PIVIALE (Pluviale, cappa, mantus). - A liturgical mantle of semicircular shape, reaching almost to the feet, open in front and fastened on the breast by a clasp. In the back it is adorned with the so-called “shield.”
It does not derive from the ancient lacerna, nor from the ancient poenula, since these had long ceased to be in civil use when the p. came to be employed in liturgical worship. It seems rather to derive from the clerical or monastic choir cappa of the 8th and 9th centuries, distinguished from the bell-shaped chasuble of the same form because it was open in front (or at least had openings through which to pass the hands) and provided with a hood; it was worn in choir and in processions, of cloth in everyday use and of silk on feast days. In the 9th century it is not yet found listed among liturgical vestments (Amalario still designates the chasuble as the liturgical vestment common to all the clergy). From the 10th century singers began to use the festive cappa instead of the chasuble; priests followed suit in functions outside the S. Messa, especially at the incensation during Lauds and Vespers (whence the German name Rauchmantel = mantle of incensation;
Vespermantel = mantle of Vespers). By the end of the 11th century the cappa had become a liturgical vestment in all functions outside the S. Messa, while the chasuble remained exclusively proper to the S. Messa; and it was worn not only by priests or bishops, but by all the clergy, singers, and lower ministers. In Italy the name p. was preferred because it has the form of a mantle that protects against rain and inclement weather, whereas outside Italy it is called cappa, and in Spain also mantus. As a rule it is made of silk and follows the rules of liturgical colors.
The trimmings and the hood, on the other hand, underwent various transformations; the former, initially very simple and narrow, gradually became broader and were adorned with embroidery, especially figural embroidery; the latter, from the 11th century onward, lost its function as a head covering and in the second half of the 12th century became a purely ornamental feature, diminishing in size and being reduced to a miniature hood. Examples of this transitional type remain in Halberstadt Cathedral (12th century) and in S. Paolo in Carinzia (13th century). Already in the 13th century the tiny hood had been transformed into a small triangular piece of cloth, still recalling the hood only by its shape. In the 14th and 15th centuries the triangle slowly became a shield (clipeus) of ever greater proportions, and in the second half of the Quattrocento it assumed the shape of a pointed arch; then that of a semicircle; in the Baroque period it became oval, eventually extending to more than half the garment. The clasps of copes were of great importance in the Middle Ages; inventories convey an idea of their richness, and even more so do some very beautiful surviving examples. More numerous are those adorned with figures (Aachen Cathedral, Museum of Arts and Crafts in Berlin); rarer are those decorated with precious stones and pearls (S. Pietro in Salisburgo, Aosta Cathedral). Along the edge of the cope there is sometimes a fringe, a braid, or even little bells in the manner of pendants (Aachen Cathedral).
The use of the cope must have increased over the centuries, as inventories attest; in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries ever more numerous and precious copes made of splendid fabrics are listed (cf. the inventory of Prague Cathedral of 1387 and that of Lincoln Cathedral of 1536). From the Middle Ages there survive copes entirely embroidered with figures enclosed in round or quadrilateral fields, arranged in rows parallel to the straight side of the cope or in concentric zones. Most of this type, of which magnificent examples also exist in Italy, comes from England, particularly renowned for this kind of needlework, which in the 13th and 14th centuries acquired the name opus Anglicanum. Among the oldest of these figured copes (13th century) may be mentioned that of S. Paolo in Carinsia with the Stories of SS. Biagio and Vincenzo, and that of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; in Italy, those of Ascoli Piceno, Anagni, and the Museo civico of Bologna. Embroideries of the so-called Cuprense-Palermitan type, in gold on red jasper, with confronting parrots, occur on the cope of Bonifacio VIII at Anagni and on that of S. Corona at Vicenza. From the 14th century are the superb examples in Pienza Cathedral, S. Giovanni in Laterano, Toledo, Comminges, and Salisburgo. Exceptional in the 15th century are the three copes of the Order of the Golden Fleece in the Court Museum in Vienna, especially since after the 13th century the type of cope embroidered only on the shield and trimming is much more common. Notable examples of this type are found in S. Maria in Danzica, in Xanten Cathedral, and in the Museum of Berna. In later times the entire cope was decorated with ornamental embroidery, while only the shield and trimming were embroidered with figures; fine examples are the cope in cloth of gold in the church of Gandino, the cope known as that of Urbano V at Montefiascone, and another in the Treasury of Aosta Cathedral. Copes internally decorated with floral motifs are those of the church of S. Donato at Siena and of the parish church of S. Lorenzo at Montefiesole. Examples of sumptuous garden-like colouring are the copes of the Venetian school from the beginning of the 16th century at S. Tomà in Venezia and in the Larcade collection at St-Germain en Laye; likewise Venetian works are the cope in brocaded velvet with an Annunciation and eight figures of saints in the Museo nazionale of Firenze, and that of Recanati Cathedral. Particularly noteworthy is that of Genova Cathedral, whose designs are attributed to Pierin del Vaga. Fantastic motifs inspired by Oriental art occur in the 18th-century cope of Ancona Cathedral, and a masterpiece of ganzo textiles is the 18th-century cope of the basilica of Gandino, analogous to a set of vestments in the basilica of Alzano Maggiore and to another in the church of the Ospedale maggiore of Bergamo. - See pls. CXII-CXIII.