. There is record that in the late
eleventh century a Norman Abbot brought home from Apulia a quantity
of heavy and fine silk, from which four copes were made. French
silks were not remarkable until the sixteenth century, while those
of the Netherlands led all others as early as the thirteenth.

Shot silks were popular in England in the sixteenth century. York
Cathedral possessed, in 1543, a "vestment of changeable taffety
for Good Friday."

St. Dunstan is reported to have once "tinted" a sacerdotal vestment
to oblige a lady, thus departing from his regular occupation as
goldsmith to perform the office of a dyer of stuff.

Many rich mediaeval textiles were ornamented by designs, which usually
show interlaces and animal forms, and sometimes conventional floral
ornament. Patterns originated in the East, and, through Byzantine
influence, in Italy, and Saracenic in Spain, they were adopted and
modified by Europeans. In 1295 St. Paul's in London owned a hanging
"patterned with wheels and two-headed birds." Sicilian silks, and
many others of the contemporary textiles, display variations of
the "tree of life" pattern. This consists of a little conventional
shrub, sometimes hardly more than a "budding rod," with two birds
or animals advancing vis-a-vis on either side. Sometimes these
are two peacocks; often lions or leopards and frequently griffins
and various smaller animals. Whenever one sees a little tree or
a single stalk, no matter how conventionally treated, with a
couple of matched animals strutting up to each other on either
side, this pattern owes its origin to the old tradition of the
decorative motive usual in Persia and in Byzantium, the Tree of
Life, or Horn. The origin of patterns does not come within our
scope, and has been excellently treated in the various books of
Lewis Day, and other writers on this subject.

Textiles of Italian manufacture may be seen represented in the
paintings of the old masters: Orcagna, Francia, Crivelli, and others,
who delighted in the rendering of rich stuffs; later, they abound
in the creations of Veronese and Titian. A "favourite Italian
vegetable," as Dr. Rock quaintly expresses it, is the artichoke,
which, often, set in oval forms, is either outlined or worked solidly
in the fabric.

Almeria was a rich city in the thirteenth century, noted for its
textiles. A historian of that period writes: "Christians of all
nations came to its port to buy and to sell. From thence... the