PLATE XXII
mediæval brooches
(pectorals and morse)
A few brooches are attached, as was once the jewel of St. Hilary, as ex voto on the breast of reliquary figures, like that of St. Foy at Conques, which still exhibits an ornament of this kind. A brooch or fermail (for this latter term is not confined to the ring-brooch), 1¾ inches in diameter, which once formed part of the ancient jewels of the French Crown, is in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre.[77] Two exceedingly fine brooches of about the end of the twelfth century, found at Mainz in 1896 and now in the treasury of the cathedral, are described by Dr. Schneider in the Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen (Vol. XVIII); and a pectoral or brooch of a similar form, a large stone in the centre, surrounded by smaller ones—to take only one among many examples—is represented on the twelfth-century statue of a queen, probably intended for the Queen of Sheba, from the west portal of the church of Our Lady of Corbeil, and now at Saint-Denis.
In the case of original jewels of this kind, it is not always easy to determine whether they were articles of adornment for the clergy or the laity, and though those for ecclesiastical use probably predominate, it is only when they contain the figured representation of some religious subject that they can with certainty be identified as cope-clasps or morses, the French equivalent for which is mors de chape.
Morses were frequently of extraordinary size. Monumental brasses and tombstones, especially in Germany, exhibit many examples. Adalbert of Saxony, who was administrator of the archbishopric of Mainz, and died in 1484, is represented on his tombstone in the cathedral with one measuring more than 7 inches across. Existing examples vary from 5 to 7 inches in breadth.
The jewellers of the Middle Ages delighted in lavishing their utmost taste and skill on morses, which were of a variety of shapes, and were composed of every material. Some were enriched with precious stones, including ancient cameos, and others rendered attractive with coloured enamels.
Several lists of English morses are preserved. In the inventory of Sarum,[78] of the year 1222, gold, silver, and jewelled morses, firmacula, pectoralia, or monilia (as they were variously termed in the Middle Ages) are described at length; in that of St. Paul's,[79] drawn up in 1295, there are no less than twenty-eight; while the inventory of jewels (jocalia) preserved in York Minster[80] in 1500 includes an extraordinarily rich collection of these ornaments.
Though some were clearly made fast to one side of the garment, and were hitched to the other by hooks, or by a pin, like a brooch, they were not always employed to unite the two sides, but were sometimes used simply as a decoration upon the front of the vestment, and perhaps hung there by a chain round the neck.[81] Examples to be found in many museums are pierced with holes, or have loops behind them, showing that they were sewn to the vestment with purely decorative purpose.
From the close of the twelfth century champlevé enamel upon copper was much employed for the decoration of morses. In the fourteenth century champlevé was largely superseded by transparent enamel on silver relief (basse-taille), many of the finest specimens of which were produced in Italy. Two fine morses displaying this species of work are preserved; the one in the British Museum[82] and the other at South Kensington.