire du trésor du Saint Siège," BEC 46 (1885): 30-32, respectively nos. 951, 973 and 965, 968, 969, 975. On these two types of textiles, see above, notes 62 and 108.
251. See Wardwell, "Panni Tartarici," 95-173;
252. J. C. Y. Watt, "A Note on Artistic Exchanges in the Mongol Empire," in L. Komaroff and S. Carboni, eds., The Legacy of Genghis Khan. Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353 (New York, 2002), 62-73;
253. The grants are recorded in an undated document edited by G. Soranzo, "Acquisti e debiti di Bela IV re d'Ungheria," Aevum 8 (1934): 348-56.
254. L. Zolnay, "István ifjabb kiråly számadasa 1264-böl," Budapest Régiségei (Budapesti Történeti Múzeum) 21 (1964): 79-111 (Hungarian), has identified the grantor as the king's son, the places at which the grants were made, and the latter's beneficiaries, from which the date proposed here has been deduced. I wish to thank Nora Berend, Cambridge University, for kindly supplying information found in that study.
255. She briefly deals with other aspects of the document in her book At the Gate of Christendom. Jews, Muslims and "Pagans" in Medieval Hungary, c. 1000-c. 1300 (Cambridge, 2001 ), 115, 144-45. Wardwell (as in previous note) was not aware of this testimony when dealing with "Tartar cloths," nor of the one regarding Acre adduced below.
256. Soranzo, "Acquisti e debiti," 348 n. 1, identifies the author of the list of grants with a merchant of Zara documented in that city in 1266. Venetian imports of silks to Zara were exempted from taxes by virtue of an agreement concluded in 1217 between King Andreas II of Hungary and Venice, which despite some incidents in later years remained valid in the reign of Bela IV (1235-70), the period in which the "Tartar cloths" were purchased. However, it is also possible that the merchant from Zara purchased the silks in Venice at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, where Hungarian merchants enjoyed the same privilege. On the agreement and its validity in both Zara and Venice, see A. Schaube, Handelsgeschichte der romanischen Völker des Mittelmeergebiets bis zum Ende der Kreuzzüge (Munich, 1906), 453-55,
257. G. Rösch, Venedig und das Reich. Handels- und verkehrspolitische Beziehungen in der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom 53 (Tübingen, 1982), 91-92. On the Venetian handling of "Tartar" fabrics, see also below.
258. A. M. Chazaud, ed., "Inventaire et comptes de la succession d'Eudes, comte de Nevers (Acre 1266)," Mémoires de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France 32 (1871): 187, 191, 203, 206.
259. See Jacoby, "Mercanti genovesi e veneziani," 219-20.
260. C. Dehaisnes, ed., Documents et extraits divers concernant l'histoire de l'art dans la Flandre, l'Artois et le Hainaut avant le XVe siècle (Lille, 1886), 71, 75.
261. E. Molinier, "Inventaire du trésor du Saint Siège," BEC 46 (1885): 20, 26-35, 40-44; BEC 47 (1886): 647, 652-53, 662, BEC 49 (1888): 228.
262. Papal purchases of silks were not unusual. In 1262 Pope Urban IV ordered the acquisition of forty or more pieces of high-quality samite produced in Greece for a total of 2,000 hyperpers: J. Guiraud, ed., Les registres d'Urbain IV (1261-1264): Recueil des bulles de ce pape, 4 vols. (Paris, 1901-58), 1:16-17, no. 66.
263. On this mission, see K. M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571), vol. 1, The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (Philadelphia, 1976), 146-47.
264. Guiscardo de' Bastari, scion of a Florentine family, arrived in 1300 at the court of Pope Boniface VIII as the envoy of the khan of Persia. According to an 18th-century author, he as well as a large number of those who accompanied him wore clothes in Tartar fashion: see L. Petech, "Les marchands italiens dans l'empire mongol," JA 250 (1962): 566 and 573 n. 70. Such a display may have bolstered the demand for "Tartar cloths."
265. See Wardwell, "Panni Tartarici," 109, 111.
266. Partial list in Wardwell, "Panni Tartarici," 144.
267. Additional references in V. Gay, Glossaire archéologique du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance, 2 vols. (Paris, 1887), 1:584-85, from 1295 onward;
268. J.-M. Richard, Une petite nièce de Saint-Louis. Mahaut, comtesse d'Artois et de Bourgogne (1302-1329). Étude sur la vie privée, les arts et l'industrie, en Artois et à Paris au commencement du XIVe siècle (Paris, 1887), 395, drap de Tarze in 1315;
269. Dehaisnes, Documents, 1:243, drap de soie de Tarse in 1322;
270. L. Monnas, "Textiles for the Coronation of Edward III," Textile Histoty 32 (2001): 4-5, dated 1331-33.
271. The identification suggested here rules out other attributions by Wardwell, "Panni Tartarici," 134, who refers to Uighur territories, the region of Turkestan-Mongolia, and by Monnas, "Textiles for the Coronation," 4, who considers these silks as having a weave similar to Chinese silks.
