Silkworm Annotation PlanTable of Contents
Table of Contents
1.
Sasha Grabovskiy
2.
Goals:
A) To grow silkworms according to the instructions in MS Fr. 640
B) To experience and record the poetic inclinations that moved the Author-Practitioner to rare poetic description (as inspired perhaps by Marco Girolamo Vida, Bishop of Alba and Cremonesi)
C) To use these instructions as a control for the more unlikely instructions in the section The Work Done in Algiers, which details certain alchemical procedures with silkworms. And to determine at which step, if any, the reconstruction breaks down.
3.
Recipes to be used.
A) FIRST RECIPE (From MS Fr. 640)
p053v_1</id>
<head><al>Silkworms</al></head>
<ab>They are produced from grain, that is eggs, which are sold by the ounce, which is commonly sold in Languedoc 3 lb. and 5 s. The one from Spain brought by merchants is considered to be the best, because the worms coming from it are not so subject to illnesses and produce more silk. In Spain, one ounce of grain gives worms that commonly make 15 lb. of silk. But from one once produced in France, they do not make but 10 or 12. Three ounces of grain are to produce such a quantity of worms, with which you will be able to furnish a room with three or 4 shelves of wide boards. They begin to shed their skin on their own around Easter. And to do this, one has to put them in a pine box, like the ones in which we put pellet, warmly among feather cushions. And in the beginning, they shed their skin as little black ants, and as soon as there are two or three without skin, they have to be given white mulberry leaves. And then arrange them on the boards. And three times per day, it is necessary to change the leaves for fresh ones. And if during the day there is any storm or rainy weather, cloudy and cool, one needs to keep in the room three or 4 embers and with glowing coal, and to light incense until the room is filled with its smoke. And when the weather is warm and serene, they produce more and better silk. Some worms make it whiter, others more yellowish. And even if it is white, it can be yellowed when it is extracted with hot water. From their birth until the moment they make their cocoons and prisons, worms sleep and rest 4 times, and each time they remain 4 or five days resting without eating, as if they were dying so as to be born again, because each one sheds their skin and begins by uncovering the head, then consequently, on different days, the rest of the body, and they go from white to grey, and from grey to white. And if one of them has some sickness and does not have the strength to shed, one needs to help it and to be careful not to squash it, because if it gives off a yellow liquor, it is no longer worth anything. And they do not even serve much if one handles them. Around Pentecost, they begin to want to climb on the dry heather branches that we prepare and attach</ab>
<ab> <margin>left-top</margin> See Marco Girolamo Vida, Bishop of Alba and Cremonesi, wrote a poem on the nature of silkworms.[a] </ab>
<ab> <margin>left-middle</margin> How they are [illegible] </ab>
<cont/> </div> [a]In Latin in the original.
``
<page>054r</page> <image>http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10500001g/f113.image</image>
<div> <cont/> <id>p053v_1</id>
<ab>to some of the upper boards, and one can tell when they want to climb up when, on the leaf, they stretch out and raise their heads and a part of their bodies when one
takes them to heather branches where they stop and begin to spin their prison, which we call cocoon, generally the size of a pigeon egg, although there are some which are much bigger because it sometimes happens that two or three and up to 11 <al>worms</al> put themselves in a cocoon, which is hairy and cottony, around which ball is filoselle or floret[a], and of the cocoon, which is a white, solid, continuous and firm skin, <m>silk</m> is made. The cocoon is so hard that it is cut with difficulty with a fingernail. And yet to leave its prison, the <al>worm</al> eats away at it on one end, and after having stayed inside, living on its own juices for three weeks, it comes out, reduced in size by half. Because when it begins to spin, it is as long as a ring finger and has eight legs, and when it comes out it is less than half as long and only has four legs. On the other hand, it has become a butterfly and has wings; however, it does not fly. There are males and females. As soon as they come out of the cocoon, the male mates with the female, and they are put on a piece of white linen where they lay their eggs, which will not be good and viable if the male was not given to her. When the male has detached himself from a female, one must get rid of it because it would not be good to give it to another female. They finish spinning and laying eggs in three weeks and around Saint John's Day. And then one keeps their eggs and grain until Holy Week, as mentioned. Some [worms] spin among the leaves and make their cocoons there without climbing high.</ab>
<ab><margin>top-left</margin>La <m>soye</m> des<lb/> coquons ou il y a</ab>
</div>
B) SECOND RECIPE (From MS Fr. 640)
fols. 52r-v: For work (of an alchemical nature) done in Algiers
<div>
<id>p052r_1</id>
<head>The Work done in Algiers</head>
