Medieval nets were used for hunting and fishing; there were also finer silk nets for hairnets.

For now, these links focus on illustrations of the process of making nets (as well as tools used for making nets), rather than illustrations of nets themselves. There are a few more netting needles listed on the Portable Antiquities Scheme Finds Database. For more information on medieval techniques for making nets, see these links.

• Netting tools from the Outer Hebrides, made before the 8th century
• Bone needles, probably made for netting, found on Orkney and Jarlshof and dating to 850-1000
• Viking netting needle made from bone, from a Viking settlement on the Orkney Islands, c. 9th-10th century
• Zodiac: Capricorn, Liber astrologiae (BNF Latin 7330, fol. 29), second quarter of the 13th century
Flex is nedeful to dyuers vse for þerof is y-made cloþing to weryng ... and nettes to fisshyng and to huntyng.

De proprietatibus rerum
(British Library ms Add. 27944)

• Preparing traps for the hunt, The book of the hunt of Gaston Phoebus (BNF Fr. 619, fol. 42v), end of the 14th century
• Preparing traps for the hunt, The book of the hunt of Gaston Phoebus (BNF Fr. 616, fol. 53v), beginning of the 15th century
• Making snares, The book of the hunt of Gaston Phoebus (PML M.1044, fol. 45), c. 1410
• Arachne, De mulieribus claris (BNF Fr. 599, fol. 17v), 15th-16th century
• Preparing traps for the hunt, The book of the hunt of Gaston Phoebus (BNF Fr. 617, fol. 39), beginning of the 16th century