Posts

Silk Road Today - How Italians Pioneered Trade and Interaction Between Europe and Asia© LunarSeaArt | Pixabay
, ,

How Italians Pioneered Trade and Interaction Between Europe and Asia

How Italians Pioneered Trade and Interaction Between Europe and Asia

Marco Polo’s name is synonymous with the Silk Road.  The story of his travels inspired many European explorers and wealth seekers to venture into the Far East.

Italy’s connection to the Silk Road extends far back into antiquity.  It’s most renowned ties with the Far East, particularly China dates back to the days of Marco Polo.

In this Silk Road conversation, Consul General of Italy in Vancouver, Massimiliano Iacchini highlights Italy’s strong connection to the Silk Road, past and present.

Interview with Italian Consul General Massimiliano Iacchini on Italy’s connection to the Silk Road

(TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW)

The transcript of the interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

SILK ROAD TODAY:  Thank you very much Consul General Iacchini for allowing me to interview you regarding Italy’s connection to the Silk Road. Italy of course, we know it’s a big part of the Silk Road.

MASSIMILIANO IACCHINI: Yeah, historically at the present day as well I would say. Thank you very much for this opportunity from Silk Road Today. As you mentioned of course, one of the most important characters of the connection between Europe and the Far East, China was Marco Polo.

He himself was a Venetian and he set off on his famous expedition to the East in 1271 and he returned from China to Europe in 1295.

Think about it, a travel that lasted 24 years.  And of course when he came back, he came back with a lot of stories about Eastern cultures, people and traditions that were considered unbelievable at the time – because nobody knew in Europe what was the Far East about, what was China about.

So his journey demonstrated the possibilities of travelling to the East, and of course he not only created a Western fascination for the East, but also he succeeded in putting Central Asia, India and China on the western medieval map, so to encourage further trade and communication, and interaction in this direction.

So let’s say Marco Polo was the front runners of this adventure, but there were other Italian characters that did a lot for Europe and for Italy to be more aware about the Far East.

Silk Road Today - How Italians Pioneered Trade and Interaction Between Europe and Asia

Marco Polo is the intrepid Venetian merchant and explorer who embarked on an epic odyssey that took him from his Venetian home through forbidden territories to the royal court of the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan.

Francesco Balducci Pegolotti – Guru of Silk Road Marketing

As you mentioned before, Francesco Balducci Pegolotti was a very…another very important character in this picture.  One of the earliest surviving European writings on the direct contact between the Mediterranean Europe and East Asia was given by him, by Francesco Balducci Pegolotti – and through his notes on trade practices.

So at the time he wrote this kind of booklet in Italian was called la pratica della mercatura which means in English “practice of marketing”. Pegolotti was originally from Florence.  He was employed by the first great banking house in Western Europe called Bardi…B-a-r-d-i.  This firm has interest all over Europe, from England to the nearest base.

La pratica della mercatura – an internal memo or guide to describe the trade route and profit that could be made by merchants from Europe to Central Asia and to the Far East.

And in Pegolotti notes in this booklet which was written in the 14th century, it was very important, because it served as an internal memo or guide to describe the trade route and profit that could be made by merchants from Europe to Central Asia and to the Far East.

So this information that he gathered probably through also some journey that he made during the period of the so-called Pax Mongolica, when there was no war at the time…it was until the Central Asia region but there is no certainty that he travelled until further east from the Black Sea to China.

So most of the commentators at the time, they say that Pegolotti himself had never travelled there but he relied on the reports of several merchants who had used this road, and he also detailed other important ways of communication, such as the one from Tabrizi  to Persia,  and from Trebizond to Tabrizi, so even internally.

And these kinds of words were very important at the time because they were giving the picture of the potential in terms of communication relations and trade.  This whole continent that at the time was really unknown.   So this is for our side, for our country, the main heroes, let’s say or characters that developed this interest for the Far East.

Silk Road Today - How Italians Pioneered Trade and Interaction Between Europe and Asia

Marco Polo’s travels are documented in the book, “The Travels of Marco Polo” (“Il milione”).

SILK ROAD TODAY: All the pioneers that we talked about actually pioneered the early European pioneers that actually not only started trade towards the Far East but also trade within the Persian region.

IACCHINI: Yes, yes, exactly. At the time it was done piece by piece, and of course whenever the trade was established and reached a certain volume, with one reason they were going eastward, and at the time, the approach was of exploring, of knowing.  And I think that in this period the Republic of Venice and also Florence were instrumental in pushing these pioneers go further east.