272. L. Douët-d'Arcq, ed., Nouveau recueil de comptes de l'argenterie des rois de France (Paris, 1874), 2;
273. Marco Polo, Il Milione, ed. L. F. Benedetto (Florence, 1928), p. 18, §XXV;
274. Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura, 23, 36, 79, 139, 216, and 423, Index of commodities, s.v. "nacchetti," "nacchi";
275. W. Heyd, Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen âge, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1885-86), 2:698-99.
276. L. Monnas, "Textiles for the Coronation," 3-4, considers both types one variety, and since Pegolotti (as above), 23, 216, twice mentions nachetti di seta e d'oro (thus specifying the nature of these textiles) that some were woven without gold. Neither of these assumptions is warranted.
277. A. Van den Wyngaert, ed., Sinica franciscana, I. Itinera et relationes Fratrum Minorum saeculi XIII et XIV (Quaracchi-Florence, 1929), 259 (chap. XXIX, §21), 298 (chap. XXXIV, §2). See previous note for the fourteenth century.
278. Douët-d'Arcq, Nouveau recueil de comptes, 8-9, 13, 18;
279. see also Monnas, "Textiles for the Coronation," 3-4.
280. Cessi, Deliberazioni del Maggior Consiglio di Venezia, 3:32, §76: xamittos et drapos omnes sete ultramarinos.
281. Dehaisnes, Documents, 123;
282. L. Balletto, ed., Notai genovesi in Oltramare. Atti rogati a Laiazzo da Federico di Piazzalunga (1274) e Pietro di Bargone (1277, 1279), Collana storica di fonti e studi diretta da Geo Pistarino 53 (Genoa, 1989), 155-56, notary Federico di Piazzalunga, no. 40.
283. E. Pallavicino, ed., I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 1.7, Fonti per la storia della Liguria 15, Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato, Fonti 35 (Genoa, 2001), 74-77, esp. 76, no. 1188.
284. "Inventarium thesauri Ecclesiae Romanae apud Perusium asservati iussu Clementis Papae V factum anno MCCCXI," in Regesti Clementis papae V Appendices 1 (Rome, 1892), 422.
285. S. Desrosiers, Soieries et autres textiles de l'Antiquité au XVIe siècle, catalogue of the Musée national du Moyen Âge - Thermes de Cluny (Paris, 2004), p. 256, no. 136.
286. L. Monnas, "Silk Cloths Purchased for the Great Wardrobe of the Kings of England, 1325-1462," Textile History 20 (1989): 296.
287. See R. E. Mack, Bazaar to Piazza. Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600 (Berkeley, 2002), 35.
288. On "Tartar" silks in that painting, see L. Monnas, "Dress and Textiles in the St. Louis Altarpiece: New Light on Simone Martini's Working Practice," Apollo (March 1993): 166-74;
289. See G. Petralia, "I Toscani nel Mezzogiorno medievale: Genesi ed evoluzione trecentesca di una relazione di lungo periodo," in S. Gensini, ed., La Toscana nel secolo XIV. Caratteri di una civiltà regionale (Pisa, 1988), 288-317.
290. See H. Tanaka, "Oriental Scripts in the Paintings of Giotto's Period," GBA, 6e période, 113, 131e année (1989): 214-26;
291. idem, "La testimonianza estremorientale nella pittura italiana nell'epoca di Giotto," in Lucidi, La seta e la sua via, 129-32.
292. See P. Toynbee, "Tartar Cloths (Inferno, XVII, 14-17),"
293. Romania 29 (1900): 559-64, yet contrary to this author, the texts point to woven and not to embroidered designs.
294. See Monnas, "Silk Cloths," 296-304.
295. D. and M. King, "Silk Weaves of Lucca in 1376," 67-76.
296. See D. Jacoby, "The Silk Trade of Late Byzantine Constantinople," in S. Atasoy, ed., 550th Anniversary of the Istanbul University International Byzantine and Ottoman Symposium (15th century) (Istanbul, May 30-31, 2003) (Istanbul, 2004), 140-42;
297. D. Jacoby, "Dall'oriente all'Italia. Commerci di stoffe preziose nel Duecento e nel primo Trecento," in S. Pezzo, ed., Cangrande della Scala. La morte e il corredo di un principe nel medioevo europeo, catalogue of exhibition, Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona (Verona, 2004), 143-51.