<ab>Have a <al>colt</al> of three of four years and feed it on <m>barley</m> and <m>straw</m> cut in the same way as that which they use to feed horses in <pl>Spain</pl>. Let it drink <m>water</m> from a good fountain or river <sup><m>water</m></sup>. I do not know if it would be good sometimes to let him drink the <m>water</m> of <m>sulfur</m> springs, and to sometimes give him <m>fenugreek</m> or other hot foods, for the intention of the <pro>worker</pro> is to use the heat of his <m>manure</m>, and the climate here is cooler than that of Algiers. Keep it in a warm place and use it and make sure it loses none of its <m>manure</m> or <m>urine</m>, of which you will make a mass or two so that while one cools the other will keep its heat and be suitable to continue. Also have a large flask as thick as possible, one finger thick if it can be so made, and with a capacity of one pitcher or <m>clay</m> jug, and around the feast of St John place a dozen and a half <m>chicken eggs</m>, that is to say, the <m>egg</m> without the <m><sup>egg</sup> white</m> and the <m>germ</m>. Others say sixty <m>yokes</m>. And with this dozen and a half of <m>chicken egg yokes</m> put one half ounce (others say sixty <m>eggs</m> and a half pound) of <m>female silk worm eggs</m>. And after carefully luting the flask (I do not know if air will be needed for the generation) and bury it in the heat of the <m>manure</m> up to the neck, and leave it there until several <al>worms</al> are engendered and then remove the flask and do not bury it in the <m>manure</m> anymore. But put it on the hot layer of the <m>manure</m> until all the <al>worms</al> are eaten and consume one another by shriveling and stirring, and only one remains. Once this has happened, you must lure it at regular intervals, day and night, with the assistance of two men, who will care for it in shifts, and you will lure it with an <m>egg yolk</m> covered in <m>gold</m> leaf or with a liquid <m>yolk</m> into which the <m>gold</m> leaf has been incorporated. And be careful that it does not miss such fodder (some say one <m>egg yolk</m> per hour, others say three, but the thing itself will demonstrate the practice). So nourished in this way it will grow in two month or seven weeks and will become like a <al>serpent</al>, one span and four fingers long, and one pound in weight, and as the wings will begin to develop, you must kill it, doing so with a <m>charcoal</m> fire in a ring around the bottle one span away from it, and at that time lute the bottle well so that it does not exhale
52v
or to be safer, go away until the fire is completely blown out and that everything is cold again. Because the exaltation may be dangerous. And for that moment, when you take it with some tongs, do cover your mouth with some good <m>vinegar</m> and have a protection and cover yourself with it. Once it has died out, put it into a cloth or a canvas made of <m>silk</m> and fold it and hold it to a board exposed to air and the sun will dry it. Once it is well dry, powder it in a mortar and keep this powder cautiously. Because one ounce of this one thrown on 3 pounds of melted <m>antimony</m> transforms it into a finer <m>gold</m> than the other one. But there is not so much pitch. You also have to choose the oldest <m>antimony</m> possible which has often melted before and finely hammered into blades or other works, and at first purify it by melting and throwing it into some <m>honey</m> and <m>vinegar</m>. The completion time for such work is nine months from Saint John’s day until the 25th April. </ab></div>
C) THIRD RECIPE (Excerpts for reference, from Royal Society)
Of the Designed Progress to be Made in the Breeding of Silkworms, and the Making of Silk, in France Philosophical Transactions (1665-1678)
Vol. 1 (1665 - 1666), pp. 87-91
Published by: Royal Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/101438
(Royal society translated bits of) Monsiuer Isnard, In a treatise published in Paris, entitled Instructions for the Planting of White Mulberryes, the Breeding of Silkworms, and the Ordering of Silk in Paris (1665)
Christophe Isnard: Memoires et instructions pour le plant des meuriers blancs, nourriture des vers a soye: et l’art de filer, mouliner, & aprester les soyes dans Paris & lieux cirvonvoisins [Link ]
D) FOURTH RECIPE (Excerpts for reference, from Marco Giralamo Vida)
The Silkworm: A Poem in Two Books
- The golden labors of the spinster race…They scarce behold three changing moons decay…extinct before they know a parent’s care…First let the mulberry’s late verdure bring/the certain signals of a settled spring…soon as its expanding leaves appear/ He [the peasant] marks the turning period of the year…she courts the wages of the golden thread…Here lurks the robber mouse concealed til night obscured in embers…the audacious felon ascends your shelves…The mulberry’s first shoots with juicy buds (195)…Throw single leaves and let them strive for food {if no mulberry try early elm buds, bramble or nettle juicy line 265]…[leaves should be] guiltless of spot and free from every blight…if any dropping dew adheres shake the moist leaves and dry their midnight tears…line 375 The serpent race their chambered domes prepares…the willing pris’ner circled in its folds; so freely is the price of glory paid; such thrift of fame attends the golden trade
- Book Second: pale sickness shakes alike their little frames/ whether the tainted ait’s corrupting steams Or noxious food the laten poison hold/ Whate’er the cause, infection thins the fold…bodies stained with putrid gore…deform the shelves and fun’rals strow the floor…Yet not promiscuous like the savage race/ they join, in short fortuitous embrace’ a lasting knot the mutual bond unites; four circling days and four successive nights; Constant their love, dissolved alone by death/ For if the male should first resign his breath/ still clasped in his embrace his faithful mate/ Pours forth the numerous birth and shares his fate
4.
