Textile Workshops

The Royal Norman Textile Workshop in Palermo, Sicily A Reexamination of the Description by 'Hugo Falcandus', 1190 Nancy Spies The most famous of medieval descriptions of textile workshops is found in "A Letter Concerning the Sicilian Tragedy" written in 1190 C.E. by someone who was not 'Hugo Falcandus' although convention attributes it to such a person. Strong indications seem to point to a person belonging to the royal court, not necessarily a main participant but certainly a contemporary and probably an eyewitness. 1 Nec vero nobiles illas palatio adherents silentio preteriri convenit officinas, ubi in fila variis distincta coloribus serum vellera tenuantur et sibi invicem multiplici texendi genere coaptantur. Hinc enim videas amita, dimitaque et triamita minori peritia sumptuque perfici; hinc et examita uberioris materie copia condensari; hinc diarodon igneo fulgore visum reverberat; hic diapisti color subviridis intuentium oculus grato blanditur aspect; his exarentasmata circulorum varietatibus insignita, maiorem quidem artificum industriam et materie ubertatem desiderant, maiori nichilominus pretio distrahenda. Multa quidem et alia videas ibi varii coloribus ac diversi generis ornamenta in quibus sericis aurum intexitur …. 2 This is the most recent published translation: "Nor is it appropriate to pass over in silence the high-quality workshops which belonged to the palace, where the threads of silkworms are spun most finely into separate threads of different colours before being knitted [sic; woven] 84 Graham A. Loud and Thomas Wiedemann, trans., The History of the Tyrants of Sicily by 'Hugo Falcandus' 1154-69 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), 29. 2 G. B. Siragusa. ed., 'Hugo Falcandus,' La Historia o Liber de Regno Sicilie e la Epistola ad Petrum Panormitane Ecclesie (Rome: FSI, 1897).