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Silkworms

They are produced from seed, that is to say eggs, that which is sold
by the ounce, which is commonly sold in Languedoc iii
lb v s. The one from Spain that
merchants bring there is considered the best because the
worms which come from there are not so subject to illnesses
& make more silk. In Spain, one ounce of
silk seed, they produce there worms which
commonly yield ord xv lb of silk.
But l’once from one ounce of seed
produced in France, they only return x or xii. Three
ounces of seed are for producing such a quantity of
worms, that with them you will be able to furnish a room
accomodated with three or 4 shelves of large shelves. Willingly
they begin to unskin themselves around holy week. And to do
this, one puts them in a fir box, like those where one
puts dragée, warmly among feather cushions. And at the
beginning, they unskin themselves like f little
black ants, & as soon as there are two or three unskinned,
one needs to give them white mulberry leaves, and then
arrange them on the shelves. And three times per
day, one needs to exchange fresh leaves. And if
during the day there is some thunder or rainy
weather, cloud-covered & cool, one needs to keep in the
room three or 4 chafing dishes & with
glowing charcoal, & put in incense until all the
room would be filled with smoke. And when the
weather is warm &serain, the silk abounds
more & and then it is better. Some worms make it whiter,
others more yellowish. And even if it may be white, it yellows when one
draws it through hot waterdespuys.
The worms, from their birth until the their
time when they make their cocoons & their prisons, sleep &
rest 4 times, & each time remain 4 or five days
resting without eating, as if they were dying for rebirth another time,
for each time they change skin & begin by unskinning the head then
consequently, on different days, the s
rest of the body, & from white turn grayish, & from grayish to
white en fin. And if one of them has some illness
who does not have the strength to unskin, one needs to help it &
prevent puncturing it, for at that time rendering a yellow liquor, it is
no longer worth anything. And further they scarcely profit after one has
handled it with the hand. Around Pentecost,
they begin to want to climb on the dry branches of heath or
heather that one prepares for them en &
attaches



See Marco Girolamo Vida,
Bishopde b of Alba and
Cremona, wrote a poem on the nature of silkworms.





How one moves them



