thread was thought
sufficient for ordinary sale; but the union of six threads composed
a piece of stronger and more costly workmanship. Among the colors,
he celebrates, with affectation of eloquence, the fiery blaze of the
scarlet, and the softer lustre of the green. The embroidery was raised
either in silk or gold: the more simple ornament of stripes or circles
was surpassed by the nicer imitation of flowers: the vestments that were
fabricated for the palace or the altar often glittered with precious
stones; and the figures were delineated in strings of Oriental pearls.
Till the twelfth century, Greece alone, of all the countries of
Christendom, was possessed of the insect who is taught by nature, and of
the workmen who are instructed by art, to prepare this elegant luxury.
But the secret had been stolen by the dexterity and diligence of the
Arabs: the caliphs of the East and West scorned to borrow from the
unbelievers their furniture and apparel; and two cities of Spain,
Almeria and Lisbon, were famous for the manufacture, the use, and,
perhaps, the exportation, of silk. It was first introduced into Sicily
by the Normans; and this emigration of trade distinguishes the victory
of Roger from the uniform and fruitless hostilities of every age. After
the sack of Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, his lieutenant embarked with a
captive train of weavers and artificers of both sexes, a trophy glorious
to their master, and disgraceful to the Greek emperor. The king of
Sicily was not insensible of the value of the present; and, in the
restitution of the prisoners, he excepted only the male and female
manufacturers of Thebes and Corinth, who labor, says the Byzantine
historian, under a barbarous lord, like the old Eretrians in the service
of Darius. A stately edifice, in the palace of Palermo, was erected for
the use of this industrious colony; and the art was propagated by their
children and disciples to satisfy the increasing demand of the western
world. The decay of the looms of Sicily may be ascribed to the troubles
of the island, and the competition of the Italian cities. In the year
thirteen hundred and fourteen, Lucca alone, among her sister republics,
enjoyed the lucrative monopoly. A domestic revolution dispersed
the manufacturers to Florence, Bologna, Venice, Milan, and even the
countries beyond the Alps; and thirteen years after this event the
statutes of Modena enjoin the planting of mulberry-trees, and regulate
the dutie