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).

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesIntroduction1 What Is a Mitre? A New Definition2 Terminology3 Terms Specific to the Mitre4 Bands, Ornamental1 Finding and Examining the Evidence1 Sample Collecting: Methodology2 Examination of the Visual Evidence3 General Statistics4 The First Mitre Images – Styles and Orientation – from the End of the Eleventh Century to 11155 Mitres from 1119 to the End of the Twelfth Century–Beginning of the Thirteenth Century6 Lobed Mitres7 Peaked Mitres8 Details of the Mitres Themselves9 Mitres at the End of the Twelfth Century–Beginning of the Thirteenth Century10 The Choice of Images11 Issues for Consideration12 Extant Mitres13 Who Wore the Mitre?2 Testing the Development1 Braun’s Version of the Early Evolution of the Mitre2 The Conical Hat on Ecclesiastical Heads3 The Round Hat on Ecclesiastical Heads4 Experimental Archaeology5 The Conical Hat and the Round Hat6 The Lobed Mitre7 The Peaked Mitre3 Understanding the Institutional Context1 Vestments2 Church Rituals4 Reading the Documents1 Eleventh-Century Written Evidence2 Twelfth-Century Written Evidence3 Gifting, the Miraculous, the Purely Political5 Searching for Origins1 Religious and Political Factors2 Origins of the Peaks and the Lobes3 Geographical Origins4 A Special Situation: Bohemia (Poland and the Czech Republic)6 Declaring the WinnerConclusionsAppendices A–GAppendix A: Examples of the Conical Hat on Ecclesiastical HeadsAppendix B: Examples of the Round Hat on Ecclesiastical HeadsAppendix C: Examples of Mitra Interpretations from Old Testament and Ancient Greek SourcesAppendix D: Outlier Hats on Ecclesiastical HeadsAppendix E: Mitres on Ecclesiastical Heads from the Late 11th Century to the Beginning of the 13th CenturyAppendix F: 13th Century (to 1250) Mitres on Ecclesiastical Heads (Exceptions Only)Appendix G: Secular Lobed Hats and Pouches (Bags)GlossaryBibliographyIndex