[99] Ménage, Diction. Etym. de la Langue Française, tom. ii. p. 457, ed. Joult.
According to Abel Rémusat (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 festivals. They are of silk interwoven with gold, and adorned with pearls[100].
[100] See John Spencer Smythe’s Description de la Chasuble de Saint Regnobert, in the Procès Verbal de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, Arts, et Belles Lettres, de la Ville de Caen, Séance d’Avril 14, 1820.
II. Portions of garments of the same description with those of St. Regnobert were discovered A. D. 1827 on opening the tomb of St. Cuthbert in the Cathedral of Durham. They are preserved in the library of that church, and accurately described by the Rev. James Raine, the librarian, in a quarto volume.
III. The scull-cap of St. Simon, said to have been made in the tenth century, and now preserved in the Cathedral of Treves. Its border is interwoven with gold.
In regard to these interesting relics, they may with confidence be looked upon as specimens of the manufacture of silk from the seventh to the twelfth century.
IV. In the Cathedral at Hereford is a charter of one of the Popes with the bull (the leaden seal), attached to it by silken threads. Silk was early used for this purpose in the South of Europe[101]. The Danish kings began to use silk to append the waxen seals to their charters about the year 1000[102].
[101] Mabillon, de Re Diplomaticâ, l. ii. cap. 19. § 6.