The first issue of 2024 opens with an article about the textile heritage of Sant’Andrea in Savona, a comprehensive collection of great value with important articles dating from the 17th to the 20th century. This is followed by an in-depth look into the ‘enigmatic’ fragment of a tapestry that is part of a private collection depicting Susanna surprised at her bath by the Elders, from the last decade of the 16th century. From tapestries, we switch our attention to the world of women’s vocational schools, focusing on their role in “disseminating and passing on knowledge and technical skills “, especially in the lace industry.

The Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio has been hard at work producing medieval-inspired textiles, and here we showcase a lampas, known as ‘Aquile bizantine’, which is interesting both for its source of inspiration and use in the ‘historical’ context. The ancient world is also represented by a Sofreh, a Persian rug, with a focus on its restoration, while we are transported to the modern day by two fiber artists, Jules Vissers and Federica Luzzi, who have adopted textiles as the means of expressing their individual creativity.