{{Short description|Type of rare fabric}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} [[Image:Sea silk glove lo-res.JPG|thumb|Knitted glove made of sea silk, from Taranto, Italy, probably from the late 19th century]] [[Image:Pinna noblis shell & byssus.JPG|thumb|''Pinna nobilis'' shell and byssus]] [[Image:Fine sea silk threads.JPG|thumb|The extreme fineness of the byssus thread]]
'''Sea silk''' is an extremely rare fabric that is made from the long silky filaments, or byssus, secreted by a gland in the foot of pen shells (in particular ''Pinna nobilis'').<ref>{{cite news |title=The Last Surviving Sea Silk Seamstress |url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170906-the-last-surviving-sea-silk-seamstress |newspaper=BBC |date=6 September 2017 }}</ref> The byssus is used by the mussel to attach itself to the sea bed.<ref>{{cite book |title=Webster's |edition=Third New International Dictionary (Unabridged) |year=1976 |publisher=G. & C. Merriam Co. |page=307 }}</ref> It was previously produced in Sardinia and Taranto until the early 20th century and is still made at small scale by a few people in Sardinia.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Scales |first=Helen |title=Spirals in time: the secret life and curious afterlife of seashells |date=2015 |publisher=Zed Books |isbn=978-1-4729-1136-0 |edition= |series=Bloomsbury sigma |location=London, England}}</ref>
The cloth produced from byssus is extremely light and warm. It is also often described as being very thin, although it is similar in thickness to other fibers such as silk.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |date=2017-01-01 |title=Irritating Byssus – Etymological Problems, Material facts, and the Impact of Mass Media |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/texterm/36 |journal=Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD}}</ref> Byssus was said to be so fine that a pair of women's gloves made from the fabric could fit into half a walnut shell and a pair of stockings in a snuffbox.<ref>''Oxford English Dictionary'' (1971), under '''Byssus'''.</ref> However, Helen Scales has put forward the idea that this actually refers to Limerick gloves made from fine kid leather sold inside walnut shells as a marketing stunt, and that over time the walnut packaging and beliefs about byssus cloth were conflated.<ref>Scales 2015, p. 151–152</ref>
== Production == ''Pinna nobilis'' produces a beard of about 1,000 fibers to attach itself to the sea floor, which are all attached to a central stem. They can be up to {{Convert|20|cm|in}} long.<ref name=":0" />
The removed beard is processed in several steps. First, it is rinsed in the sea to remove debris. It is then washed in fresh water and manually cleaned.<ref name="Cubello">{{cite magazine |last=Cubello |first=Stefania |date=2018 |title=From the Soul of the Sea |url=https://muschelseide.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PP-Sea-Silk_ENG.pdf |access-date=17 August 2024 |magazine=Patek Philippe International Magazine |publisher=Patek Philippe |location=Geneva |pages=35–39}}</ref> This may be followed by a third bath, again in fresh water.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |title=Handicraft aspects |url=https://muschelseide.ch/en/handicraft-aspects/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Muschelseide |language=en-US}}</ref> After drying, it is carded and then spun by hand.<ref name="Cubello" /> Beginning in the early 19th century, the beards were sometimes left intact after being cleaned and combed and then sewn together in a close, overlapping manner to produce an effect resembling fur.<ref name=":2" />
The fibers vary in color and have a unique egg-shaped profile when viewed under a microscope.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> They are 10–50 microns in diameter, which is comparible to other natural fibers such as silk (11–15 microns), merino wool (18–25 microns) or mohair (20–40 microns).<ref name=":1" /> It is not very strong, especially when wet, compared to other fibers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |title=Biological aspects |url=https://muschelseide.ch/en/biological-aspects/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Muschelseide |language=en-US}}</ref>
Bysus can be soaked in lemon juice for a few hours to produce a golden color.<ref name="Cubello" /> There are no known historical examples of dyed sea silk, probably because the natural color was highly valued. Modern experiments with dyeing sea silk have not shown dramatic color changes.<ref name=":2" />
While a few extant woven objects are known, most were knit, and many are gloves.<ref name=":2" /> A knitted pair of gloves probably took the byssus from around 150 shells to produce.<ref name=":0" /> There are historical reports of sea silk being mixed with silk, probably for economic reasons, and also with wool, though very few objects with mixed fibers are now known to exist. Sea silk fibers may also be used for embroidery.<ref name=":2" />
