Kitabı oku: «The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries», sayfa 36

XX. TEXTILE WORK OF THE CENTURY

A special chapter might easily have been written on the making of fine cloths of various kinds, most of which reached their highest perfection in the Thirteenth Century. Velvet, for instance, is mentioned for the first time in England in 1295, but existed earlier on the continent, and cut velvets with elaborate patterns were made in Genoa exactly as we know finished velvet now. Baudekin or Baldichin, a very costly textile of gold and silk largely used in altar coverings and hangings, came to very high perfection in this century also. The canopy for the Blessed Sacrament is, because of its manufacture from this cloth, still called in Italy a baldichino. Chaucer in the next century tells how the streets in royal processions were "hanged with cloth of gold and not with serge." Satin also was first manufactured very probably in the Thirteenth Century. It is first mentioned in England about the middle of the Fourteenth Century, when Bishop Grandison made a gift of choice satins to Exeter Cathedral. The word satin, however, is derived from the silks of the Mediterranean, called by the Italians seta and by the Spanish seda, and the art of making it was brought to perfection during the preceding century.

The art of making textiles ornamented with elaborate designs of animal forms and of floral ornaments reached its highest perfection in the Thirteenth Century. In one of the Chronicles we learn that in 1295 St. Paul's in London owned a hanging "patterned with wheels and two-headed birds." We have accounts of such elaborate textile ornamentation as peacocks, lions, griffins and the like. Almeria in Andalusia was a rich city in the Thirteenth Century, noted for its manufactures of textiles. A historian of the period writes: "Christians of all nations came to its port to buy and sell. Then they traveled to other parts of the interior of the country, where they loaded their vessels with such goods as they wanted. Costly silken robes of the brightest colors are manufactured in Almeria." Marco-Polo says of the Persians that, when he passed through that country (end of the Thirteenth Century), "there are excellent artificers in the city who make wonderful things in gold, silk and embroidery. The women make excellent needlework in silk with all sorts of creatures very admirably wrought therein." He also reports the King of Tartary as wearing on his birthday a most precious garment of gold, and tells of the girdles of gold and silver, with pearls and ornaments of great price on them.

Unfortunately English embroidery fell off very greatly at the time of the Wars of the Roses. These wars constitute the main reason why nearly every form of intellectual accomplishment and artistic achievement went into decadence during the Fourteenth Century, from which they were only just emerging when the so-called reformation, with its confiscation of monastic property, and its destruction of monastic life, came to ruin schools of all kinds, and, above all, those in which the arts and crafts had been taught so successfully. France at the end of the Thirteenth Century saw a similar rise to excellence of textile and embroidery work. In 1299 there is an allusion to one Clément le Brodeur who furnished a magnificent cope for the Count of Artois. In 1316 a beautifully decorated set of hangings was made for the Queen by Gautier de Poulleigny. There are other references to work done in the early part of the Fourteenth Century, which serve to show the height which art had reached in this mode during the Thirteenth Century. In Ireland, while the finer work had its due place, the making of woolens was the specialty, and the dyeing of woolen cloth made the Irish famous and brought many travelers from the continent to learn the secret.

The work done in England in embroidery attracted the attention of the world. English needlework became a proverb. In the body of the book I mentioned the cope of Ascoli, but there were many such beautiful garments. The Syon cope is, in the opinion of Miss Addison, author of "Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages," the most conspicuous example of the medieval embroiderers' art. It was made by nuns about the middle of the Thirteenth Century, that is, just about the same time as the cope of Ascoli, but in a convent near Coventry. According to Miss Addison "it is solid stitchery on a canvas ground, wrought about with divers colors' on green. The design is laid out in a series of interlacing square forms, with rounded and barbed sides and corners. In each of these is a figure or a Scriptural scene. The orphreys, or straight borders, which go down on both fronts of the cope, are decorated with heraldic charges. Much of the embroidery is raised, and wrought in the stitch known as Opus Anglicanum. The effect was produced by pressing a heated metal knob into the work at such points as were to be raised. The real embroidery was executed on a flat surface, and then bossed up by this means until it looked like bas-relief. The stitches in every part run in zig-zags, the vestments, and even the nimbi about the heads, are all executed with the stitches slanting in one direction, from the center of the cope outward, without consideration of the positions of the figures. Each face is worked in circular progression outward from the center, as well. The interlaces are of crimson, and look well on the green ground. The wheeled cherubim is well developed in the design of this famous cope, and is a pleasing decorative bit of archaic ecclesiasticism. In the central design of the Crucifixion, the figure of the Lord is rendered in silver on a gold ground."