SILK ROAD TODAY: So Italians, it’s in your heritage that you’re adventurous traders.

IACCHINI:  Thank you.  Venice was a very important port as well…many interactions with Persia…it was the main port in the Mediterranean you have to bear in mind at the time.   So it was like a cross-cultural and international hub, if you think about Vancouver nowadays, there’s connecting, for example, North America and Asian continent through the Pacific Ocean.

Of course at the time the distances were much more difficult, but in any way it was a centre where gathering, doing business, exchanging information and cultural behaviours, and knowing the countries and the communities from very far away.

Italian Silk Industry

SILK ROAD TODAY: Who actually started the silk industry in Italy, was it the merchants that brought the silk back from Venice and then started the industry?

IACCHINI: Well the silk industry had a very rapid and swift development in Europe at the beginning of the 12th century.  And at that time Italy soon became one of the most important centres for manufacturing silk, above all in Genoa, on the western coast of Italy’s northern side, next to France.  Venice of course and Florence were the main production areas.

Silk Road Today - How Italians Pioneered Trade and Interaction Between Europe and Asia

You can’t go wrong eating Italian food. It’s a cuisine that appeals to virtually every palate.

SILK ROAD TODAY: So certainly it sounds like the Italian Silk Road has evolved from past, from days of Marco Polo right up to today, we can still see that connection there, it’s still evolving, with the Made in Italy brand, we see a lot of your food, your culture, particularly as you said, the creative industry with the furniture, the fashion and so forth.

IACCHINI: And of course we believe that such a connection between the western part of Europe and the Far East is still nowadays very important because it’s multi-facet.

Once upon a time in the past it was very difficult to connect people, long travels, as I mentioned before Marco Polo stayed in China for 24 years.  Can you imagine, it was not… it was a portion of his life, not only travel.

But nowadays everything is easier, so connectivity has to be used for the best interest of our people and the people living in the central part of Asia and the Far East.

So connectivity should be addressed something that it’s not only economic, financial, and legal integration, but as it was in the past, it was a conveyor belt for… as well as for art, for ideas, for inventions and as well for goods and services and trade and the growing economy from the two jurisdictions.

 

Silk Road Today - How Italians Pioneered Trade and Interaction Between Europe and Asia

Fashion has always been integral to the Italian culture and society. The birth of Italian fashion go way back to 14th-Century Florence. Another iconic product of Italy is the Vespa (wasp in Italian). It was named after an insect because the early prototypes sounded like a buzzing insect.

So goods were travelling in both directions and with them they move ideas, science and other idea, other sectors of the culture activity that are crucial for the birth of the modern world as we know it today.

SILK ROAD TODAY: Well thank you very much Consul General Iacchini for giving us a perspective on the Italian connection to the Silk Road, and I’m very confident that Italy will continue to expand and branch out to various markets in the Far East and likewise as well.

IACCHINI: Thank you very much.

/by
Silk Road Today - Vikings Are More Fashionable Than You Thought©Johan Berge/Visitnorway.com/Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
, ,

Vikings Are More Fashionable Than You Thought

Vikings, what their burial attires reveal about their penchant for fashion and their connection to the Silk Road.

Vikings are known for being fearsome, seafaring warriors and skilled traders.  In Norway, their reign lasted 250 years.

Little was known about their taste for luxury goods such as silk, until the discovery of the Oseberg burial mound in 1904.  One of the two women found in the mound was thought to be Norwegian Queen Åsa of the Yngling clan.

On this Silk Road conversation, University of Oslo professor, Dr. Marianne Vedeler talks about the silk fragments found in the Oseberg ship burial.  How the elite Vikings adorn the luxurious fabric on their fashion accessories.

What her finds revealed about the Viking trade on the Silk Road and the value of silk in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages.

Interview with University of Oslo professor, Dr. Marianne Vedeler on the Vikings connection to the Silk Road

(TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW)

The transcript of the interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

SILK ROAD TODAY:  Thank you Dr. Marianne Vedeler for joining us on the Silk Road conversation this afternoon.

Can you tell us what your discovery in the Oseberg ship burial, about the Vikings and the connection to the Silk Road?

DR. MARIANNE VEDELER:  It’s very interesting to see all these silks in one single grave from the Viking Age found in Norway. It tells us all the raiding and trading that the Vikings did.

They went very far to get these silks.  Some of them are from Central Asia and some from the Byzantine area.

It also tells us about how the different traders met on their way and interpreted the silk in different ways.

