Albert Museum, under such trade titles as “brocade lutstring, brocade tabby, brocade tissue, brocade damask, brocade satin, Venetian brocade, and India figured brocade.” Brocading in China seems to be of considerable antiquity, and Dr Bushell in his valuable handbook on Chinese art cites a notice of five rolls of brocade with dragons woven upon a crimson ground, presented by the emperor Ming Ti of the Wei dynasty, in the year A.D. 238, to the reigning empress of Japan; and varieties of brocade patterns are recorded as being in use during the Sung dynasty (960–1279).
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| Fig. 4.—Piece of blue satin brocaded with gold threads. The unit of the pattern is a symmetrical arrangement of fantastic birds, vine leaves and curving stems. The bird shapes are remotely related to, if not derived from, the Chinese mystical “fonghoang.” North Italian weaving of the 14th century; about 11 in. square. |
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| Fig. 5.—Piece of crimson silk damask brocaded in gold thread with symmetrically arranged flowers, scrolls, birds, &c. Italian (?Florentine). Late 17th century; about 2 ft. 6 in. long. |
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| Fig. 6.—Piece of pink silk brocaded in silver and white and coloured silks. French middle 18th century; about 15 in. square. |
The first edition of an illustrated work upon tillage and weaving was published in China in 1210, and contains an engraving of a loom constructed to weave flowered-silk brocades such as are woven at the present time at Suchow and Hangchow and elsewhere. On the other hand, although they are described usually as brocades, certain specimens of imperial Chinese robes sumptuous in ornament, sheen of coloured silks and the glisten of golden threads, are woven in the tapestry-weaving manner and without any floating threads. It seems reasonable to infer that Persians and Syrians derived the art of weaving brocades from the Chinese, and as has been indicated, passed it on to Saracens as well as Europeans. (A. S. C.)
BROCCHI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1772–1826), Italian mineralogist and geologist, was born at Bassano on the 18th of February 1772. He studied at the university of Pisa, where his attention was turned to mineralogy and botany. In 1802 he was appointed professor of botany in the new lyceum of Brescia; but he more especially devoted himself to geological researches in the adjacent districts. The fruits of these labours appeared in different publications, particularly in his Trattato mineralogico e chemico sulle miniere di ferro del dipartimento del Mella (1808)—treatise on the iron mines of Mella. These researches procured him the office of inspector of mines in the recently established kingdom of Italy, and enabled him to extend his investigations over great part of the country. In 1811 he produced a valuable essay entitled Memoria mineralogica sulla Valle di Fassa in Tirolo; but his most important work is the Conchiologia fossile subapennina con osservazioni geologiche sugli Apennini, e sul suolo adiacente (2 vols., 4to, Milan, 1814), containing accurate details of the structure of the Apennine range, and an account of the fossils of the Italian Tertiary strata compared with existing species. These subjects were further illustrated by his geognostic map, and his Catalogo ragionato di una raccolta di rocce, disposto con ordine geografico, per servire alla geognosia dell’ Italia (Milan, 1817). His work Dello stato fisico del suolo di Roma (1820), with its accompanying map, is likewise noteworthy. In it he corrected the erroneous views of Breislak, who conceived that Rome occupies the site of a volcano, to which he ascribed the volcanic materials that cover the seven hills. Brocchi pointed out that these materials were derived either from Mont Albano,
