Tusser
Tusser names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Tusser TUSSORE, or TUSSEH
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
TUSSORE, or TUSSEH, the silk spun by the tusser silkworm. The centers of the traffic are in Bengal, the Central provinces, Berar, and the Nizam's country. There are generally two crops of the insect during the year. The cocoons are purchased in May and June by the rearers from those who have collected them from the jungle; the female cocoons are the larger. They are almost perfectly smooth, of a gray color, with darker veins across the outer surface. When mature, the largest are about two inches long by one and a quarter broad, those of average size about an inch and a half long. The inner layer of the fiber is quite loose, forming a soft cushion for the insect within. The silk, when obtained, has a glossy or vitreous look. It is now manufactured in Europe as well as in India, being largely used for cloaks and mantles designed for winter wear. No kind of silk so closely imitates sealskin or is so durable. It is used in the manufacture of Utrecht velvet, and has the rigidity requisite to render it a valuable material for carpets.
Tusser THOMAS, an English musician
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
THOMAS, an English musician, teacher, and poet; best known as the author of "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry"; born in Rivenhall, Essex, England, about 1524. From his rhyming autobiography it would appear that he served as a chorister first at Wallingford Chapel, and afterward at St. Paul's. In rude rustic rhymes, which have hardly a claim even to the name of verse, he inculcated a good amount of sound agricultural wisdom; and the book is still of interest for the glimpses it affords of the country life of the times, as well as for occasional passages of quaint and vigorous expression. The best editions are Dr. Mavor's (1812), Arber's (1870), and the English Dialect Society's (1878). He died in London about 1580.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's dismissal of Tusser's "rude rustic rhymes" as having "hardly a claim even to the name of verse" is the one judgment that has genuinely shifted: since 1921 agricultural and social historians have treated "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry" (1573) as a prime documentary source for Tudor farming, food and household work, and Tusser is credited with proverbs still in circulation, among them "Christmas comes but once a year" and "sweet April showers do spring May flowers." His life outline as given here — born at Rivenhall about 1524, chorister, died in London in 1580 — is still the accepted one. On the other entry, tussore silk survives as tasar, spun from the wild Indian moth Antheraea mylitta, and India remains overwhelmingly the world's chief producer, though it is now a small fraction of a global silk trade dominated by Chinese mulberry silk. The 1921 selling points have dated hardest: nobody markets cloth today as an imitation sealskin, and Utrecht velvet has long since vanished from furniture catalogues.
Written for this edition, 2026.