The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 29, no. 7 (March, 1971)

attributed to St. John Chrysostom, and the writings
of St. Gregory the Great, also in the sixth century,
all recapitulate and augment the commentary of St.
Jerome. In all of these early discourses, however, the
emphasis is placed upon the mystical transference
of the spiritual meaning attributed to these vestments
by the Jews to a corresponding significance
within Christian doctrine. At no time is any attempt
made to physically relate Levitical to ecclesiastical
vestments.
Between the ninth and the twelfth centuries, however,
innumerable attempts were made to point out
such a physical relationship between the two vestitures.
The motivations that lay behind what must
be called a compulsion for making comparisons
and finding a precedent for Christian vestments in
the Hebraic tradition were undoubtedly the same
as those that produced the need for finding a prefiguration
for the New Law in the Old that preoccupied
theologians throughout this period of the
Middle Ages. Isidore of Seville in his Questiones in
Vetus Testamentum and other works began his
compilation of Old Testament texts that were relevant
to a symbolic interpretation of the Gospels,
while Walafrid Strabo in his Glossa ordinaria produced
a study on the iconography of the Bible so
vast that it served as a standard on the subject
throughout the Middle Ages. How extraordinary
that these very writers were the first to suggest a
similar concordance between the priestly vestments
of the Old Law and the New. Isidore likened the
tonsure of the bishop to the tiara of the Jewish high
priest, and Strabo contended that the eight vestments
of the Levitical high priest corresponded in
number to the eight worn by the Christian bishop
and that the gold breastplate worn only by the high
priest could be linked to the pallium worn only by
the archbishop. For these two writers, as well, no
doubt, as for most of their contemporaries, the parts
of the Jewish vesture recorded in the Bible just as
logically prefigured the vestments of the Christian
priest as did the personification of the Synagogue
symbolize the image of the Church.
Later writers, such as pseudo-Alcuin, Ivo of
Chartres, Honorius of Autun, and Pope Innocent III,
multiplied the list of specific correspondences attempting
to make a parallel between each piece of
the two vestitures -sometimes with ludicrous con-
sequences, as for example the relationship between
the sandals of the bishop and the linen drawers, because
both clad the legs of the wearer. Among the
more plausible comparisons were the alb and the
linen inner tunic of the high priest, since both were
originally simple undergarments, and by the twelfth
century the voluminous alb of early Christian times
had with the multiplication of outer vestments
shrunk to a sheathlike garment closely resembling
its Levitical counterpart.
Many of the vestments that came into use between
the ninth and the twelfth centuries-and
they actually doubled-such as the subcingulum,
rationale, miter, gloves, tunicle, and orale, were
probably merely copies or adaptations made to
prove the relationship. Some of them, such as the
rationale (the counterpart of the Jewish rationale
or breastplate) and the subcingulum (compared with
the inner girdle), were extremely short-lived or rare.
Others, such as the miter, likened to the Levitical
tiara, and the tunicle, related to the "Tunic of Blue,"
have survived to the present time. Apparently no
counterparts were ever found for the chasuble or
the maniple.
By the end of the twelfth century, Christian vestments
had become standardized both in number
and in type, and a period of refinement, which is
well represented in objects from the Museum's collections,
was introduced. Throughout this later medieval
period- the thirteenth through the sixteenth
centuries-no new pieces were added but there
followed a considerable amount of modification in
form. Some altered radically and with great rapidity,
while others retained their original shape. It was
also during this period that another class of vestments,
those termed processional, achieved their
most elaborate stage of development. These were
articles not worn or employed by the celebrant
during the mass, but rather in procession or on
ceremonial occasions. Chief among these were the
cope and crosier of the bishop and the crossed staff
of the archbishop, which was carried before him in
processions but never by him.
Perhaps the most outstanding characteristic of
vestments during this period is their sumptuousness.
Copes, chasubles, and dalmatics were made of rich
silks and velvets shot with metallic threads and
woven in magnificent patterns (Figure 1). These gar-
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