Silk evokes luxury, splendour, magnificence, ostentation. Its origins date back to the Chinese Neolithic and already in Roman times silk bolts travelled for thousands of kilometres, passing from hand to hand through a network of merchants and intermediaries from China to the shores of the Mediterranean. Those who tried to sell abroad silkworm eggs were punished with death, nevertheless the irresistible charm of the shiny fabric led inexorably to the spread of the secrets of its manufacture beyond the borders of the Celestial Empire. Sericulture and silk fabric production were implanted in the central Asian kingdoms and in the Iranian world, and subsequently, from the 6th to 7th centuries, the Byzantine Empire was also able to start large-scale silk manufactures. From the thirteenth century the main silk producer in Europe was the Italian peninsula, which, with the progressive industrialization of all the phases of textile processing, managed to maintain this record until the time of the First World War.

Italy and China therefore share centuries of history in which silk was a crucial part of the economy. The precious yarn, however, not only represented an extraordinary economic engine, but in both countries it was a leading voice of civilization, whose repercussions can be found in the most varied social, cultural and artistic contexts and led to significant similarities between the Chinese and the Italian way of life.

The virtual exhibition intends to reveal the importance that silk played in the two civilizations between 1200 and 1600, carrying fundamental contributions to their journey towards modernity. The projects has been developed jointly by the University of Warwick and Zhejiang University of Hangzhou with a team of scholars and researchers led by Professors Luca Molà and Zhao Feng. The first phase of research, which is close to the end, has focused on the collection of visual and textual material (photos, scanned images, texts, videos). In a second stage we will design the virtual space of the exhibition according to the material selected. In the final stage we will upload the material in the IT platform and put it online by the end of 2024 or early in 2025. The whole enterprise is thought as a first step towards the organization of a real exhibition to be held in both China and Italy.