322 A. D. 1 146. 



men and artiHs. That country alone, at leafl of all the Chriflian coun- 

 tries of Europe, pofleffed the valuable flock of filk-worms, which had 

 been tranlplanted from the remotcfl; extremities of the Eaft about four 

 hundred years before ; and the Greeks were the only Chriftians of Eu- 

 rope, who manufadured the ftill pretious and coftly articles of luxury 

 fabricated from the fpoils of the filk-worm. But now the time was ar- 

 rived, when that manufadure was to be more widely difperfed. Roger, 

 the Norman king of Sicily, invaded Greece with a fleet of feventy gal- 

 lies, and carried off the wealth of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth. But, 

 what was infinitely the moft valuable part of the prize, and what pecu- 

 liarly diftinguifhed this Vv'ar from all others, which have no other con- 

 fequences than the exaltation of one individual, the depreffion of an- 

 other, and the mifery of millions, was the capture of a great number 

 of filk weavers, whom he carried off from thofe cities, and fettled in 

 Palermo, his capital city. By the king's order the Grecian prifoners 

 taught his Sicilian fubjeds to raife and feed filk-worms, and to weave all 

 the varieties of filk fluffs. And fo well did the Sicilian pupils profit by 

 their inflruclions, that the filk fobrics of Sicily, about twenty years af- 

 ter the tranfplantation of the manufadure, are defcribed as excelling in 

 variety of patterns and colours ; fome with gold intermixed, and adorn- 

 ed wuth figures or pidures, and others embelliflied with pearls. [Otto 

 Frifing. ds gejl. Friderici, L. i, c. 1,;^^ op. Muratori Script. V. vi, col. 668. — 

 Falcandi H'ljl. Sicul. praf. op. Murotori Script. V. vii, col. 256.] 



Though all the Chriflian part of Europe, except Greece, had been 

 ignorant till now of the art of managing the filk-worm and the produce 

 of its induflry, the Saracens had before this time obtamed the know- 

 lege of the various operations of the filk manufadure, and fpread it 

 over all their wide-extended dominions. Lifljon and Almeria, two Sa- 

 racen cities of Spain, were particularly famous for their manufadures 

 of filk : and the iflands of Majorca and Ivica paid their tributes to the 

 king of Aragon in filks of Almeria, or more probably in filks made in 

 imitation of thole of Almeria. \Otto Frifing. ap. Muratori Antiq. V. ii, 

 col. 408. — Hovcden, f. 382 a, b.] 



By thefe means was the important manufidure of filk laid open to 

 the ingenuity of the weftern nations. 



1 147 — Liflion was taken from the Saracens by Alfonfo, the fovereign 

 of the ncwly-eredcd kingdom of Portugal, chiefly by the afllftance of 

 a company of about fourteen thoufand adventurers, confifling moftly 

 of Englifli, with fome Normans, Flemings, and others, bound to the 

 Holy land *. \Chron. Norm, ad on. — Vit. Pont. Rom. op. Murotori Script. 

 V. ill, part, i, p. 438. — Iletir. Uunt.f. 226 a.] The Saracens of Almeria 



• The Wi therlandcrs rla!m x\\e fuh merit of tliis opportune afTiftaricc, in confcqucnce of which tlity 

 enjoy certain piivilegca in Poruigiil, conferr'.d upon tl;cm by the gratitude of tlic fo.irt-ljjn. [_Lin- 

 fcholen's Fdyagci, p. 460, Eiigi. tratijl.'] 



