DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32044#0023
INTRODUCTION.
17
The Norman chronicler Vitalis relates, that when Matilda, the Queen
of William I. viiited the Abbey of St. Evroul, Adelina, the wife of Roger
de Bellmont (her attendant) brought with her an Alb richly adorned with
Orfrais, and presenting it at the church, the priest wore it while cele-
brating mass. Matilda also left by her will to the Abbey of the Trinity
at Caen, which ibe had founded, a Chasuble worked at Winchester by
the wife of Alderet, and a cloak worked in gold made for a cope, and
also another vestment wrought in England.
Down to the time of the reformation needle work was continuouily
employed in combining the most gorgeous materials into articles of ec-
clesiastical and civil costume ; of the riches displayed on those of the
former class some idea may be formed from the catalogue of the church
vestments preserved in the cathedrals of York, Lincoln, London, and
Peterborough. In Lincoln alone there were upwards of six hundred,
wrought with divers kinds of needle work, jewellery and gold, upon
Indian baudikin, samit, tarterian, velvet, and silk. A notion of the cost
of some of these vestments may be gleaned from the Liberate roll, 24
Hen. III. (1241) where among the entries we find this monarch order-
ing payment for a cope of red silk for the Biihop of Hereford, which
according to the rate of money at present (calculated by Dr. Henry and
Adam Smith to be fifteen times greater than at that period), must have
been equal to 361/. 2s. 6d. That monarch also gave to another Biihop
(Peter de Aqua Blancha) a mitre which cost 83/. equal by the above
valuation to 1230/. ; and a sum as large as 2100/. was given to Thomas
Cheiner for a vest of velvet embroidered with divers work, purchased by
Edward III. for his own Chaplain.
The oldest specimen of English embroidery with which I am acquainted
is a very beautiful cope which once belonged to the Monastery of Syon,
near Isseworth, but now the property of the Earl of Shrewibury. It is
quite a storied vestment. The ground is covered with interlaced qua-
trefoils, in each of which is a sacred subjedt ; the higher part of the
back having the astumption, or crowning of the virgin, with the cruci-
fixion below it, and at the bottom St. Michael overcoming the dragon.
The Orphreys are two broad bands of ihields decorated with coats of
arms, among which occur those of Ferrers, Earls of Ferrers and Derby,
Geneville, Champernoun, Newburgh, Barons of Livarot, Mortimer,
Percy, Despencer, Castele, and Leon, &c. This portion is not quite so
old as the body of the cope, which appears to have been worked about
the second half of the thirteenth century.
The principal portions of the old needle-work were never wrought
on the velvet or silk of the robe or hanging they were intended to adorn;
17
The Norman chronicler Vitalis relates, that when Matilda, the Queen
of William I. viiited the Abbey of St. Evroul, Adelina, the wife of Roger
de Bellmont (her attendant) brought with her an Alb richly adorned with
Orfrais, and presenting it at the church, the priest wore it while cele-
brating mass. Matilda also left by her will to the Abbey of the Trinity
at Caen, which ibe had founded, a Chasuble worked at Winchester by
the wife of Alderet, and a cloak worked in gold made for a cope, and
also another vestment wrought in England.
Down to the time of the reformation needle work was continuouily
employed in combining the most gorgeous materials into articles of ec-
clesiastical and civil costume ; of the riches displayed on those of the
former class some idea may be formed from the catalogue of the church
vestments preserved in the cathedrals of York, Lincoln, London, and
Peterborough. In Lincoln alone there were upwards of six hundred,
wrought with divers kinds of needle work, jewellery and gold, upon
Indian baudikin, samit, tarterian, velvet, and silk. A notion of the cost
of some of these vestments may be gleaned from the Liberate roll, 24
Hen. III. (1241) where among the entries we find this monarch order-
ing payment for a cope of red silk for the Biihop of Hereford, which
according to the rate of money at present (calculated by Dr. Henry and
Adam Smith to be fifteen times greater than at that period), must have
been equal to 361/. 2s. 6d. That monarch also gave to another Biihop
(Peter de Aqua Blancha) a mitre which cost 83/. equal by the above
valuation to 1230/. ; and a sum as large as 2100/. was given to Thomas
Cheiner for a vest of velvet embroidered with divers work, purchased by
Edward III. for his own Chaplain.
The oldest specimen of English embroidery with which I am acquainted
is a very beautiful cope which once belonged to the Monastery of Syon,
near Isseworth, but now the property of the Earl of Shrewibury. It is
quite a storied vestment. The ground is covered with interlaced qua-
trefoils, in each of which is a sacred subjedt ; the higher part of the
back having the astumption, or crowning of the virgin, with the cruci-
fixion below it, and at the bottom St. Michael overcoming the dragon.
The Orphreys are two broad bands of ihields decorated with coats of
arms, among which occur those of Ferrers, Earls of Ferrers and Derby,
Geneville, Champernoun, Newburgh, Barons of Livarot, Mortimer,
Percy, Despencer, Castele, and Leon, &c. This portion is not quite so
old as the body of the cope, which appears to have been worked about
the second half of the thirteenth century.
The principal portions of the old needle-work were never wrought
on the velvet or silk of the robe or hanging they were intended to adorn;