COMB. — From the Latin pecten, it is an instrument made of bone, ivory, boxwood or other material, furnished with one or two rows of close-set teeth, used for cleaning the head or styling the hair.
The use of the comb is very ancient, and it has not infrequently been fashioned as a finely carved object adorned with precious stones. Some combs from Egypt (6th century) bear sacred scenes such as that of Daniel among the lions (comb of Akhmin), the resurrection of Lazarus, and the healing of the man born blind (comb of Antinoe). The comb is also a liturgical instrument frequently used in the Middle Ages: it was employed 1) by bishops and celebrating priests who combed their hair before approaching the altar, and 2) in the consecration of a bishop (cf. Pontificale Romanae Curiae of the 13th century, ed. M. Andrieu, Le Pontifical romain au moyen âge, II, Vatican City 1940, pp. 354-68; Durandus of Mende, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, IV, 3); the Roman Pontifical still prescribes an ivory comb for this purpose, though the prescription is no longer observed (Tit. XIII, de consecratione electi in episcopum, §§, v, xxxii; cf. the Commentarius of G. Catalani, I, Paris 1850, pp. 297-98, 350). The act of combing was accompanied by a prayer that varied according to the different Churches. In Paris, for example, the following prayer was recited, preceded by the rubric: «Episcopus vel sacerdos, missarum solemnia celebraturus, dum se pectinat dicat: Intus exteriusque caput nostrum totumque corpus et mentem meam tuus, Domine, purget et mundet Spiritus Almus» (ancient Paris pontifical cited by Leclercq; the prayer is almost identical in the Ordo praeparationis ad Missam of ms. Ottob. Vat. lat. 27, f. 8° [15th century]). To avoid soiling the vestments, the shoulders of the celebrant were covered with a kind of short cape (tobalia, pectinarium, peignoir, pettenature in old Italian). Liturgical combs are often mentioned in church inventories (cf. V. Gay, Glossaire archéologique du moyen âge et de la renaissance, II, Paris 1928, p. 218), and numerous specimens, some finely wrought, are still preserved in church treasuries and museums. It will suffice to recall some of the most characteristic: the comb found at Chiusi in 1880, now in the Museo Sacro of the Vatican Library (5th century); the so-called comb of Theodolinda in Monza (7th century); the comb of St. Eberhard in Cologne (8th century); the comb of the Cathedral of Trier (9th century); the comb of Gozzelin, bishop of Toul (922-62), now in the cathedral of Nancy; the so-called comb of Lupo, but from the 11th century, preserved in the cathedral of Sens.