（2015）Cultural and Economic Exchange across Continents: Silk Road Silks and the Western Church (7-15 centuries)
Date: 2022-11-18
Silk Road silks serve as important 'Texts' and they reflect civilisation across Continents. From the seventh to the fifteenth centuries several thousand Silk Road silks reached Ecclesiastical treasuries of Western Europe, and these textiles offer valuable insights in to cross cultural and economic exchange between China, Asia and Europe. Individual major West European ecclesiastical treasuries house up to a thousand imported silks each. These collections provide unprecedented insights in to foreign trade and diplomatic relations, chronologies of weaving techniques and the role of the silks across Church, State and Society over centuries. Parallels can be drawn across Continents in historical context to reveal common mentalities across civilisations. Based upon a selection of Silk Road silks in Western European ecclesiastical treasuries, this paper poses the questions: 'What were the messages carried by the silks, how were they received, and what did this reflect about East/West relations in general?'