==History== Tracing the history of sea silk is difficult in part because the word ''byssus'' originally referred to fine fabric made of linen or perhaps cotton, and in the Middle Ages, also to that made of silk.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |title=Linguistic aspects |url=https://muschelseide.ch/en/linguistic-aspects/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Muschelseide |language=en-US}}</ref> The first written mentions of sea silk date to the 2nd century AD, and the oldest piece of sea silk that has been found dated to the 4th century AD; a fragment was discovered in a grave in Budapest in the remains of Aquincum. However, the fragment was lost during World War II.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |title=Antiquity and late antiquity |url=https://muschelseide.ch/en/historical-aspects/antiquity-and-late-antiquity/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Muschelseide |language=en-US}}</ref> The oldest surviving sea silk object is a knit hat from the 14th century, which was found in a waste pit near Paris.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |title=Middle Ages |url=https://muschelseide.ch/en/historical-aspects/middle-ages/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Muschelseide |language=en-US}}</ref>
===Egypt=== The Greek text of the (196 BC) Rosetta Stone records that Ptolemy V reduced taxes on priests, including one paid in ''byssus'' cloth. This is thought to be fine linen cloth, not sea silk. In Ancient Egyptian burial customs, ''byssus'' was used to wrap mummies; this was also linen and not sea silk.<ref name=":3" />
===Greece=== The sophist author Alciphron first records "sea wool" in his (c. 2nd century AD) "Galenus to Cryton" letter.<ref>{{cite web |date=1896 |title=Alciphron, Literally and Completely Translated From the Greek, with Introduction and Notes |url=http://www.elfinspell.com/Alciphron1.html |access-date=9 April 2018 |website=Elfinspell}}</ref>
Sea silk has been suggested as an interpretation of the nature of the Golden Fleece that was sought by Jason and the Argonauts<ref>{{cite book |last=Verrill |first=A. Hyatt |year=1950 |title=Shell Collector's Handbook |location=New York |publisher=Putnam |page=77 }}</ref> but scholars reject this hypothesis.<ref>{{cite journal |last=McKinley |first=Daniel |year=1999 |title=Pinna And Her Silken Beard: A Foray Into Historical Misappropriations |journal=Ars Textrina |volume=29 |pages=9–29 }}</ref>
===Roman Empire=== The early Christian Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD) mentions it when justifying his wearing a pallium instead of a toga: <blockquote>Nor was it enough to comb and to sew the materials for a tunic. It was necessary also to fish for one's dress; for fleeces are obtained from the sea where shells of extraordinary size are furnished with tufts of mossy hair.<ref>Tr. Laufer 1915, p. 109.</ref></blockquote>
Several sources mention ''lana pinna'' ("pinna wool"). Emperor Diocletian's (301 AD) ''Edict on Maximum Prices'' lists it as a valuable textile.<ref>Maeder 2002, p. 10.</ref>
The Byzantine historian Procopius's c. 550 AD ''Persian War'', "stated that the five hereditary satraps (governors) of Armenia who received their insignia from the Roman Emperor were given chlamys (or cloaks) made from ''lana pinna''. Apparently only the ruling classes were allowed to wear these chlamys."<ref>Turner and Rosewater 1958, p. 294.</ref>
===Middle East=== The Arabic name for "sea silk" is {{Transliteration|ar|ṣūf al-baḥr}} ("sea wool"). The 9th-century Persian geographer Estakhri notes that a sea-wool robe cost more than 1000 gold pieces and records its mythic source:
<blockquote>At a certain period of the year an animal is seen running out of the sea and rubbing itself against certain stones of the littoral, whereupon it deposes a kind of wool of silken hue and golden colour. This wool is very rare and highly esteemed, and nothing of it is allowed to waste.<ref>Tr. Laufer 1915, p. 111.</ref></blockquote>
Two 13th-century authors, Ibn al-Baitar and Zakariya al-Qazwini, repeat this inaccurate "sea wool" story.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laufer |first=Berthold |date=1915 |title=The Story of the Pinna and the Syrian Lamb |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/534505 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=28 |issue=108 |pages=103–128 |doi=10.2307/534505 |issn=0021-8715|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
The city of Tinnis on the Nile Delta was known for its garments made of sea silk, called {{Transliteration|ar|buqalamun}} from {{Transliteration|grc|hypokalamon}}, the Greek name of the byssus mollusc.<ref name="Halm">{{Die Kalifen von Kairo|pages=16–17}}</ref>
===China=== Beginning in the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 AD), Chinese histories document importing sea silk. Chinese language names include "cloth from the west of the sea" and "silk knitted by mermaids".<ref>Hill 2004</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Almonte |first=Victoria |date=2017-02-13 |title=Identifying the Country of Meilugudun and the Significant Value of Zhou Qufei’s Lingwai daida |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/mqyj/21/1/article-p1_1.xml |journal=Ming Qing Yanjiu |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–43 |doi=10.1163/24684791-12340012 |issn=2468-4791|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
