The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

AFTER ITS FIRST INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE, 79
Without digressing from oiir subject to question the right
of the royal marauder thus tyrannously to sever these unoffending
artisans from the ties of country and of kindred, we
may yet be allowed to express some satisfaction at the consequences
of his cruelty. It is well for the interests of humanity
that blessings, although unsought and remote, do sometimes
follow in the train of conquest ; that wars are not always hm-
ited in their results to the exaltation of one individual, the
downfall of another, the slaughter of thousands, and misery
of milUons, but occasionally prove tiie harbingers of peaceful
arts, heralds of science, and in short deliverers from the yoke
of slavery or superstition.
In twenty years from this forcible establishment of the man-
ufacture, the silks of Sicily are described as having attained a
decided excellence ;
as being of diversified patterns and colors
some fancifully intervv^oven with gold—tastefully embellished
with figures ; and others richly adorned with pearls. The in-
dustry and ingenuity thus called forth, could not fail to exer-
cise a beneficial influence over the character and condition of
the Sicilians.
From Palermo the manufacture of silk extended itself
through all parts of Italy and into Spain. We learn from
Roger de Hoveden, that the manufacture flourished at Alme-
ria in Grenada about A. D. 1190*.
FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
According to Nicholas Tegrinit, the silk manufacture after-
wards flourished in Lucca ; and the weavers, having been
ejected from that city in the earlier part of tlie fourtcentli cen-
tury, carried their art to Venice, Florence, Milan, Bologna, and
even to Germany, France, and Britain.
We have seen from different historical testimonies, that silk
was known to the inhabitants of France and England as early
as the sixth century. The fact of its introduction into all parts
* " Deinde per nobilem civitatem, qua; dicitur Almaria, ubi fit nobile sericum et
delicatum, quod dicitur sericum do Almaria." Scriptores post Bedam, p. 671.
t Vita Castniccii, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scriptores, t. xi. p. 1320.
;