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Samite was a luxurious and heavysilkfabric worn in theMiddle Ages, of atwill-typeweave, often including gold or silver thread. The name "samite" derives from Old Frenchsamit, from medieval Latinsamitum, examitum deriving from theByzantineGreek ἑξάμιτονhexamiton, meaning "six threads", usually interpreted as indicating the use of six yarns in thewarp.[1][2] Samite continues in use inecclesiastical robes,vestments, ornamental fabrics, and interior decoration.[3]
Structurally, samite is aweft-faced compound twill, plain or figured (patterned), in which the mainwarp threads are hidden on both sides of the fabric by thefloats of the ground and patterning wefts, with only the binding warps visible.[4][5] By the later medieval period, the termsamite applied to any rich, heavy silk material which had a satin-like gloss,[6] indeed "satin" began[when?] as a term for lustrous samite.[7]
Fragments of samite have been discovered at many locations along theSilk Road,[8] and are especially associated with theSasanian Empire.[9] Samite was "arguably the most important" silk weave ofByzantium,[4] and from the 9th centuryByzantine silks enteredEurope via the trading ports in what is nowItaly.Vikings, connected through their directtrade routes withConstantinople, were buried in samite embroidered with silver-wound threads in the tenth century.[10] Silk weaving itself was established inLucca andVenice in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the statutes of the silk-weaving guilds in Venice specifically distinguishedsammet weavers from weavers of other types of silk cloth.[11]
TheCrusades brought Europeans into direct contact with theMuslim world and other sources of samite as well as other Eastern luxuries. A samite saddlecloth known in the West as theSuaire de Saint-Josse, now in theMusée du Louvre,[12] was woven in easternIran sometime before 961, when Abu Mansur Bakhtegin, for whom it was woven, died; it was brought back from theFirst Crusade byStephen, Count of Blois and dedicated as a votive gift at theAbbey of Judoc near Boulogne. At the time of theFirst Crusade,samite needed to be explained to a Western audience, as in the eye-witnessChanson d'Antioche (ccxxx): "Very quickly he took a translator and a large dromedary loaded with silver cloth, called "samite" in our language. He sent them to our fine, brave men..."[13]
TheFourth Crusade brought riches unknown in the West to the crusaders whosacked Constantinople in 1204, described byVillehardouin: "The booty gained was so great that none could tell you the end of it: gold and silver, and vessels and precious stones, and samite, and cloth of silk..."[14]
Samite was a royal tissue: in the 1250s, it featured clothing of fitting status provided for the innovative and style-conscious English kingHenry III, his family, and his attendants. For those of royal blood, there were robes and mantles of samite andcloth of gold.[15] Samite might be interwoven with threads wrapped in gold foil. It could be further enriched by beingover-embroidered: inChrétien de Troyes'Perceval, the Story of the Grail (1180s) "On the altar, I assure you, there lay a slain knight. Over him was spread a rich, dyed samite cloth, embroidered with many golden flowers, and before him burned a single candle, no more, no less."[16] Inmanuscript illuminations, modern readers often interpret rich figurative designs as embroidered, but Barbara Gordon[17] points out that they could equally be painted and illustrates a samitemitre paintedgrisaille in theCleveland Museum of Art.[18] According to the Louvre, the most famous example of painted silk, theParement of Narbonne, despite being a royal commission, was only made on "fluted silk imitating samite".[19]
In the wrong hands, samite could threaten the outward marks of social stability; samite was specified among the luxuries forbidden to the urban middle classes insumptuary laws by the court ofRené of Anjou about 1470: "In cities mercantile governments outlawed crowns, trains, cloth of samite and precious metals, ermine trims, and other pretensions of aristocratic fashion."[20] In Florence, when thecondottieroWalter VI, Count of Brienne offered the innovation of a sumptuous feast toJohn the Baptist in 1343, the chroniclerGiovanni Villani noted among the rich trappings "He added to the other side of thepalio[21] of crimson samite cloth a trim of gray squirrel skin as long as the pole."[22]