8710.
Alb of White Linen appareled at the cuffs, and before and behind at the feet, with crimson and gold stuff figured with animals and floriations of the looms of Palermo. Sicilian, 14th century. 5 feet 7 inches long, 4 feet across the shoulders, without the sleeves.
For those curious in liturgical appliances this fine alb of the mediæval period will be a valuable object of study, though perhaps not for imitation in the way in which it is widened at the waist. Its large opening at the neck—1 foot 4½ inches—is somewhat scalloped, but without any slit down the front, or gatherings, or band. On each shoulder, running down 1 foot 3¾ inches, is a narrow piece of crochet-work inscribed in red letters with the names “Jesus,” “Maria.” The full sleeves, from 1 foot 6 inches wide, are gradually narrowed to 6¼ inches at the end of the apparels at the cuffs, which are 4 inches deep and edged with green linen tape. At the waist, where it is 3 feet 10 inches, it is made, by means of gatherings upon a gusset embroidered with a cross-crosslet in red thread, to widen itself into 6 feet, or 12 feet all round. Down the middle, before and behind, as far as the apparels, is let in a narrow piece of crochet-work like that upon the shoulders, but uninscribed. The two apparels at the feet—one before, the other behind—vary in their dimensions, one measuring 1 foot 1 inch by 1 foot 1¾ inches, the other, which is made up of fragments, 1 foot by 11¾ inches. Very elaborate and freely designed is the heraldic pattern on the rich stuff which forms the apparels. The ground is of silk, now faded, but once a bright crimson; the figures, all in gold, are an eagle in demi-vol, langued, with a ducal crown, not upon, but over its head; above this is a mass of clouds with pencils of sun-rays darting from beneath them all around; higher up again, a collared hart lodged, with its park set between two large bell-shaped seeded drooping flowers, beneath each of which is a dog collared and courant. For English antiquaries, it may be interesting to know that upon the mantle and kirtle in the monumental effigy of King Richard II, in Westminster Abbey, the hart as well as the cloud with rays form the pattern on those royal garments, and are well shown in the valuable but unfinished “Monumental Effigies of Great Britain,” by the late brothers Hollis. This alb is figured, but not well with regard to the apparels, by Dr. Bock, in his “Geschichte der Liturgischen Gewänder des Mittelalters,” 4 Lieferung, pl. iii, fig. 1.