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Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. The word was derived from Old French ''samit'', from medieval Latin ''samitum, examitum'' deriving from the Byzantine Greek ἑξάμιτον ''hexamiton'' "six threads", usually interpreted as indicating the use of six yarns in the warp.〔''(Oxford English Dictionary Online )'' "samite" (subscription required), accessed 30 December 2010〕〔Lisa Mannas, ''Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Northern and Italian Paintings 1300–1550'', Appendix I:III "Medieval Silk Fabric Types and Weaves", Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-11117-0, p. 297.〕 Samite is still used in ecclesiastical robes, vestments, ornamental fabrics, and interior decoration.〔George E. Linton, The Modern Textile Dictionary, NY, 1954, pg. 561〕 Structurally, samite is a weft-faced compound twill, plain or figured (patterned), in which the main warp threads are hidden on both sides of the fabric by the floats of the ground and patterning wefts, with only the binding warps visible.〔Anna Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World". In David Jenkins, ed.: ''The Cambridge History of Western Textiles'', Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-34107-8, p.343〕〔Dorothy K. Burnham, ''Warp and Weft, A Textile Terminology'', Royal Ontario Museum, 1980, ISBN 0-88854-256-9, p. 180.〕 By the later medieval period, the term ''samite'' was applied to any rich, heavy silk material which had a satin-like gloss,〔George S. Cole, ''A Complete Dictionary of Dry Goods'', Chicago, W. B. Conkey company, 1892〕 indeed "satin" began as a term for lustrous samite.〔''Clothing Of The Thirteenth Century'', 1928 (on-line text ))〕 ==Origins and spread to Europe== Fragments of samite have been discovered at many locations along the Silk Road,〔For an example, see ("The Silk Road" ), Metropolitan Museum of Art website, retrieved 24 May 2008〕 and are especially associated with Sassanid Persia.〔(''Woven Textiles: Textiles from Antiquity to the Renaissance'', Gallery Les Enluminures ), retrieved 24 May 2008〕 Samite was "arguably the most important" silk weave of Byzantium,〔 and from the 9th century Byzantine silks entered Europe via the Italian trading ports. Vikings, connected through their direct trade routes with Constantinople, were buried in samite embroidered with silver-wound threads in the tenth century.〔(Carolyn Priest-Dorman, "Viking Embroidery" ), noting published excavations of graves at Valsgärde, Sweden.〕 Silk weaving itself was established in Lucca and Venice in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the statutes of the silk-weaving guilds in Venice specifically distinguished ''sammet'' weavers from weavers of other types of silk cloth.〔Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World", p. 332-337〕 The Crusades brought Europeans into direct contact with the Islamic world, and other sources of samite, as well as other Eastern luxuries. A samite saddle-cloth known in the West as the ''Suaire de St-Josse'', now in the Musée du Louvre,〔Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, "The Mirage of Islamic Art: Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy Field", ''The Art Bulletin'' 85.1 (March 2003:152-184), p. 154, fig. 1.〕 was woven in eastern Iran, some time before 961, when Abu Mansur Bakhtegin, for whom it was woven, died; it was brought back from the First Crusade by Étienne de Blois and dedicated as a votive gift at the Abbey of Saint-Josse, near Boulogne. At the time of the First Crusade, ''samite'' needed to be explained to a Western audience, as in the eye-witness ''Chanson 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...〔(On-line translated text ).〕 The Fourth Crusade brought riches unknown in the West to the "Frankish" crusaders who sacked Constantinople in 1204, described by Villehardouin: "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..."〔Villehardouin, ''Chronicle of The Fourth Crusade and The Conquest of Constantinople '' ((on-line text )).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Samite」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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