tapestries, and I must refer my readers to the authorities I
have quoted from so largely.

ITALIAN TAPESTRY.

The word Arrazzi shows us whence the Italians drew their art.
Doubtless there were looms in the Italian cities, and especially under
ecclesiastical patronage, through the dark ages. Rome was in
communication with the Atrebates in the third century, by whom she was
supplied with the Byrri, or hooded cloaks then worn; and as it had
been a centre for weaving commerce, it is probable that Rome received
from Arras the craftsmen as well as the produce of their looms. At the
Renaissance we find factories for pictured webs in Florence, Rome,
Milan, Mantua, and elsewhere. The best artists of the Italian
schools--Mantegna, Leonardo, Raphael and his scholars, &c., &c.--gave
their finest designs to be executed in Italy, before they were sold to
Arras, Brussels, France, or England, and they are accumulated in the
treasure-room of every palace in Italy. But the finest collections are
those of the Vatican, and of the Pitti in Florence. A splendid volume
might be edited of these grand artistic works; such a record would be
invaluable. Vasari[408] and Passevant give us occasional glimpses of
local factories for tapestry, but, as we have before said, this
subject has still to be investigated.

FRENCH TAPESTRY.

In France, as elsewhere, tapestry was probably woven in private looms
and in the religious houses from early days. M. Jubinal believes that
it was made at Poitiers, Troyes, Beauvais, Rheims, and St. Quentin as
early as 1025.[409] Froissart describes the entry of Isabel of
Bavaria as a bride into Paris, when the houses were covered with
hangings and tapestries representing historical scenes.[410] The Cluny
Museum possesses a most curious mediaeval suite of hangings from the
Chateau de Boussac, of the early part of the fifteenth century. They
tell the story of the "Dame au Lion," and are brilliantly coloured and
charmingly quaint and gay in design. Hangings designed by Primaticcio
were woven at Fontainebleau, where Francis I. started the manufacture
in 1539. However, the first national school of tapestry weaving was
that at Chaillot, under the experienced teaching of workmen from
Arras; afterwards transferred to the town of Gobelins, 1603, by Henri
Quatre.[411] Louis Quatorze and his minister Colbert splendidly
protected this manufacture by law, privilege, and employment; so did
Louis Quinze. Before the Revolution,