The Sixteenth century is the century of the Renaissance, considered by many the artistic expression of the humanism. This movement, born in Italy, developed in the entire Catholic world. In Holland are very popular, instead, the ideas of Calvin, bringing an intense development in the commercial exchanges.

With the end of the proceeding of the Council of Trent the Catholic counter reformation began.

Venice is experiencing a moment of great splendour: the main artists of the time, such as El Greco, Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto work for the Serenissima. Since the traceries and the gold of Byzantium, this city has never stopped loving the luxuries and the decorations, accompanied by a very peculiar and absolutely unique environment that reflects itself.

It is in this scenario, in Venice, that the art of lace was born.

We are inside a portego (a formal hall, characteristic of Venetian palaces). Two noblewomen, seated one in front of the other, are admiring a small tablecloth executed in RETICELLO. The third, seated on a pillow, is making a lace – as it is possible to see from the needle she is holding in her hand and from the work basket beside her.

• Lace could only be born in Venice, a city that since the traceries and the gold of Byzantium has never stopped loving the luxuries and the decorations; it is in fact, from some typical architectural elements used in Venetian Gothic architecture that the needle works take inspiration for the geometric patterns of the very early laces. (D.D. Poli, Il Merletto Veneziano, Novara, 1998, p.40).

• The bridal trousseau of Mary of Bourbon who married prince Tommaso of Savoy in 1624, included: three dozen of day shirts and three dozen of night shirts, three dozen of handkerchiefs, four bed sheets, twenty aprons, eight collars, twenty bonnets, eight bath towels, twenty head scarves and several bordures. These linens and underwear were all decorated with “punto tagliato” and were valued no less than 27,500 pounds. (S. Levey, Lace A History, London, 1983, p15).

• At the end of the Sixteenth century, lace was the status symbol by excellence, indissolubly connected to the concepts of high social class, luxury and elegance. It was the badge of nobles and aristocrats ready to dissipate enormous fortunes to posses a bordure of the most fashionable lace. (A. Kraatz, Merletti, Milan, 1988, p.22).

• The exact term to describe the quality achieved by Venetian lace in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth century is “unrivalled beauty”. Beside, the lace made in the Serenissima was meant to be worn by persons that would dictate the rules of fashion in the rest of the world. (F. Lewis, Lace Photographed by Peter Greenland, Florence, 1980, p.14).

• The Reticello derives from the drawn threads embroidery and by cutwork, that is why it would be more correct to define it embroidery, since it is not strictly an independent fabric, but its richness in the ornamentation, the rhythm of the arches, the representation of stars and rosettes make it very decorative and worthy to be defined “lace”. (M. Bruggeman, L'Europe de la Dentelle, Bruges, 1997, p.26).

• In the inventory of the properties of Giulia Leoncini, called “Lombarda”, a famous Venetian courtesan of the first half of the Sixteenth century, beside paintings, musical instruments, poetry books and rugs, are mentioned several garments, among them velvet gowns, others made of "burato", or "zambelotto"; embroidered and knitted "scuffie" (bonnets), scented gloves, veils, "fazuoli", "traverse", shirts, even some defined "alla mascolina" (masculine), "braghese" (undepants), "bavari" (collars), hoses, "borse de cordelline" (bobbin-made purses)… handkerchiefs made "de ponto a fil", "de ponto taiado", or "lavorado destraforo con merli", and so on. (D. D. Poli, Inventario di Giulia Leoncini, in D. Liscia Bemporad, Il costume nell'età del Rinascimento, Florence, 1988, pp. 273-288).

• Soon, after the aristocratic workshops, other workshops were set up in convents and in charitable institutions that raised and educated orphans and abandoned children. One of the most practiced works was that of the "merli" (laces), both needle-made and bobbin-made. Some documents preserved in the “Casa delle Zitelle” archive confirm the higher price commanded by the needle laces in comparison with bobbin laces, being them more difficult to make, and also confirm the importance already achieved, in 1576, of this highly specialized production. It is also interesting to discover that the "ace" (or “azze”, the linen threads used in the manufacturing of the laces) were sold by the pound, while the laces were sold by carats, as the diamonds were. (D. Davanzo Poli, Merletti, Venice, 2001, p.26).