The Cover Design DYEING FABRICS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY VENICE

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1 Dyeing Fabrics in Sixteenth-Century Venice Author(s): Sidney M. Edelstein Reviewed work(s): Source: Technology and Culture, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Summer, 1966), pp Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Society for the History of Technology Stable URL: Accessed: 27/11/ :20 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Society for the History of Technology and The Johns Hopkins University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Technology and Culture.

2 The Cover Design DYEING FABRICS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY VENICE The cover illustration shows the dyeing of textile fabrics in a heated dyebath, as practiced in Venice in the sixteenth century. It is one of two woodcut illustrations in the very rare first edition of Plictho de Larte de Tentori Che Insegna Tenger Pani Telle Banbasi et Sede si per Larthe Magiore come per la Comune, written by Gioanventura Rosetti and published in Venice in The meaning of the word "Plictho" hitherto has been an enigma. However, recent studies by me, as well as those by Rodon Y Font,' have indicated that the word is directly related to the modern Italian word plico and can be loosely translated as "a collection of papers" or "instructions." The book thus becomes "Instructions In the Art of the Dyers Which Teaches the Dyeing of Woolen Cloths, Linens, Cottons and Silk by the Great Art as Well as by the Common." This woodcut appears at the beginning of the section titled "Quivi Scrivero per Ordine Tutte le Maniere che sie Die Tenir per Tenger Panni per Larte Maggiore," or "Herein Will I Write in Order All the Manners that One Must Keep to Dye Cloths by the Great Art." The other woodcut in the Plictho depicts the dyeing of yarn in- //, stead of cloth and appears at the beginning of the section on the dyeing of silk. The illustration shows the simple but basic operations used in dyeing most fabrics. The dye solution is made in a copper ves-, t sel which is kept heated, and the i cloth is constantly moved through the bath and pushed down under the liquor in order to obtain uniform results. Until =- -! the last part of the nineteenth 1 C. Rodon Y Font, "Sguardo Intorno Ad Alcune Antiche Raccolte Di Secreti Di Tintura," Bullettino Dell'Associazione Italiana Di Chimica Tessile E Coloristica, No. 1 (1933),

3 396 Sidney M. Edelstein century, the same types of apparatus and dyeing process were used; even today the modern batch process of dyeing textile fabrics employs essen- tially the same system. The Plictho was the first technical book on dyeing to be published. Its writer, Rosetti, superintendent of the armory in Venice, gathered to- gether dyeing recipes and processes as used at that time in Venice, Genoa, Florence, and in other Italian cities. Practically nothing is known about Rosetti other than the fact that he was born in Venice and that he was connected with the armory. There have been controversies over the date of publication of the first edition. There is an edition of the Plictho with a printed date of 1540 which contains the same title page and the same woodcuts as the 1548 edition. On the other hand, studies by Rodon Y Font2 and me indicate that the so-called 1540 edition could not have been published in that year and must have been published sometime after the 1548 edition. The printed date given as "MDXL" was possibly a misprint for "MDLX." The importance of Rosetti's book is indicated by the fact that later editions were published in Venice in 1565, 1611, and in 1672, and a facsimile of the 1548 edition was published in Turin in Only the "1548" and "1540" editions contained the two woodcut illustrations. Some scholars who have examined the Plictho only in a cursory manner claim that it was written in the Venetian dialect. Actually, the text is written in Florentine Italian with various modifications in style and with the addition of Venetian dialect words in certain sections. Apparently the recipes as collected by Rosetti were originally in the local dialects; he then translated them into the Italian of Florence, which by that time had become the accepted literary language. A French edition of the Plictho appeared in 1716, and later editions in 1747 and The French translations are not accurate and give false ideas concerning many of the recipes. Rosetti's Plictho is a basic work in the history of dyeing and coloring. It contains a full discussion of the art as used in Italy in the sixteenth century and, in addition, describes many techniques used in the Near East. It is to be noted that the first printed book containing dyeing recipes was The Allerley Matkel printed in Mainz in As pointed out by this writer, the Allerley Matkel was written mainly for the housewife or non-professional worker and was devoted mostly to spot 2 C. Rodon Y Font, "Algo Mas Todavia Acerca El 'Plictho De Larte De Tentori,"' La Bibliofilia, XXXVIII (Florence, 1937), Printed in facsimile with English translation and notes by Sidney Edelstein in Technology and Culture, V (1964),

4 The Cover Design 397 removing. The Plictho is completely different in that it was written for the professional craftsman and contains full and detailed instructions for all types of dyeing on all the important fibers and dyeable materials of the time. It ranks in importance in the history of technology with such works as Biringuccio's Pirotechnia, published in Venice in 1540, and with Agricola's De Re Metallica, also published in the mid-sixteenth century. An English translation of the Plictho has never appeared. Also, no complete and detailed study of the work in the original Italian exists, although many papers on the Plictho have been published. In collaboration with Mr. Hector Borghetty I have been studying and translating the Plictho into English during the last four years. A facsimile of the extremely rare 1548 edition together with an exact English translation, edited and fully annotated by us, is scheduled for publication by the M.I.T. Press during this coming year. SIDNEY M. EDELSTEIN* * DR. EDELSTEIN, president of the Dexter Chemical Corp. (New York), was for many years secretary of the Division of History of the American Chemical Society. He is a collector of rare books and is the author of many articles in the history of chemistry.

5 Techno and Culture The International Quarterly of the Society for the History of Technology SUMMER I966, VOLUME VII, NUMBER 3