312 History of the Art of Dyeing, 



dye-stuffs or expensive preparation. But this scarcely de- 

 servfed the name of dyeing, and extended at most to hnen or 

 coarse woollen stuffs, and even to these the dyers could not 

 communicate fast and durable colours. 



As the number of those who prepared these colours after- 

 wards increased, the first dyers were under the necessity of 

 forming themselves into a company to secure themselves and 

 their occupation from the encroachment of foreigners ; and 

 this was the origin of that company known in Germany at 

 present under the name of black dyers; but whether this 

 society was formed under Henry I. in the year 925, as the 

 chancellor Von Ludewig asserts"^, cannot be with certainty 

 determined. With the above two colours the Germans were 

 long satisfied, till at length, m the 12th century, a great 

 many artists and manufacturers took shelter in Germany in 

 consequence of Milan being over-run by the emperor Fre- 

 deric I. ; and by the crusades the Germans in the East became 

 more and more acquainted with the woollen manufactories, 

 which they afterwards brought back with them into their 

 own country f. 



These circumstances, and the encouragement given to the 

 (rerman navigation and trade with foreign nations;}; by the 

 Khinish and Hanseatic league in the 13th century, encou- 

 raged the Germans not only to apply with more ardour to 

 their home manufactures, but rendered it necessary for them 

 to obtain better dyers and dye-stuffs, that their manufactures 

 might find a good sale in foreign markets. They endeavoured, 

 therefore, to procure from Italy and the Netherlands, where 

 the art of dyeing, as is well known, had been much culti- 

 vated, expert workmen §, who, from the woad which they 

 ehkfly employed for dyeing blue and green colours, were 

 called woad dyers and also cloth, dyers ]|, because they dyed 



only 



* Ludewig Dissert, de Re Bafiaria Tinct. p. 11. 



t See Piittner's Deutsche Rcichsgeschlchte, § 107- III. p. 257. 



:ibid. § 118. p. 291. 



§ Ludewig ut suprtty p. 12. Schrebei-'s Abhafid. vom TVaidt, pait 5. 

 § 3. Zink'i Manufactur und kandwerks Lexicon, under the word Dyer. 



II The appellation woad dyer occurs in a Charter of the year 1339. Zink, 

 therefore, is wrong when he says that woad was not used till a late period, 



and 



