Tke History 
 
 o[ 
 
 Caps and Gowns 
 
 ►~^ 
 
 by 
 NATALIA M. BELTING 
 
 I 
 
5/5- -3/2- 
 
 The History 
 
 of 
 Caps and Gowns 
 
 by 
 
 Natalia M. Belting 
 
 Published by 
 
 COLLEGIATE CAP & GOWN COMPANY 
 
 New York 1,N.Y. Chompoign. III. Los Angeles 28, Coli>. Chicogo 1 , III. 
 
 366 Sth Avenue 1000 N. Market St. 1634 N. Cohuengo Blvd. 228 N. LoSolle St. 
 
 -1958- 
 

 (^(p^:a^ 
 
 THE PARADE 
 OF THE M/DDLE AGES 
 
 r<)\ happens every spring. At least every spring v/herever 
 there's a college or university. Sometimes it happens more often. 
 It happens whenever an academic procession v/inds its slow and 
 dignified way across a campus. Parents and friends and the just- 
 plain-curious line the sidewalks watching the faculty march by 
 with their gowns billowing behind them and their hoods flashing 
 brilliant colors against the somber black. They watch as the grad- 
 uates go by with their mortar boards set at crazy angles on the 
 backs of their heads. Then the questions start coming. Why did 
 Professor Smith have red velvet on his gown and that professor 
 next to him blue velvet? Why do they call that cape a hood? 
 Why are the sleeves on those gowns cut off so funny^ not big and 
 full like on the other gowns? 
 
 Usually nobody knows, though you may hear all kinds of 
 answers. As a matter of fact, it is a parade of the Middle Ages. 
 
For caps and gowns, in all the assorted cuts and styles and colors, 
 are actually an Inheritance from the university scholar of four and 
 five ind even six hundred years ago. That's not to say they're just 
 the same. Probably the scholar of the fourteenth century wouldn't 
 even recognize his everyday costume in today's academic regalia, 
 and yet it was out of his ordinary dress that the cap and gown did 
 evolve. 
 
 In those early days of the universities, the ordinary dress 
 of the scholar, whether he was a student or a teacher, was the 
 dress of a cleric, or a clerk, as he was commonly called. For a 
 very good reason, too, because, with few exceptions the medieval 
 scholar had taken Minor Orders at least, and had made certain 
 vows, and perhaps been tonsured, and had some connection with a 
 church or a monastery which provided him with what amounted to 
 a scholarship or a fellowship for his university studies. So he wore 
 a long gown, and a long sleeveless tunic over it, and when the 
 weather was cold, a long, full cloak to which a shoulder-length 
 cape with a hood was attached. 
 
At first the clerk's dress wasn't a great deal different from 
 the everyday dress of somebody who wasn't a clerk. Then some- 
 thing began to happen to European life. A middle class was rising 
 in the towns, and their trading caravans and ships were bringing 
 them increasing wealth and making them independent of their 
 feudal overlords. And if a man had money, he liked to show it in 
 the clothes he wore. He had his gowns and his tunics and his 
 cloaks fashioned of fine silks and damasks and wools from the East, 
 and his hoods lined with miniver instead of rabbit's fur, and he 
 lengthened the toes of his shoes until sometimes he had to tie the 
 points around his legs to keep from tripping over them. The nobili- 
 ty began to complain that you couldn't tell a free-born member of 
 the aristocracy from these unfree, "new rich" townspeople. Some- 
 thing had to be done about it. The something was sumptuary legis- 
 lation issued by the kings, restricting the use of certain furs and 
 precious stones to members of the feudal society, and decreeing 
 that a man's rank must determine the amount of money he could 
 pay for the material that went into his clothes. 
 
Obviously, when that was happening outside the university, 
 there were bound to be similar situations developing among the 
 scholars. After all, few peasants' sons went to universities. And 
 a great many belonged to well-to-do and wealthy families, who 
 could afford to dress their sons well and in attire that was somehow 
 not what one would consider appropriate for a humble cleric. 
 
 As a result, the first university regulations regarding dress 
 among the students and faculty were concerned not with the style 
 and cut of their gowns, but with the cost. In 1314 the rector and 
 administrators of the University of Toulouse in France felt them- 
 selves compelled 
 
 "to set an affixed price for the said clothes and garments, in order that by o 
 fixed price and tariff this reprehensible superfluity of clothing may be checked and an 
 approved mediocrity in respect to costume be maintained in the said university. . ." 
 
