Zibellino

[1][2][3] The earliest surviving mention of a marten pelt to be worn as neck ornament occurs in an inventory of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, dated 1467, but the fashion was widespread in Northern Italy by the 1490s.

[4] Eleonora's daughter Isabella de' Medici appears with a zibellino in a portrait by a member of Bronzino's studio painted at the time of her marriage in 1558 to Paolo Giordano Orsini.

The traditional costume historian's term for this accessory, flea-fur, is from the German Flohpelz, coined by Wendelin Boeheim in 1894, who was the first to suggest that the furs were intended to attract fleas away from the body of the wearer.

[13] Elizabeth I of England received a "Sable Skynne the hed and fourre featte of gold fully furnished with Dyamondes and Rubyes" as a New Year's Gift from the Earl of Leicester in 1585.

[16] In 1606, Anne of Denmark owned "a sable head of gold with a collar or muzzle enamelled, garnished with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, with four feet, in each foot a small stone, and a ring in the mouth with a pearl", possibly inherited from Elizabeth or Mary, Queen of Scots.