Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/810

 LACE

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LACE

remarkable burial of tlie seventeenth dynasty (1600 B. c). Other specimens of lace made with bobbins (Fig. 9; Cluny Museum) and of lace stitches worked on

Fig. 2. Flounce of Milanese Bobbin L.\ce XVII Century, Pollea Collection, London

linen have been found in Egyptian tombs of the first to the third century, and fine specimens of these are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and in the Cluny Museum, Paris. I'or many subsequent cen- turies we possess no actual specimens of lace fabrics, but records, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and paintings give us evidence that hand-work in lace and on linen was continuously and gradually developed into the beautiful products of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It will be worth while to quote some ancient references. The " Ancren Riwle" of the thirteenth century cautions nuns against devot- ing too much time to lace and ornamental work, to the detriment of work for the poor. The record of a visitation at St. Paul's, London, in 1295, mentions lacis under the name of album filum nodatum (knotted white thread). A roll of the possessions of the Knights Templars after their suppression in 1.312 includes an inventory of the Temple Church, London. An item in this is "one net which is called Espinum to cover the Lectern ".

On the question of design, as indicating the date of lacework, the early geometric character of design in- spired by the East was modified as early as the eighth century, as we see, by realistic nrnamontation, such as

purposes. Therefore we may conclude that mutual assistance in design was given, as both were working for the same object, the ornamentation and glorj' of the Sacred Scriptures and the services of the Church. The two earliest known specimens of lace-worked linen albs are that of St. Francis, preserved at St. Clare's convent, Assisi, and the alb of Pope Boniface VIII (Fig. S), now in the treasury of the Sistine Chapel. The Assisi alb is said to have been worked bv St. Clare of Assisi and her nuns, and to have been worn by St. Francis himself (d. 1226). This alb is of hand-woven linen, very fine in texture, and the tela tirala work introduces no less than twenty varieties of polygonal design. Many of these are formed of the Coptic gammadion or symbol of the cross. Symbolic animals and chimeras are also introduced, and the Eastern character of the design is obvious. The I it her ancient alb is also of linen lace and is said to have 1 icen worn by Pope Boniface in 1298. As to its possi- ble history, it is known that St. Nilus and his monks were driven from the East by the Saracens in the tenth century and were welcomed in Italy by Pope Gregory V. He established them near Rome, where their successors still worship with the Eastern Rite. The famous alb may have been brought by these monks or by those who followed them from the East. The design is worked in puidn liraln and is evidently of

Worked .it the convent of Yough.il, Ireland, XIX Century the flowing scrolls and vine leaves introduced into the initial letters of manuscripts of that date. These paint ing.s were chiefly the work of monk.s of the Bene- dictine Order, and the lace at that time was un- doubtedly the work of nuns and intended for church

lace school, XX Century

Eastern origin; the flounce of pillow lace was added at a later date.

Dr. Daniel Rock has pointed out that the long strips of lacis and linen lace of early work, now some- times found, were covers for the lectern; and this is confirmed by the fact that the figure subjects are usually worked across the width of the piece, as in a remarkable piece dating from the fifteenth century. This is a strip of trlii tiratii, six feet by twelve and one- half inches, probably worked by the nuns at Assisi as a lectern cover, and representing, among other sacred subjects, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata (Fig. 7, Pollen Collection). Existing records as early as the twelfth century mention " worked albs " belong- ing to the Abbey of St. Albans, and in an inventory of 1466 of St. Stephen's, London, we read of "worked altar cloths and towels " and some with three " rayes " at each end. These " rayes " were rows of insertion of reticello work.

There is no doubt that the Church was the first patron of lace-making in luiropc, and the finest exist- ing specimens both of early and late work were made to decorate albs, Mass vestments, etc. A very curious specimen of linen lace of pre-Reformation times is the py.x veil now existing in the parish of Ile.sselt in Suffolk. This beautiful square, entirely worked in