[Elfsea] For Mistress Stella, lower grade silk in Rennaisance Europe
Carolle M. Cox
hpockets at verizon.net
Mon Jan 15 12:59:05 PST 2007
Wow. This is good information! (also adding book to wish list)<sigh> So
many books, so little time...
Gerita
Carolle Cox
Japanese Chin Rescue and Care Volunteer
Dallas North-west coordinator
The years that a woman subtracts from her age are not lost. They are added
to the ages of other women. -- Diane de Poitiers (1499 - 1566)
This is a private message. Not to be forwarded without separately requested
consent from Carolle Cox
-----Original Message-----
From: elfsea-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:elfsea-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Miss M Brow
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 1:19 PM
To: elfsea at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Elfsea] For Mistress Stella, lower grade silk in Rennaisance
Europe
Here is what I have; do not know how accurate or authentic, but it looked
good...
The article was written by an SCA member on one of the several lists I
belong to. Unfortunately I did not copy his or her name down when
copy/pasting this for future reference. However, the book is listed as:
Mola, Luca. The Silk Industry in Renaissance Venice. Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins University Press. 2000 if anyone wants to try and find a copy to
check it out. Hope you find it as interesting as I did... *putting this
book on Christmas wish list*
Namaste, Mary Ann (Rua)
The Use of Lower Grade Silks in the Renaissance
When choosing fabrics for the recreation of Renaissance clothing, I have
always been told that you should never use slubby silk or silk noil. The
common theory passed on by numerous respected costumers is that these fibers
would have been considered waste products not up to the high standards of
silk manufacturers or consumers during the period, and these materials would
have never been used to make fabric for personal garments. Although I have
not seen documentation to support this conclusion, I accepted it as fact and
proceeded to tell others that silk fabrics such as douppioni were not
historically correct because of the imperfections in the weave. But
recently, I stumbled across a book that gives an abundance of evidence
documenting the use of lower grades of silk in the 16th century, and
uncovers another side to the story that has largely been ignored. This
article is intended to share this newfound knowledge based on Luca Mola's
research in The Silk Industry in Renaissance Venice.
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Grades of silk:
The first step to understanding this issue is to look at the different
grades of silk fibers produced during the Renaissance. "True silk", known as
seta leale, was the most precious material made from carefully unwinding an
intact cocoon in a basin of hot water to form one long, very strong,
continuous thread; a process known as reeling. These threads made up the
category of first-grade silk, which was the primary fiber used in the luxury
silk industry.
Second-choice silk, or "double silk", "was produced when two silkworms were
put too close together in the raisings during their metamorphosis, and so
ended up wrapped in a single cocoon." (p. 233) This "double silk", which was
referred to in period texts as seta di doppi, did go through the same
reeling process as "true silk", but the imperfections and slubs from the
tangled cocoons caused it to sell for half as much as the first-choice
product, and it had traditionally been used for sewing threads, hangings,
trims, and haberdashery.
Waste silks or spun-silk noil (strazze de seda filada) were obtained from
broken cocoons, the fluffy external coverings of the cocoons, or by
collecting the waste fibers gathered from the cauldrons or reeling
equipment. Because these materials were not made from a continuous thread
like first- and second-choice silks, they had to be combed, carded, and spun
like other short textile fibers. These waste-silk threads were classified
according to their various sources and were valued at the relatively low
price of 5 to 10 solidi per pound while "true silk" sold for 124 soldi per
pound. (p. 252)
In an estimate of the different raw materials produced from cocoons in
mainland Venice in 1559, "true silk" made up 240,000 pounds, "double silk"
accounted for 60,000 pounds, and various waste silks added another 100,000
pounds to the total production. (p. 234)
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Fabric production:
The luxury fabric trade that brought wealth and fame to Venice and other
Italian regions was heavily regulated to insure quality control and
perfection in the high-end silk cloths. After 1450, innumerable laws were
passed prohibiting the use of second-grade and waste silks in the weaving of
drappi da parangon, or cloths for comparison, that included the most
luxurious satins, velvets, and brocades. These fabrics were extremely
expensive, and they had to pass guild inspections and contain specific
colored thread markers in the selvage to signify that they were made from
the finest silk threads, dyes, and weaving techniques. Fraud and deception
was common in the Renaissance silk market, and the strict laws and
regulations were intended to protect the buyers and ensure the good name of
the Italian silk industry. If any lesser quality materials or techniques
were detected during guild inspections, the silk would be confiscated, and
the weavers and sellers would be heavily fined. However, there were other
less regulated classes of fabric in the silk trade such as the drappi
mezzani, which were medium quality cloths destined for both local and
foreign markets, drappi de navegar, cloths for export by sea, and drappi
domestici, domestic cloths produced exclusively for local consumers and
excluded from trade. (p. 97)
The drappi domestici was the most ancient of these categories dating back to
the 13th century. With these fabrics, "anyone at all could order a cloth
from a master weaver with a weft thread of second-choice silk, waste silk,
or some other fiber, so long as he employed it exclusively for his or his
family's personal use and did not sell it." (p. 165) Mola points out that
"this regulation was addressed in particular to the members of the Venetian
nobility, who made large use of it, but it was also used by simple citizens
or by the setaioli (silk sellers) or artisans themselves to produce the
fabrics they needed for making cheap clothes and hangings." (p. 97) So it is
not surprising that a large number of garments, coverlets, and hangings made
with a weft of waste silk are found in the inventories of Venetian nobles,
citizens, merchants, and artisans. (p. 166) These cheaper fabrics were
commonly used by the upper and middle classes for less-formal garments and
could provide an affordable alternative to the high-end silks that were sold
for exorbitant prices.
