the passion for pearls in Europe at that period, which may well be called the Pearl Age.
The
sumptuary laws which prevailed at different times in France, England,
Germany, and other countries, did not overlook this extravagance ; and
an entire volume might be devoted to the efforts to curb the excessive
use. In France they were probably most stringent during the reign of
Philip IV (1285-1314), of Louis XI (1461-83), of Charles IX (1560-74),
of Henry III (1574-89), and of Louis XIII ( 1610-43). In Germany almost
every city had its special restrictions. A sumptuary law of Ulm, in
1345, provided that no married woman or maiden, either among the
patricians or the artisans, should wear pearls on her dresses; and
another, in 1411, restricted them to "one pearl chaplet," and this
should not exceed twelve loth (half ounce) in weight. A
Frankish sumptuary law of 1479 provided that ordinary nobles serving a
knight at a tourney should not wear any pearl ornaments, embroidered
or otherwise, excepting one string around the cap or hat. The
regulations decreed by the Diet of Worms, in 1495, set forth that the
citizens who were not of noble birth, and nobles who were not knights,
must withhold from the use of gold and pearls. A similar provision was
enacted by the Diet of Freiburg in 1498, and likewise by the Diet of
Augsburg in 1530, which permitted the wives of nobles four silk
dresses, but without pearls. In the sumptuary law of Duke John George
of Saxony, April 23,1612,.we read: "the nobility are not allowed to
wear any dresses of gold or silver, or garnished with pearls ; neither
shall the professors and doctors of the universities, nor their wives,
wear any gold, silver or pearls for fringes, or any chains of pearls,
or caps, neck-ornaments, shoes, slippers, shawls, pins, etc., with gold
or silver or with pearls." Beadles, burgomasters, and those connected
with the law-courts were forbidden to wear chains of pearls and
ornaments of precious stones on their dresses, caps, etc., or slippers
or chaplets with pearls.
Probably
in no place were these laws more stringent than in the art-loving
republic of Venice from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. This
seems remarkable in view of the fact that this city was largely
dependent for its wealth and prominence on commerce with the East, of
which pearls constituted a prominent item.
The
earliest Venetian restriction that we have found regarding pearls was
made in 1299; when, in a decree determining the maximum number of
guests at a marriage ceremony and the extent of the bridal trousseau,
the grand council of the republic provided that no one but the bride
should wear pearl decorations, and she should be permitted only one
girdle of them on her wedding dress. This enactment was modified in
1306, but numerous other restrictions were substituted,
