Schon newes Modelbuch von sechshundert aussewehlten kunstlichen so wol Italianischen, Frantzosischen, Niderlandischen, Englandischen als Teutschen Modeln allen Syedenstichern, Nahterin und solcher Arbeit gefliessenen...Getruckt in Franckfurt am Mayn 1617

This is Sigismundus Latomus’s “Schon newes Modelbuch,” printed in Frankfurt am Main around 1617. It’s essentially a pattern book, providing templates for textile workers. The book speaks volumes about the fashion economy of the time. It presents 600 designs of Italian, French, Dutch, English, and German origin. Consider the labor involved: crafting the designs, engraving the printing plates, the physical act of printing, and then the needleworkers themselves, transposing these images into fabric. These pattern books played a crucial role in standardizing and disseminating design, driving production, and allowing new fashions to spread rapidly. It collapses traditional distinctions between fine art and craft. This book showcases how design ideas circulate, and how much labor went into making early modern style a global phenomenon.