CHASUBLE (Planeta, Casula, Amphibolus). - A sacred outer vestment, proper to priests in the celebration of Mass. In current use, for two or three centuries, it has consisted of a scapular with two flaps (the rear one 65-75 cm wide and 1.05-1.15 m long, the front one shorter).
Four types of p. are distinguished: a) Roman: the two flaps are sewn together at the chest; the opening for the head is trapezoidal; the rear ornament is a vertical strip, the "column"; the front one is T-shaped (cross commissa); b) German: sewn at the shoulders; round opening; the rear ornament is a cross, the front one a simple "column"; c) French: sewn at the shoulders, opening like the Roman one but less deep; ornament similar to the German; d) Spanish: sewn at the shoulders; front and rear ornament only a "column"; the width increases toward the bottom. From the middle of the 19th century a form similar to that of the 14th and 15th centuries was restored, called, not quite accurately, the Gothic p., or that of St. Bernard or of St. Charles Borromeo.
The p. derives from the ancient paenula, used throughout the Greek-Roman world. The name p. (the etymology of St. Isidoro [Etym., XIX, 247] from the Greek πλανᾶσθαι is not clear), instead of the word paenula, appears in the 5th century and is already in liturgical use in that same century; in Spain before the Fourth Council of Toledo of 633 (can. 28). Outside Rome it was worn only by bishops and priests, at Rome by all clerics (including deacons, subdeacons and acolytes). From the 12th century it is a vestment proper to priests in the celebration of Mass; in other functions the cope was used.
The ample and long form, reaching almost to the feet, of the ancient paenula was preserved until the 13th century, without a hood, raised at the sides above the arms so as to move the hands freely, the so-called "bell-shaped" type, very ample and hanging evenly, entirely closed. Then (13th-15th century), for greater convenience and also for economy, it was adjusted by cutting the side flaps, leaving only the front and back ones, these too cut in a semicircle or to a point, until the present form was reached in the 18th century. A return to the use of the medieval p. cannot be made at one's own discretion, but a special apostolic indult is required (S. Rit. Congr., 11 Feb. 1863 and 9 Dec. 1927).
In antiquity profane paenulae were adorned with two vertical purple clavi. As decoration of the liturgical p. one sees on monuments a simple gallooned frieze around the neck opening. From the 11th century a vertical band came into use, divided at shoulder height into two oblique arms (in the form of a Y; sometimes the vertical extended up to the neck) to join on the chest and descend to the lower hem; all with ornamental embroidery or figurations of saints. This purely ornamental motif was later interpreted as a cross; indeed from the 13th century in England, France and Germany the cross with horizontal arms was placed on the back part (on the front flap a simple "column"). Today the ornamental types vary, sometimes inspired by themes or symbols of the ecclesiastical year.
Only from the last century dates the prescription, but for the purpose of fixing a centuries-old use, of using silk for the p.; half-silk fabrics are no longer permitted. Preserved in museums and in the sacristies of cathedrals are p. made of wool, linen, cotton, and during the Thirty Years' War those of leather, or woven of straw. But as a rule precious fabrics were used, sometimes coming from the East (in antiquity the workshops of Alexandria, Damascus, Byzantium were renowned; in the Middle Ages those of the Saracens in Sicily and Spain; precious damasks, brocades and velvets coming from Genoa, Lucca, Milan and Venice). Until the 12th century fabrics of a single color or design prevailed; afterwards fabrics with some geometric or floral design were used by preference, especially the pomegranate (perhaps with reference to Ex. 28:33) or with figures of real or fantastic animals. These designs were not specifically Christian, but came from the East.
The p., because it is placed on the shoulders, is considered as a symbol of the yoke of the Lord, and in putting it on the priest says: "Domine, qui dixisti iugum meum suave est...".
Folded p. (Planeta plicata). - On days of mourning and penance the sacred ministers, instead of the dalmatic or the tunicle, use the folded p.; that is, the front part of the p. is wrapped before the chest, or even cut a little before the middle. The subdeacon, before the reading, lays aside the folded p., to take it up again afterwards; the deacon, on the other hand, from the Gospel to the Communion, having laid aside the p., puts on the so-called stolone, in order to be freer in serving at the altar.