The reduced cost of the lower grades of silk thread also drew the interest
of entrepreneurs who could produce fabrics for a much lower cost that were
in high demand with local and international consumers. A law passed in 1475
officially sanctioned the use of waste silk and second-choice silk in cloth
da navegar, as long as it had the proper identification mark in the selvage.
While still restricted from using anything but "true silk" in cloths da
parangon, "the freedom in the use of silk threads for cloths da navegar was
widely exploited by weavers and setaioli in the course of the 16th century,
as attested by the many trials held to ascertain the quality of cloths
produced in Venetian shops." (p. 166) Although the guild inspectors commonly
spoke of these lesser fabrics as having thread that was "filthy" or "bad",
they could not confiscate it as long as it was clearly marked so that it
would not mislead foreign consumers. (p. 166)
Even the drappi mezzani enjoyed a slackening of standards during the 16th
century due to the demand from foreign markets, "first by admitting the use
of unboiled silk, then of second-choice silk, then of waste silk, and
finally, even of other textile fibers" such as wool, cotton, or flax. (p.
167) Even though the guild continued to protest the use of these
lesser-quality fibers, "the use of weft thread made with second-choice silk
in the drappi mezzani was officially countenanced by state officials, even
though no law was issued on the matter." (p. 169)
Mixed cloths, a final form of lower quality silk, were the primary types of
cloth produced by the East and Southern Mediterranean countries in the early
Middle Ages, but regulations from the 1360's onward began to curb this
practice in Venice and other Italian regions. (p. 161-162) However, laws
were amended once again in the last quarter of the 16th century to allow the
manufacture of various mixed cloths made with a warp of silk and a weft
created from various combinations of wool, cotton, flax, and waste silk.
Venetian weavers petitioned the silk guild in 1575 to be allowed to make
these types of fabrics which were produced throughout Europe, and as stated
by Pasqualin d'Alessandro, "are continually imported in very great
quantities to the detriment of us poor weavers, who are forbidden to produce
such kinds of fabric since they are forbidden by law, which laws were issued
a long time before the invention of these new types of fabrics." (p. 172)
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The bigger picture:
Although most of this information on lower grades of silk is specifically
based on the Venetian silk industry, the author also covers similar trends
throughout Italy, Europe, and the Levant. Mola begins this further
exploration by stating that "the Venetian production of low-quality and
mixed cloths fell within a general trend that affected nearly all of the
other Italian silk industries in the second half of the 16th century.
Indeed, one of the principal transformations in the manufacture of silk
cloths in Italy during the late Renaissance was the return to the production
of fabrics woven with less noble materials, an older tradition that had
faded away almost everywhere between the 14th and 15th centuries." (p. 177)
The author goes on to give numerous examples of the use of these materials
in other regions, such as the cities of Genoa, Reggio, Emilia, Modena, and
Lucca, who "were accustomed to using waste silk together with first-choice
threads in cloths exported to France, Flanders, Germany, Bohemia, and
Hungary where they were appreciated for their low price." (p. 177) In one of
my favorite antidotes, Mola's research finds that young unmarried girls in
Lucca were forbidden by a 1572 sumptuary law from wearing the finest silks,
so they avoided this regulation by "avidly seeking fabrics woven with
second-choice (doppi) and waste silk," or fabrics made from silk and wool
blends. (p. 179) German businessmen bought these lower grades of silk cloth
in huge quantities, and in Flanders, the predominant fabric for local
production combined a weft of wool with a warp of first-choice,
second-choice, or waste silk. (p. 182)
Many other specific facts are given about the use of these lesser silk
fibers in various regions, and all of these findings attest to the
widespread use of these material throughout most of Europe during the 16th
century. Mola's research seems to suggest that while the finest silks were
indeed free of any imperfections and dominated the international luxury
fabric market, another world of lower-grade silk materials were able to
successfully co-exist with the finer versions, and these fabrics, contrary
to modern beliefs, played an important role in the production of garments in
the late Renaissance.
