Modelbuchs

Background

The 16th century saw a proliferation of pattern books or modelbuchs aimed at the domestic embroiderer as well as the professional craftsman. In addition to pattern books designed specifically for artisans, many other books were used by the domestic embroiderer as a source of embroidery designs. These books fell into three main categories:

• Herbals
• Emblem
• Bestiary

Period Pattern Books Online

• Atlantian A&S Links: Online Facsimiles of Period Pattern-Books for Embroidery and/or Lacemaking

Modern Reproductions of Period Books

• Bassée, Nicolas. "German Renaissance Patterns for Embroidery: A Facsimile Copy of Nicolas Bass�e's New Modelbuch of 1568, with an introduction by Kathleen Epstein". Austin: Curious Works Press. ISBN 0-9633331-4-3.

• Gesner, Konrad. "Curious Woodcuts of Fanciful and Real Beasts: A selection of 190 sixteenth-century woodcuts from Gesner's and Topsell's natural histories". New York: Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-486-22701-4

• Hofer, Hans. "Ain new Formbuech'len der weyssen Arbeyt". Nieuwkoop, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1968. (Facsimile of the 1545 edition published in Augsburg)

• Nourry, Claude and Saincte Louie[sic], Pierre de. "Patterns: Embroidery - Early 16th Century". Berkeley, CA: Lacis, 1999. ISBN 1-891656-16-3.

• Shorleyker, Richard. "A Schole-House for the Needle: Produced from the original book printed in 1632 and now in the private collection of John and Elizabeth Mason". Much Wenlock, Shropshire: RJL Smith & Associates, 1998.ISBN 1-872665-72-1.

• Sibmacher, Johan. "Baroque Charted Designs for Needlework". New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1975. "This Dover edition, first published in 1975, is an unabridged republication of the 1880 edition of Newes Modelbuch ... Inn Druck verfertigt, a work originally published in Nuremberg in 1604 ..." ISBN 0-486-23186-0.

• Vinciolo, Federico. "Renaissance Patterns for Lace, Embroidery and Needlepoint (An unabridged facsimile of the "Singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts" of 1587)". New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1971. ISBN 0-486-22438-4

• Newell, Kathryn. "Needlework Patterns from Renaissance Germany: Designs recharted by Kathryn Newell from Johan Sibmacher's Schön Neues Modelbuch, 1597". Boulder, CO: Costume & Dressmaker Press, 1999.

Modern Patterns from Period Sources

• Carroll-Mann, Robin (as Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba). "Some 16th Century Border Patterns for Blackwork Embroidery," Tournaments Illuminated, No. 92, Fall 1989, pp. 34-35.

• Salazar, Kim Brody (as Ianthe d'Averoigne). "The New Carolingian Modelbook: Counted Embroidery Patterns from before 1600". Albuquerque, New Mexico: The Outlaw Press, 1995. ISBN 0-9642082-2-9.

• Spies, Nancy. "Here Be Wyverns: Hundreds of Patterns Graphed from Medieval Sources" Arelate Studio (2002) ISBN 0-9718960-0-3