XXI. GLASS-MAKING

A chapter might well have been devoted to Thirteenth Century glass-making quite apart from the stained glass of the cathedral windows. All over Europe some of the most wonderful specimens of colored glass we possess were made in the Thirteenth Century. Recently Mr. Frederick Rolfe has looked up for me Venetian glass, of the three centuries, the Twelfth, the Thirteenth and the Fourteenth. He says Twelfth Century glass is small in form, simple and ignorant in model, excessively rich and brilliant in colors; the artist evidently had no ideal, but the Byzantine of jewels and emeralds.

"Thirteenth Century glass is absolutely different. The specimens are pretty. The work of the Beroviero family is large and splendid in form, exquisite and sometimes elaborate in model, mostly crystal glass reticently studded with tiny colored gem-like knobs. There are also fragments of two windows pieced together, and missing parts filled with the best which modern Murano can do. These show the celebrated Beroviero Ruby glass (secret lost) of marvelous depth and brilliancy in comparison with which the modern work is merely watery. The ancient is just like a decanter of port-wine.

"Fourteenth Century returns to the wriggling ideal and exiguous form of the Twelfth Century, and fails woefully in brilliance of color. It is small and dull and undistinguished. One may find out what war or pest afflicted Murano at this epoch to explain the singular degradation."

This same curious degradation took place in the manufacture of most art objects during the Fourteenth Century. One would feel in Mr. Rolfe's words like looking for some physical cause for it. The decadence is so universal, however, that it seems not unlikely that it follows some little known human law, according to which, after man has reached a certain perfection of expression in an art or craft, there comes, in the striving after originality yet variety, an overbalancing of the judgment, a vitiation of the taste in the very luxuriance of beauty discovered that leads to decay. It is the very contradiction of the supposed progress of mankind through evolution, but it is illustrated in many phases of human history and, above all, the history of art, letters, education and the arts and crafts.

XXII. INVENTIONS

Most people are sure to think that, at least in the matter of inventions, ours is the only time worth considering. The people of the Thirteenth Century, however, made many wonderful inventions and adaptations of mechanical principles, as well as many ingenious appliances. Their faculty of invention was mainly devoted to work in other departments besides that of mechanics. They were inventors of designs in architecture, in decoration, in furnishings, in textiles, and in the beautiful things of life generally. Their inventiveness in the arts and crafts was especially admirable and, indeed, has been fruitful in our time, since, with the reawakening in this matter, we have gone back to imitate their designs. Good authorities declare these to be endless in number and variety. Such mechanical inventions as were needed for the building of their great cathedrals, their municipal buildings, abbeys, castles, piers, bridges and the like were admirably worked out. Necessity is the mother of invention, and whenever needs asserted themselves, these old generations responded to them, very successfully. There are, however, a number of inventions that would attract attention even, in the modern time for their practical usefulness and ingenuity. With the growth of the universities writing became much more common, textbooks were needed, and so paper was invented. With the increase of reading, to replace teaching by hearing, spectacles were invented. Time became more precious, clocks were greatly improved, and we hear of the invention of something like an alarm clock, an apparatus which, after a fixed number of hours, woke the monk of the abbey whose duty it was to arouse the others. Organs for churches were greatly improved, bells were perfected, and everything else in connection with the churches so well fashioned that we still use them in their Thirteenth Century forms. Gunpowder was not invented, but a great many new uses were found for it, and Roger Bacon even suggested, as I have said, that sometime explosives would enable boats to move by sea without sails or oars, or carriages to move on land without horses or men. Roger Bacon even suggested the possibility of airships, described how one might be made, the wings of which would be worked by a windlass, and thought that he could make it. His friend and pupil, Peregrinus, invented the double pivoted compass, and, as the first perpetual-motion faddist, described how he would set about making a magnetic engine that he thought would run forever. When we recall how much they accomplished mechanically in the construction of buildings, it becomes evident that any mechanical problem that these generations wanted solved they succeeded in solving very well. What they have left us as inventions are among the most useful appliances that we have. Without paper and without spectacles, the intellectual world would be in a sad case, indeed. Many of the secrets of their inventions in the arts and crafts have been lost, and, in spite of all our study, we have not succeeded in rediscovering them.

