[PARASOLE, Isabella Catanea (c. 1570-1620). Teatro delle nobili et virtuose donne dove si rappresentano varii disegni di lavori nouamente inuentati, et disegnati. Rome: M. Bona, 1636].

The 1636 edition of Isabella Parasole’s lace pattern book, in a red morocco binding for dedicatee Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Parasole was a book illustrator and textile designer who produced several popular lace books—all dedicated to prominent aristocratic women. Her highly-skilled patterns were partially inspired by botany; her designs for Castore Durant’s 1585 herbal had earned her the esteem of Federico Cesi himself, who invited her to illustrate a publication on his gardens at Acquasparta. His famous Mexican Treasurycontains illustrations inspired by her work. This edition, published after her death and apparently dedicated to Vittoria della Rovere, is not recorded at auction by ABPC or RBH; indeed, the last copy of any edition of this work to appear at auction was the 1616 edition at the Doheny sale in 1988—also incomplete, as is common for craft manuals where use often meant abuse. Lotz, A. Modelbücher, 143c [1616 edition]; see Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, "La femminil pazienza: Women Painters and Natural History in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century,” Studies in the History of Art, 2008, Vol. 69; and Femke Speelberg, Fashion & Virtue: Textile Patterns and the Print Revolution 1520-1620, 2015.

Oblong quarto (191 x 256mm). 40 sheets only of full-page woodcut lace patterns, gatherings B-M (two pages with large but neatly repaired tears, a few corners repaired or renewed, small nicks repaired; occasional dust-soiling and spotting at margins). Contemporary red Italian morocco gilt à la fanfare, with arms of Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his wife Vittoria della Rovere (some worming on rear board). Provenance: Vittoria della Rovere (binding).