 They did this 
 
 "since superfluity of clothing in clerics is reproved by the holy fathers. . . , since 
 too, because of the superfluity of clothing v/hich clerics and scholars at the University 
 have hitherto been vi/ont to make. . .many, abhorring the said superfluity of clothing and 
 not unjustly fearing the immoderate cost of the same, have refused to attend the said 
 university and have gone to others which v/ere not so expensive, while many who came 
 to the said university have withdrawn from the university because of the cost of the same 
 clothing. " 
 
 1 . Thorndike, Lynn; University Records and Life 
 in the Middle Ages, New York, 1944, pp 150-154 
 
This regulation affected not only the students, but "all masters, 
 
 licentiates and bachelors" who must "wear their garments of the 
 
 said price everywhere through the city or in the city and in the 
 
 buildings of the city outside their lodgings." Those scholars who 
 
 might have clothing given them by 
 
 bishops or friends or relatives among 
 
 the nobility had permission to wear 
 
 this clothing "wherever they are 
 
 outside academic functions. But at 
 
 academic functions, as in classes 
 
 and at the university mass and 
 
 wherever the university goes or 
 
 meets, there they shall wear or be 
 
 required to wear garments of the 
 
 cloth and price stated." 
 
 In some of the German universities the statutes specifically 
 prohibited scholars and faculty from indulging in such high 
 fashions as the long-pointed shoes, trunkhose, puffed and slashed 
 
 23^ 
 
sleeves, and parti -colored garments, but even then no single 
 academic costume was prescribed. Occasionally students of a 
 college adopted a special color or "livery". At the University of 
 Beauvois, for instance, the livery was blue. The "Queen's men" 
 at Oxford wore blood-red; other Oxford undergraduates favored 
 green or blue. 
 
 Color did have some symbolism in the medieval university 
 though there was no uniformity from one university to another. 
 An unknown philosopher in the middle of the fourteenth century, 
 commenting on the University of Paris, pointed out that the 
 University "dispenses distinct costumes" to its four faculties. 
 Those in the liberal arts "go forth in black round copes (cloaks) 
 
 of noble brunet or of fine perse lined with fur Their costume 
 
 befits lords of liberal philosophy, because it is the nature of black 
 to collect the sight." 
 
 The physicians and medical men "rejoiced in ordinary 
 copes of brunet somewhat brighter than the artists and more near- 
 ly red like the color of thick rouge. And in the closeness of this 
 
 2. Ibid., 213-215. 
 
color to true brunet is figured the connection between these 
 faculties, since he is o poor physician who knows no logic or who 
 has no recourse to natural philosophy. 
 
 The jurists at the University had "scholastic copes" of 
 scarlet and of a fiery red, since the red color signifies an in- 
 flamed mind." The theologians wore the garments prescribed by 
 
 their Order, "or any simple garb of humble color to 
 
 denote the humble and innocent preaching of this science." 
 
 The definite association of certain colors with certain 
 ranks and degrees and even with certain faculties was to be a 
 much later development, and one which was to be standardized 
 only in the United States. In 1895 the Intercollegiate Commission 
 drew up a code which was subsequently adopted by 95% of the 
 American colleges and universities and which besides regulating 
 the cut and style and materials of the gowns, prescribed the colors 
 which were to represent the different fields of learning. White 
 taken from the white fur trimming of the Oxford and Cambridge 
 B. A. hoods, was assigned to arts and letters. Red, one of the 
 
traditional colors of the church, went to theology. Royal purple, 
 a color associated with kings and therefore with their judicial 
 power, became the symbol for law. Green, the color of medicinal 
 herbs, was adopted for medicine, and olive, because it was so 
 close to green, was given to pharmacy. Blue, for centuries the 
 color associated with wisdom and truth, became the color for 
 philosophy, while the Oxford pink was retained for music. Gold- 
 en yellow, standing for the wealth which scientific research has 
 produced, was assigned to the sciences. 
 And russet brown, the color of 
 the dress of the ancient English 
 foresters, was given to forestry. 
 The complete list of colors and 
 the fields of learning they re- 
 present ore as follov/s: 
 
 White - Arts and Letters 
 Red - Theology 
 Royal Purple - Law 
 Brov/n - Fine Arts 
 Orange - Engineering 
 
 Modem Bachelor hood 
 
 10 
 
Lilac - Dentistry 
 Green - Medicine 
 Blue - Philosophy 
 Yellow - Science 
 Pink - Music 
 Olive - Pharmacy 
 Russet - Forestry 
 Copper - Economics 
 Dark Crimson - Humanities 
 Drab - Commerce, 
 
 Accountancy 
 Sea Green - Optometry 
 Nile Green - Chiropody 
 Grey - Veterinary Science 
 Lemon - Library Science 
 Light Blue - Education 
 Silver Grey - Speech (Oratory) 
 Salmon - Public Health 
 Sage Green - Physical Education 
 Maize - Agriculture 
 
 But to get along v/ith the evolution of the modern cop and 
 
 gown everybody agrees it comes largely from the clerical 
 
 dress of the 13th and 14th centuries. And hardly anybody agrees 
 with anybody else as to exactly how the cassock, the tabard, and 
 the cappa became the modern gown; there's not quite so much 
 disagreement over the evolution of the mortar board, and none at 
 ail about the academic hood. 
 