Silk Road Today - Vikings Are More Fashionable Than You Thought

Replica Oseberg Ship at the Viking Ship Museum and silk fragments found at the Oseberg burial mound. (Johan Berge/Visitnorway.com/Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo)

We can see that it’s used in different ways in Central Europe and far up in the north, in Scandinavia.  The patterns and the mythology laying in the patterns are used differently in different areas.

Silk came to Scandinavia for the first time in the 9th century.  We know that because in the burials that archaeologists are excavated, we find silk for the first time in the 9th century.

I have studied silk from the 9th and 10th centuries and that’s the earliest silk was ever found in Scandinavia.

The Scandinavians didn’t have the technology or the raw materials to produce silk themselves.  It’s obviously imported from Central Asia and from a large Persian production area.

Scandinavian Countries Where Silk Was Discovered

SILK ROAD TODAY: Was it through the artifacts of the Oseberg burial site that contains silk or was it in other places in Scandinavia that silk was found.

VEDELER:  Silk from the 9th and 10th centuries have been found in 23 sites in a total of 94 graves spread all over Scandinavia.  In some core areas, we found a lot of silk.  Some silks spread all over, even high up in the north of Norway.

It’s also found in Denmark and Sweden and some places in Finland as well. The biggest find was actually the Oseberg burial site – it had the largest amount of silk.

Yes, the largest amount of silk and also the most varied in one single grave.  That is from Oseberg in Norway, and there we have a lot of different kinds of silk as well.  You not only have samitum or samite silk but also embroidery made of silk.

And they probably imported silk threads because we can see that textiles made in Oseberg area or the southern part of Norway both contain traditional North patterns. They have used threads of silk.

Silk Road Today - Vikings Are More Fashionable Than You Thought

Close up view of the silk threads (Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo)

Trade and Travel Route

SILK ROAD TODAY:  In your presentation earlier you spoke about how the silk was transported from the east to Scandinavia going through Russia and going through Central Asia.

Now, did the Viking ships actually travel all the way to Persia to get the goods or how did they travel… the route that they went.

VEDELER:   We don’t know this. Probably the silks have gone through different hands and different people along the way.

Probably people from both Scandinavia, from Central Asia and from the areas between have contributed to bringing the silks along the way.

How Was Silk Used ?

Silk is only found in the very rich graves in Scandinavia. The richest graves contained silk and it must have been very, very expensive. We can see that in a grave like Oseberg.

Two women were buried with a lot of different objects: 15 horses, four wagons, a lot of equipment, and yet the silk fragments are very tiny and small.

They were first used face on. Then when they were worn, they used the underside. That tells me that silk has been very, very precious at this time.

Silk were probably sewn on to tunics and headwear. But we don’t always see how this is done because the other parts of the garments are almost always gone.

So it’s difficult to see exactly how they were used but, they were probably used in tunics in life.  And then when they were buried, the richest people were clothed in this material.

It went from a garment used for daily life and was later transformed into a burial garment.  So that’s why the Viking ships from Oseberg is the world’s best preserved Viking ship in the world.

SILK ROAD TODAY:  Well, thank you very much doctor for sharing your insights on the silk discovery in the Oseberg burial site.

VEDELER:  Thank you.

Dr. Vedeler has published her discoveries in her book, Silk for the Vikings (Ancient Textiles) and it’s available for purchase online.

Additional Info. by Dr. Vedeler

I have compared the silk found in Oseberg with other silk finds from the Viking Age in Scandinavia. There is a common pattern of distribution, use and origin in all of Scandinavia.

The use as well as the meaning of colours and patterns differs from what we see in the production areas and also from other parts of Europe.

Still, I argue that silk became a link between the aristocratic Christian Europe and the chiefs of the heathen North.

The silk should be seen as an actor in the political game of Scandinavian leaders in the Viking Age, connecting and associating them with leaders in other parts of Europe.

It`s economical and esthetical value and it`s value as an exotic object made it a useful actor on the political scene across ethnic and religious boundaries.

When these silks finally reached Scandinavia from Byzantine and Persia, they were regarded as extremely precious. This is expressed in many ways.

Only the richest and most highly ranked men and women were buried with silk. The fabrics were cut in narrow strips that were sewn onto clothing such as headwear and tunics.

In addition to the large ship, the two women buried in the Oseberg grave were provided with 15 horses, four wagons, a sledge and equipment for a whole house hold, among other things.

Yet, some of the samite silk strips sewn onto their clothing were first in use for a long time and then to be turned and sewn on again with the less used back side turning out.

By studying such grave findings carefully, we can conclude that these people were buried in clothing that they had used in life, and that silk was regarded as very valuable.

/by