298. Wardwell, "Flight of the Phoenix," 2-35, esp. 16-17, 23-29;
299. eadem, "Panni Tartarici," 102, 113-15;
300. von Wilckens, Die textilen Künste, 113-17;
301. Mack, Bazaar to Piazza, 35-45.
302. On the other hand, Italian silks appear to have exerted little influence on the patterns of Mamlūk silks: see Mackie, "Toward an Understanding of Mamluk Silks," 140.
303. See Wardwell, "Panni Tartarici," 96, 115-17.
304. N. Indictor, R.J. Koestler, C. Blair, and A. E. Wardwell, "The Evaluation of Metal Wrappings from Medieval Textiles Using Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectometry," Textile History 19 (1988): 3-17.
305. later and more convincing dating by R. H. Bautier, "La place de la draperie brabançonne et plus particulièrement bruxelloise dans l'industrie textile du Moyen Age," Annales de la Société Royale d'Archéologie de Bruxelles, volume jubilaire (Brussels, 1962): 35-36, esp. 36 n. 1
306. in idem, Sur l'histoire économique de la France médiévale. La route, le fleuve, la foire (London, 1991), no. 10.
307. Silver gilt embroidery is mentioned in the papal inventory of 1295 as de argento tracticio deaurato: Molinier, "Inventaire du trésor du Saint Siège," BEC 46 (1885): 20-21, no. 830.
308. See L. Blancard, ed., Documents inédits sur le commerce de Marseille au moyen-âge, 2 vols. (Marseilles, 1884-85), 1:293, no. 77; 1:337, no. 173; 1:344, no. 190; 1:373-74, no. 265; 1:382-83, no. 288; 2:56-57, no. 478; 2:78-79, no. 523; 2:82-83, no. 532; 2:87-88, no. 543 (600 canoni or bobbins shipped by a single merchant); 2:110-11, nos. 588-89; 2:133, no. 646.
309. See also below, note 232. On Genoese gold threads, see W. N. Bonds, "Genoese Noblewomen and Gold Thread Manufacturing," MedHum 17 (1966): 79-81;
310. S. A. Epstein, "Labour in Thirteenth Century Genoa," Mediterranean Historical Review 3 (1988): 121, 130.
311. also L. Brenni, L'arte del battiloro ed i filati d'oro e d'argento (Milan, 1930), 44-47.
312. L. Balletto, ed., "Fonti notarili genovesi del secondo Duecento per la storia del Regno latino di Gerusalemme," in Airaldi and Kedar, I comuni italiani (as above, note 72), 277-78, no. 24.
313. Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura, 71, whose trade manual was drafted in the 1330s, has an erroneous and incomplete version of the same specifications: "ciascuna matassa de essere lunga fila 240, e ciascuno filo de essere lungo . [figure missing]." For the calculation of the Venetian gold pound, see Tarifa zoè noticia dy pexi e mexure, 14, 68,
314. the modern equivalents in J. E. Dotson, Merchant Culture in Fourteenth-Century Venice. The Zibaldone da Canal, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 98 (Binghamton, N. Y., 1994), 205.
315. Pallavicino, ed., I Libri iurium della Repubblica di Genova, 1.7, 78-83, esp. 80, no. 1189;
316. Pegolotti, La practica della mercatura, 71.
317. Molinier, "Inventaire du trésor du Saint Siège," BEC 47 (1886): 654, no. 1289: aurum cyprense; 657, no. 1369: aurum cyprense filatum.
318. For Paris: Douët-d'Arcq, "Tarif des marchandises," 224, "la douzaine d'or de Chippre," a reference to bobbins. For the dating, see above, p. 236.
319. Pegolotti, La pratica della mercatura, 58, 69, 91, 101: export of gold thread from Cyprus with conversion of Cypriot weight figures into those of these eastern Mediterranean localities.
320. See G. Fagniez, Études sur l'industrie et la classe industrielle à Palis au XIIIe et au XIVe siècle (Paris, 1877), 228 and n. 8.
321. This possibility was already envisaged by L. Monnas, "The Cloth of Gold of the Pourpoint of the Blessed Charles de Blois: A Pannus Tartaricus?" CIETA 70 (1992): 122.
322. L. Monnas, "Loom Widths and Selvedges Prescribed by Italian Silk Weaving Statutes 1265-1512: A Preliminary Investigation," CIETA 66 (1988): 35-44.
323. See Mazzaoui, The Italian Cotton Industry, 82-85.
324. Around 1270 Montpellier imported raw silk from no less than eleven different regions of the eastern Mediterranean and beyond: see Jacoby, "A Venetian Manual of Commercial Practice," 416-17. The complex trading patterns of gold threads have been discussed above.