Threads of Global Desire: Silk in the Pre-Modern World

The silk industry was one of the most important fields of production in the medieval and early modern world. For several centuries, silk fabrics were globally identified as luxury goods. Silk cloth was an important medium for the transmission of design and a taste for luxuries, and silk textiles were part of gifting practices in diplomatic and private contexts. Silk manufacturing also fostered the circulation of skilled craftsmen, connecting different centres and regions across continents and linking the countryside to urban production. The production and consumption of silks spread from China to Japan and Korea and travelled westward as far as India, Persia, and the Byzantine Empire, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. In this process of diffusion, silk fostered technological innovation and allowed new forms of organization of labour to emerge. Its consumption constantly reshaped social hierarchies, gender roles, aesthetic and visual cultures, and rituals and representations of power. This book examines the integration of silk production and consumption into various cultures and its relation to everyday and regulatory practices. It considers silk as a major force of cross-cultural interaction through technological exchange and trade.

DAGMAR SCHÄFER is Director of Department 3 ’Artefacts, Action, and Knowledge’ at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and Professor h.c. of the History of Technology at the Technical University, Berlin.

GIORGIO RIELLO is Professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick. He has published extensively on the history of material culture and trade in early modern Europe and Asia and in particular on textiles and fashion.

LUCA MOL+ is Professor of Early Modern Europe: History of the Renaissance and the Mediterranean in a World Perspective at the European University Institute in Fiesole.

Contributors: JOSÉ L. GASCH-TOMAS, SURAIYA FAROQHI, KAROLINA HUTKOVA, FUJITA KAYOKO, BEN MARSH, RUDOLPH MATTHEE, LESLEY ELLIS MILLER, DAVID MITCHELL, LUCA MOLA, LISA MONNAS, AMANDA PHILLIPS, GIORGIO RIELLO, DAGMAR SCHÄFER, ANGELA SHENG