History of the Art of Dyeing, 303 



among the number. It cannot, however, be denied that 

 there occur traces of this art being practised in some of the 

 Italian monasteries and other places. But the articles dyed 

 were of little importance, being chiefly brown or black linen, 

 or skins, so that the art in this state scarcely deserves the 

 name of dyeing. 



Of this art Muratori gives only one instance in the eighth 

 century from an old manuscript preserved in a monastery*, 

 which, on account of the barbarous Latin in which it is 

 written, and the illegible passages in it, is scarcely intelligible. 

 This, however, is sufficient to give us an idea of the state of 

 dyeing in the west at that period ; but if more should be 

 thought necessary, I have no doubt that there are documents 

 in old monasteries to satisfy the curiosity of those who wish 

 for further information on the subject. 



It is certain, indeed, that the art of giving cloth and other 

 articles a beautiful dye, had disappeared from the wsst in the 

 fifth century, and was to be found only in the eastf. But 

 even there little attention was paid to improvement and new 

 discoveries, as dyers were satisfied with those colours which 

 had been long usual, and which, in a great measure, have 

 been already described. 



The Greeks and Saracens were for a long time the exclu- 

 sive possessors of this art, and furnished the west with dyed 

 stuffs, and particularly purple, which, according to the ac- 

 count of the female Greek writer mentioned in the former 

 part of this paper, was prepared there of a beautiful colour 

 in the 1 1th century. The public taste, however, was at length 

 changed, and people began to set as great value on the 

 scarlet then dyed as upon purple, and at length to prefer it^ 

 and on this account, in the 12th century, the art of dyeing 

 purple in the east was entirely forgotten J. 



• Muratori Dissertat. de Artibus Italicor. post Inclinationem Romani 

 Imperii ; in his Antiquitat. Italic, vol. ii. diss. 24. p. 367. 



t It is not improbable, therefore, that Attila brought with him that 

 purple cloth with which his throne, according to an old poet, was hung 

 round during a great festival. Sec the Deutsche» Museum for Jan. 1730, 

 p. 69. 



X Muratori Dissertat. de Textrina .et Vestibus Saeculorum Rudium ; ia 

 vol. ii. Antiquitat. Ital. diis. 25. p. 115. 



Though^ 



