Finally! ILL came
through today with the article ‘La Tunicella di Tommaso Becket in S. Maria Maggiore a Roma. Cuto e
arte intorn a un santo
“Politico”‘ from Arte Medievale IX, nr. 1, 1995, pages 105 – 120, by Ursula Nilgen.
Unfortunately the photos didn’t reproduce well
for a clear view, but I will be going to
Seattle soon, and UW has this journal, so I might be able to scan it for better resolution. But until then…
This is a photograph of the chemise:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/12thcenturygarb/files/Katrine%27s%20picks/tunicella%20photo.jpg
Here is the layout of the chemise:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/12thcenturygarb/files/Katrine%27s%20picks/tunicella%20pattern.jpg
There is a short synopsis in English at the end
and it says:
“In 1992 the baroque reliquary of St.
Thomas Becket in the Tesoro of Santa Maria
Maggiore was opened at my request with the intention
to get a better idea of the piece of white textile labelled “Tunicella sancti thome archiepiscopi
cantuariensis(…)” which could be
seen through the glass windows of the reliquary.
The textile, which ws studied by Dr. Leonie von
Wilckens, the late Prof. Fabrizio
Mancinelli and some of his colleagues and myself, proved to be a nearly complete linen camisia, simple
and without embroidery, but of absolutely
finest texture and sewing quality, most
probably of northern French or English origin and datable to the 12th or 13th century, according to Dr. von
Wilckens. The tradition which identifies
this rare piece of medieval clerical underwear
as a relic of St. Thomas Becket can be traced back to the late 14th or early 15th century when the label
sewed to the tunicella and the first
inventories preserved of S. Maria Maggiore can
be dated. English and other northern European pilgrim’s guides which about that time begin to give more
detailed indications about relics in
Roman churches also mention Becket’s tunicella,
as do the Descriptio Urbis Romae by Niccolo Signorili and later sources.
In Rome and central Italy the cult of Thomas
Becket flourished during the first 70
years after his assassination. We have notice of several consecrations of altars or chapels in his honour and of
his relics which found their way to Italy. Also
works of art give testimony to the
devotions towards the new matyr in this region. The earliest representations of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Italy
are to be found in the Norman kingdom of Sicily
with its dynastic connections with
England; Rome followed in due course, as well as Anagni, Subiaco, S. Maria di Reggimento/Casamari, Spoleto.
Strangely enough, the representations of the
‘murder in the cathedral’ do not
correspond to the detailed and well known reports
of the assassination, but show St. Thomas in pontifical vestments near the altar prepared for mass. The same
is true for most of the early English
representations of the martyrdom. Art obviously
followed its own rules and invented a more dramatic setting of the event than did the eyewitnesses’
reports.
A review of the traffic between Canterbury and
the Roman curia in the crucial years
between 1171 and 1220 tries to give some suggestions
as to how the tunicella of Thomas Becket could have reached Rome and S. Maria Maggiore.”
I’ve sludged my way through one paragraph so far
and have found that it is made a light,
tightly woven linen with a silk like sheen,
35-40 threads per square centimeter; that it has gussets under the arm, a button and the material is in a very
good state of preservation.
I think I’ll see if I can find an Italian
dictionary this weekend.
~ Katrine / Katherine Barich
Message #770, January 31, 2003