There are quite a few books out there that explain how rigging works. It's important to be aware, though, that rigging evolved over the centuries; a source that's useful for one period isn't likely to be of much help in building a model of a ship that was built a hundred years either earlier or later. For heaven's sake, don't try to rig a model of the Mayflower on the basis of the plans of the Cutty Sark.
Here are some recommendations for starters:
General: George Campbell, The Neophyte Shipmodeler's Jackstay. (A terrific book, intended primarily as an introduction to building solid-hull wood kits, but valuable to anybody getting into the hobby. A person who learned everything in this book would be well on the way toward being knowledgable about sailing ship technology. It's a great way to learn the basic concepts of rigging. And it's cheap.) Wolfram zu Monfelt, Historic Ship Models. (This is perhaps the best of the more recent, general texts on ship modeling. It has a strong European slant, and covers such a broad range of topics that it can't deal with any of them in much depth. But it's generally a pretty sound work.)
Late sixteenth, seventeenth, and very early eighteenth centuries: R.C. Anderson, The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720. (An old classic, originally published in the 1920s, that's never been surpassed. Another book by the same author, Seventeenth-Century Rigging, is essentially a revised edition, with the non-English materials omitted. I recommend the original - which is now available in a ridiculously cheap paperback edition from Dover Books.)
British (and, generally speaking, American) sailing warships of all centuries: James Lees, The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, 1625-1860. (Expensive, but comprehensive; a basic book that belongs in every serious ship modeler's library.)
Eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: David Steel, Elements of Mastmaking, Sailmaking, and Rigging (the title varies slightly by edition); Darcy Lever, The Young Officer's Sheet Anchor. I particularly recommend the recent reprint of Lever from, of all places, Lee Valley Tools: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=40983&cat=1,46096,46100 . In addition to the complete text of the 1808 edition, it contains additions made by an American editor in 1858.
French eighteenth-century warships: any of the works of Jean Boudriot. Unfortunately they're quite expensive, but they can be found in libraries - and anybody who's ever bought one of them regards it as a good investment.
Nineteenth-century American (and, generally speaking, British) merchant ships: Richard Henry Dana, The Seaman's Friend; George Biddlecombe, The Art of Rigging. (The former is also available in a nice, cheap Dover paperback edition. The latter is in fact a revision of the work by Steel mentioned above, updated to the mid-nineteenth century.)
Merchant ships, mid-nineteenth century to the end of the sailing ship period: Harold Underhill, Masting and Rigging: The Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier.
There are plenty of others, but those are some I've been using for many years; they'll get the newcomer off to a good start.
There's no substitute for a good, reliable, well-drawn set of plans for the particular ship you're reproducing. The Societe des Amis de Musee de la Marine publishes a series of plans of French warships, including La Flore; that's what I'd seek out if I were making a serious attempt at that old Lindberg kit. Unfortunately those plans tend to be pretty expensive for what you get, and in the U.S. they aren't easy to find.
It's also worth remembering the difference between primary sources (those written by people of the period they're talking about) and secondary sources (those written by other people). Steel, Lever, Biddlecombe, and Dana are primary sources. Anderson, Lees, and Underhill are secondary sources. When a discrepancy arises between a primary source and a secondary source - well, that's a subject for another forum. It's a mistake to assume that all the information a model builder wants to know ever got written down. There is, for instance, remarkably little in the way of primary sources about belaying pin plans. If a rigging diagram doesn't indicate the precise places where all the lines are to be belayed, it's often because the person drawing the diagram didn't know. And when a secondary source does include a complete belaying plan, take it with at least a small grain of salt; the guy who drew it almost certainly was indulging in a certain amount of guesswork.
Hope that helps a little.