A) Standard Recipe
The start of the cycle is given at the end of the recipe, when we are told that “one keeps their eggs and grain until Holy Week”. Thus, when the recipe starts “They begin to shed their skin on their own around Easter,” it seems like the eggs in question are those that have been kept from last year. It is expected that the eggs will start hatching one week after commencing incubation.
“From their birth until the moment they make their cocoons and prisons, worms sleep and rest 4 times, and each time they remain 4 or five days resting without eating, as if they were dying so as to be born again.”
Ideal food: White Mulberry – Morus Alba
Expected Timeline:
Day 0 - Place eggs into warm environment (~80 Degrees Celsius)
Day 7 - Hatching should be completed or well underway.
Day 23-32 - The worms will eat White Mulberry Leaves (or "Chow" made of dried mulberry leaves + soy additive until real mulberry leaves appear)
the worms "sleep and rest 4 times, and each time they remain 4 or 5 days resting without eating, as if they were dying so as to be born again"
until they “make cocoons and prisons”
Day 57 - Around Pentecost they begin to want to climb on the dry heather branches that we prepare and attach [this does not mathematically add up to the 4 periods of eating and resting, and is practically double] (Pentecost is always seven weeks after Easter Day: that is to say, 50 days afterEaster (inclusive of Easter Day). In other words, it falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter Day.)
Day 78 - “And yet to leave its prison, the <al>worm</al> eats away at it on one end, and after having stayed inside, living on its own juices for three weeks, it comes out, reduced in size by half. Because when it begins to spin, it is as long as a ring finger and has eight legs, and when it comes out it is less than half as long and only has four legs. On the other hand, it has become a butterfly and has wings; however, it does not fly…They finish spinning and laying eggs in three weeks and around Saint John's Day” [St. John’s Day = Pentecost + 20 Days).
If starting on March 11, worms should be finished spinning and laying eggs by June 1.
B) Alchemical Recipe
Hypothesis: Based on what I have been learning about growing the silkworms, they are picky eaters. Since they are so particular about eating mulberry leaves, I feel like they won't take to cannibalism, so it seems like that recipe might break down between steps 3 and 4 "leave it in the heat of manure until several worms are engendered and then remove the flask...until all the worms are eaten and consume one another by shriveling and stirring and only one remains." However, it might be possible to alter the recipe, and potentially create a "silkworm chow" of ground up Mulberry Leaves, Silkworms, and Egg yolks. Although, some modern sources do mention that
"Sometimes the tiny silkworms will eat their shed skin." [Source]
1. "...around the feast of St John place a dozen and a half <m>chicken eggs</m>, that is to say, the <m>egg</m> without the <m><sup>egg</sup> white</m> and the <m>germ</m>. Others say sixty <m>yokes</m>. And with this dozen and a half of <m>chicken egg yokes</m> put one half ounce (others say sixty <m>eggs</m> and a half pound) of <m>female silk worm eggs</m>."
a large flask as thick as possible, one finger thick if it can be so made, and with a capacity of one pitcher or <m>clay</m> jug...
And after [bien lutte le matteras] carefully luting the flask (I do not know if air will be needed for the generation) and bury it in the heat of the <m>manure</m> up to the neck,"
leave it there until several <al>worms</al> are engendered and then remove the flask and do not bury it in the <m>manure</m> anymore. But put it on the hot layer of the <m>manure</m> until all the <al>worms</al> are eaten and consume one another by shriveling and stirring, and only one remains."
Once this has happened, you must lure it at regular intervals, day and night, with the assistance of two men, who will care for it in shifts, and you will lure it with an <m>egg yolk</m> covered in <m>gold</m> leaf or with a liquid <m>yolk</m> into which the <m>gold</m> leaf has been incorporated. And be careful that it does not miss such fodder (some say one <m>egg yolk</m> per hour, others say three, but the thing itself will demonstrate the practice). So nourished in this way it will grow in two month or seven weeks and will become like a <al>serpent</al>, one span and four fingers long, and one pound in weight,"
and as the wings will begin to develop, you must kill it, doing so with a <m>charcoal</m> fire in a ring around the bottle one span away from it, and at that time lute the bottle well so that it does not exhale..."
o away until the fire is completely blown out and that everything is cold again. Because the exaltation may be dangerous. And for that moment, when you take it with some tongs, do cover your mouth with some good <m>vinegar</m> and have a protection and cover yourself with it. Once it has died out, put it into a cloth or a canvas made of <m>silk</m> and fold it and hold it to a board exposed to air and the sun will dry it. Once it is well dry, powder it in a mortar and keep this powder cautiously. Because one ounce of this one thrown on 3 pounds of melted <m>antimony</m> transforms it into a finer <m>gold</m> than the other one."
