Giovanni Villani, in a passage
which is curious in more ways than one, tells how the citizens of Florence
established races for their troops, and, among other prizes, was one which
consisted of a Bucherame di bambagine (of cotton).
Polo, near the end of
the Book (Bk. III. ch. xxxiv.), speaking of Abyssinia, says, according to
Pauthier's text: "Et si y fait on moult beaux bouquerans et autres draps
de coton." The G. T. is, indeed, more ambiguous: "Il hi se font maint
biaus dras banbacin e bocaran" (cotton and buckram). When, however, he
uses the same expression with reference to the delicate stuffs woven on
the coast of Telingana, there can be no doubt that a cotton texture is
meant, and apparently a fine muslin. (See Bk. III. ch. xviii.) Buckram is
generally named as an article of price, chier bouquerant, rice
boquerans, etc, but not always, for Polo in one passage (Bk. II. ch.
xlv.) seems to speak of it as the clothing of the poor people of Eastern
Tibet.
Plano Carpini says the tunics of the Tartars were either of buckram
(bukeranum), of purpura (a texture, perhaps velvet), or of baudekin,
a cloth of gold (pp. 614-615). When the envoys of the Old Man of the
Mountain tried to bully St. Lewis, one had a case of daggers to be offered
in defiance, another a bouqueran for a winding sheet (Joinville, p.
136.)
In accounts of materials for the use of Anne Boleyn in the time of her
prosperity, bokeram frequently appears for "lyning and taynting" (?)
gowns, lining sleeves, cloaks, a bed, etc., but it can scarcely have been
for mere stiffening, as the colour of the buckram is generally specified
as the same as that of the dress.
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