The Fifteenth century is characterized by an intense cultural excitement. In this period was born Leon Battista Alberti, the new man of the Renaissance, followed, about fifty years later, by Leonardo da Vinci. It is also in these years that, in Holland, are developed windmills, used not to mill wheat, but to dry out large portions of the country that were constantly flooded by the tides.

In Umbria, the textile tradition is already established with the production of the TABLECLOTHS FROM PERUGIA, woven, according to a undocumented source, by Confraternita della Mercanzia of Perugia, established since 1380. The weaving and the use of these objects were at first exclusively aristocratic, while later they were also used by the middle and lower classes, beside being extensively present inside the convents.

In the internal court of the inn, two important figures, seated at a table, are chatting, while a servant is coming with a tray covered by a fragment of this Umbrian fabric.

Clothes aside, the scene could easily be repeated in the quiet Umbrian landscape today.

• The representation of many animal species represent in Umbrian tablecloths, such as drakes, sirens, rampant or walking griffons, birds of several different species, among them peacocks and eagles, the lion with one or two tails, highlight a clear Middle East origin of the motives, probably Persian. (M.L. Buseghin, La Seta, Bollettino Ufficiale, Stazione sperimentale per la seta, anno 56 N. 1, Milan, 2005, pp. 87-88).

• A undocumented tradition affirms that the tablecloths from Perugia had been woven by the Confraternita della Mercanzia of Perugia, founded circa 1380, and from the Umbrian capital these objects will spread over other Umbrian areas and in other Italian regions. (M.L. Buseghin, M. Masci, A. Morosini, G. Nagni, Antichi Tessuti Umbri, Tovaglie "da mensa" dalla collezione Morosini, Spoleto, 1998, p.9).

• The tablecloths from Perugia have been represented in paintings and in wood sculptures created by many artists in the Middle Age and in the Renaissance: Pinturicchio in his Presepio in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, Perugino in the Nativity and in the Cenacolo di Foligno dated 1495, Ghirlandaio in his Ultima Cena, Leonardo in the Ultima Cena in Milan, Giotto in the Nozze di Cana in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. (M.L. Buseghin, M. Masci, A. Morosini, G. Nagni, Antichi Tessuti Umbri, Tovaglie "da mensa" dalla collezione Morosini, Spoleto, 1908, p.12).

• In the Fifteenth and Sixteenth century the tablecloths from Perugia reached their moment of maximum splendour; among those preserved in the private collection of Professor Mariano Rocchi there are some of them presenting very peculiar decorative motives, such as upside down letters, for instance "Eroma" (love) or mirrored figures, as if they were reflected by the water. (See: U. Gnoli, L'arte umbra alla Mostra di Perugia, Bergamo, 1908, p. 83).

• Classic mythology celebrates spinning and weaving with some examples: the three Parcae “the goddesses of the fate that braided the thread of the days of the mortals”, the goddess Minerva, an expert weaver challenged and defeated by Arachne in a weaving ability contest and we cannot forget Penelope, keeping the Proci at bay with the deception of the cloth woven during the day and unravelled during the night (M.L. Buseghin, G. Nagni (edited by), La Fenice tradizione e innovazione nel tessile Umbro, Perugia, 2001, p.91).