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D Y 
at length to prefer it ; and on this account, in the twelfth 
century, the art of dying purple in the eaft was almoft 
forgotten. And, in conlequence of the crufades in the 
eleventh and following centuries, this art began to be re¬ 
vived in the weft ; as the Chiiftian princes who went on 
thefe expeditions brought back with them a great many 
Greek dyers. Soon after, the Italians made confiderable 
progrefs in this art : for, as the crufaders were conveyed 
to the Holy Land, and brought back from it, chiefly in 
Italian fhips, the Italians had the belt opportunities either 
of learning the art of dying beautiful colours themfelves, 
or of bringing back expert dyers, whom they mud have 
found very neceffary to their manufactures, which weie 
then in high eftimation. Indeed, fo early as the year 
1338, there were in Florence 200 cloth manufactories, 
which manufactured annually from 70 to 80,000 pieces of 
cloth, valued at 1,200,000 florins. A Florentine mer¬ 
chant, who about the year 1300 traded in the Levant, 
happening to make water on a rock covered with mofs, 
he obferved that the green colour of the mofs was in- 
ftantly changed to a beautiful blueilh colour. Reflecting 
on this circumftance, he found, after feveral experiments 
that when mixed with urine and other things, it com¬ 
municated to cloth a columbine colour. This procefs, 
he kept fecret, and acquired by it a great deal of money. 
The invention at that period was fo profitable to the 
Florentines, and excited fo much wonder, that the family 
of the inventor, which ftill exifts in Italy, were called 
Rncellai, from the name of the mofs, which in Spanifh is 
diftinguiflted by the appellation of orciglia , and the dye 
made from it is called orchilla. 
After this period the manufactures in Italy increafed 
fo much, that the attention of the different governments 
was particularly directed to the art of dying. In 1429 
there were publifned at Venice fome regulations refpeCt- 
ing dying, (Mariegola dell’ Arte dei Tintori,J in which cer¬ 
tain precepts were given, according to which dyers were 
to exercife their art. Thefe regulations were renewed 
in the year 1510, with a great many improvements ; when 
John Ventura Rofetti, finding thefe precepts too itnper- 
feCt,' made a tour through Italy and other countries to 
procure further information refpefting the art of dying, 
and on his return wrote, under the affumed name of 
PliCtho, a book on it; the firft, perhaps, that ever ap¬ 
peared on this fubjeCt, and which undoubtedly laid the 
foundation for the improvements in this art which after¬ 
ward took place. The tide of this work, exceedingly 
fcarce even in Italy, an original edition of which is pre- 
ferved in the royal library at Gottingen, is as follows : 
PliCtho’s Art of Dying; which teaches how to give to 
Cloth, Linen, Cotton, and Silk, real and beautiful as 
well as falfe and common Dyes. Venice, 1548. 4to. This 
author was not acquainted either with indigo or cochi¬ 
neal^ but he fpeaks of Brazil wood, which he calls ver. 
zino , a name ftill given to it in Italy, and from which the 
w ord brajilis has been derived. Thus PliCtho was the 
firft who exhibited this art in its full luftre, and excited 
the French, Englifh, and Germans, to apply in earneft, 
in their different countries, to the improvement of fo ufe- 
ful and extenfive a branch of manufacture. 
In France, fome progrefs towards this objeCt had been 
already made by Giles Gobelin, who had learned from a 
Gentian the art of dying fcarlet; and wifhing to eftablifh 
it in that country, he erected a dye-houfe, in the fuburbs 
of Paris, on a frnall ftreani called tlie Bievre. This un¬ 
dertaking was at firft eonfidered to be a work of fo much 
difficulty, that 110 one believed he would be able to com¬ 
plete it, and for that reafon his dye-houfe was called La 
Folk Gobelin , or Gobelin’s Folly. Gobelin, however,, 
continued his bufinds; and fcarlet dyed after his manner 
is to this day, in commerce, called Gobelin's fcarlet. Not- 
withftanding this, dying continued 111 a very imperfect 
ftiite until Colbert, the great minifter of Louis XIV. in 
1669, undertook its improvement. With this view he_ 
examined the eltablillimyut and defects of the French 
I N G. 
