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Home , Cloth merchant, Tunic

CHAPTER 4 Body Garments of and : Tunic, , Alb

Introduction The tailoring of the Bocksten tunic (4.1) is fairly sim- ple, its main body made from one length of cloth and All the garments in this category were put on over the therefore with no shoulder seams.3 It has straight sides, head. At a time when items of were layered, all straight armholes and gores at front, back and sides to these, except perhaps the shirt of St Louis, could have widen the . The Greenland with short sleeves been worn over . All were probably worn (4.2) is a little more complex, again with gores at front, beneath outer garments, at least some form of , but back and sides, but with the addition of to widen in some cases also an outer tunic, gown or dalmatic. All the sleeves, and a laced slit at the neck opening rather the garments in this chapter were worn by men, except, than a simple scooped-out ; and the evidence of probably, the Greenland gown with short sleeves (4.2) decorative stitching at edges and seams suggests more which was found wrapping the body of a woman, to elaborate finishing. The marbled appearance of the whom it may have belonged. cloth must have added to its attractiveness. The male The sleeved, woollen tunic was the characteristic garment with buttoned sleeves from Greenland (4.3) ex- garment for secular men throughout the hibits a more complicated shape, with a full skirt created and even before that among barbarian (non-Roman) by twelve gores, sleeves widened at the by means of peoples. It can be seen worn by conquered people on gussets, and fitted tightly at the forearms by means of Roman monuments such as Trajan’s Column (erected . The buttons, and reinforcing stitches in three AD 113) and there are surviving examples such as the different techniques, were both practical and decora- well-known peat bog finds from Bernuthsfeld Mose and tive devices on what must have been a striking black Thorsbjerg Mose, now in north Germany1 and the more garment.4 recent discovery from Lendbreen, Norway, of a tunic left The cowl of St Francis (4.4), on the other hand, dem- behind by reindeer hunters who had camped beside a onstrates the deliberate creation of an unpretentious glacier (AD 230–390).2 The examples depicted in art and, garment suitable for a religious mendicant. This is mani- indeed, the surviving examples, differ in length and full- fested both in the choice of cloth – a coarse wool weave ness. Differences in tailoring are apparent in the surviv- in a mix of natural coloured fibres that resulted in a grey ing examples: such as whether the garment was made in appearance – and in the construction of the tunic, with one piece, or composed of separate front and back sec- straight panels down the front, wide inserts at the sides tions, joined at the shoulder; the placing and number of making it flare out to allow for movement, and wide, un- gores* for fullness; and the construction of the sleeves. fashionable sleeves. St Francis, the son of a prosperous However, the general appearance of the garment did not cloth merchant, deliberately turned away from or change for centuries. It covered the upper body fairly fine wool and the fashionable tailoring familiar to him, closely and flared out into reaching to about the in order to follow the teaching of Christ. The garment, knee. It could be worn with leg coverings, which might patched to prolong its life, conforms to the rule of the take the form of (as in the case of the Bocksten ex- order he established. ample) or , two pairs of which have been found It was probably usual for tunics and to be at Thorsbjerg Mose. It was probably layered over a linen lined, though no traces survive in the Bocksten gar- shirt, of similar length and shape, and it was frequently ment and linings would probably have been taken out worn with a cloak, which was secured on one shoulder, usually the right. 3 Margareta Nockert identifies two other surviving tunics made the same way: from Kragelund, Denmark and Skjoldehamm, Norway; Margareta Nockert, Bockstensmannen och hans Dräkt 1 Margrethe Hald, Ancient Danish from Bogs and Burials: (Falkenberg, Halmstad och Varberg: Stiftelsen Hallends länsmu- a comparative study of and Iron Age textiles, trans. Jean seer, 1985), 117. Olsen, English Edition, Publications of the National Museum 4 Chiara Fugoni claims that when buttons were first introduced of Denmark, Archaeological-Historical Series 21 (Copenhagen, in Italy in the thirteenth century they were ornamental, and National Museum of Denmark, 1980), 339. only came to have functionality at a later stage (Chiara Frugoni, 2 Marianne Vedeler and Lise Bender Jørgensen, ‘Out of the Books, Banks, Buttons and other Inventions from the Middle Ages, Norwegian Glaciers: Lendbreen – a tunic from the early first mil- trans. William McCuaig (New York: Columbia University Press, lennium AD’, Antiquity 87, Issue 337 (2013), 788–801. 2008), 103.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���8 | doi ��.��63/9789004352162_006 160 CHAPTER 4 of old garments before they were used as burial shrouds and demonstrating attention to detail, these two utili- in Greenland. Linings were removable and seasonal, tarian garments are not decorated. Other albs, however, with the aristocracy, in late medieval times, having their were embroidered in white linen – white on white – (4.8, winter linings of fur changed for summer linings of silk. 4.9), coloured (4.8) or coloured (4.9), either Lower status families perhaps changed the winter fur for directly on to the alb or onto other pieces of cloth which washable linings of linen. Even the humble garment of were attached as appliqués*. motifs were St Francis was lined with linen. both decorative and symbolic of the Christian faith; or Both seculars and ecclesiastics wore garments of they were iconographic, representing biblical figures linen, which is an ideal fabric for wearing next to the and events (4.10). Orphreys and apparels* of patterned skin since it can be laundered. The first linen garment silk were attached to the linen garment (4.8) or tablet- to be featured in this chapter, the shirt associated with woven* were used to decorate it, even to the St Louis of France (4.5), is, like the so-called cowl of St point where it would have impeded the movement of a Francis, a holy relic associated with a saintly individual wearer (4.7). who did not wear the of an ordained : The recycling which is typical of medieval garments St Francis was a secular who founded a brotherhood of is manifested here in different ways. The Greenland gar- mendicant friars, while St Louis was a pious king who ments owe their survival to the fact that they had been went on crusade twice. The other linen garments dis- re-used as shrouds and were preserved by permafrost. cussed here are ecclesiastical vestments, albs, which The alb of St Bernulph, bishop of Utrecht, had been en- were longer than the dalmatics and chasubles worn over hanced with golden bands of different techniques, prob- them, and provided with longer, tighter sleeves than dal- ably of different dates and origins, as much as a century matics. The shirt of St Louis was not intended to be seen, after the manufacture of the original garment. The bands but the albs were partly visible. Yet similarities between were both too heavy and too tight for the garment, which the two categories are apparent when the shirt is com- suggests that they were added to give prestige to the alb pared with the alb attributed to St Thomas Becket (4.6). after it was already acknowledged as a holy relic. An ap- Though tailored in a different way, and with gores differ- parel on the embroidered alb from Museum Schnütgen, ently placed, the fine linen and the method of shaping of Cologne, has been moved to another position, at some the sleeves makes for a familial relationship between the time unknown, in another apparent attempt to ‘im- garments attributed to a saintly king and the premier prove’ a garment that was perceived as precious. ecclesiastic of the English Church. Though well sewn