C) Poetic Notes: A poetic record will be kept of these processes focused on metamorphosis, the brutal, short-lives of the worms, and other observations of this slow, methodical process as inspired by Marco Giralamo Vida and other contemporary sources.
5.
Expected Materials:
Materials (except for potentially 1 pine plank) are not currently in lab inventory
- 200 Silkworm eggs (100 per reconstruction)
- This quantity of worms will require approximately 20 pounds of fresh mulberry leaves, or "Chow"
- Pine box making materials
- Dry Heather branches
- Flask or Jar (for alchemical reconstruction)
- One Dozen eggs (for alchemical reconstruction)
Name: Sasha Grafit
Date and Time:
2017.March.26, 01:00 pm
Location: Brooklyn, NYSubject: Research Compilation
From: The Book of Beasts, a translation of a 12th Century Latin Bestiary by T.H. White
"Bombocis the Silkworm is a worm of leaves, from whose productions silken garments are made (bombycina). It is also called this (bombus = a hollow sound) because it empties itself out while it is spinning the threads, and only air remains inside it."
From: (1584) Histoire du monde ... a quoy a este adjouste un traite des poix et mesures antiques reduittes a la facon des Francois. Le tout mis en francois par Antoine du Pinet: Volume 1 BY Gaius Plinius Secundus:
- The insects which generate the silkworms, and the first invention of the sheets of the silk,The fourth species of insects, is that which produces the worms of silk. They come in/from Mosul, Are bigger than the previous ones. They make their bucket nests, which are tied to the rock, in the mode of salt: & are so hard, that even the iron can not enter. There is more wax than the honey-insects do, so they make a worm much larger than other insects, and this breed also engenders itself in another kind, a worm which has its own species This worm produces certain caterpillars, which produce that called Bombylius, from which comes the worm which produces the producer of silk, and the whole in six months These last worms are made of a silk cloth in a fashionable fashion, and our ladies are very curious to The first who found the inutio to defeat these canvases, to make use of silk, and make of it a clay canvas, was Pamphila, the daughter of Latous, of the island of Ceos, which certainly ought not to be prized Of the honor which she has acquired from having restored our ladies' jackets, bare coats.
- It is said that in the isle of Lango, worms are sheds of flowers which fall by the rain of the Terbentins Fresnes Chesnes Cyprez, which are afterwards seen from the vapors emerging from the earth And says that from the beginning they are like petits but nesting butterflies They are shaved to the cold of a very robust robbe. They have aspiring feet as audicious as they scrape off all the cotton which they aggravate on the fissures of trees to make them their silk. Afterwards they mass them in a blot and trample their They are hanging their silk between the branches of the trees and the pignet to make it subtle and violet. Then they squeeze in and out as if in a plotton of silk. Then they are taken and puts them Or in pots of earth, to keep them warm, where they are fed by their animals in a warm place, until the animals are restored and loaded with wings, To their besongne As for the task that they have left where it is so wet that the silk like to relieve sibien that one can spin it with a spindle of cane or reed
From SmithsonianMag:
- Silkworm farming was a brutal job. Since silkworms require a constant, mild temperature, entire sections of farmhouses were turned over to them and whole families would often pitch in, stoking round-the-clock fires to maintain the proper warmth. Some even "gave the worms the house and slept outside in the stalls with the animals," says Ester Geraci, an official at Como's Educational Silk Museum.
- The process began with the 10-to 14-day incubation of silkworm eggs, which are produced by the mating of adult silkworm moths. According to the Silk Museum, keeping the tiny, delicate eggs (about the size of a pinhead) at just the right temperature was "the task of the women, who often carried small bags of eggs in direct contact with their skin. . .sometimes between their breasts.
