In 1893, Irene Ninni published a succinct account of a large but little-known group of Venetian women called impiraressa or bead stringers whose task it was to thread the glass beads produced on Murano and form them into hanks for the world market. The original Italian text is provided, along with an English translation. Two late 19th-century paintings by John Singer Sargent provide a rare glimpse of the bead stringers at work.