ABSTRACT
Throughout his research on the history of production and exchange of silk and silk cloth across the medieval Mediterranean, David Jacoby has considered historical silk textiles in museum collections and church treasuries as important documentary sources. Silk cloth dyed after weaving has been accepted so far as a specific condition of thirteenth-century Lucchese sendal production without fully considering the consequences for the product itself and for the organization of its manufacture. The Statuto dei tintori lucchesi of 1255 attests that dyers processed sendals in huge quantity and this prominent feature is confirmed by the existence of a society of sendal dyers devoted to this task in 1287. Piece-dyed silk cloth can present a range of variations according to the fineness of the yarns, their density, and the type and quantity of twist given to them before weaving.
