Thomas Becket’s Chemise

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