Sea-silk, a precious textile material with golden, shimmering highlights, was processed to make fine fabrics highly prized by secular and ecclesiastical nobility. Byssus silk is a product of the nacchera, or Pinna nobilis, the largest bivalve found in the Mediterranean Sea that can grow up to one meter in length and, in modern times, is a protected species. Its filaments, called byssus, serve the Pinna nobilis to anchor itself to the muddy seabed and were used as a raw material from which to make byssus silk. Silk production was laborious and required many stages of labor. Yet the knowledge of this craftsmanship tradition has not yet completely disappeared: Chiara Vigo remains the only Master of byssus in the Mediterranean, the only repository now of the tradition and craftsmanship that is lost back in time. Byssus, in fact, is already mentioned in the Bible: it was the Chaldeans who passed on the secret to the Hebrew people and their Phoenician neighbors who spread it to the Mediterranean, and especially their women saw that by combing those threads they could make them so silky and lustrous (Exodus 27) that they could spin them. Chaldeans, Phoenicians, and Egyptians became masters in this art. Kings and priests used byssus for robes and sacred vestments. The Phoenicians also landed in Sardinia, bringing with them the technique for dyeing byssus fibers in various colors. Centuries later the women of St. Antiochus learned more secrets about the art of byssus weaving from a Chaldean princess named Berenice and began to pass them on from generation to generation according to an almost sacred ritual. Chiara Vigo, referred to as Berenice’s only heir, can indeed explain the technique of byssus weaving to everyone, but only one will be her legitimate heir, the only one to whom she will reveal all her secrets.