XXIII. INDUSTRY AND TRADE

We are rather inclined to think that large organizations of industry and trade were reserved for comparatively modern times. To think so, however, is to forget the place occupied by the monasteries and convents in the olden time. We have heard much of the lazy monks, but only from those who know nothing at all about them. Idleness in the monasteries was one of the accusations made by the commission set to furnish evidence to Henry VIII. on which he might suppress the monasteries, but every modern historian has rejected the findings of that commission as false. Many forms of manufacture were carried on in the monasteries and convents. They were the principal bookmakers and bookbinders. To a great extent they were the manufacturers of art fabrics and arts-and-crafts work intended for church use, but also for the decoration of luxurious private apartments. Most of us have known something of all this finer work, but not that they had much to do with cruder industries also. They were millers, cloth-makers, brush- and broom-makers, shoemakers for themselves and their tenantry; knitting was done in the convents, and all the finer fancy work. A recent meeting of the Institute of Mining Engineers in England brought out some discussion of coal mining in connection with the early history of the coal mines in England. The records of many of the English monasteries show that in early times the monks knew the value of coal, and used it rather freely. They also mined it for others. The monks at Tynemouth are known to have been mining coal on the Manor of Tynemouth in 1269, and shipping it to a distance. At Durham and at Finchale Abbey they were doing this also about the same time. It would require special study to bring out the interesting details, but there is abundant material not alone for a chapter, but for a volume on the industries of the Thirteenth Century, which, like the education and the literature and the culture of the time, we have thought undeveloped, because we knew nothing of them.

The relation of the monasteries to trade, domestic and foreign, is very well brought out in a paragraph of Mr. Ralph Adams Cram's book on "The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain" (New York, The Churchman Co., 1905), in which he describes the remains at Beaulieu, which show the place of that monastery, not by any means one of the most important in England, in trade. For the benefit of their tenantry others had done even more.

"Some idea of the power of one of these great monasteries may be gained from traces still existing of the center of trade built up by the monks outside their gates. Here, at the head of tide water, in a most out-of-the-way spot, a great stone quay was constructed, to which came ships from foreign lands. Near by was a great marketplace, now, as then, called Cheapside, though commerce exists there no longer. At the height of monastic glory the religious houses were actually the chief centers of industry and civilization, and around them grew up the eager villages, many of which now exist, even though their impulse and original inspiration have long since departed. Of course, the possessions of the abbey reached far away from the walls in every direction, including many farms even at a great distance, for the abbeys were then the great landowners, and beneficent landlords they were as well, even in their last days, for we have many records of the cruelty and hardships that came to the tenants the moment the stolen lands came into the hands of laymen."

XXIV. FAIRS AND MARKETS

A chapter might well have been devoted to showing the significance of those curious old institutions, the fairs and market days of the Middle Ages. The country folk flocked into town, bringing with them their produce, and found there gathered from many parts merchants come to exchange and barter. The expense of maintaining a store all the year around was done away with, and profits did not have to be large. Exchanges were direct, and the profits of the middlemen were to a great extent eliminated. It was distinctly to the advantage of the poor, for the expenses of commerce were limited to the greatest possible extent, and every advantage accrued to the customer.

Besides, these market days became days of innocent merriment, amusement and diversion. Wandering purveyors of amusement followed the fairs, and obtained their living from the generosity of the people who were amused. These amusements were conducted out of doors, and with very few of the objectionable features as regards hygiene and morality that are likely to attach themselves to the same things in our day. The amusement was what we would call now vaudeville, singing, dancing, the exhibition of trained animals, acrobatic feats of various kinds, so that we cannot very well say that our people are in advance of their medieval forbears in such matters, since their taste is about the same. Fairs and market days made country life less monotonous by their regular recurrence, and so prevented that emptying of the country into the city which we deprecate in our time. They had economic, social, even moral advantages, that are worth while studying.

XXV. INTENSIVE FARMING

We hear much of intensive farming in the modern time, and it is supposed to be a distinctly modern invention mothered by the necessity due to great increase of population. One of the most striking features of the story of monasticism in the countries of Europe, however, during the Middle Ages, and especially during the Thirteenth Century, when so many of the greatest abbeys reached a climax of power and influence and beauty of construction, is their successful devotion paid to agriculture. In the modern time we are gradually learning the lesson of growing larger and larger crops on the same area of ground by proper selection of seed, and of developing cattle in such a way as to make them most valuable as a by-product of farming. This is exactly what the old monastic establishments did. At the beginning of the Thirteenth Century many of them were situated in rather barren regions, sometimes, indeed, surrounded by thick forests, but at the end of the century all the great monastic establishments had succeeded in making beautiful luxuriant gardens for themselves, and had taught their numerous tenantry the great lessons of agricultural improvement which made for plenty and happiness.

