There is new evidence that needle-lace may not have begun in Italy, but
further north.
This link takes you to the website of the University of Innsbruck:
http://www.uibk.ac.at/urgeschichte/projekte_forschung/textilien-lengberg/index.html.en
It concerns finds by archaeologists, led by Harald Stadler, at the
Castle Lengberg, (Municipality Nikolsdorf, East Tyrol, Austria). In
July 2008 they began to investigate a filled-in vault spandrel, and
notes in an itinerary by Paolo Santonino, indicate that this was done in
1485. The fill used materials such as twigs and straw, but also worked
wood, leather (mainly shoes) and textile rags (old clothes).
Radio-carbon dating has since proven the date of the fill.
Some of the clothing rags still have needle-lace decoration. The web
page suggests that the earliest needle-lace might have come not from
Italy but from Germany - even East Tyrol.
Lacemakers in the U.K. may have seen recent newspaper articles, writing
very inaccurately about the discovery of lacy bras and panties, which
are also among the Castle Lengberg finds:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2174568/Found-castle-vault-scraps-lace-lingerie-rage-500-years-ago.html
I understand that these follow the publication of an article in the "BBC
History" magazine for August, (I haven't yet seen it myself), by Beatrix
Nutz, another of the archaeologists who has been working on the finds.
If anyone is interested, I can provide some more information about
these, but I don't think any lace is involved.
Linda Walton,
(in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, U.K., where it didn't rain today!).
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