Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/411

 g> s.x. NOV. 22, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Mrs. Banks, in the glossary of her edition of 'Morte Arthure,' renders it as "crisping crook," which presumably may be taken to be equivalent to curling iron. But I am not sure that this odd phrase of "krispane kroke " does not rather refer with a studied ambi- guity to the curled crook, the crozier of the Pope, or, it might be, some other great eccle- siastic whose province it was to perform the most illustrious ceremony of .mediaeval Europe* I gladly leave the question as one which I cannot settle. Happily it is of very minor degree. The rest of the symbols call for little demonstration beyond the statement of them. The "see," or chair of enthronement, to which the emperor was conducted proces- sionally, and in which he was placed, goes without saying as a necessity of the ceremony, as does the delivery of the sceptre. Godfrey of Viterbo, writing 'DeRegalibusInsignibus,' in part xix. of his chronicle, half verse, half prose, asked and answered the question, " Quid significat sceptrum regale ? " and the Roman ' Pontificale ' prescribes the solemnities as quoted in Selden's 'Titles of Honor.'* As in England the comb was used as late as Charles I.'s coronationt in connexion with the unction, so there can be little doubt that it played a part in the imperial coronation too. Selden says, " The fashion there was to make a cross with the oile on the emperor's head." No doubt a comb was convenient, if not essential for the process.

As for the "diademe," it was a word de- liberately chosen, being the proper term for the imperial crown. Strictly speaking, though a diadem was a crown, a crown was not a" diadem ; else the learning of Selden is only light that leads astray. Godfrey of Viterbo descants on the significance of a double crown inherent in the diadema imperiale, and many pages of the ' Titles of Honor ' (part i. ch. viii. section ii.) do not exhaust Selden's store of erudition on the subject, showing the dis- tinction between the diadem, a fillet of gold, and the royal crown with which it came in course of time to be confounded . The globus aureus expounded by Godfrey of Viterbo is the poet's " pome." Indeed, the word is very ancient, for Godfrey writes :

Aureus ille globus pomum vel palla vocatur Unde nguratum mundum gestare putatur.

Last symbol of them all is the brandishing

of Honor,' part i. ch. viii. sections 1 and 2 (ed. 1631, pp. 143-220). Bee also ' Universal History,' vol. xxxii. (1783), pp. 174-8; Muratori, ' Antiquitates Italicse Medii ^Evi,' tome i. cols. 99-110.
 * Citations in this article are made from ' Titles

f MaeLeane's 'Great Solemnity of the Corona- tion ' (1902), p. 76.

of the sword. For this let me quote the rubric of the ' Pontificale ' : " Et mox Rex accinctus surgit et eximit ensem de vagina illumque viriliter vibrat " Similarly Godfrey inter- prets the meaning of the gladius vibratus. It was an imperial emblem on State occasions Edward III. in 1338 saw it borne before the Emperor Louis V. : "On portait devant lui un glaive nu."* This was the time when Edward was made vicar of the Holy Roman Empire, a political move which was viewed with somewhat different eyes by Germans and Englishmen. t

Coronation ceremonial, however, has no contribution towards the understanding of an imperial progress from Metz to Rome. For this we have already turned to the history of the Emperor Charles IV., whose coronatiofi in 1355 was preceded by an imposing journey from Germany into Italy to Rome. What one may term the geography of Arthur's

expedition is summarized in this list :

[Aachen,!. 496], Luxembourg! (2389;, Lorraine (3092), Metz (2417^ Lucerne (3094), Goddard (3104), Lombardy (3108), Como (31 fO), Milan (3134, cf. 351), Pietrasanta (352), Piacenza ("Plesaunce," 3140), Pallanza ("Pawnee" 3140), Pontremoli (3140, cf. 352), Pisa (3141, cf. 352), Pavia (3141), Tuscany (3150), Spoleto (3161), Viterbo (3169), Vertennon Vale (3169) [cf. Corneto, 600, 1909, and Sutri, 501, 1910]. With this it is instructive to com- pare the itinerary to Rome of Adam of Usk in 1402. It comprised these successive places : Aachen, Lucerne, St. Gothard, Lombardy, Como, Milan, Piacenza, Pontremoli, Pietra- santa, Pisa, Viterbo. Thus is reached an important deduction that substantially the Italy of the expedition is an Italy which all lay on a normal fourteenth - century route to Rome. Once this itinerary is combined with the actual journey of Charles IV. in 1355 little is wanted to complete the historical suggestions for the coronation episode which gave the poet not a few opportunities for the

Chronique rimee ^crite vers Ian 1347, par Jean de Klerk d'Anvers. traduite par O. Delepierre : Gand. 1841.
 * 'Edouard III., E/oi d'Angleterre, en Belgique.'

f Compare Walsingham's ' Historia ' and Mutii ' Germanorum Chronicon,' sub anno.

I Immediately on entering " Almayne " Arthur " lengez at Lusscheburghe " (1. 2389), so that his first act is to quarter himself at Luxembourg, the name- giving ducal home of Charles of Luxembourg, Charles IV.

' Chronicon Adas de Usk,' 72. Adam says he avoided the road by Bologna, Florence, and Perugia on account of the civil wars. Arthur's itinerary avoids these places too. So did Charles IV. in 1355. Gregorovius's ' Rome' (Hamilton's trans.), vi. 3S3 ; and compare vi. 43-5.