Material study of a liturgical cope from the 16th century

Abstract

Teotónio of Braganza (1530-1602) was the fifth son of Duke Jaime I of Braganza and his second wife, Joana de Mendonza. The Braganza’s were the most important of the Portuguese noble families, which became the 4th and last dynasty of the kingdom. Teotónio rose to archiepiscopal rank in 1544 and became the 4th Archbishop of Évora from 1578 until his death. He also held other several ecclesiastical positions, namely Bishop of Fez and royal adviser of King Philip II. D. Teotónio met and kept up correspondence with people as Teresa de Ávila and Bartolomeu dos Mártires and he had in his service artists like the painter Duarte Frisão and the goldsmith João Duarte. He founded in his archdiocese several monasteries, convents and hospitals, including the Monastery of the Carthusian of Scala Coeli (1587) that received his library, consisting of rare printed and manuscript books. Under his governance, the archbishop’s palace and the cathedral suffered renovation and restoration works to where he ordered a new set of ecclesiastical vestments and liturgical objects. The liturgical cope (ME 172/1) under study, together with a dalmatic, belong nowadays to the Évora Museum and make part of one of those set of ecclesiastical vests. From the same set, a chasuble, with the court of arm of D. Teotónio, is in the Sacred Art Museum and the altar frontal is in Saint Vincent church, belonging to the Town Hall. In order to clarify if these four objects belong to the same set, their material study is a fundamental issue.