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Comparison to modern textiles:
Although this information opens up some exciting new possibilities for
authentic garment construction, it is still difficult to say which modern
fabrics can or cannot be used in the recreation of period attire.
Second-grade or "double silk" is described almost exactly the same way in
period texts as modern fabrics such as douppioni (whose root comes from the
same source as doppi, the Italian Renaissance term for double silk fibers).
Modern silk douppioni is defined as having uneven and irregular threads that
are reeled from two or more entangled cocoons. Our modern tastes have grown
to appreciate the slubby textures of fabrics like douppioni, Shantung, and
pongee (which are also made from double silk), and lower grade fabrics such
as Indian douppioni tend to emphasize these imperfections. On the other
hand, 16th century buyers would not have appreciated these flaws within the
weave, and slubby silks probably would have never been used for the
nobility's finest clothing. However, lower grade silk fabrics that might
possibly resemble modern douppionis or Shantung seem to be within the realm
of possibility for less-formal wear.
Waste silk is even more difficult to match up with modern counterparts
because of the wide variety of fibers and weaves associated with this
material. Modern silk noil and spun silk, once again, are defined in the
same way as waste silk of the Renaissance, but it is difficult to ascertain
from the text whether or not low-grade silk fabrics of the 16th century
would look anything like the spun silk fabrics we are accustomed to seeing
today. In fact, the production of fabrics with either second-choice or waste
silks in the 1500's often hid these fibers beneath the complicated weave of
satin, velvet, or brocades, so they might look more like modern silk brocade
(which typically uses lesser quality fibers in the weave) than nubby silk
noil. But there are also period descriptions of plain weave fabrics that
used waste silk threads, so it is just impossible to know for sure. However,
I feel that modern spun silk fabrics should not be entirely ruled out simply
because they are made with short fibers, since this book gives abundant
evidence that waste silks were used in the production of fabric from the
that period.
With this being said, I still feel the need to point out that most of the
research presented in this book deals with lower grade fabrics that retained
a warp of true silk. The use of waste silk for the long warp threads would
reduce the strength of the cloth and impair its durability, and most of the
laws permitted the use of lesser fibers for the weft alone. Douppioni and
some finer spun silk materials still use the higher quality reeled silk
threads in the warp, so this would not be an issue with those fabrics, but
most of the modern silk noils use waste fibers for both the warp and the
weft. Mola's research rarely discusses fabrics made with a warp of waste
silk in the 16th century, except when it was combined with other types of
fibers (for example, the Flemish silk-wool blends mentioned in the previous
section), and the only example I could find of 100% silk fabrics made with a
warp of waste silk was from a 1335 Florentine law permitting its use in
light cloths, but this practice was later overturned in the 15th century.
(p. 179) Although it appears that using a warp of waste silk was not unheard
of in the Renaissance, fabrics resembling modern noil with both a warp and
weft made of waste silk were probably extremely rare.
And finally, mixed cloths made from a combination of silk and cotton, wool,
or flax are also documentable, especially before 1350 or after the first
half of the 16th century, but the availability of these fabrics would
probably vary depending on the location and exact date. This also does not
account for the types of weave, which would need to be carefully researched
if you are looking for complete authenticity, but it does open up a nice
range of silk blend fabrics that could be considered for the construction of
historical clothing.
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Conclusion:
I realize that this information goes against some of the common knowledge
espoused by Medieval, Renaissance, and Elizabethan costumers, but I was
completely thrilled when I found this new source of documentation, and I
encourage anybody who is interested in this subject to read this book and
see the evidence for yourself. I have attempted to condense an enormous
amount of information into a fairly brief article, but there is much more
wonderful research on this topic as well as information on dyes, weaving
techniques, sericulture, centers of production, the silk guilds, and the
socio-economical impact of the silk industry in Venice and other regions
during the Renaissance. It's not exactly a light read, but the research is
astounding and you could spend weeks just going through the 150 pages of
glossary, notes, bibliography, and appendixes! As always, if you have any
comments, questions, or additional evidence either supporting or refuting
the use of lower grade silks in the Renaissance period, I would love to hear
from you!
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Mola, Luca. The Silk Industry in Renaissance Venice. Baltimore: The Johns
Hopkins University Press. 2000.
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