On Jan 21, 2009, at 20:58, [email protected] wrote:
Dear Lacemakers Interested in Italian Renaissance,
I sent Tamara's inquiry to Lori, Lacefairy, and she did research this
afternoon. She sent the following reply to Tamara and myself. It
may be of
interest to others on this list. Devon, for example.
To read about the sumptuary laws of Italy see this book:
http://tinyurl.com/8nepg2
Lori Howe
[email protected]
Lori also sent me the following:
The monitor who closely watches the implementation of measures
concerning
the ostentatious luxury of the ladies in the clothes and accessories.
Apparently, I had not made it clear that I knew what the provedadori
did, but needed the literal translation of their title. Thankfully,
Tiziana provided *that*. I guess it takes *two* non-English speakers to
be able to communicate in English and still understand one another :)
The reason I've been digging into books like "Dressing Reannaisance
Florence; Families, Fortunes, and Fine Clothing" (by Carole Collier
Frick) and "The Dress of the Venetians, 1495-1525" (by Stella Mary
Newton) is because I was curious to see if there was any way to
pinpoint the dates of the orign of bobbin lace closer than Levey had
done. Levey had covered a whole ocean of info -- for both bobbin- and
needle- lace, and for several centuries worth; out of necessity, some
droplets might have been omitted . I was going to focus on a tiny slice
of it, using the first Le Pompe book as my base (hence, BTW, my intense
interest in translating the title of the "dress police". "Le Pompe" as
a "pump" didn't make much sense. But it didn't occur to me that it
might be "pomp", until I ran into the "provedadori sopra le pompe").
I'm concentrating on Le Pompe, because it's the first known book of
patterns dedicated strictly to bobbin laces. It was published in
Venice, which is supposed to be the cradle of bobbin lace (or, at least
one of the two cradles, the other city claiming the priviledge being
Amsterdam). Supplementary evidence supporting Serenissima's claim is
what R.M., the author of "Nüw Modelbush" says about the appearance of
bobbin laces in Switzerland:
The first ones were brought to Germany in 1536 by merchants from
Venice and Italy.
(Please notice the "and" between Venice and Italy... Even though there
were differences between various Italian city-states as to clothes,
laws, specialty trades etc, everything about Venice seems to have been
different from the rest of Italy).
Anyway... I thought that, if Venice was producing enough lace to sell
by 1536, then surely they would have been making it for home
consumption much earlier. But, so far, I've seen no trace of it. On the
other hand, I have had my ideas of the glacial pace of fashion changes
in those days turned upside down. With new prohibitons coming out as
often as they did, they had to have been in response to what people
were doing (actually, just a little behind; apparently, most
prohibitions came out as the particular excess was on the wane, not
being outrageous enough any longer <g>)
Both books (Florentine and Venetian dressing) have quite extensive
info, with direct quotes from the sumptuary laws as they had been
called out in the streets of the cities (Venice in particular seems to
have been clothes obsessed and those proclamations rained on the
citizenry like leaves in autumn; one every year or so <g>). But
sumptuary laws are only of indirect help in determining the timeline
and not entirely reliable, either.
So far, I haven't seen any mentions of lace in any of the quoted
sumptuary laws. But...
When something (like lace) *isn't* prohibited, is it because it wasn't
yet being worn, or because it wasn't considered an excessive
ornamentation?
The Florentine book has (as an Appendix) a couple of trousseaus (one
bridal, 1511 and one conventual, 1506). No lace, not even a fringe,
though some gold-thread embroidery is mentioned in he bridal one. The
Appendices in the Venetian book are fascinating but not only is there
no mention of lace, but no trousseaus, either. Lace isn't mentioned in
either of the indexes (I haven't finished reading either of the books.
Both are interesting but I can't read any of them fast. After 20-30
pages, I need to put them down and let the information "settle". Also,
I had to stop reading the Florentine one, because the Venetian one is
on Interlibrary Loan without a chance for renewal. So I have to "vacuum
in" what I can from it, before I have to give it back, in less than 5
weeks time).
I haven't given up yet (half of the book still to be read) but, it
looks, like there's not a trace of bobbin lace in Venice before 1525.
And yet, they were selling it 9yrs later... So, did it spring from the
sea, in its finished perfection, like Venus herself? None of the slow
gestation (development) period which could have been expected?
Yours, puzzled,
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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