Bibliography7 works
Pietro Siffrin
ART
Mosaics and frescoes of the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries (chapel of St. Satyrus in St. Ambrose in Milan, St. Apollinaris in Classe in Ravenna, St. Agnes Outside the Walls
CHASUBLE. - Chasuble with Indian ornamental motifs. Work of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary - Rome, Exhibition of Missionary Art 1951 (India).
in Rome, catacombs of St. Pontian, etc.) already document the existence of the p. as an essential part of liturgical vestments. About twenty bell-shaped p. are preserved in Germany, among them at Mainz, Munich, Erfurt, Iburg, Würzburg, Niederaltaich, Deutz, Xanten, Brauweiler, and in Italy at Castel S. Elia. The process of shortening can be traced in the collection of p. in the Treasury of the cathedral of Halberstadt, while Castel S. Elia, in the Roman countryside, offers a complete series of p. in the various phases of development.
Among medieval p., the oldest, belonging to the 11th century, are two in the Treasury of the cathedral of Bamberg and the famous one of St. Stephen in the Treasury of the Crown of Hungary at Pressburg, all three worked in gold on a silk ground. Other notable p. of the 12th-13th centuries are those of St. Paul in Carinthia; of the cathedral of Erfurt; of the cathedral of Fermo (believed to be that of St. Thomas Becket) of the blessed Bernard degli Uberti (1133); of Florence in S. Trinita, akin to that of the cathedral of Pistoia; of the Treasury of Anagni, of English workmanship, also, like the preceding ones, completely embroidered. Again at Anagni, there is another p. of Cypriot workmanship, perhaps Palermitan, in red jasper embroidered in gold, with the customary Byzantine motif of pairs of confronted parrots. Embroideries of the Roman school has the p. of Benedict XI (d. 1304) of the cathedral of Velletri, and of central Italy are the figures of the Apostles in the p. of S. Corona at Vicenza. The p. of St. Dominic in the Treasury of the cathedral of Toulouse presents Gothic inscriptions among oriental tendrils and figures of phoenixes and peacocks, of the Palermitan type. Closely linked to the Umbrian and Tuscan painting of the 15th century are the sacred motifs of the p. of the Episcopal Seminary of Montalcino with the scene of the Adoration and the Angels supporting an inscription on the baldachin. To the 14th century belong several p. in brocade and damask from the church of St. Mary in Danzig. Toward the end of the 15th century there is an example of decorative exuberance in the p. of the cathedral of Orvieto. To the 15th century date the p. of the cathedral of Montefiascone, of the parish church of Prosto di Piuro (Chiavenna), of the parish church of Busto Arsizio, and the splendid one with figures of angels in hexagonal compartments and the representations of the Baptism and the Transfiguration in the Court Museum of Vienna. To the 16th century, attributed for the design to Raphael and executed by Antonio Peregrino, belongs the p. with the symbols of the Evangelists in the Museum of the Opera of Siena, and furthermore the p. of Julius II in the cathedral of Savona, to which is linked, for the design of the ornament, the p. of the Museum of the Opera of Perugia of Cardinal Armellini. Very many are still today the examples of well-preserved p. of the 16th-17th-18th centuries (for example, the Passerini p. with the emblems of the Evangelists and the Borgia coat of arms in the cathedral of S. Francesco at Cortona, which is said to have been worn by Leo X in 1515; that of the end of the 16th century of the cathedral of Recanati with the customary motif of pomegranate and stylized oak branches. Motifs of flowering branches in red and gold are in the p. of the church of S. Donato at Siena, as other variations of the kind are shown by the p. known as that of Archbishop Giuliano de' Medici in the cathedral of Pisa). Other designs of the full 17th century are those of the rich velvets of the p. of the church of S. Francesco at Castiglione Fiorentino and of the cathedral of Aosta. In Rome notable is the collection of the church of S. Maria della Vallicella. The fineness of design of a p. in the collection of the Art Museums in the Castello Sforzesco and of another in the church of S. Antonio Abate at Monreale seems to imitate the marvelous laces of the 18th century, as does the very fine p. of S. Raimondo al Rifugio at Siena. P. with decorations of horizontal stripes of the end of the 18th century (church of the Purgatory at Venosa) foreshadow the Empire style. Of undoubted oriental influence is the brocade of the 18th-century p. of the church of S. Andrea at Siena. - See plates LXXXV-LXXXVI.
Bibliography5 works
Luisa Mortari