Mondano Netting

I was cleaning out my closet when I ran across these very old pieces of lace that I picked up years ago at an estate sale. I knew these pieces weren't crochet, but really had no idea what they could be otherwise. Out of curiosity I decided to do some research and after consulting with several needlelace experts I discovered the ancient art of netting.

Lacis is a lace making form where the foundation is netting. There were three forms of lacis extant in period: mondano, buratto, and mezza mandolina.

Mondano is the period name for knotted fishnet. Making net, whether you're making the finest silk lacis, hemp fishnet, or the heaviest rope hammock, is done with the same single stitch; the netting stitch or mondano stitch. Mondano is the same as buratto, but, instead of a woven ground, mondano has a knotted ground. This is the one that mostly closely resembles fishing net. Again, it is darned with decorative patterns. 

In period, examples of plain and darned mondano – used in hairnets – has been found, dating to the first decades of the 14th century. That predates reticella – the second oldest lacemaking form – by more than a century. The Ancrin Riwle (a novice nun’s “handbook”, published 1301), names it specifically, admonishing the novices not to spend all their time netting, when they could be attending to charitable works. Throughout period, lacis kept turning up; mondano was widely used to decorate altar linens and ecclesiastical garments, furniture cushions, and table linens. Later in period, all three incarnations turned up on clothing. Queen Elizabeth I possessed dozens of pieces of “networke” (as all three forms were commonly called), which decorated or completely covered partlets, foreparts, doublets, overskirts, loose gowns, veils, and cloaks.

The art appears to have lost much of its popularity in the seventeenth century, perhaps to the less costly bobbin lace. But it enjoyed a renewed vigor during the Victorian Age, and has not entirely died out since then. Certainly the patterns have survived, many of them being carried over into embroidery patterns and filet crochet (which is a 19th century cousin of the art).

http://www.knotsindeed.com/stitch-gallery/decorative/

Want to learn Netting? Here are a couple good books:
The Lost Art of Netting: A How-To Book with Pictures and Patterns for the Beginning Netter by Rita F. Bartholomew

Needle-Made Laces and Net Embroideries: Reticella Work, Carrickmacross Lace, Princess Lace and Other Traditional Techniques by Doris Campbell Preston