Many monasteries belonged to the same religious order, and the traditions of these were carried from one to the other by visiting monks or sometimes by the transfer of members of one community to another. The monastic establishments were the great farmers of Europe, and it was their proud boast that their farming lands, instead of being exhausted from year to year, were rather increasing in value. They doubtless had many secrets of farming that were lost and had to be rediscovered in the modern time, just as in the arts and crafts, for their success in farming was as noteworthy. Their knowledge of trees must have been excellent, since they surrounded themselves with fine forests, at times arranged so as to provide shady walks and charming avenues. Their knowledge of simple farming must have been thorough, for the farms of the monasteries were always the most prosperous, and the tenantry were always the happiest. With the traditions that we have especially in English history, this seems almost impossible to credit, but these traditions, manufactured for a purpose, have now been entirely discredited. We have learned in recent years what wonderful scholars, architects, painters, teachers, engineers these monks were, and so it is not surprising to find that they had magnificently developed agricultural knowledge as well as that of every other department in which they were particularly interested.

XXVI. CARTOGRAPHY AND THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY

In the chapter on Great Explorers and The Foundation of Geography, in the body of the book, much might have been said about maps and map-making, for the Thirteenth Century was a great period in this matter. Lecoy de la Marche among his studies of the Thirteenth Century has included a volume of a collection of the maps of the Thirteenth Century. If the purpose had been to make this a work of erudition rather than of popular information, much might have been said of the cartography of the time even from this work alone (Receuil de Charles du XIII e Siècle, Paris, 1878). One of the great maps of the Thirteenth Century, that on the Cathedral wall of Hereford, deserves a place here. It was made just at the end of the Thirteenth Century. The idea of its maker was to convey as much information as possible about the earth, and not merely indicate its political divisions and the relative size and position of the different parts. It is to a certain extent at least a resume of history, of physical geography, and even of geographical biology and anthropology, for it has indications as to the dwelling-place of animals and curious types of men. It contains, besides, references to interesting objects of other kinds. Because of its interest I have reproduced the map itself, and the key to it with explanations published at Hereford.

PRESERVED IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL.

Key to the Photograph of the Ancient Map of the World

MAP OF THE WORLD (HEREFORD CATHEDRAL)

The Map is executed on a single sheet of vellum, 54 in. in breadth, by 63 in. in extreme height, it is fixed on a strong framework of oak. At the top (Fig. 1) is a representation of the Last Judgment. Our Saviour is represented in glory, and below is the Virgin Mary interceding for mankind.

