Lace art has become an important element of craft history. Since its very beginning, lace was created in different ways through the use of different tools, such as: the cloth being drawn out, the lace pillow or "tombolo," bobbins, or the Venician needle.

From the 17th to the 18th century lace became a distinctive element of the aristocracy and the middle class. The wealthy demanded lace and thus it became an essential decoration of the aristocracy, clergy robes, and cathedral altars. Italian lace was in highest demand throughout the world. In several European courts, nobles were obliged to wear lace on the occasion of jubilees, weddings, coronations, and any other formal ceremony.
In France, in the mid-17th century during the reign of King Louis XIV, Italian lace import was embargoed in order to reduce the national financial crisis. In 1666, as a consequence of a special government decree, Finance Minister Cobert organized a national French lace production. He invited many lace workers from Venice and Flanders to live and work in France in order to teach their skills to young French girls. That was the birth of the Royal French Lace Manufacturing. .
In Italy, on the other hand, attempting to preserve the essential lace economy, several sanctions were initiate against any destruction or damage of Italian lace production. In Venice, workers were considered traitors for giving away any of their tatting technics. However, it was all for naught as the French manufacturers developed innovative technics to hasten production and create a lighter lace. The French were also able to prevent any "industrial espionage." .
The Industrial Revolution and the introduction of textile machines changed dress styles; decoration with lace was highly reduced. In 1809 Heatcoat, an Englishman, created a special lace loom. This was a metal frame with several bobbins and needles working together to create a light and flimsy cloth, the so-called "tulle." In Italy, these machines first arrived in 1871, but they were only introduced into production in 1881 on the occasion of the Great Exhibition of Milan.
As a consequence a new production method was found. Stamping out embroidery and fastening it on the tulle created a transparency similar or greater than the real lace made with bobbins. But the Industrial Revolution also produced a great middle class. The new industrial European middle class wanted to compete with the still-powerful aristocracy. Marketing improved because of the new buying power, creating the most important period in lace production.
The lace and embroidery art was beautiful, elegant, and popularly crafted among women. Any woman could make it and, because it became a part of every female's education at home and school, for the lower classes it became a female working activity, easy to do at home and necessary as a domestic income. In convents lace and embroidery were the main activity with production being aimed at the clergy and ecclesiastical buyers. Nuns regularly taught, learned, and produced lace and "tulle."
In Panicale the art of lace became a traditional convent manufacture, as is shown in the Rules Act of the Collegium for the Mary's Virgins in Panicale, written in 1750 by Monsenior Virgilio Giannotti, Biship of Città della Pieve. In this document, in the chapter concerning the religious dress code, there is a list of the dowry to be taken into the convent. One of the necessary elements was a sewing pillow and an embroidery ball, the "tombolo." The reading and analysis of this document occurred thanks to the cultural association Pan Kalon that found it during research about Panicale.

Anita Belleschi was born in Panicale in 1889. Losing her mother at a young age, Anita was sent to live in the Institute of Holy Jesus' Heart in Città della Pieve, where she received a stricked education and learned the art of lace.
At age forty, Anita Belleschi Grifoni was asked by the Countess Barabino di Lumura to restore an old veil, the so-called "Venice Veil," which was probably a French veil. This inspired Anita to revive the embroidery art of "tulle" in Panicale. That was the birth of "Ars Panicalensis."
Anita's drawings were mainly composed of flowers, spirals and scallops, or elegant birds of paradise among flowered branches, love knots, ribbons, swallows, and country decorations. From these drawings one can easily sense the taste of a refined and cultured woman with great aesthetics who was beloved by everybody. She established an art form that was to become a model for most of the women in the country…producing work that could give women an economic and moral independence, which was rather unusual for the time.
She had deep conviction about the quality of "Ars Panicalensis" and, therefore, she sent some samples to the Savoia Family House. Anita, together with her daughter Maria Teresa Grifoni, created the christening dress for Princess Maria Pia, daughter of Prince Umberto and Princess Maria Jose. As a result, "Ars Panicalensis" became famous among nobles and higher middle class both in Italy and abroad.
Anita was not interested in her personal success, but rather in developing a female activity that could contribute to family income and women's self-realization. In those years women in Panicale began embroidering everywhere: in the public gardens, in the squares, in the streets, and on the house steps. Major works were divided into small groups of three or more women. The passion for lace art was contagious and thus it became the favorite young girl's hobby. Most of them even worked during the night in an era when it was difficult to have night light.
A lace school was first established in the old primary school at Via Roma 4, near the present Tulle Museum. The Countess Mancini di Lemura was the owner of the building donating it free to Mrs Belleschi Grifoni; however, the countess regularly received high quality tulle lace production in exchange.
Anita was a strict teacher wanting the best from each of her pupils. When she disliked the work, she bought it and burned it. Her pupils appreciated her kindness and considered the school as a meeting place for women of all ages to talk and have a cup of coffee. "Sora Anita," as they called her, was for Panicale a central figure, art director, song writer, president of the Proloco Association, and always a devoted supporter of the town and its youth. She also created a folk dance in which the female dancer was clad in an apron of her own creation.
Anita Belleschi Grifoni died at the age of ninety still working on her beloved "tulle."