Picture below from L'Atre périlleux et Yvain a verse novel manuscript Circa 1301-1350
Caption from Sea of Silk A Textile Geography of Women's Work in Medieval French Literature by E. Jane Burns
: "...the silk workers figured in Chrétien de Troyers's Yvain are described not as servants but as prisoners. In the single manuscript illumination that survives, the silk workers are shown to wear simple and unadorned dress...The miniature features a group of women crowded together behind what might appear at first to be a wall or barricade adjoining a castle. While the figures grouped tightly together in the background gesture imploringly to a knight on horseback figured to their left, three women in the foreground, some holding unidentified implements, appear to be 'working' the barricade, or on closer inspection they look as though they are weaving a band of cloth stretched out horizontally in front of them. The visual doubling of the apparent barrier with an extended length of cloth gives the sense that the textile itself and the women's work upon it hold them prisoner. This is precisely the meaning the Old French text conveys. Captive foreign workers from an unspecified 'Isle of maidens'
Growing
From The Perfect vse of Silk-wormes by Olivier de Serres, 1607
- All such like habitation desire they, as men, that is, spacious, pleasant, wholesome, far from ill sents, dampes and humidities, warme in the cold time, and fresh in the hot; neere the foundation, nor vnder the lathings of the couerings neere the tyles, one must not lodge the Silke-worme, because of the intemperatenes of these two cōtrarie si∣tuations, whereby the one may be too moyst, & the other too windie: too hot, & too cold, according to the seasons
- Behold the iudgement, that one can make of the knowledge of the goodnesse, of the seede of Spaine: the best of which will bee the smallest and most darke of colour;
- Some before they put to hatch the graine of Silk-wormes, steepe them in the most exquisite wine *they can get, Malmsie or other, finding by such proofe, that the good, as the most heauy, goes tothe bottome, and the naughtie for his lightnesse swimes aboue,
- To hatch this graine vnder the arme-pits, or betweene womens paps, is not a profitable thing; not so much for feare of their floures as some thinke, as for the shaking it to and fro: which they cannot do withall, carrying the seed about them, but that they tumble and mingle it; happening at euery minute that the Wormes willing to come foorth of their egges, are misturned by one pase or step of them which carry the seed about them, ouerwhelming all one vpon another, to the losse of the creatures which are stifled in the throng, though but with their like
- The gouernour shall not forget to drinke a little wine earlie in the morning before he goes to worke, for that in communicating the smell of such licour to the Wormes, it preserues them from all stench, specially from the naughtie breath of folkes (more strong being fasting, then after eating) which these admirable *beasts feare much. Wherefore the entring of their lodging is not to be indifferētly permitted to al sorts of persons, by that shunning the harme that too free frequenting brings to the creatures; which the supersticious vulgar, sottishly attribute to the eye, be∣eeuing that there are people with by their lookes brings ill lucke to the Wormes; but it rather is, nay, assuredly, the breathing of the ill breath which cau∣seth *them, indispositions.
- For which considerati∣ons, the lodging shall be swept euery day, and to keepe them sweet you shal often sprinckle the floore with vineger, after to strew it with some herbes of a good smell, as with lauander, spike, rosmarie, time, sauorie, pennie royall, and such like: adding some times, perfumes, made with frankencense, beniewin, storax, & other odoriferous drougues, which shall be…
- he which foreseeing in fit time, you shal cause to be prepared necessarie rods, for the climing vp of the Wormes, to vomit their silke, fastning their webs vnto thē. To assemble the Worms (so called in such worke) many things are good, but not any greene bowes, for danger to offend the cattell, they waxing fresh, placed in the worke, as they will doe, the time being giuen to raine. The most proper matters, are Rosemary, Kneeholme, cuttings of Vines, Broome, shoots of Chestnut trees, of Okes, Osiers, Salowes, Elmes, Ashes; & in summe, of all other trees or flexible shrubs, hauing not ill smelles. In application of the rods, one goes to work diuersly, according to the sundrie aduises of men. After hauing euened the foot of the rods or branches, to the end so much the lesse to trouble the place, one shal ranke them direct∣ly, as rankes of columnes equally distant a foote and a quarter, little more or lesse, crossing the tables from one side to other. The feet of the twigs shal ioyne to the tables beneath, and the heades shall meete the ta∣bles aboue, vnder which, their length shall bee ben∣ded, wherby wil be fashioned the arches. By such dis∣position, the stages will resemble, like galleries made of arches, with many stages surpassing one ano∣ther, as Amphitheaters a thing very pleasant to behold. The emptie place, betweene the two arches ioyning to the table aboue, shall bee filled with the sprigs of lauender, spike, thyme, and the like sweete smelling shrubbes; according to the commoditie of the countrie, for to serue doubly.
Caption 1 de Serres. "to ranke the tables on the skaffolds, for to lay the leaues on, to feed the Wormes there.
Caption 2 de Serres. "By this figure is shewed the manner to place the rods between the tables, for the Wormes to clime vp and spinne their Silke.
From Vermis Sericus, Published by Philips Galle, the Netherlands, Haarlem, Ca. 1595
Caption 1. Vermis: "At centre, a group of seated women sprinkling silkworm eggs with wine; to right, young women warming small bags containing silkworms in their clothes; to left, an elderly woman with silkworms on a cloth."
Caption 2. Vermis: "Interior scene with women keeping silkworms on shelves and, at centre, women examining them; in the background, sheets hang out to dry; to right, silkworms arranged on trees"
Caption 3. Vermis: "To left, people gathering leaves from mulberry trees planted outside; to right, a room with various shelves with silkworms on them; people arranging the leaves on the shelves to feed the silkworms"
Picture from Encyclopédie of Diderot & D'Alembert (1751)
Caption 1. Encyclopedia Diderot: Planche soie (Silk board)
Pictures from Christophle Isard (1665) (Memoires et instructions pour le plant des meuriers blancs, nourriture des vers a soye: et l’art de filer, mouliner, & aprester les soyes dans Paris & lieux cirvonvoisins)
Caption 1. Isard:
Establement des Vers à soye
Caption 2. Isard:
Figure Des Cahannes (cocoons)
Caption 3. Isard:
Figure des Papillons (butterflies)
Caption 4. Isard: The silk shredder
Caption 5. Isard:
Veritables Metamorphoses
Caption 6. Isard:
Figure du Phœnix
It is an illustrious artisan, of an immortal life,
To no other elder, comparable in his fort,
Quit and resume life, as soon as he is strong,
And the end of his journey is another one.