For convenience of reference the Key Map is divided into squares marked by Roman capitals, with the more prominent objects in figures. I.—Commencing with sq. 1. the circle marked by Fig. 2 represents the Garden of Eden, with the four rivers, and Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit. The remainder of the square, as also in II. and III., is occupied by India. At Fig. 3 is shown the expulsion of Adam and Eve, to the right of which is shown a race of Giants, and to the left the City of Enoch, and still further the Golden Mountains guarded by Dragons. Below these mountains are shown a race of pigmies. In a space bounded by two rivers is placed a crocodile, and immediately below a female warrior. To the left of the latter are a pair of birds called in the Map Alerions. The large river to the left is the Ganges. II.—Shows one of the inhabitants of this part of India, who are said to have but one foot, which is sufficiently large to serve as an umbrella to shelter themselves from the sun. The city in the center is Samarcand. III.—In which is seen an Elephant, to the left a Parrot. A part of the Red Sea is also shown with the Island of Taprobana (Ceylon), on which are shown two Dragons. It also bears an inscription denoting that dragons and elephants are found there. The small Islands shown are Crise, Argire, Ophir, and Frondisia (Aphrodisia). IV.—Contains the Caspian Sea, below which is a figure holding its tail in his hand, and which the author calls the Minotaur. To the left is shown one of the Albani, who are said to see better at night than in the daytime. Below are two warriors in combat with a Griffin (Fig. 27). V.—In the upper part are Bokhara and Thrace, in the latter of which (Fig. 29) is shown the Pelican feeding its young, to the left a singular figure representing the Cicones, and to the right the Camel, in Bactria. Below to the left is the Tiger, and on the right an animal with a human head and the body of a lion, called the Mantichora. Still lower is seen Noah's ark (Fig. 28), in which are shown three human figures, with beasts, birds and serpents. In the lower corner, at Fig. 26, is the Golden Fleece. VI.—The upper parts contain Babylonia, with the City of Babylon (Fig. 4) on the river Euphrates, below which is the city of Damascus, which has on its right an unknown animal called the Marsok. To the right is Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt (Fig. 8). Decapolis and the River Jordan are near the bottom of the square. Above the River Euphrates is a figure in a frame representing the Patriarch Abraham's residence at Ur of the Chaldees. VII.—The Red Sea (Figs. 5, 5) is the most conspicuous object here. In the fork formed by it is shown the giving of the Tables of The Law on Mount Sinai. Below, and touching the line (Fig. 6) showing the wanderings of the Israelites, is seen the worship of the Golden Calf. The Dead Sea and submerged Cities are shown lower down to the left, and between this and the Red Sea is the Phoenix. At the bottom is a mythical animal with long horns, called the Eale. VIII.—In the upper part is the Monastery of St. Anthony in Ethiopia. The river to the left is the Nile, between this and a great interior lake (Figs. 7, 7) is a figure of Satyr. Beyond the lake, and extending a distance down the Map (Figs. 12, 12, 12), are various singular figures, supposed to represent the races dwelling there. In a circular island to the left (Meroe) is a man riding a crocodile, and at the bottom left-hand corner is a centaur. IX.—The upper part is Scythia, and shows some cannibals, below which (Fig. 25) are two Scythians in combat. Under this again is a man leading a horse with a human skin thrown over it, and to the right of the latter is placed the ostrich. X.—Asia Minor with the Black Sea (Fig. 24). Many cities are shown prominent, among which is Troy (Fig. 21), described as "Troja civitas bellicosissima." Near the bottom to the left is Constantinople. The lynx is shown near the center. XI.—Is nearly filled by the Holy Land. In the center is Jerusalem (Fig. 23), the supposed center of the world, surrounded by a high wall, and above is the Crucifixion. Below Jerusalem to the right is Bethlehem with the manger. Near a circular place to the right, called "Puteus Juramenti" (well of the oath), is an unknown bird, called on the Map Avis Cirenus. XII.—Egypt with the Nile. At the upper part (Fig. 9) are Joseph's granaries, i.e., the Pyramids, immediately below which is the Salamander, and to the right of that the Mandrake. Fig. 10 denotes the Delta with its cities. On the other side of the Nile, and partly in sq. XIII., is the Rhinoceros, and below it the Unicorn. XIII.—Ethiopia. In the upper left-hand corner is the Sphinx, and near the bottom the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, represented by a singular horse-shoe shaped figure. The camp of Alexander the Great is in the bottom left-hand corner, immediately above which is the boundary line between Asia and Africa, XIV.—At the top of the left is Norway, in which the author has placed the Monkey. The middle is filled by Russia. The small circular islands on the left are the Orkneys, immediately below which is an inscription relating to the Seven Sleepers, Scotland and part of England are shown in the lower part, but the British Isles will be described in sq. XIX. The singular triangular figure in the center of this square cannot be identified. XV.—Germany, with part of Greece, in the upper part to the right. The Danube and its tributaries are seen in the upper part, in the lower is the Rhine. On the bank of the latter the scorpion is placed; Venice is shown on the right, XVI.—Contains Italy and a great part of the Mediterranean Sea (Fig. 14). About the center (Fig. 17) is Rome, which bears the inscription, "Roma caput mundi tenet orbis frena rotundi." In the upper part of the Mediterranean Sea is seen a Mermaid, below (Fig. 11) is the Island of Crete, with its famous labyrinth, to the left of which is the rock Scylla. Below Crete is Sicily (Fig. 15), on which Mount Etna is shown; close to Sicily is the whirlpool Charybdis, XVII.—Part of Africa; in the lower part to the left, on a promontory, is seen Carthage; on the right the Leopard is shown. XVIII.—Also part of Africa. The upper part is Fezzan, below is shown the basilisk, and still lower some Troglodytes or dwellers in caves. XIX.—On the left hand are the British Isles (Figs. 19, 20, 22), on the right France. Great Britain (Figs. 19, 22) is very fully laid down, but of Ireland the author seemed to know but little. In England twenty-six cities and towns are delineated, among which Hereford (H'ford) is conspicuous. Twenty rivers are also seen, but the only mountains shown are the Clee Hills. In Wales, Snowdon is seen, and the towns of Carnarvon, Conway and St. David's. In Ireland four towns, Armagh, Bangor, Dublin and Kildare, with two rivers, the Banne, which, as shown, divides the island in two, and the Shannon. In Scotland there are six towns. In France the City of Paris (Fig. 18) is conspicuous. XX.—The upper part is Provence, the lower Spain. In the Mediterranean Sea are laid down, among others, the Islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Majorca, and Minorca. At the bottom are (Fig. 16) the pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar), which were considered the extreme western limits of the world. XXI.—At the top to the left (Fig. 13) is St. Augustine of Hippo, in his pontifical habit. And at the opposite corner the Lion, below which are the Agriophagi, a one-eyed people who live on the flesh of lions and other beasts. The kingdoms on the shore of the Mediterranean are Algiers, Setif, and Tangier.