To the second set belong,
Seda, silk, in the Latin of the middle ages.
Seta, in Italian.
Seide, in German.
Side, in Anglo-Saxon. Also Sidene,
silken, Ælfric as quoted by Lye;
Sidpypm, silk-worm, Junius, l. c.
Sidan, in Welsh.
Satin, in French and English[3].
According to Abel Remusat (Journal Asiat. l. c.) the merchandise of Eastern Asia passed through Slavonia to the North of Europe in the middle ages, even without the mediation of Greece or Italy. This may account for the use of the terms of the first class, while it is possible that those of the second have been derived from the South of Europe, from whence we have seen that silken commodities were also occasionally transported to the North.
To the evidence now produced from authors and printed documents respecting the history of silk from the earliest times to the period of its universal extension throughout Europe, another species of proof may be added, viz. that afforded by Relics preserved in churches, and by other remains of the antiquities of the middle ages. As examples of this method for illustrating the subject, the following articles may be enumerated.
I. The relics of St. Regnobert, Bishop of Bayeux in the seventh century. These consist of a Casula, or Chasuble, a Stole, and a Maniple. They are yet preserved in the cathedral of Bayeux, and worn by the Bishop on certain annual fes-*
- ↑ Nicholas Fuller (Miscellanea, p. 248.) justly observes, Vocabulum Anglicanum
Selk non nisi Sericum authorem generis sui agnoscit. Selk enim nuncupatum
est quasi Selik pro Serik, literæ r in l facili commutatione factâ.
Minshew and Skinner give the same etymology. - ↑ Junius, Etymologicum, v. Silk. It appears doubtful, however, whether Junius
is here to be depended on. - ↑ Menage, Diction. Etym. de la Langue Française, tom. ii. p. 457, ed. Joult.
