210 
SILK. 
was first invented; and Pamphila, daughter of Piatis, is 
honoured as the inventress. The discovery was not long 
unknown to the Romans. Silk was brought them from 
Serica, where the worm was a native. But so far were they 
from profiting by the discovery, that they could not be in¬ 
duced to believe so fine a thread should be the work of a 
worm; and thereupon formed a thousand chimerical con¬ 
jectures of their own. 
Silk was a very scarce commodity among them for many 
ages: it was even sold weight for weight with gold; inso¬ 
much that Vopiscus tells us, the emperor Aurelian, who 
died A. D. 275, refused the empress, his wife, a suit of silk, 
which she solicited of him with much earnestness, merely 
on account of its dearness. 
Others, however, with greater probability, assert that it 
was known at Rome so early as the reign of Tiberius, about 
A. D. 17. 
Galen, who lived about the year of our Lord 173, speaks 
of the rarity of silk, being no where but at Rome, and only 
among the rich. 
Heliogabalus, the emperor, who died A. D. 220, is said 
by some to be the first person who wore a holosericum, i. e. 
a garment of all silk. 
The Greeks of Alexander the Great’s army are said to 
have been the first who brought wrought silk from Persia 
into Greece, about 323 years before Christ; but the manu¬ 
facture of it was confined to Berytus and Tyre, in Phoenicia, 
whence it was dispersed over the West. 
At length, two monks, coming from the Indies, to Con¬ 
stantinople, in 555, under the encouragement of the em¬ 
peror Justinian, brought with them great quantities of silk¬ 
worms, with instructions for the hatching of their eggs, 
rearing and feeding the worms, and drawing out the silk, 
and spinning and working it. Upon this, manufactures 
were set up at Athens, Thebes, and Corinth. The Vene¬ 
tians, soon after this time, commencing a commerce with 
the Greek empire, supplied all the western parts of Europe 
with silks for many centuries; though sundry kinds of mo¬ 
dern silk manufactures were unknown in those times, such 
as damasks, velvets, sattins, &c. 
About the year 1130, Roger II., king of Sicily, esta¬ 
blished a silk manufactory at Palermo, and another in Cala¬ 
bria ; managed by workmen, who were a part of the plunder 
brought from Athens, Corinth, &c., of which that prince 
made a conquest in his expedition to the Holy Land. By 
degrees, Meztray adds, the rest of Italy and Spain learned, 
from the Sicilians and Calabrians, the management of the 
silk-worms, and the working of silk; and at length the 
French got it by right of neighbourhood, a little before the 
reign of Francis L, and began to imitate them. Thuanus, 
indeed, in contradiction to most other writers, makes this 
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 33 Hen VI. cap. 5. that there was a com¬ 
pany of silk-women in England so early as the year 1455 ; 
but these were probaby employed in needle-works of silk 
and thread; and we find that various sorts of small haber¬ 
dashery of silk were manufactured here in 1482; but Italy 
supplied England, and all other parts, with the broad manu¬ 
facture, till the year 1489. In Spain, indeed, the culture 
and manufacture of silk seem to have been introduced in an 
early period by the Moors, particularly in Murcia, Cor¬ 
dova, and Granada. The silk manufactures of this last 
town were very flourishing, when it was taken by Ferdi¬ 
nand, &c., at the close of the fifteenth century. 
In 1521, the French, being supplied with workmen from 
Milan, commenced a silk manufacture; but it was long 
after this time before they could obtain raw silk from the 
worms; and even in the year 1547, silk was scarce and dear 
in France; and Henry II. is said to have been the first who 
wore a pair of silk knit stockings; though the first inven¬ 
tion originally came from Spain, whence silk stockings were 
brought over to Henry VIII. and Edward VI. After the 
civil wars in France, the plantations of mulberry-trees were 
greatly encouraged by Henry VI. and his successors; and 
the produce of silk is at this day very considerable. 
The great advantage which the new manufacture afforded, 
made our king James I. very earnest for its being introduced 
into England: accordingly it was recommended several 
times from the throne, and in the most earnest terms, parti¬ 
cularly in the year 1608, to plant mulberry-trees, &c., for 
the propagation of silk-worms; but unhappily without ef¬ 
fect ; though from the various experiments we meet with in 
the Philosophical Transactions, and other places, it appears 
that the silk-worm thrives and works as well, in all respects, 
in England, as in any part of Europe. 
However, towards the latter end of this king’s reign, i. e, 
about the year 1620, the broad silk manufacture was intro¬ 
duced into this country, and prosecuted with great vigour 
and advantage. In 1629, the silk manufacture was become 
so considerable in London, that the silk throwsters of the 
city, and parts adjacent, were incorporated under the name 
of master, wardens, &c., of the silk throwsters; and in 1661, 
this company of silk-throwsters employed above forty thou¬ 
sand persons. The revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 
1685, contributed in a great degree to promote the silk 
manufacture in this kingdom; as did also the invention of 
the silk throwing machine at Derby, in 1719; for an ac¬ 
count of which, see Silk, Manufacture of. 
So high in reputation was the English silk manufacture, 
that even in Italy, as Keysler (Travels, vol. i. p. 289.) 
informs us, in 1730, the English silks bore a higher price 
than the Italian. 
The silk-worm is an insect not more remarkable for the 
precious matter it furnishes for divers stuffs, than for the 
many forms it assumes, before and after its being enveloped 
in the rich cod or ball which it weaves for itself. From a 
small egg, about the size of a pin’s head, which is its first 
state, it becomes a pretty big worm, or caterpillar, of a 
whitish colour, inclining to yellow. In this state it feeds 
on mulberry-leaves, till, being come to maturity, it winds 
itself up in a silken bag, or case, about the size and shape 
of a pigeon’s egg; and becomes metamorphosed into an 
aurelia: in this state it remains without any signs of life, or 
motion ; till at length it awakes to become a butterfly, after 
making itself a passage out of its silken sepulchre; and, at 
last, dying indeed, it prepares itself a successor, by an egg 
which it casts, which the warmth of the summer weather 
brings to life. 
As soon as the silk-worm, or caterpillar, is arrived at the 
size and strength necessary for beginning his cod, he makes 
his web; for it is thus they call that slight tissue, which is 
the beginning and ground of this admirable work. This is 
his first day’s employment. On the second, he forms his 
folliculus, or ball, and covers himself almost over with silk. 
The third day, he is quite hid; and the following days he 
employs himself in thickening and strengthening his ball; 
always working from one single end, which he never breaks 
by his own fault; and which is so fine, and so long, that 
those who have examined it attentively, think they speak 
within compass, when they affirm that each ball contains 
silk enough to reach the length of six English miles. 
In ten days’ time, the ball is in its perfection; and it is 
now to be taken down from the branches of the mulberry- 
trees, where the worms have hung it. But this business 
requires a great deal of attention; lor there are some worms 
more lazy than others; and it is very dangerous waiting till 
they make themselves a passage, which usually happens 
about the fifteenth day. 
The first, finest, and strongest balls are kept for the 
breed; the rest are carefully wound. If there be no more 
than can be well wound at once, they lay them for some 
time in an oven, moderately hot, or else expose them, for 
several days successively, to the greatest heats of the sun, in 
order to kill the insect; which, without this precaution 1 , 
would not fail to open itself a way to go and use those new 
wings abroad, which it has acquired within. Ordinarily, 
they only wind the more perfect balls. Those that are 
double, or too weak, or too coarse, are laid aside; not as 
altogether 
