Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

To discuss research into and about the middle ages.

Moderator: Glen K

Post Reply
Steve S.
Archive Member
Posts: 13327
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2000 1:01 am
Location: Huntsville, AL
Contact:

Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Steve S. »

I am looking to make some medieval academic regalia.

From the limited googling I've done, it looks like it's essentially clerical gowns.

Anyone have any leads?

Steve
Steve S.
Archive Member
Posts: 13327
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2000 1:01 am
Location: Huntsville, AL
Contact:

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Steve S. »

I found this:

http://www.academicapparel.com/caps/Ear ... Dress.html
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.
It appears that the Cappa Clausa would be appropriate academic garb. Note that I think there are typos in the above (worse = wore ?).

Are there any commercial sellers of Cappa Clausa today?

Steve
Sean M
Archive Member
Posts: 2374
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:24 pm
Location: in exile in Canada

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Sean M »

There are funeral monuments with pictures of masters and students from 14th century Bologna, I took some photos when I was there but I would have to find them. Budget 3-4 yards of woollen broadcloth for the facing plus as much lining and a day's wages and most modern medieval tailors can work you up a gown or guardecorps.

There are also published wills and inventories, there is at least one in Gilding the Market and another in Joan Evans, Dress in Mediaeval France p. 31: on Tuesday 6 November 1347, a student travelling to Paris died on the road with all kinds of belongings including:
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.
He also had several leather bags full of books with cloth of gold covers, changes of clothing, even more knives and money, etc.
Last edited by Sean M on Tue May 21, 2019 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
DIS MANIBUS GUILLELMI GENTIS MCLEANUM FAMILIARITER GALLERON DICTI
VIR OMNIBUS ARTIBUS PERITUS
Check out Age of Datini: European Material Culture 1360-1410
John Vernier
Archive Member
Posts: 232
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:57 pm
Location: south central Indiana

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by John Vernier »

"...a bad pingne (poigne 'grip'?) of ivory..." I expect that is peigne = comb, which explains why it has gone bad. Those little ivory combs are delicate things!
That's a nice inventory of posh travelling belongings. He probably wasn't a scholarship kid :roll:
Sean M
Archive Member
Posts: 2374
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:24 pm
Location: in exile in Canada

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Sean M »

John, I am glad you find it as interesting as I do! It also has a belt-full-of-stuff and a knives-and-pricker set 100 years before we see them in the archaeology and the art.

Steve, the site you found has another section from a book called The History of Academical Dress in Europe Until the End of the Eighteenth Century It says something about felt hats and chaperons, I think we see one kind of like a slouched hat with a ball on top. I remember a Margaret Scott book with a few illustrations of clothing at university.
Last edited by Sean M on Tue May 21, 2019 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
DIS MANIBUS GUILLELMI GENTIS MCLEANUM FAMILIARITER GALLERON DICTI
VIR OMNIBUS ARTIBUS PERITUS
Check out Age of Datini: European Material Culture 1360-1410
John Vernier
Archive Member
Posts: 232
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:57 pm
Location: south central Indiana

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by John Vernier »

I visited Bologna over 20 years ago and I also have pictures which I can't readily share. Sadly, I was shooting slide film back then and I often regret it. Must digitize... The Museo Civico Medievale in Bologna has a considerable holding of funeral monuments and other sculpture including academics. I turned up a few images by searching for the museum, and alsoBologna lastra tombale (i.e., tomb slab).

https://www.tripadvisor.in/LocationPhot ... magna.html

This one is Bernardino Zambeccari (died 1424):
https://collezioni.genusbononiae.it/pro ... glio/10884#
Sean M
Archive Member
Posts: 2374
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:24 pm
Location: in exile in Canada

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Sean M »

Giovanni da Legnano and Lorenzo Pini seem to be the other names to look up.

The masters and scholars at the university of Bologna seem to have dressed similarly to other respectable burgers (such as the man in the segno in the Getty Fior di Battaglia): a chaperone; a full circle cloak, sometimes with sleeves, holes for the arms, or a furred cape over the shoulders; and a gown "to the mid-shin."

So doing it right would take a lot of fulled woollen cloth and fur, like 12 yards plus the hose-cloth, doublet, and bonnet, but the cutting should not be complicated.
DIS MANIBUS GUILLELMI GENTIS MCLEANUM FAMILIARITER GALLERON DICTI
VIR OMNIBUS ARTIBUS PERITUS
Check out Age of Datini: European Material Culture 1360-1410
Sean M
Archive Member
Posts: 2374
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:24 pm
Location: in exile in Canada

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Sean M »

Here is my thread on making a four-panel gown viewtopic.php?f=16&t=186756&p=2839468 The cut is from 16th century handbooks, but gowns from three yards of broad cloth already appear in the 14th century.

To make the full circle cloak, you just fold six yards of broadcloth from selvage to selvage, trace half a circle a yard and a half in radius, add the hole for the head and then sew from the edge of the cloak to the left shoulder. Use the triangles from the corners to make a chaperon and a shoulder cape.
DIS MANIBUS GUILLELMI GENTIS MCLEANUM FAMILIARITER GALLERON DICTI
VIR OMNIBUS ARTIBUS PERITUS
Check out Age of Datini: European Material Culture 1360-1410
Steve S.
Archive Member
Posts: 13327
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2000 1:01 am
Location: Huntsville, AL
Contact:

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Steve S. »

That is very interesting, Sean! Thanks for the other period sources, all!

Steve
Steve S.
Archive Member
Posts: 13327
Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2000 1:01 am
Location: Huntsville, AL
Contact:

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Steve S. »

Honestly, this doesn't look far off the mark:

https://www.museumreplicas.com/monks-robe-and-hood

Compared to some of these guys:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... pietro.JPG

Steve
Sean M
Archive Member
Posts: 2374
Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:24 pm
Location: in exile in Canada

Re: Looking for information on medieval academic regalia

Post by Sean M »

The third guy from the right with the rope belt is probably a monk or friar studying Canon Law, but as far as I can tell people with the money to go to university weren't wearing fustian robes. Drei Schnittbücher gives fustian as a possible material for a beggar's jacket, but it was mostly used to cover garments in the doublet and jack families, and occasionally for lining.
DIS MANIBUS GUILLELMI GENTIS MCLEANUM FAMILIARITER GALLERON DICTI
VIR OMNIBUS ARTIBUS PERITUS
Check out Age of Datini: European Material Culture 1360-1410
Post Reply