n annually for the prizes at the horse races in Florence. The
Corsini family, who have for many generations and for hundreds of
years competed in these races, had, in their princely palace at Rome,
a room entirely hung with the silk of these gorgeous banners.

In Hungary, Queen Gisela, in the eleventh century, established looms
for weaving silk; and many convents throughout Europe and in England
wove silken tissues for the service of the Church, till the great
manufactures absorbed these partially private enterprises.[271]

Individual exertion produced copies, or motives that are taken from
Eastern, Southern, or Northern inspirations; but it is only in large
national schools of arts or crafts that an absolutely recognizable
style becomes apparent. For example, the early French silks from
monastic establishments are not remarkable for either style or texture
till the sixteenth century, when they came to the front as a national
manufacture, and have held the highest place in silk-weaving ever
since.

The Flemish towns of Ypres, Ghent, and Mechlin were known for their
silken webs in the thirteenth century, and at that time innumerable
small schools of the craft seem to have covered Europe. They are
constantly named in the lists of fine furnishings in Germany. In
England, France, and Germany, as well as in the Low Countries, each
convent had, besides its silk-weaving looms, its workshops for
embroideries on silk, woollens, and linens, borrowing from the
Byzantine Empire, Sicily, and Spain, their designs and patterns.

About this time (the thirteenth century), Marco Polo resided and
travelled in Asia. He visited the principal cities of Syria, Persia,
Khotan, and Cathay, and from him we have information of the different
Asiatic textiles, generally bearing the name of the city where they
were woven. He names, for instance, the mediaeval "baudas" and
"baudakin" (with endless modifications in the spelling), from Baghdad.
This afterwards gave the word baldachino to the awning or canopy over
the altar, which it retained even when textiles had given place to
marbles and mosaics.[272]

Satin is only found named in catalogues about the fourteenth century.
But the dalmatic of Charlemagne, at Rome, is embroidered on a stout
blue satin, and has never been transferred; and at Constantinople,
Baldwin II., at his coronation in 1204, was shod and clothed in
vermilion satin embroidered with jewels; while all the Venetian and
French bar