4015.
Mitre; crimson and gold velvet. Florentine, 15th century. 1 foot 10½ inches by 11 inches.
This liturgical curiosity is of that low graceful shape which we find in most mitres before the 16th century; in all probability this one was made not for real episcopal use, but to be employed in the service of the so-called boy-bishop who used, for centuries, to be chosen every year from among the boys who served in the cathedral, or the great churches of towns, at Christmas-tide, as well in England as all over Christendom; (see “Church of our Fathers,” t. iv. p. 215). As the rubrical colour for episcopal mitres is white, or of cloth of gold, a crimson mitre is of great rarity. The one before us is made of those rich stuffs for which Florence was so famous, as may be instanced in the gorgeous vestments given to Westminster Abbey by our Henry VII. The mitre itself is of crimson velvet, freckled with gold threads, raised in a rich pile upon a golden ground, with green fringed lappets; but the “titulus,” or upright stripe before and behind, along with the “corona,” or circular band, are all of a kind of lace or woven texture of raised velvet, green, white, and crimson, after a pretty design, upon a golden ground. The mitre is lined throughout with light-blue silk.