The etymological work of Isidore of Seville may be regarded as a kind of encyclopedia, exhibiting the general state of knowledge and art at the time when he wrote. Hence the following descriptive extracts are well deserving of attention. Bombyx frondium vermis, ex cujus texturâ Bombycinum conficitur. Appellatur autem hoc nomine ab eo quod evacuetur dum fila generat, et aer solus in eo remanet.--_Origin. l._ xii. _c._ 5. Bombyx, a worm which lives upon the leaves of trees, and from whose web silk is made. It is called Bombyx, because it empties itself in producing threads, and nothing but air remains within it. The cloth called _Bombycina_, derives its name from the silk-worm (_Bombyx_), which emits very long threads; the web woven from them is called Bombycinum, and is made in the island of Cos. That called _Serica_ derives its name from silk (_sericum_), or from the circumstance, that is was first obtained from the Seres. _Holoserica_ is all of silk: for _Holon_ means _all_. _Tramoserica_ has a warp of linen; and a woof (_trama_) of silk.--L. xix. c. 22. Touching these extracts we would remark, that the testimony of Isidore must not be considered as proving, that the silk manufacture still existed in Cos. His statement was no doubt merely copied from Varro or Pliny, or founded upon the authority of other writers long anterior to his own age. It is indeed probable that silk-worms had by this time been brought into Greece, but that he was ignorant of the fact. SEVENTH CENTURY. DOROTHEUS, ARCHIMANDRITE OF PALESTINE, A. D. 601. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐνδεδυμένος ὁλοσήρικον.--_Doctr._ 2, _as quoted in Cod. Theodos. Gothofredi. L. Bat._ 1665. For as a man wearing a tunic entirely of silk. THEOPHYLACTUS SIMOCATTA, A. D. 629. This author, in his Universal History (_l._ vii. c. 9.), informs us that the silk manufacture was carried on at Chubdan, with the greatest skill and activity, which was probably the same as Khotan, or, as it was called in his time, Ku-tan[79]. [79] Itinéraire de Hiuan Thsang, Appendice ii. à Foe Koue Ki, p. 399. We have, moreover, the following account of the origin of the growth and manufacture of silk in that country (p. 55, 56.).