Comb

COMB. - From the Latin pecten, it is an instrument of bone, ivory, boxwood or other material, fitted with one or two rows of close-set teeth, used for cleaning the head or tidying the hair.

The use of the comb is very ancient, and not infrequently it has been made into an object finely carved and adorned with precious stones. Some combs from Egypt (6th century) bear sacred scenes such as that of Daniel among the lions (comb of Akhmim), of the resurrection of Lazarus and of the healing of the man born blind (comb of Antinoe). The comb is also a liturgical instrument of frequent use in the Middle Ages: it was employed 1) by bishops and by celebrating priests, who tidied 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 one, but 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 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 pontifical of Paris cited by Leclercq; the prayer is almost identical in the Ordo praeparationis ad Missam of cod. Ottob. Vat. lat. 27, f. 8° [15th century]). In order not to soil the vestments, the shoulders of the celebrant were covered with a kind of mantlet (tobalia, pectinarium, peignoir, pettenaturo 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 examples, some finely worked, are still preserved in church treasuries and museums. It suffices 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 comb known as that of Theodelinda at Monza (7th century); the comb of St. Eberhard at Cologne (8th century); the comb of the Cathedral of Trier (9th century); the comb of Gozzelino, bishop of Toul (922-62), now in the cathedral of Nancy; the comb known as that of St. Lupus, but of the 11th century, preserved in the cathedral of Sens.

A. Pietro Frutaz