Arguing that history has recorded the warrior and forgotten the weaver, Gilroy traces the peaceful arts of spinning, dyeing and weaving from the earliest civilizations. Separate parts follow silk from China westward, the sheep and its wool through Scripture and classical writers, and the ancient manufacture of cotton and linen, with chapters on golden and silver textures and the Chinese way of rearing silkworms.
A broad, enthusiastic nineteenth-century survey for anyone curious about how cloth shaped the ancient world. Download the free EPUB.