Fiori di Ricami Nuovamente Posti in Luce, page 8 (recto)

This small but exquisitely detailed woodcut is page 8 (recto) from Matteo Florimi's 1591 pattern book, *Fiori di Ricami Nuovamente Posti in Luce* — translated as 'Flowers of Embroidery Newly Brought to Light.' Published in Siena, this volume belongs to a celebrated tradition of Renaissance lace and embroidery pattern books that flourished across Italy in the sixteenth century, serving as practical design manuals for noblewomen, professional embroiderers, and textile workshops alike. Florimi, active as a publisher and printmaker in Siena from around 1540 to 1603, produced this series entirely in woodcut, a technique well-suited to the crisp geometric and floral repeat designs that embroiderers needed to follow precisely.

At just 5½ by 7⅞ inches, the page is intimate in scale, yet dense with ornamental invention. It is one of at least eighteen such pages in the Met's collection from this same 1591 volume, revealing how ambitiously Florimi compiled patterns for a luxury craft market. These books were cherished tools in aristocratic households, where fine needlework was both a domestic art and a mark of social refinement. The regularity and elegance of the printed grid patterns reflect the high standards of Italian Renaissance decorative culture.