MOTH. 
233 
first confined to Berytus and Tyre in Phoenicia, 
whence it was dispersed over the West. At length 
two monks, coming from the Indies to Constan- 
tinople, in 555, under the encouragement of the 
Emperor Justinian, brought with them great quan- 
tities of Silkworms, with instructions for hatching 
the eggs, rearing and feeding the worms, and 
drawing, spinning, and working the Silk. Upon 
this, manufactures were set up at Athens, Thebes, 
and Corinth. The Venetians, soon after this time 
commencing a commerce with the Greek Empire, 
supplied all the Western parts of Europe with 
silks for many centuries; though several kinds of 
modern silk manufactures were unknown in those 
times, such as Damasks, Velvets, Satins, &c. About 
the year 1130, Roger the second. King of Sicily, 
established a silk manufacture at Palermo, and 
another in Calabria, managed by workmen who 
were a part of the plunder brought from Athens, 
Corinth, &c. udiereof that prince made a conquest 
in his expedition to the Holy Land. By degrees, 
adds Mezeray, the rest of Italy, as well as Spain, 
learned from the Sicilians and Calabrians the ma- 
nagement of Silkworms, and the working of Silk; 
and at length the French acquired it, by right of 
neighbourhood, a little before the reign of Francis 
the first, and began to imitate them. Thu anus 
indeed, in contradiction to most other writers, 
makes the manufacture of Silk to be introduced 
into Sicily two hundred years later, by Robert the 
Wise, King of Sicily, and Count of Provence. 
It appears by the 33d. of Henry 6th. cap. 5, 
