The Mitre: Its Origins and Early Development

Nancy Spies is an independent scholar researching medieval textiles, particularly ecclesiastical garments. Among her published articles and books is the groundbreaking Ecclesiastical Pomp and Aristocratic Circumstances: A Thousand Years of Brocaded Tabletwoven Bands, (2000).

Preface


Acknowledgements


List of Figures and Tables





Introduction


 1 What Is a Mitre? A New Definition


 2 Terminology


 3 Terms Specific to the Mitre


 4 Bands, Ornamental





1 Finding and Examining the Evidence


 1 Sample Collecting: Methodology


 2 Examination of the Visual Evidence


 3 General Statistics


 4 The First Mitre Images – Styles and Orientation – from the End of the Eleventh Century to 1115


 5 Mitres from 1119 to the End of the Twelfth Century–Beginning of the Thirteenth Century


 6 Lobed Mitres


 7 Peaked Mitres


 8 Details of the Mitres Themselves


 9 Mitres at the End of the Twelfth Century–Beginning of the Thirteenth Century


 10 The Choice of Images


 11 Issues for Consideration


 12 Extant Mitres


 13 Who Wore the Mitre?





2 Testing the Development


 1 Braun’s Version of the Early Evolution of the Mitre


 2 The Conical Hat on Ecclesiastical Heads


 3 The Round Hat on Ecclesiastical Heads


 4 Experimental Archaeology


 5 The Conical Hat and the Round Hat


 6 The Lobed Mitre


 7 The Peaked Mitre





3 Understanding the Institutional Context


 1 Vestments


 2 Church Rituals





4 Reading the Documents


 1 Eleventh-Century Written Evidence


 2 Twelfth-Century Written Evidence


 3 Gifting, the Miraculous, the Purely Political





5 Searching for Origins


 1 Religious and Political Factors


 2 Origins of the Peaks and the Lobes


 3 Geographical Origins


 4 A Special Situation: Bohemia (Poland and the Czech Republic)





6 Declaring the Winner





Conclusions





Appendices A–G


 Appendix A: Examples of the Conical Hat on Ecclesiastical Heads


 Appendix B: Examples of the Round Hat on Ecclesiastical Heads


 Appendix C: Examples of Mitra Interpretations from Old Testament and Ancient Greek Sources


 Appendix D: Outlier Hats on Ecclesiastical Heads


 Appendix E: Mitres on Ecclesiastical Heads from the Late 11th Century to the Beginning of the 13th Century


 Appendix F: 13th Century (to 1250) Mitres on Ecclesiastical Heads (Exceptions Only)


 Appendix G: Secular Lobed Hats and Pouches (Bags)






Glossary


Bibliography


Index