Portuguese tuna and lace

Those of you who are connoisseurs of Portuguese lace may think that the title is connected to the fact that many of the patterns involved in Portuguese lacemaking have something to do with the creatures of the sea.

After all the lacemaking is said to have developed from the mundane task of mending fishing nets which led to more and more creative designs in the knotting used for the repairs.

But the tuna of the heading has nothing to do with atum (pronounced a toong), the fish. Tuna in Portuguese as in Spanish is the word for a group of student musicians, singers and guitarists, who roam the streets of their university towns traditionally serenading their sweethearts. Traditionally masculine, the tuna groups nowadays include groups of female singers.

Lacemaking is an art beloved by Portuguese women so it is only natural that many of the traditional tuna songs refer to uma rendilheira (pronounced ooma ren-deel-yayeera), a lacemaker.

(You may need to scroll down to find this as it is the second song on the page.)

One of the most famous lace making towns in Portugal is Peniche where the lace museum not only hosts a wealth of interesting articles but has itself an interesting history as a building. For an interesting look at Peniche, this article on Peniche museum is easy to read and summarises the past succintly.

For those of you who wish to research the history of lacemaking as well as the techniques, one of the best sites is the one belonging to Lori Howe here at Suite 101. Sadly the topic is now retired but it is one of the most interesting sites in the English language on lace, especially if you know nothing already about the topic.

The most comprehensive site for lace articles is that belonging to the Museu das Rendas where if you click on the lace square on the left you are guided to lists of lace articles with the date of their creation. Clicking on any article in this list will bring up a detailed description followed by a well-defined photograph of the article in question.

This gives excellent practice in learning vocabulary for tecido (cloth, material) as the photographs clearly define the meaning of the words for specific items.

The earliest article found in the site belonging to the Smithsonian is a lace border, created around 1600, with a rather gory religious theme.The story of Judith and Holofernes is easy to follow from the action figures on the lace patterning.

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