The 3rd century AD ''Weilüe'' or "Brief Account of the Wei", which was an unofficial history of the Cao Wei empire (220–265 AD), records ''haixi'' ("West of the Sea") cloth made from ''shuiyang'' ("water sheep"):<ref>In Modern Standard Chinese usage, ''Haixi'' denotes "western; foreign" names such as Haixi Jurchens and Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.</ref>
<blockquote>They have fine brocaded cloth that is said to be made from the down of "water-sheep". It is called ''Haixi'' ("Egyptian") cloth. This country produces the six domestic animals [traditionally: horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs and pigs], which are all said to come from the water. It is said that they not only use sheep's wool, but also bark from trees, or the silk from wild silkworms, to make brocade, mats, pile rugs, woven cloth and curtains, all of them of good quality, and with brighter colours than those made in the countries of Haidong (''East of the Sea'').<ref>Tr. Hill 2004; probably referring to the region of Persis in modern-day Iran</ref></blockquote>
The c. 5th century AD ''Hou Hanshu'' ("Book of the Eastern Han") expresses doubt about "water sheep" in the "Products of Daqin" section. "They also have a fine cloth which some people say is made from the down of 'water sheep,' but which is made, in fact, from the cocoons of wild silkworms".<ref>Tr. Hill 2003.</ref> The historian Fan Ye (398–445 AD), author of the ''Hou Hanshu'', notes this section's information comes from the report that General Ban Yong (son of General Ban Chao, 32–102 AD) presented to the Emperor in 125. Both Bans administered the Western Regions on the Silk Road. Hill considered it likely that the original reports correctly referred to sea silk, and later cloth that was examined in China was made of the similar-looking wild silk, leading to earlier reports being dismissed.<ref>Hill 2003</ref>
The (945 AD) ''Tang shu'' "Book of Tang" mentioned ''Haixi'' cloth from Folin (Byzantine Syria), which Emil Bretschneider first identified as sea silk from Greece. "There is also a stuff woven from the hair of sea-sheep, and called ''hai si pu'' (stuff from the western sea)". He notes, "This is, perhaps, the ''Byssus'', a clothstuff woven up to the present time by the Mediterranean coast, especially in Southern Italy, from the thread-like excrescences of several sea-shells, (especially ''Pinna nobilis'')."<ref>Tr. Bretschneider 1871, p. 24</ref>
The early 6th century AD ''Shuyiji'' ("Records of Strange Things") mentions silk woven by ''Jiaoren'', "''jiao''-dragon people", which Edward H. Schafer identifies as sea silk: <blockquote>In the midst of the South Sea are the houses of the ''kău'' people who dwell in the water like fish, but have not given up weaving at the loom. Their eyes have the power to weep, but what they bring forth is pearls.<ref>Tr. Schafer 1967, p. 220–1.</ref> </blockquote> This aquatic type of raw silk was called ''jiaoxiao'', with the first character meaning "shark" and the second a form of raw silk, although it was also described in some sources as a high-quality muslin or chiffon.<ref name=":4" />
===Modern Europe=== Archbishop {{Interlanguage link|Giuseppe Capecelatro|it}} gave dignitaries gifts made of sea silk in the 1780s, hoping to encourage demand to help provide for sea silk producers in need of work. Sea silk objects began to be put on display internationally in the 19th century; it was shown at the Louvre in 1801 and at the Centennial Exposition in 1876.<ref name=":0" />
Sea silk was also mentioned in 19th century fiction. Alexander Serov's 1863 opera ''Judith'' includes an aria "I shall don my robe of byssus" ({{Langx|ru|Я оденусь в виссон}}).<ref>{{cite web |last=Mikheeva |first=Lyudmila |title=Опера Серова "Юдифь" |trans-title=Serov's opera "Judith" |url=http://www.belcanto.ru/udif.html |access-date=9 April 2018 |website=www.belcanto.ru |language=ru}}</ref> In Jules Verne's 1870 novel ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'', the crew of the ''Nautilus'' wear clothes made of byssus (alternately translated as "seashell tissue" or "fan-mussel fabric").<ref>{{cite book |last=Verne |first=Jules |url=https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Vingt_mille_lieues_sous_les_mers/Partie_1/Chapitre_15 |title=Vingt mille lieues sous les mers |date=1870 |publisher=Hetzel |location=Paris |pages=110–118 |language=fr |chapter=Chapter 15: Une invitation par lettre}}</ref>
The sea silk industry in Taranto grew somewhat, beginning in the 1920s, with the advent of a private school run by Rita del Bene; however, it disappeared there with the onset of World War II, and it did not return after the war.<ref name=":0" /> Also in the 1920s, Italo Diana began a school on the island of Sant'Antioco near Sardinia.<ref name="Cubello" />