If for this the Phoenix, makes others the ennie,
This worm ought indeed to be stronger
For without being suiet to the keys of death
Its shape four times with its body is raised
Four times it changes body & species
Tantost he's in, he's out there
So it is pampant, & tost after it flies
Merveilloe at this point, that successively
Four different bodies like mesme mole
And of the same life they see only
c'et illustre artisan, d'une immortelle vie,
A nul autre vieant, comparable en son fort,
Quitte & reprend la vie, aussi-tot qu'il en fort,
Et la fin de sa course, es d'une autre suiuie.
Si pour ce le Phoenix, fait des autres l'ennie,
Ce ver auroit bien lieu de s'eflener plus fort
Car sans estre suiet aux touches de la mort
Sa forme quatre fois a cson corps est raise
Quatre fois il change & d'espece & de corps
Tantost il est dedans, tantost il est dehors
tantost il est pampant, & tost apres il vole
Merveilloeux en ce point, que successinement
Quatre corps different aiment mesme mole
Et d'une mesme vie ils vuissent seulement
From: Façon de faire et semer la graine de meuriers, les eslever en pépinières et les replanter aux champs, gouverner et nourrir les vers à soye au climat de la France, plus facilement que par les mémoires de tous ceux qui en ont escript. by Barthélemy de Laffemas (1604)
(How to make and sow the seed of mulberries, to raise them in nurseries and to replant them in the fields, to govern and feed the silkworms to the climate of France, more easily than by the memories of all those who have written them.
- After that, you have to choose the best seed of worms that can be found. The grane of Spain, provided it is not false, is the best; it is good for three or four years, and then abates. This is why it is necessary to renew and change others at the end of these. This seed is better and renders more silk in the second year than in the first.
- As soon as the mulberries start to blossom at the end of the month of March, or starting from Auril if time permits (and no longer), the seed must be sown from the second to the tenth day of the moon, (Except in case of necessity that the crop should be soothed, that it should not have been forgotten), by reason of the fact that at the same time they will begin to rise to produce their silk, and will be more powerful So much so that they will be their pellotons, escosses, or coucons, larger, stronger, harder, and finer than the other productions in other seasons; but those who are born and rise in the moon are always weak, than the others.
From Cantigas de Santa Maria (Spain ca. 1221-1284)
THE MIRACLE OF THE DIVINELY MOTIVATED SILKWORMS: "CANTIGA 18" OF THE "CANTIGAS DE SANTA MARIA"
Alchemy
- From Wikipedia: As early as 1302 the islet of Peñón in front of Algiers harbour had been occupied by Spaniards. Thereafter, a considerable amount of trade began to flow between Algiers and Spain.
- A Treatise On the Mulberry Tree and Silkworm by John Clarke of Philadelphia (1839) makes explicit reference, in French to La Feuille Doree, the gold leaf, Mulberry tree as a variety of Mulberry that "gives small purple fruit and an elongated shining leaf"
- In contemporary sericulture, acid wash treatments are used to prevent silkworm eggs from entering 'diapause', the process by which they hibernate through the year and 'winterize'. This allows them to begin hatching as soon as the grower wants to begin incubating, instead of waiting an entire year.
- The egg yolk is the most acidic part of the egg, with pH around 6.4. Could there be some scientific validity to the madness the Algierian alchemical method???
"Silkworms" Field Notes
March 26, 2017 Day 0: Brooklyn, NY 05:32 p.m.
I am soon to drive to Flushing, Queens to take possession of 100 South African Hybrid Silkworms eggs, 100 White Silkworm eggs and 2 tubes of mulberry "chow". Approximately 50 (25 of each) of these eggs I will give to M&K colleague Xiaomeng Liu. The incubation zone will be in a specially constructed pine box, as dictated by the a-p. The pine box is held together with nails and has the dimensions represented in the following diagram:
The box will be placed above the water heater in the furnace room of my home. Because the water is kept constantly hot by the water heater, the temperature on the shelf above the water heater fluctuates between 24 degrees C or ~75 degrees F and 28 degrees C or ~82 degrees F. These are suitable temperatures for raising silkworms.
Brooklyn, NY 09:48 p.m.
