Pindar Press - publishers of art history and archaeology

Byzantine & Eastern Christian Art

Studies in Silk in Byzantium

by Anna Muthesius

24 x 17 cm 430 pp. 95 illus.
£150.00
Publication: 2004
ISBN 1 899828 24 9
Cloth Bound

This book brings together seventeen important new papers published by Anna Muthesius since 1995. Many of the articles, plates and specially prepared figures are available only in this book. The volume acts as an essential companion to Dr Muthesius' earlier book in this series, Studies in Byzantine and Islamic Silk Weaving.

The present book includes a group of seven papers (Studies II-VI, X, and XIV) originally entitled 'Silk in Byzantium'. These were prepared in the first instance for a seminar held in 1997 in Nicosia at the University of Cyprus. They offer an overall survey of Byzantine sericulture, silk manufacture, design, use and distribution. Study I has been added as an introduction to the Cyprus series, and to the book as a whole.

Silk in an ecclesiastical context (the relationship between Imperial and monastic piety, ritual and Christological debate) forms the focus for a further five papers (Studies VIII-IX and XI-XIII). Study VIII acts to introduce a new subject, the theme of Byzantine Seafaring silks. The final three articles (Studies XV-XVII) explore the immense impact of Byzantine silks abroad between the fifth and fifteenth centuries, in regions as far apart as the British Isles and Central Asia.

Contents

Preface
I: Silk in Byzantium: Cultural Imperialism, Identity and Value
II: Introduction of Sericulture into the Byzantine Empire
III: Organization of the Silk Industry
IV: Fashion and Design
V: Courtly and Aristocratic Patronage and the Uses of Silk in Byzantium
VI: Byzantine Silk Trade and Diplomacy
VII: Byzantine Seafaring Silks
VIII: Silk and Ritual: Ninth Century Byzantium in "Global Context"
IX: Precious Cloths and Byzantine Monasticism
X: Ecclesiastical Ritual Piety
XI: Notes on the Thessaloniki Epitaphios: a technical examination
XII: Precious Byzantine Silks and their Embroidery as a Reflection of Byzantine Painting
XIII: The Byzantine Eagle
XIV: Introduction to Silk in Medieval Cyprus
XV: The Role of Byzantine Silks in the British Isles before AD 1200
XVI: Byzantine Influences along the Silk Route: Central Asian Silks Transformed
XVII: Byzantine Silks in Viking Hoards
Index