Linen Cloth or Corporal, with an edge on all its four sides; 2¼ inches broad, embroidered in blue, white, and yellow silks. German, late 15th century. 22 inches by 21 inches.
To the student of ecclesiastical antiquities this liturgical appliance will be a great curiosity, from its being so much larger than the corporals now in use; but its size may be easily accounted for. From being put over the altar-cloth, on the middle of the table of the altar, so that the priest, at mass, might place the host and chalice immediately upon it before and after the consecration of the Eucharist, it got, and still keeps the name of “corporale,” about which the reader may consult “Hierurgia,” p. 74, 2nd edition.
The embroidery, seemingly of a vine, is somewhat remarkable from being, like Indian needlework, the same on both sides, and was so done for a purpose to be noticed below. Its greater size may be easily explained. During the middle ages, as in England, so in Germany, the usage was to cover the chalice on the altar, not with a little square piece of linen called a “palla,” two specimens of which are mentioned, [No. 8327], but with the corporal itself, as shown in those illuminations copied and given as a frontispiece to the fourth volume of the “Church of our Fathers.” To draw up for this purpose the inner edge of the corporal, it was made, as needed, larger than the one now in use. Moreover, as the under side of the embroidery would thus be turned upwards and conspicuously shown, even on the consecrated chalice, to a great extent; and as anything frayed and ragged—and this single embroidery always is on the under side—would, at such a time, in such a place, have been most unseemly; to hinder this disrespect the embroidery was made double, that is, as perfect on the one side as on the other, giving the design clear and accurate on both, so that whichever part happened to be turned upwards it looked becoming.
8330.
Piece of Silk Damask; green, with pattern of crowns connected by wavy ribbons, in each space is a rose. North Italian, 15th century. 22 inches by 21 inches.
This fine and valuable piece of damask exhibits a very effective design, which is thoroughly heraldic in all its elements. Of these, the first are roselettes—single roses having five petals each—seeded and barbed, and every petal folds inward very appropriately; all about each roselette roves a bordure nebulé, significative in heraldry of a cloud-wreath, above which and just over the flower rests an open crown, the hoop of which is studded with jewels, and bears on the upper rim two balls—pearls—on pyramidal points, and three fleurs-de-lis. To take these roselettes for the Tudor flower would be a great mistake, as it was not thought of at the period when this stuff was manufactured, besides which, it is never shown as a roselette or single rose, but as a very double one. It is not unlikely that this damask was, in the first instance, ordered from Italy, if not by our Edward IV, at least by one of the Yorkist party after the Lancastrian defeat at Mortimer’s Cross: the crown with its fringe of clouds seems to point to the curious appearance in the heavens that day. When once his loom was geared the Lombard weaver would not hesitate to work off stuffs after the same pattern ordered by his English customer and sell them in the Italian markets.
8331.
Piece of Lace in Open Work. The pattern, oblong and octagonal spaces framed in gold thread, and containing stars in silver and flowers in gold, upon a black silk ground. Milanese, end of the 16th century. 14¼ inches by 4½ inches.