The Lana Penna is twice washed in tepid water, once in soap and water, and again in tepid water, then spread on a table to dry: while yet moist, it is rubbed and separated with the hand, and again spread on the table. When quite dry, it is drawn through a wide comb of bone, and then through a narrow one. That which is destined for very fine works is also drawn through iron combs, called scarde (cards). It is then spun with a distaff and spindle.
As it is impossible to procure much of this material of a good quality, the manufacture is very limited, and the articles produced, stockings and gloves, are expensive. They are esteemed excellent preservatives against cold and damp, are soft and very warm, and the finest of a brown cinnamon, or glossy gold color. The manufacture is chiefly carried on at Taranto, the ancient Tarentum[188].
[188] Riedesel’s Travels through Sicily and Græcia Magna, translated by J. R. Forster, London, 1773, p. 178-180. De Salis, Travels in the Kingdom of Naples. Keppel Craven, Tour through the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples, p. 185. D’Argenville, Lithol. et Conchologie, p. 183, and Plate 25.
The Lana Penna, having been spun, is now almost universally knit. But, as it does not appear that the ancients were acquainted with this process prior to the second century, whatever garments they made of this material must have been woven.
The first proof we possess of its use among them is in Tertullian, who lived in the second century (De Pallio, iii. p. 115, Rigaltii). Speaking of the materials for weaving, he says,
Nec fuit satis tunicam pangere et serere, ni etiam piscari vestitum contigisset nam et de mari vellera, quo mucosæ lanusitatis plautiores conchæ comant.
Nor was it enough to comb and to sow the materials for a tunic. It was necessary also to fish for one’s dress. For fleeces are obtained from the sea, where shells of extraordinary size are furnished with tufts of mossy hair[189]. (See Fig. 7, [Plate II.])
[189] In this passage piscari is rather fancifully opposed to pangere and serere. The former of these two terms (pangere) refers to tunics of wool, which was pacta or pexa; the latter to tunics of cotton and flax, which were sata. The epithet plautiores, (etymologically allied to latiores, and to πλατὺς,) well describes the large size and expanded form of the Pinna.
Procopius informs us (De Edif. lib. iii. c. 1.), that Armenia was governed by five hereditary satraps, who received their insignia from the Roman Emperor. Among these was a Chlamys made of the fibres of the Pinna. (Χλαμὺς ἡ ἐξ ἐρίων πεποιημένη, οὐχ οἷα τῶν προβατίων ἐκπέφυκεν, ἀλλ’ ἐκ θαλάσσης συνειλεγμένων· πίννους τὰ ζῶα καλεῖν νενομίκασι, ἐν οἷς ἡ τῶν ἐρίων ἔκφυσις γίνεται.) This chlamys was fastened with a fibula of gold, in which a precious stone was set, and three hyacinths were suspended from it by golden chains (χρυσαῖς τε καὶ χαλαραῖς ἀλύσεσιν.) The chlamys was accompanied by a silken tunic, adorned with sprigs or “feathers” of gold. It is thus described:
Χιτὼν ἐκ μετάξης, ἐγκαλλωπίσμασι χρυσοῖς πανταχόθεν ὡραΐσμενος, ἃ δὴ νενομίκασι πλούμμια καλεῖν.