The last room of the virtual museum is dedicated to a typical Umbrian lace, the PUNTO IRLANDA of the Isola Maggiore, on the Trasimeno lake. The art to create this kind of lace using a crochet hook and a very fine cotton thread is introduced in the island by the marquise Elena Guglielmi in 1904, following a series of efforts all over Italy to retrieve and relaunch the ancient traditions of feminine works such as bobbin and needle laces. Working directly on Irish patterns, under the guide of the teacher of the island, Elvira Tosetti De Santis (who used to reads excerpts from the Gerusalemme Liberata while she worked), the small community of lace makers soon grew to involve the entire island (in 1904 there are only 9 girls, 20 in 1906).

The scene takes place inside the Sixteenth century Palazzo delle Opere Pie - restored in 2000 by the Comunità Montana Monti del Trasimeno – that is also the premises of the Museo del Merletto dell'Isola Maggiore, where it is possible to admire a large exhibition of prestigious objects. Inside, three lace makers are working with the crochet hook in front of the open gate in order to have more light, while around them are samplers, patterns and completed laces. In the meantime, the bread has just been took out of the oven and the fishing nets have been hang out to dry in the back of the lobby (that, for its typology, could also be used as a shipyard).

• Among the numerous catalogues and manuals of the D.M.C. Library, of the homonymous thread factory, there is one dedicated to the “Irish lace” dated to the beginning of the Twentieth century, where are illustrated no less than twelve typologies of nets: from rosettes to small flowers, from leaves to bunches of grapes, with a definite predominance of floral motives, such as the characteristic rosettes or square or rounded stars that, once assembled, created several different types of decorations. (M. Letizia Bittoni, Pro-loco Isola Maggiore di Tuoro sul Trasimeno (PG) (edited by), “Il Merletto a punto Irlanda ad Isola Maggiore”, Tuoro sul Trasimeno, 1995, pp.6-7).

• The first crochet-made laces were rather easy to make; afterwards, they became much more complicated with the addition of new types of braidings and more complex and articulate patterns, arriving to convincingly imitate ancient needle laces. It was particularly in Ireland that these laces were especially boosted and achieved a specific typology that made them very famous also outside the country of origin. (Teresita e Flora Oddone, Lavori Femminili, Milan, 1911, p.31).

• “The night was dark, the lake sad… gusts of impetuous wind, flashes of lightning… The lake was deserted and deserted was the shore; only a humble friar, in the melancholy of the dusk, rapped at the door of a modest house in Passignano, humbly requesting to a fisherman to take him to the nearby Isola Maggiore, in that dark night. And his prayers… won over the fears of the fisherman…The friar held between his hands a light candle… some bread, and his faith. They arrived at the Isola Maggiore late into the night; and in the deserted island the friar lived forty days and forty nights alone with his prayers. … He left on the lake shore, on a rock, where maybe one day he rested his tired feet, the impression of his body. The friar was St. Francis of Assisi; and the year 1200; since that day the island began to become populated….”. (Bice Bittoni, Isola Maggiore (Lago Trasimeno) in AA.VV., Le Industrie Femminili Italiane, Milan, 1906, pp.183-184).

• This lace technique was introduced in the island in the first years of the Twentieth century by Elena Guglielmi, daughters of the marquis Giacinto Guglielmi, who founded a school for the daughters of the fishermen of the island, that, being already skilled in crafting fishing nets, could easily learn the delicate technique of crochet laces. “… All of them hold the thin and pointed small needle; the very fine thread is knotted and braided, creating the fine, so appreciated, Irish lace”. Mrs Guglielmi took also care to offer the young women working in the school a deposit account in the Cassa di Risparmio that would be used to keep their earnings and their dowry. (Bice Bittoni, Isola Maggiore (Lago Trasimeno) in AA.VV., Le Industrie Femminili Italiane, Milan, 1906, pp.185-186).

• The first crochet laces appeared in Ireland around the half of the Eighteenth century as imitations of Seventeenth century Venetian laces. Used also to trim clothing and home linens, for a long time, these laces remained confined in the domestic crafts of the regions of Dublin e Belfast; afterward, around 1900, the production was expanded in France, Austria and Germany too. (G. Montecucco Rogledi, L'uncinetto nella casa. Guida pratica e visiva per eseguire coperte, tovaglie, centri e cuscini, Milan, 1972, p.39).