of silk was also very rare in other parts of Europe, being probably practised only as a recreation and accomplishment for ladies. But in the year 1148 Roger I., King of Sicily, having taken the cities of Corinth, Thebes, and Athens, thus got into his power a great number of silk-weavers, took them away with the implements and materials necessary for the exercise of their art, and forced them to reside at Palermo[1]. Nicetas Choniates[2], referring to the same event, speaks of these artisans as of both sexes, and remarks that in his time those who went to Sicily might see the sons of Thebans and Corinthians employed in weaving velvet stoles interwoven with gold, and serving like the Eretrians of old among the Persians[3].
We find in the writings of Ingulphus several curious accounts of vestments of silk, interwoven with eagles and flowers of gold. This author, in his history, mentions that among other gifts made by Witlaf, king of Mercia, to the abbey of Croyland, he presented a golden curtain, embroidered with the siege of Troy, to be hung up in the church on his birth-*day[4]. At a later period, 1155, a pair of richly worked sandals, and three mitres, the work of Christina, abbess of Markgate, were among the valuable souvenirs presented by Robert, abbot of St. Albans, to Pope Adrian IV.[5].
- ↑ Otto Frisingen, Hist. Imp. Freder. l. i. c. 33. in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. vi. p. 668.
- ↑ In Manuel Comnenus, l. ii. c. 8., tom. xii. of the Scriptores Hist. Byzantinæ, p. 51. ed. Ven.
- ↑ Hugo Falcandus, who visited this manufactory A. D. 1169, represents it as being then in the most flourishing condition, producing great quantities of silks, both plain and figured, of many different colors, and enriched with gold
- ↑ Ingulphus, p. 487, edit. 1596.
- ↑ Adrian IV., was the only Englishman that ever sat in St. Peters chair. His name was Nicolas Breakspear: he was born of poor parents at Langley, near St. Albans. Henry II., on his promotion to the papal chair, sent a deputation of an abbot and three bishops to congratulate him on his election; upon which occasion he granted considerable privileges to the abbey of St. Albans. With the exception of the presents named above, he refused all the other valuable ones which were offered him, saying jocosely,—"I will not accept your gifts, because when I wished to take the habit of your monastery you refused me." To which the abbot pertinently and smartly replied,—"It was not for us to oppose the will of Providence, which had destined you for greater things."
