Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/313

Rh them. With respect to their ecclesiastical costume, Deacons and Sub- Deacons are in a dalmatic and tunic: the Cantor has a long cope and a short staff or baton; Canons have the amice, (then an essential part of their costume,) and Priests are in a chasuble resembling a cloak closed in front, and lifted up over the arms; while, it is worthy of remark, the stole and maniple were then much narrower than afterwards. The Laity are in long robes covering the whole figure, so that, except the feet, which are in the peaked shoes common to the subsequent century, no part of their underdress is visible.

Inscriptions of the fourteenth century differ from those of the thirteenth, in having, after the name of the deceased, a more detailed enumeration of his offices, and the precise date of his death; but the same kind of preceding honorary title and succeeding invocation are still found. The vulgar tongue is a little more employed; the form of the letters is somewhat different; and an expression of the date, partly with Roman numerals, and partly with words fully written out, as in the following example, is not uncommon:—

And here we may remark that this effigy of a Sub-cantor has the same kind of staff as that borne by the Cantor of the thirteenth century.

Incised slabs of the fifteenth century are more profusely, though less elegantly adorned than those preceding them; and many have other symbolical representations than the small angels before mentioned, while the arch en- closing the effigy partakes of the same change as to form, which real architectural arches had undergone. Their Ecclesiastical Costume is also rich; the tunic having often a border of pearl-like ornaments, and a double band of Greek crosses. In the inscriptions, honorary titles are more numerous both before and after the name; the vernacular tongue is much oftener employed, and the uncial letters, hitherto generally used, give place to those called Gothic.

In the first part of the sixteenth century, that gorgeous style, called cinque-cento, so pervaded every branch of the fine arts, that it even moditied the simplicity of tomb-stones, many having been then charged with small pointed-arched panels, of which some are occupied by figures of angels and weeping men and women, and others with skulls and crossed bones alternating with garlands. At the angles of the slab we now often find the four apocalyptic winged animals, emblems of the Evangelists; while above the effigy are the armorial escutcheons of the deceased arranged often about a death's head, and at the feet is occasionally the representation of a skeleton, accompanied with some scriptural sentences. It may be remarked, that where the countenances of the effigies are in good