Page 360 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

A History of Lace 353

how to draw fine wire from soft metals, they lacked the technology to harden
that wire sufficiently for pins.] Isaiah XIX 9 is sometimes quoted as evidence
for the existence of filet-work, but it should be remembered that the King
James translation dates from 1611; the New English Bible gives this verse as:
`The flax-dressers shall hang their heads, the women carding and the weavers
shall grow pale,'-we have no record there that netting was anything other
than a way of making fishing-nets.

The Early Records

Let us now consider the `known' world of the C12th: although civilisations
were well established in many areas, they were as yet undiscovered. The great
overland trade routes of the Silk and Turquoise Roads provided an exchange
of goods and culture with the east, while round Europe coastal sailing vessels
also helped to carry merchandise. [The Toltecs in America, the Edo period
of Japan, and the great kingdoms of India and south east Asia were unheard
of; but distant Cathay (China) was the stuff of legend, and nearly as real as
Avalon.] Kingdoms were settling into some stability after the invasions of the
previous centuries, with established links between Europe and the Near East.
The trading centres were Venice, Genoa and Pisa, there was an `institute of
science and technology' in the Moorish kingdom of Granada in southern Spain,
Constantinople retaining its Byzantine habits was still a centre of theology-
though now firmly seated in the wealth of its own silk production-and the
troubadours of Aquitaine carried the news as they travelled from place to
place with their songs and stories. Disruptive peasants were outlawed, over-
powerful barons sent to the Crusades, and ambitious kings started little wars
on their own account; but, by and large, people enjoyed the improved material
conditions that came with peace. Silk stockings and laces were knitted in
Granada and sold to the wealthy of Europe, as wardrobe accounts show.
Our knowledge of these times comes mainly from songs and paintings.
From `The Ballad of El Cid' (c.1140) we learn that the nobility wore silk
shirts and brocade tunics decorated with worked gold, and fine cloth cloaks
with worked gold trimmings, while cloth of gold was given as part of a dowry.
Sermons preached against tight-lacing tell us that the fashionable female sil-
houette in northern Europe included a waistline, ['lace' at this time was used in
the sense of ribbon fastening,]-suggesting a more relaxed attitude towards the
practical aspects of survival. These costume details are recorded in marginal
drawings of manuscripts, too. Farther east, icons of the Virgin Mary show
her wearing a silk cloak with gold fringing: the style of the garment is very
similar to those drawn in N.European MSS., but the icons give far greater
detail, being on a larger scale.
The fringes of the Virgin's cloak (Fig. 2) are of interest, for the designs