PART I: CHAPTER 2 - SILK IN THE MIDDLE BYZANTINE PERIOD
2.5 Silk in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
After the mid-tenth century, the nature of source evidence pertaining to silk changes.
Only the treatise attributed to Pseudo-Kodinos between 1347 and 1368 includes some
protocollary information about imperial textiles.257 Surviving sources include several histories and other literary works. Jacoby gathered evidence from several European sources attesting types of silk cloths from the island of Andros that are dated to the early twelfth century.258 Apart from identification of the location by name, we have no additional information about the industry or types of products.259
The two themes that characterise the Byzantine silk history during the eleventh and twelfth centuries are explicit references to private silk workshops in the empire’s western provinces and the series of trading privileges granted to Italian merchant states beginning in the late eleventh century. The most dramatic event occurred in 1147 when Roger II, king of Sicily (1130-1154), dispatched a fleet to invade Byzantine territories. Choniates relayed that Sicilian forces captured Corinth and Thebes and carried away female silk workers and fine golden cloths.260 Otto of Freising provided a similar account and included Athens among the
257 Pseud Kodin.
258 Jacoby 1991-1992, 460-461.
259 Jacoby 1991-1992, 461.
260 Nik Chon, Dieten, II.1.98.40-49.
cities captured.261 He also reported that the motivation for kidnapping was to obtain skilled workers to teach weaving arts known only by Greeks among the Christians.262
Literary sources show that silk production in Thebes and Corinth recovered soon after the silk workers were abducted.263 A letter written by John Tzetzes between 1148 and 1154 noted the skill of Theban weavers.264 Writing in the 1160s, Benjamin of Tudela described the Jewish silk weavers in Thebes as the most skilled in silk and purple in the empire.265 In Thessaloniki, he stated that the Jews were oppressed and lived by silk weaving.266 Of Constantinople he wrote ‘From every part of the empire of Greece tribute is brought here every year, and they fill strongholds with garments of silk, purple, and gold’.267 He describes the city’s inhabitants as ‘they go clothed in garments of silk with gold embroidery’.268 Among the Jews in the city, he said ‘there are artificers in silk and many rich merchants’.269
Evidence for the silk industry in Western Byzantium is part of a larger economic expansion and trend toward urbanisation that took place in the region during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.270 The trade privileges awarded by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos to Venice in the last quarter of the eleventh century had significant consequences for the empire.271 Although not specifically associated with silk, trade concessions had a long-term impact on the silk industry. Jacoby traced the origins of Venetian commercial and maritime expansion in
261 G. Frid, p. 370, 33. For additional primary sources, see Jacoby 1991-1992, 462-463, n. 54.
262 G. Frid, 33.
263 For a summary of archaeological evidence for dye works, see Louvi-Kizi 2002.
264 Tzetzes, 101-103, no. 71.
265 Be Tud, 10; for dating and an improved English translation, see Jacoby 2008.
266 Be Tud, 11.
267 Be Tud, 13.
268 Be Tud, 13.
269 Be Tud, 14.
270 For changed consumption patterns and accumulation of wealth, see Kazhdan and Epstein 1985, 74-119.
271 Trattati, 35-45. The conventional date assigned to the chrysobull granting trade privileges is 1082; for a date of 1092 see Frankopan 2004.
the eleventh and twelfth centuries with respect to Byzantium and Muslim entities.272 In the eleventh century, Venetian traders participated in internal trade within the empire with tax exemptions to the relative disadvantage of Byzantine merchants. From 1126, benefits were extended to Byzantine subjects trading with Venetians, explaining their role in transporting and trading silks in Constantinople as well as in the West.273
Some evidence concerning textile exchange is found in panegyris (festival) accounts.
Vryonis studied these events, which were apparently widespread in the empire, as both a religious and commercial institution.274 While the term itself means gathering, and the events were centred on saints and shrines, some festivals appear to have included a market. An important account appeared in the Timarion. This work described the panegyris of Saint Demetrios in Thessalonike during the early twelfth century. Surveying the arrangement of the tent-shops of the textile market, the author wrote:
Every type, which [is in the form of] textiles and yarns for men and women, and all those that commercial ships bring to the Hellens from Boeotia, the
Peloponnese, and Italy. Also Phoenicia contributes and Egypt, Spain and the Pillars of Hercules weave the most beautiful of fixtures. Merchants bring these directly from the various lands to former Macedonia and to Thessalonike. The Euxine sends its goods to Byzantium and thence it ornaments the panegyris, many horse and mules bearing the loads from there.275
Byzantium’s participation in regional trade is well-documented in a wide variety of sources and in a number of different ways. Several scholars have investigated the activities of
272 Jacoby 2009.
273 Jacoby 2000, 134-135, 139. Pisa and Genoa were granted more limited privileges in the twelfth century. Trade in the tenth century was implied by Luitprand of Cremona’s account of his embassy to Constantinople (968). Luitprand claimed that prohibited silks were handled by Venetian and Amalfian traders. See Luitprand, 211-212, 55, 899-900.
274 Vryonis 1997, 259-260.
275 Timarion, 25-31, 55-59; Vryonis 1997, 256-259.
foreign merchants in Constantinople and elsewhere in the empire.276 Chapter 6 of the BOE mandated that foreign merchants were required to store their silk goods and transact business at the mitata which also served as a guesthouse.277 Chapter 10 of the BOE referred to the Black Sea port city of Trebizond as a centre for trade in dyes with Muslim merchants from the East.278
2.6 Summary
In tracing the history of silk in Byzantium, it becomes clear that the material was employed for a wide variety of uses. Evidence shows the gradual westward movement of the industry in terms of both production and consumption. Although silk had been a valuable luxury product for centuries, the early Byzantine state sought to confine the material as an imperial prerogative through laws restricting manufacture and use. In response to the crises of the sixth and seventh centuries, silk was among the many resources rationalised by the state to serve imperial purposes. The material was extensively integrated into the social and economic framework of the middle Byzantine court as a means to project imperial conceptions through ceremonies, diplomatic gestures, and rewards. The success of these collective measures as relayed through primary sources now defines the modern conception of Byzantine silk.
Unlike other valuable materials available only in limited quantities, silk was not easily restricted to the imperial sphere. Given the apparent failure of outright prohibitions, the state sought to regulate the private silk industry in order to control the production and circulation of certain types of silks. In contrast to the earlier period, prerogative was not defined by material or colour alone, but by a more specific set of factors defined as kekolymena. The production
276 For discussion of foreign merchants in Constantinople, see for example Lilie 1984; Jacoby 1994a; Reinert 1998; Anderson 2009; Laiou and Morrisson 2007, 138-145.
277 BOE, Koder, 6.1. See Lopez 1945, 22-40; Maniatis 1999.
278 BOE, Koder, 10.1-2.
factors associated with the imperial silk workshop involving materials, equipment, and specialised skills were not unique to the imperial state. Over time, reproductions of imperial silks occurred within the empire and beyond. During the middle Byzantine period, trade in silk was a regional industry comprising goods at various stage of production – from fibre through finished goods. The market was well developed, involving an extensive network of exchange.
The following chapter defines a methodology to gain a deeper understanding of silk in context using the fragmentary textile mentions that appear in Byzantine, Islamic, and Jewish contemporaneous sources. Chapter 4 applies this investigative strategy to discuss the social role of the silk industry, to define attributes in the hierarchy of valuable court textiles, and to integrate the Byzantine silk industry with regional developments.
PART I: CHAPTER 3 - TEXTILE MENTION DATABASE RESEARCH