dyers; and M. d’Albo, at his defire, compofed a fet of 
regulations refpeCting dying, which were publiflied at 
Paris in 1669, and 1672. The introduction to this book 
contains a proof of Colbert’s regard for this art:—“If the 
filk, woollen, and linen manufactories, (fays he,) are 
thole which contribute molt to the fupport and advance¬ 
ment of trade and commerce, dying, which fupplies that 
variety of colours by which the molt beautiful things in 
nature are imitated, may be eonfidered as the foul of it, 
without which the body would be animated only by feeble 
life. Wool and filk in their natural colours, formerly 
raw articles of little value, now find fale in the country, 
when they have received from the dyer thofe attractions 
which render them valuable and agreeable to the mod 
favage nations.” About this time the dying ingredients, 
brought to Europe from the newly difcovered countries, 
efpecially indigo and cochineal, began to be employed 
with great advantage. The Netherlanders, in particular, 
by means of them, produced more durable and livelier 
colours; for though they had begun, almoft at the fame 
time as the Italians, to apply to the art of dying with 
great-zeal, and to take advantage of the troubles in the 
eaft, they had never been fo fortunate, notwithftanding 
all their exertions, as to make any great progrefs in it. 
At laft a Flemifh painter named Peter Kloeck, who, 
during his long travels in various parts of the eaft, had 
learned the art of giving the moft beautiful colours to 
filk and woollen (tuffs, as well as of dying fcarlet, re¬ 
turned to his own country, and excited as much attention 
by his method as Gobelin had done at Paris. 
Dying feems alfo to have been praftifed in England at 
a very early period ; for in the fourteenth century Ed¬ 
ward III. brought a great many dyers from Flanders. 
Under Edward IV. dyers were fo numerous in London, 
that in 1472 they were firft eftablifhed into a company. 
After the difeovery of America, the new dye-ftuft's began 
to be ufed alfo in England ; but here people were at firft 
fo miftruftful of them, that under queen Elizabeth dying 
with indigo was not only limited, but the ufe of logwood 
was entirely prohibited, and it was burnt wherever it was 
found. This prohibition was afterwards repealed, and 
annulled under Charles II. in 1661. But, notwithftand- 
ing the attention thus paid to dying by the government, 
it remained in a languifhing ftate till the year 1643, when 
a German, named Kephler, firft brought to England his 
new method of dying fcarlet; andbecuufe he eftablifhed 
a dye-houfe at the village of Bow, the fcarlet he dyed 
was called the Bow dye-. At length a Fleming, named 
Brauer, who in 1667 came to England with his whole fa¬ 
mily, brought the art of dying woollen cloth to fuel', per¬ 
fection here, that it has ever fince retained its acknow¬ 
ledged reputation, and to this day challenges a fuperiority 
in every foreign market. 
APPARATUS of the DYE-HOUSE. 
The moft commodious fituation for a dye-houfe is on 
the lide of a running ftream, with a floor made of a mix¬ 
ture of lime and cement, inclining towards the ftream, 
that all wafhings, rincings, filth, and wafte water, may 
fpeedily run off. The principal veffels are the vats, 
which in large manufactories are various; fuch as the 
woad vat, the indigo vat, the paftel vat, &c. The woad 
vat is ufually from ten to twelve feet in diameter, and fix 
or feven feet high; they are made of (laves fix inches 
broad, and two inches thick ; are bound with iron hoops, 
about two or three feet afunder, and are funk in the 
ground, for the conveniency of managing their contents ; 
which is done by means of hooks fattened to the end of a. 
ftaff, of a proper length, according to 111 e diameter of the 
vat. The bottom ot thelc velfels is made with limcand 
cement ; but this however is nut eftentiaf, and ts praCtiled 
only where it vvouid be cufficuit to make a wooden bottom 
It rung enough to iupport the contents of fo large a vctisl. 
For dying wool or dull, there is fulpeiided within the 
veffel aii ,r.).i hoop, with a net faltened to it, the inelhes 
about 
