Detail from the "Martyr Cope" (1270), gold on red silk samite, brought from France in 1274. Uppsala Cathedral Treasury.
Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. The word was derived from Old French samit, from medieval Latin samitum, examitum deriving from the Byzantine Greek ἑξάμιτον hexamiton "six threads", usually interpreted as indicating the use of six yarns in the warp.[1][2] Samite is still used in ecclesiastical robes, vestments, ornamental fabrics, and interior decoration.[3]
Structurally, samite is a weft-faced compound twill, plain or figured (patterned), in which the main warp threads are hidden on both sides of the fabric by the floats of the ground and patterning wefts, with only the binding warps visible.[4][5] By the later medieval period, the term samite was applied to any rich, heavy silk material which had a satin-like gloss,[6] indeed "satin" began as a term for lustrous samite.[7]
^Oxford English Dictionary Online "samite" (subscription required), accessed 30 December 2010
^Lisa Mannas, Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Northern and Italian Paintings 1300–1550, Appendix I:III "Medieval Silk Fabric Types and Weaves", Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-11117-0,
p. 297.
^George E. Linton, The Modern Textile Dictionary, NY, 1954, p. 561
^Anna Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World". In David Jenkins, ed.: The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-521-34107-8, p. 343
^Dorothy K. Burnham, Warp and Weft, A Textile Terminology, Royal Ontario Museum, 1980, ISBN 0-88854-256-9, p. 180.
^George S. Cole, A Complete Dictionary of Dry Goods, Chicago, W. B. Conkey company, 1892
^Clothing Of The Thirteenth Century, 1928 on-line text)
Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. The word was derived...
The First, Second, and Third Samnite Wars (343–341 BC, 326–304 BC, and 298–290 BC) were fought between the Roman Republic and the Samnites, who lived on...
fire and very surreal, and saw a veiled version of the grail wrapped in samite, a heavy silk popular in the Middle Ages, which is mentioned several times...
belongs to the era of Abbas I. In the era of Safavids, the ceremony of samite confessing of the King took place here. The word Ghushkhaneh consists of...
cloth-of-gold, front twill-weave cloth-of-gold, back Field of the Cloth of Gold Samite Hayward, Maria (2009). Rich apparel: clothing and the law in Henry VIII's...
(damaged—possibly by an Hs 293) HMS Rockwood (damaged slightly, later written off) SS Samite (damaged) SS Samuel Huntington (sunk off Anzio during Operation Shingle...
Robert Nelson, Alex de Grassi, Liz Story, Philip Aaberg, Michael Manring, Samite, David Cullen, Tracy Silverman, Lisa Lynne, George Tortorelli, Sean Harkness...
mausoleum of the Bagratuni kings. The "Shroud of Saint Josse", a rich silk Samite camel cloth from Khurasan, is made. It is preserved in the Abbey of Saint-Josse-sur-Mer...
cuirasses to be made for him and his sons in 1308, which were covered in samite fabric of different colors. In the transitional period segmented armour...
Global Information