I have spoken with "Lady Silkworm", Nancy Ho and she has advised that the silkworm eggs require a humidity of approximately 65% to hatch. She also advises keeping the worms in the plastic (aerated) containers in which she has prepared the eggs until they are a week or so old. The White Silkworm Eggs are loose. The South African eggs are laid on a small sliver of cardboard. I place the plastic containers into the pine box, sprinkle a few drops of Poland Spring water onto the cloth lid of the plastic container, cover the pine box with a paper towel, and place it on the shelf as in the picture:
March 29, 2017 Day 3: Brooklyn, NY 10:12 p.m.
I have a heavy hand this time and pour too much water. The cardboard in the South African container is wet and soaked. In the White Egg container, there is a puddle in which a dozen or so eggs float. The containers are dry within 12 hours.
April 2, 2017 Day 7: Brooklyn, NY 12:01 p.m.
In Dish 1, the White Eggs, a color change has been observed. The eggs, which used to be a dull dark brown-gray color, are now a bluish whitish grey. Magnifying glass inspection reveals tiny black forms just underneath the skin of the egg, curled up. It is unclear whether the eggs in Dish 2, the South African eggs have experienced any significant changes.
April 3, 2017 Day 8: Brooklyn, NY 10:36 p.m.
Joyous occasion! Happy moment! Approximately 35 of the White Eggs have hatched. They are tiny black creatures and the ruptured greengray eggs sacs litter their living area. The little caterpillars are as long as a bear hair of one month's growth, maybe a centimeter and a half long. They inch their way around looking for food, which I shall give them now. Their shape is a dark gray, almost black shaft with a round, shiny black head like a phallus. Every now and then they lift up half of their bodies like birds with hungry mouths or like some sort of acolytes performing a salutation to the sun, which in their case is a naked bulb in the furnace room.
Feeding: I squeeze a small, ramen-noodle thick amount of mulberry chow onto the hatchlings of Dish 1. Some of the worms start for the food right away and begin exploring it diligently. Others seem content to roll around with each other and the eggshells, and to ignore the food, even if it right by them.
April 8, 2017 Day 13: Brooklyn, NY 03:03 a.m.
There are times when I open the case and I'm sure they've all died. That, somehow, as the responsible party I have failed the little creatures under my care. But a closer look reveals a frenzy of minute feeding--almost suckling--activity. There are black and spent shells littering the growing area because these are the castoffs of the worms that have entered a new phase. These "new phasers" are 2-3 times longer than they were in their earlier forms. Some now have a pronounced coloring that is gray, greenish orange; clear caterpillar features like pronounced legs and segments are also visible. These new behemoths--about 20 of them--inch around with great bold strides. I saw one exiting its old body and another one clamped down onto its tail and pulled to help its worm-friend shed. There is some clear cooperative effort between these beings.
April 13, 2017 Day 18: Brooklyn, NY 03:10 a.m.
Today's first feeding. I have been feeding 2 times a day at 3 cm of chow each time (6 cm total per day). The worms are nearly ten times as long as their first, long-discarded forms. They are unusually active today. For the past few days they seemed to move as though in a daze, slowly inching forward, some barely moving. Now all the ones of size are briskly worming their way around the terrain, which is littered with worm feces--tiny black speckles--desiccated chow noodles, and the carapaces of the former stages. Perhaps there are some genuinely dead corpses as well. But, today, liveliness rules the day and the worms migrate en masse immediately to the pungent, fresh-squeezed food. Some drop straight down from the sides of the container and some dangle on invisible silk threads as they work their way down. The food I position as far from all as possible, to force them into some exercise.
April 20, 2017 Day 25: Brooklyn, NY 02:03 a.m.
All of the worms but one have, by this point, reached the second stage of development whereby their bodies are an earth or mustard color and their heads are shiny black bits. One little worm seems to still be lagging in development, but I am hesitant to prod it along to the food. During the feedings recently, most of worms have remained catatonic when I introduced the food into their midst. Only a few lazily drifted towards the food. The others remained stretched out to their full length and did not move. Others seemed to be embracing the old, dry husks of chow in a sort of sideways cuddle--not biting down, not moving their heads--simply laying there. The whole scene is starting to resemble some sort of opium den.
April 26, 2017 Day 31: Brooklyn, NY 10:39 a.m.
After the morning feeding I spend a long time looking at the worms and their movements. They are in motion again and pale gray, as if wrapped in toilet paper. There are many that have not reached this stage, but one impressive specimen is larger than the others, and his (or her) gray wrinkled sheath of old skin folds along the head-body connection. After the observations, for a long time--maybe fifteen minutes-- every time I close my eyes I am confronted with images of black shapes on a bright white background wriggling and twisting about. I also noticed--to great surprise-- that a few of the worms from Dish 2, the Zebra Stripes, have finally hatched. There are less than 5 at the moment, and I feed them with generous servings of mulberry chow.
May 1, 2017 Day 37: Brooklyn, NY 07:59 a.m.
