Project weaves global map of silk's grand history

If silk could talk, it would probably complain about jet lag. After all, Chinese silk has spent the last two millennia circling the globe — wrapped around emperors, merchants, monks and museum storage shelves from Stockholm to New York.

Now, for the first time, these well-traveled threads are being formally reintroduced to one another in "A Comprehensive Collection of Chinese Silks", an ambitious publishing project with an equally globe-trotting scope.