The Armour Archive

In 1222 at the Council of Oxford Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Caterbury, ordered clerks to wear the cappa clausa, and he thus introduced into England the clerical outdoor dress already in use on the Continent. The result of this was that at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford and at subsequent universities the cappa clausa came to be regarded as the academical dress, at least for formal occasions, for Doctors of Theology and Masters of Arts, who as priests – nearly all Masters were in Orders – worse this garment before any particular form of academical dress had come to be established. Further, when in due course Langton’s rule about the use of the cappa clausa was more and more neglected by the clergy in general, the garment came to be regarded as an exclusively academical one.

my translation of pages 180-182 of Albert Lecoy de la Marche 'Le Bagage d'un étudiant en 1347' https://archive.org/details/MemoiresDeLaSocieteNationaleDesAntiquaires50/page/n201 wrote:Item une corroie de cuir rougue, de laquelle le dit mort se seignoit, ferré de boucle et mordant rons et dix-huit rosetes, tout d'argent; une bourse de soie où il avoit vint soulz parisis en doubles noirs; unes tables d'ivoire à ymages par dedans; un mauvais pingne d'ivoire, un petit coutelet d'argent à foucher dens; une greffe d'argent entré d'acier; un grant coutel, un petit, et un poinson à manches semez de treffles d'argent, et unes forcetes, tout en une gayne, un estuit de ..... qui estoit sur ses clés; toutes ces choses pendans à la dicte corroye.

Item, a girdle of red leather, with which the aforesaid deceased was belted, reinforced with a buckle and round mordant and eighteen rosettes, all of silver; a purse of silk which had twenty sols parisis in double blacks in it; a (set of) tablets of ivory with images on the inside; a bad comb (pingne) of ivory, a little knifelet of silver for picking teeth; a greffe (= stylus) of silver inbetween of steel; a big knife, a small one, and a pricker with grips scattered with trefoils of silver, and a little fork, all in one scabbard, an etui of .... which was on its nails; all these things hanging from the aforesaid girdle.

Item, an old black overbelt (soursainte).

Item, a piece of tan leather.

Item, inventory of the suit (la robe) in which the aforesaid deceased was dressed:

Premièrement, un mantel double d'un marbre brun et d'un tané; deux chaperons mis l'un dedans l'autre, l'un de drap vermeil, l'autre de tané; une cote hardie de marbre tavlé fourrée d'aignaux noirs; une cote simple de fleur de peschier; un blanchet fourré d'aignaus blans par le corps; unes chauces de fleur de vece; uns housiaus; uns esperons; chemises, brayes et brayer; une espée, une targete et un chapiau de feutre.

Firstly, a double mantle of a brown marbled cloth and a tanned; two chaperons put one inside the other, one of vermillion cloth, the other of tanned; a cote hardie of marbre tavlé furred with black lamb; a single coat of peach-blossom (colour); a blanket furred with white lamb next to the body; hose of vetch-blossom (fleur de vece) (colour); a housiaus (gaiters); spurs; shirts, breeches, and breech-belt; a sword, a target, and a chapeau of felt.

Item, a sack which has money in it, sealed with vermillion wax, of which the impression is well known; {snip information about exactly whose silver is in there}

Item, a horse sur poil fauve, which the aforesaid deceased was riding.