[Lace] Gli universali di tutti e bei dissegni raccami & moderni lavori, Venice, 1537, Venetian morocco gilt

[LACE DESIGNS] Gli universali di tutti e bei dissegni, raccami & moderni lavori quali un bello intelletto humano, un pellegrino ingegno, si de huomo come di donna puo con l'aco in mano in questa nostra etade lodevolmente essercitarsi, nuovamente stampati & venuti in luce. (Venice: Niccolò Zoppino, August) 1532 [bound with:]

Libro primo [-quarto]. De rechami per elquale se impara in diversi modi lordine e il modo de recamare, cosa non mai piu fatta ne stata mostrata, el qual modo se insegna al lettore voltando la carta. Opera nova. (Toscolano: Alessandro Paganino), [ca 1532] [bound with:]

Burato con nova maestria gratiose donne novo artificio vi apporto, accio che voi più accommodatamente possiate mostrare quanto vaglia lo ingegno vostro ne lavori, e ornamenti de camise & altri rechami… (Toscolano: Alessandro Paganino), [ca 1532]

THREE RARE EARLY PATTERN BOOKS including examples for sewing, embroidery and lace-making. 

Pattern books were targeted towards women, who were responsible for both private and professional sewing, embroidery and lace making. Such works often directly addressed this female audience in their text or through woodcut illustrations; on the title pages women are depicted in groups participating in needlework. The title page of the final work, featuring two women working at looms, was copied from the title page to Eyn new kunstlich Boich (1529), attributed to Anton Woensam von Worms, itself an adaption of Johann Schönsperger's title-page for Ein new Modelbuch of 1524. This title-page was used by both Zoppino and Paganino for different textile pattern books. 

Pattern books are rare survivals due to the necessary destruction that takes place during use. The woodcut that appears at the start of each book in the second work illustrates the text above it, with women carrying out the work in each scene. Paganino informs the user that they can copy patterns from the book in four different ways: tracing by candlelight, tracing by daylight, by pricking and pouncing, or by copying the pattern freehand. Three of these methods are destructive.

The embroidery patterns are produced on a grid, which was cut in wood. Lace patterns were not produced on a grid and were either copied by eye or torn out, pinned to a cushion and thread wound around the pins.

"Burato" was a silk or linen woven to create a square mesh which made it easier to transfer patterns. Paganino's Burato was first printed in 1518.

The use of these patterns went beyond fabrics; the patterns also appear on contemporary bookbindings, such as the presentation copy of Cresci’s writing manual, bound by the Vatican bindery ca 1560 (Bibliotheca Brookeriana III, 9 July 2024, lot 497).

3 works in one volume, 4to (207 x 143 mm). (1) Roman type. A²⁴: 18 (of 24) leaves (lacking A4, A8, A12, A13, A17, A21). Title printed in red and black within woodcut border, 31 full page woodcut illustrations, woodcut printer's device on final verso, colophon printed in red. (2) Gothic type. 4 parts. Collation: A-4A²⁰ with hand-stamped letterpress signatures: 18 (of 20) leaves (lacking 8 and 13); 14 (of 20) leaves (lacking AA2, AA5-6, AA15-16, AA19); 17 (of 20) leaves (lacking AAA8, AAA12-13); 20 leaves. Titles in woodcut border, full-page woodcuts, white thread stitching to bird in book 1. (3) Collation: 15 (of 20?) leaves. Large woodcut on title page, large woodcut to verso of title page, 27 full page woodcut grids for tracing patterns, of which 14 coloured by an early hand, some pin-pricked. (Some soiling and staining, a few marginal tears, including to A3 in book 2.)

Binding: Contemporary Venetian dark brown morocco over pasteboard (215 x 141 mm), central oval gilt arabesque stamp within an oval double gilt fillet frame, and an outer frame made from numerous blind fillets and a single gilt fillet with corner fleurons, stubs from 2 pairs of ties. (Binding repaired and restored at edges, spine ends repaired, covers slightly warped, lacking flyleaves, later vellum strips added as hinges.)

Provenance: Bibliothèque Economique, Lasteyrie, red ink stamp on title-page (possibly Ferdinand-Charles Léon de Lasteyrie du Saillant, 1810-1879, Member of the Académie des belles lettres). Acquisition: Purchased in 1989 from Bernard H. Breslauer. References: (1) Edit16 72564 (listing one copy only, in the Biblioteca Angelica of Rome); (2) Edit16 55838; (3) Edit16 55836; Femka Speelberg, 'Textile patterns and the print revolution 1520-1620', The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 73 (2015), 4-48