Most of the worms are now at the the same development milestone. Their bodies, for the most part, are an off-sand, yellowish, light brown color. Their heads are all as if wrapped in white tissue or toilet paper from which appears a tiny, shiny black head and mouth/chewing apparatus. I have transferred the monsters from the plastic dish in which they were born to the pine box. They take to it well. Although the pine box is quite long, the worms continue to huddle together and do not venture far from the food. There are roughly 20 in total now. I took the transfer as an opportunity to clean off away some of the dried chow ramens. The task proved more difficult than expected as the worms would cling to the dried stalks and, even when I managed to pluck or shake them off they would hang by an invisible thread. I have noticed that many of the worms leave silky threads wherever they have been. In fact, in trying to remove one of the dried chow stalks, I ended up shifting several other stalks and worms all invisibly attached together.
May 10, 2017 Day 37: Brooklyn, NY 04:59 p.m.
After a lifetime of artificial substitute, I introduce the worms--individually, plucking and placing them carefully--to (gasp!) real, live mulberry leaves. Specifically, I have gathered the tender little shoots which are still a rosy blush and not fully waxy and green yet. I am not certain if the leaves I obtained were mulberry, but they seemed to have the curvy and pointy elements that mulberry leaves have in identification guides. Real mulberry leaves or not, my creatures--some, not all of them; the bigger ones generally--began to abandon their chow and to feast on the leaves. One little rascal, after taking his (or her!) first tentative bites from the leaf material rolled away as if in an orgasmic spasm and rocked on his (or her!) back several times like a dog hoping for a tummy rub; then, he (or she) got back to the business of chewing leaves.
I have also consolidated the worms from Dish 2 into the pine box along with the worms from Dish 1 (who have been here since May 1). Although the Dish 2 worms have gotten off to a later start in life, many of them are close in size to the Dish 1 worms. Whether this is due to species-based differences or to differences in feeding regimen and less competition for a spot on the chow is yet unclear.
"The work done in Algiers" Field Notes
May 1, 2017 : Brooklyn, NY 12:59 a.m.
I have set off on a journey into the terrifying unknown. I shall attempt to make an abomination in the pursuit of wealth and gold. I have received from Lady Silkworm a set of ready-to-hatch eggs, just like those that hatched after 8 days in Dish 1 of "Silkworms". Additionally, I have some freshly laid eggs that are between 2-3 days old and which should theoretically be entering diapause. In order to fulfill the conditions of "Algiers", I am using a cooler padded with foam insulation to imitate the ground in which the reaction flask would be buried along with manure. Instead of manure, I am using 2 ice/heat gel packs. Prior to starting this work, I timed the gel packs and the cooler and found that the temperature in the cooler rises to ~38 degrees celsius when the heat packs are first introduced. Within 6 - 8 hours, the temperature within the cooler drops back down to ~23 degrees Celsius. In a way this serves "Algiers" well as it imitates what the temperatures might be like in the city as they fluctuate between morning and evening. During this work, I will re-heat the packs twice a day, every 12 hours.
Using Professor Pamela Smith's shell-to-shell method, I separate the egg yolks from the whites, and using her hand-to-hand method I separate the yolks from the embryonic envelope and let them trickle into the flask through my spread fingers. The process is messy, and though I originally intended to use 2 eggs, I end up using 5 to have a thin layer of yolk at the bottom of the flask. Much of the egg yolk ends up outside the bottle and in the sink. After laying down the yolk, I throw in a clutch of ~50 fresh-laid silkworm eggs (in a little silky bundle) and ~50 loose, individual silkworm eggs.
I do not close the cooler lid all the way in order to leave allow air to circulate in. I loosely stop up the flask with a paper towel; air is kind of going in and out--this is the embodiment of the ",I do not know if air will be needed for this generation," the author expresses in fol. 52v.
May 3, 2017 : Brooklyn, NY 2:59 p.m.
The picture inside the flask is not looking promising. I had hoped that the sweatiness of the inside walls--from condensation, due to heat--would keep the egg yolks moist enough for the silkworm eggs to float in. However, a disturbing skin is beginning to form on the top layer of the yolk. As I tilt the bottle, the flask, to and fro, a mild sub-yolk eruption pours out and over the skin and covers it with a bright, liquid layer. Although some eggs may be in danger of drowning, I still hold out feeble hope for those that had the chance to cling to the flask's sides in the first sprinklings of silkworm eggs into the flask.
May 8, 2017 : Brooklyn, NY 12:01 a.m.
Although I have been in denial about this, it seems like there's no more self-delusion. "The work done in Algiers" has been threatened and possibly derailed by a violently green mold. It will eat the silkworm eggs! It will cover everything ! The worms will never be able to survive here even if they do hatch, which is unlikely as the ones most likely to hatch, the ready-to-hatch eggs would have come out today.
May 11, 2017 : Brooklyn, NY 06:34 a.m.
The mold has turned a darker and more concentrated green. No silkworm eggs have hatched. The ones on the yolk are invisible now. And only a few stragglers speck the glass sides.