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. whereof 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. Thuanus 

 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, 