''Pinna nobilis'' has become threatened with extinction, due to overfishing, the decline in seagrass fields, and pollution. Since 2016, populations have also been attacked by a parasite called ''Haplosporidium pinnae'', which has caused mass die-offs.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Bassi |first=Margherita |title=Preserving an Ancient Thread |url=https://hiddencompass.net/story/preserving-an-ancient-thread/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Hidden Compass |language=en-US}}</ref> As it has declined so dramatically, the sea silk industry has almost disappeared, and byssus is difficult to come by; since 1992, it is illegal to harm or harvest living ''Pinna nobilis''. The art is now preserved only by a few women in Sant'Antioco.<ref name=":0" />
"Project Sea-Silk" from the Natural History Museum of Basel, run by Felicitas Maeder, has been collecting extensive data and studies on the subject since 1997.<ref>{{cite web |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |title=Sea silk project |url=https://muschelseide.ch/en/sea-silk-project/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=www.muschelseide.ch}}</ref><ref name="Cubello" />
{{ill|Chiara Vigo|gl}} has claimed in various media to be the sole person living today to master the art of working with byssus, and she runs the Sea Silk Museum in Sant'Antioco.<ref>Maeder, Hänggi, and Wunderlin 2004, pp. 68–71.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Paradiso |first=Max |date=2 September 2015 |title=Chiara Vigo: The last woman who makes sea silk |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33691781 |website=BBC News}}</ref> Maeder has accused Vigo of creating a false historical narrative about sea silk.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Maeder |first=Felicitas |title=Sea silk in the new millennium (2000 to 2020) |url=https://muschelseide.ch/en/historical-aspects/sea-silk-in-the-new-millennium-2000-to-2020/ |access-date=2025-07-06 |website=Muschelseide |language=en-US}}</ref> Vigo says she has a method to harvest bysus without harming the shells by trimming {{Convert|10|cm|in}} from the beard, although Scales expressed skepticism that this would produce the amount of byssus Vigo says she takes ({{Convert|600|g|oz}} per year; the intact beards of fifty shells produce 30 grams).<ref name=":0" />
A few other women also still produce and work with byssus in Sant'Antioco, such as the sisters Assuntina and Giuseppina Pes, who were taught the art by Efisia Murroni. Murroni, who was a pupil of Diana, died in 2013 aged 100.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /> The sisters use vintage byssus that has been donated to them,<ref name=":6" /> and the byssus of ''Atrina pectinata'', a shell in the same family, has been used by Arianna Pintus in her workshop in Tratalias as a substitute for ''Pinna nobilis''.<ref name="Cubello" />
==See also== * Coa vestis, a textile made in ancient Greece from wild silk.
==Footnotes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * Bretschneider, Emil. 1871. [https://archive.org/details/onknowledgeposs00bretgoog ''On the Knowledge Possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs and Arabian Colonies and Other Western Countries'']. Trubner. * Hill, John E. (2009) ''Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE''. John E. Hill. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. {{ISBN|978-1-4392-2134-1}}. See Section 12 plus "Appendix B – Sea Silk". * Hill, John E. 2004. [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html ''The Peoples of the West'']. A draft annotated translation of the 3rd century ''Weilüe'' – see Section 12 of the text and Appendix D. * Hill, John E. 2003. ''[https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/hhshu/hou_han_shu.html The Han Histories]''. See Section 12 of the text and Appendix B. * Laufer, Berthold. 1915. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jzGdAAAAMAAJ "The Story of the Pinna and the Syrian Lamb"], ''The Journal of American Folk-lore'' 28.108:103–128. * McKinley, Daniel L. 1988. [https://muschelseide.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/McKinley_Sea-Silk_1998.pdf "Pinna and Her Silken Beard: A Foray into Historical Misappropriations"]. ''Ars Textrina: A Journal of Textiles and Costumes'', Vol. Twenty-nine, June, 1998, Winnipeg, Canada, pp. 9–223. * Maeder, Felicitas 2002. "The project Sea-silk – Rediscovering an Ancient Textile Material." ''Archaeological Textiles Newsletter'', Number 35, Autumn 2002, pp. 8–11. * Maeder, Felicitas, Hänggi, Ambros and Wunderlin, Dominik, Eds. 2004. ''Bisso marino: Fili d’oro dal fondo del mare – Muschelseide: Goldene Fäden vom Meeresgrund''. Naturhistoriches Museum and Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland. (In Italian and German). * Maeder, Felicitas. (2014). "Irritating Byssus – Etymological problems, material facts and the impact of mass media." Paper presented at: Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe 1000 BC – AD 1000. Copenhagen, 18–22 June 2014, pp. 1–17. * Scales, Helen. 2015. ''Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells''. Bloomsbury Sigma. * Schafer, Edward H. 1967. ''The Vermillion Bird: T'ang Images of the South''. University of California Press. * Turner, Ruth D. and Rosewater, Joseph 1958. "The Family Pinnidae in the Western Atlantic". ''Johnsonia'', Vol. 3 No. 38, June 28, 1958, pp. 285–326.
{{Silk fibre}} {{fabric}} {{Fibers}} {{Bivalve anatomy}}
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