FLORENTINE FABRICS

FLORENCE—VENICE—GENOA

The weaving industry was not new to Florence, for fine woollenfabrics had been produced there for fully two hundred years; andfor some thirty years beforethe sack of Lucca. TheVelluti family, who were per-haps the inventors of velvetin Europe, must have beenweaving great quantities ofthis material in Florence, asthere are records of largewarehouses and works beingerected in the Via de Velluti.

But with the arrival ofthe Lucchese weavers and theincrease of the power andwealth of the city, there camea wider appreciation of, anddemand for more sumptuousfabrics, and the Florentine,weaving industry soon reacheda remarkable degree of artistic

Fig. 32.—Florentine Artichoke.

and technical excellence andproductive power, so thattowards the end of the15 th century there were16,000 persons engaged inthe silk industry, and 30,000in the woollen trade.

This continued for fullytwo hundred years until1530, when the siege of thecity was undertaken by PopeClement VIII. and the Princeof Orange, who approachedthe city crying—

“ Prepare, Florence, yourbrocades of gold; we arecoming to purchase themwith the measure of ourpikes.”

The Florentine fabrics are singularly distinctive in technique ofweaving, and in design ; while retaining the beautiful symmetrical

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Fig. 33.—Florentine Artichoke.