Lace Books
 

Here is a list of some of my favorite lace books
 

 

  xx Santina Levey, Lace, A History, (Leeds: Maney & Son, 1983).
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This is one of my favorite books. It contains lots of pictures of 16th century needle lace. Santina Levey also writes about the pattern books and how the lace was made. She is my favorite author when it comes to lace.    
           
  Abegg, Margaret, Apropos Patterns for Embroidery, Lace and Woven Textiles, (Abegg-Stiftung Bern, 1978) Excellent book that shows some period patterns for cutwork (reticella/punto in aria) as well as examples of them worked. Margaret also describes the evolution of pattern books and provides a comprehensive list of 16th century lace pattern books.    
           
    Clare Browne, Lace, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, (V&A Publications, 2004) This book has only a few pictures of 16th century cutwork (lots of pictures of later lace) but it has the clearest and most detailed pictures of lace I have ever seen in a book.    
           
    Vinciolo, Federico. Renaissance Patterns for Lace, Embroidery and Needlepoint An Unabridged Facsimile of the "Singuliers et Nouveaux Pourtraicts" of 1587 (New York: Dover Publications Inc. 1971) .
Great book - it is a reprint of a 16th century lace pattern book. You can use the same lace pattern that someone in the late 16th century used. This book contains patterns for reticella/punto in aria and patterns for lacis. This book costs about 10 dollars. A copy is also available online at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/vinciolo/    
           
    Vecellio, Cesare. Pattern Book of Renaissance Lace A Reprint of the 1617 Edition of the "Corona delle Nobili et Virtuose Donne" (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 1988).
This is another reprint of a 16/17th century pattern book. It contains a larger variety of patterns than Singulieres.    
           
    Du Debvoir des Filles (1597) (http://inky.library.yale.edu/medwomen/lace.html
Another 16th century pattern book. Patterns are similar to those in the above two pattern books.    
           
    A Schole-House for the Needle, (Shropshire: RJL Smith & Associates, 1998).
Another lace pattern book - First published by Richard Shorleyker in 1632 (England). There are lace patterns that are not in the above 3 lace pattern books.    
           
    Pagano, Mathio, Giardinetto Novo Di Ponti Tagliati Et Gropposi per Exercito e Ornamento Delle Donne. 1550. Precurser to geometric reticella patterns. This is one of the first lace pattern books to be published (actually it is a later version of the first lace pattern book)- available online at http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books/ngl_lace.pdf    
           
 

Ricci, Elisa, Old Italian Lace, (William Heinemann, London; J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1913)

Book with lots of pictures of 16th century cutwork. Available online (8 pdf files starting with http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books/re_lace_01.pdf )    
           
    Blum, Clara. Old World Lace, A Concise Illustrated Guide (New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 2002). Has about 4 or 5 pictures of 16th century cutwork but for $8.00 it is worth it.    
           
    http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books/ Website with LOTS of lace books scanned into pdf documents - some on 16th century cutwork - go and enjoy!    
           
           
   
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