Textile Fabrics / A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church-vestments, Dresses, Silk Stuffs, Needlework and Tapestries, forming that Section of the Museum

by Daniel Rock

1238.

Piece of Linen, or the finest byssus of antiquity. Egyptian. 5½ inches by 3 inches.

Whether this very curious example of that rare and fine tissue known in classic times, and later, as byssus, was of mediæval production in Egypt, or found in one of the ancient tombs of that land, would be hard to determine. Another equally fine and no less valuable specimen may be seen in this collection, No. 8230.

From Dr. Bock we learn that the sudary of our Lord, given to the Abbey of Cornelimünster, near Aix-la-Chapelle, by the Emperor Louis the Pious, circa A.D. 820, was much like the present example.