Trina, like our word lace, is used in a general sense for braid or passement. Florio, in his Dictionary (A Worlde of Words, John Florio, London, 1598), gives Trine—cuts, snips, pincke worke on garments; and Trinci—gardings, fringings, lacings, etc., or other ornaments of garments.
Merlo, merletto, are the more modern terms for lace. We find the first as early as the poet Firenzuola (see Florence). It does not occur in any pattern book of an older date than the "Fiori da Ricami" of Pasini, and the two works of Francesco de' Franceschi, all printed in 1591.
The laces, both white and gold, depicted in the celebrated picture of the Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, by Lavinia Fontana, now in the Lambeccari Gallery, executed in the sixteenth century, prove that white lace was in general use in the Italian Courts at that epoch.
At present, if you show an Italian a piece of old lace, he will exclaim, "Opera di monache; roba di chiesa."
Statute 2, Henry VI., 1423. The first great treaty between the Venetians and Henry VII. was in 1507.