Ecclesiastical Garments of the 13th Century: The Amice

Today is my attempt tog get ahead by a few posts as I will be camping with my in-laws in a couple of weeks and won’t have internet access. So please forgive what may be the next few erratic posts as I’m hyped up on sweet tea!

13th C. Amice Line Drawing

In this post I’m going to tackle the long forgotten amice. The amice was a simple rectangular piece of linen with strings attached to two corners on a long side. (see the picture at left) It was the first of the sacred vestments to be put on, first resting on the head and at the end of getting dressed, adjusted around the neck as a sort of cowl. It was presented to a sub-deacon upon his ordination and so I assume that no cleric below a sub deacon wore this particular piece.* The strings are fairly long having to go under the arms, cross in back and get tied in front. The amice has long fallen into disuse as the tailoring of the alb has improved over time, negating the purpose of the armice. The sole purpose of what I can only think of as a glorified and over sized handkerchief, was to protect the costly silk of the chasuble or dalmatic from touching the skin.

While the simple drawing I have made above is  rectangular there is proof that the measurements for this item varied. The armice supposedly belonging to St. Thomas of Canterbury is square with the apparel (or decoration) running the length of one side. An existing armice located at the V&A museum is more like my drawing to the left. I have included the picture of it from the V&A collections below. At the moment I have no idea what the red thing is. It is folded and you cannot see it well but it is rectangular in shape and has a much smaller apparel. The label reads as follows: “Armice, linen, with crimson silk apparel on which are sewn ornaments in silver and silver gilt. German, fifteenth century, 4 ft. 2 in. by 2 ft.” I have also found an image of an amice being worn with the direction that the right side was always to be worn crossed over the left. I’m not sure how accurate that is but neat to see a modern picture!

15th C. German Armice

Modern day armice

*Mary G. Houston, Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries (New York: Dover, 1996) 23.
**Thurston, Herbert. “Amice.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 29 Jul. 2011 .
*** JPSONNEN. “The Roman amice: how to vest…” Orbis Catholicvs. Orbis Catholicvs. 28 July 2008. Web. 29 July 2011.

Ecclesiastical Garments of the 13th Century: The Alb

The overall shape of the alb has not changed in many years and, thanks to an alb

11th Century Alb

at the V & A Museum (No. 8710 of 1863 and labeled “Albe, white linen, with apparels of crimson silk, Sicilianfo urteenth century.”*), we can see how the garment was cut and created. The alb was the base garment for bishops, priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes and choristers. The alb to the right is said to have belonged to St. Bernulf who died in 1056 but garment is dated to 12th century** and as such can be counted a the predecessor of the 13th century alb.  While the shape is almost exactly the same, is far more decorative than the extant 13th century alb. The alb that I am talking about was stripped of any superfluous decoration. I have included a simplistic line drawing below for reference. Please note that the under arm gores would have been the same color as the rest of the garment but OO.Draw wouldn’t let me color those sections in.

13th Century Alb Line Drawing

The “apparels” as the decorations were called, were located at the cuffs and at the center front just above the hem. These squares were worked in silk and gold and, at times, lace and measured anywhere from 20 inches by 9 inches to 9 inches by inches for the hem piece. The wrist pieces are said to have measured between 6 inches by 4 inches to 3 inches by 3 inches. The prevailing color was white though some may have been off white or natural and almost exclusively made of fine linen. The extant garment measures a surprising 94 inches wide by 65 inches tall and was made to be belted at the waist and held up from the ground by said belt.***

* Mary G. Houston, Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries (New York: Dover, 1996) 22.
**”European Medieval, Alb of St. Bernulf.” Extant Orignals. Site created and designed by Martina a Martin Høibovi, 2006.
***Mary G. Houston, Medieval Costume in England and France: The 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries (New York: Dover, 1996) 23.

Ecclesiastical Garb and Religious Personas in the SCA

Over vacation this past week I was going though the hundreds of pictures from my SCA events. I happened to be going through a new book (Medieval Costume in England and France by Mary G. Houston) and noticed that for all SCA folks like decorative garb not may take on the roles of the religious kind. The men in particular have some extravagant robes as archbishops and priests. At all of the Arts and Sciences displays and competitions I've been to I've never seen someone reproduce an Ecclesiastical garment. Perhaps it's something that will be on my to-do list for projects...

I also think that this book is worth reading for anyone who are looking for depictions of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. There are plates and drawings but not on every page. I would say that this would probably be a good book for those of you that can draft patterns from pictures or enlarge example drawings on their own. There is a lot of great information in the book though and worth reading!

Vacation

I had all the best intentions in the world when I left to come on vacation nearly a week ago. I told myself that I would sit down and be able to work on a post or two while my son ate his breakfast like I do at home. I had not anticipated that he would just up and walk while on vacation. It has made the rental cottage a little more challenging. I'm constantly having to baby-proof and remind our friends that we are vacationing with that certain things can't be placed casually on a coffee table with a baby in the house.

On a completely other note: I am a little disappointed with sheep farmers in Maine. I went to a local farmers market and a number of little farms around our cabin and not a single one of them sold roving. A quick explaination of what roving is for those not "in the know": Roving is the cleaned, carded, wool that is used to spin and make into yarn. Many of the farmers did their own spinning or felted crafts but not a single one of them sold pure roving. M disappointment stems from finding a new blog written by a woman in the UK.

Jenny Dean's Wild Color blog is dedicated to fiber arts and dying. She has a really terrific article on her Anglo-Saxon dying experiments which I thought was fascinating. It's definitely worth reading since she's a great writer and full of information. I wish that offering trim made with hand-dyed yarns was monetarily feasible but unfortunately it's just too expensive for most people and goes against what I'm trying to do. Perhaps later on I can offer it as a special order type deal....definitely worth thinking about!

Location:Mill Pond Rd, Corea, United States