 11 
 
The cassock of the medieval scholar was a long, somewhat 
 
 fitted garment, with long and usually narrow sleeves. Over this 
 
 he frequently wore a tabard, a narrow, sleeveless gown or tunic 
 
 which slipped on over his head, and 
 
 was sometimes belted and sometimes 
 
 not. The cappa or cloak with the 
 
 hood attached was worn indoors as 
 
 well as out-of-doors. 
 
 Out of these garments by the 
 
 end of the 16th century in England a 
 
 distinctive academic costume evolv- 
 1482 
 
 Narrow sleeved gown with gd. The cassock became a sleeveless 
 
 gkull cap, hood 
 
 {sleeves lined with fur) undergarment. The tabard was slit 
 
 up the front, and had sleeves added to it, sleeves not necessarily 
 
 narrow as they hod been on the cassock, but full and flowing, or 
 
 long and trailing with slashes cut in them after the secular fashion 
 
 from the first days of the universities, in the 12th century, and 
 
 they were very much in fashion in the days of Henry Vlll of 
 
 12 
 
England when Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge were first prescribing a 
 
 definite academic costume. These 
 
 sleeves sometimes were so long 
 
 that slits had to be cut in them. 
 
 far from the end for the arm and 
 
 the hand. And probably it was 
 
 not only scholars who found that 
 
 such sleeves made excellent 
 
 pockets for everything from notes 
 
 to lunch. Modern candidates for the master's degree who have 
 
 discovered the same thing about their sleeves have, after all, 
 
 made no new discovery! 
 
 As for the hood, originally it was a head covering worn by 
 
 everyone, priest and layman, aristocrat and commoner. A hood 
 
 was no mark of distinction, but with the enactment of sumptuary 
 
 lov^ by the kings and similar regulations by university authorities, 
 
 the materials that went into the making of the hood did come to 
 
 S>T3 
 
 Brimless cap with earflaps, 
 fur lined, pleated robe 
 
 13 
 
B.A., Oxford, 1563 
 14 
 
denote a man's rank In society or his 
 standing in the university. In the 
 English universities, bachelors of all 
 the faculties were allowed to line 
 their winter hoods with badger's fur 
 or lamb's wool . Masters and regents 
 were allowed to use miniver or some- 
 thing equally expensive. 
 
 When the skull cap was a- 
 dopted, the hood continued to be 
 worn, thrown over the shoulder, 
 with its peak or llrlpipe, hanging 
 
 Doctor hood with peah {liripipe) 
 still in design 
 
 far down behind. At Oxford and 
 Cambridge, the peaks on the grad- 
 uates' hoods were shorter than 
 those on the undergraduates. In 
 1489, Oxford undergraduates were 
 prohibited altogether from wearing 
 
 Combined hood and cape 
 
 15 
 
hoods, and between that year and the end of the next century, 
 the wearing of the hood came to be a mark of the attainment of a 
 degree. 
 
 As the hood disappeared for a head-covering, a close- 
 fitting skull cap, or a round cap with a point or tuft in the center 
 took its place. Gradually the latter cap assumed a square shape 
 
 Stiffening added to mortarboard 
 as folds of material were added to it until it become the biretta, 
 and was adopted by masters as their distinctive badge. Doctors 
 of some of the faculties adopted red or violet birettas also. 
 
 Then during the days of the Reformation in England, more 
 and more material was added to the biretta, and it began to droop 
 over the face until a piece of board had to be stuffed inside to 
 stiffen it. Soon the top became a square of cardboard with a skull 
 cap fastened to it, the tuft became a tassel, and the modern 
 mortar board was in existence. 
 
 16 
 
O 
 
From a traditional background covering hundreds 
 of years, the present academic costume has evolved. With 
 the adoption of the Intercollegiate Code in 1895, a definite 
 pattern v/as established to make possible the recognition of 
 degrees conferred by American colleges and universities. 
 
 Collegiate maintains a complete library of correct 
 and current information on authentic caps, gov/ns, and 
 hoods to insure you of academic apparel in the proper style 
 and colors. A complete range of sizes in Doctor, Master, 
 and Bachelor caps and gowns as v/ell as hoods representing 
 degrees of all schools in the United States are available 
 for rental. Each garment is thoroughly sterilized, cleaned, 
 pressed, and conveniently packaged for shipment directly 
 to you. 
 
Many scholars prefer to own their academic apparel 
 so that it will be available for use at any time. Selected 
 fabrics of many distinctive weaves can be used for caps, 
 govms, and hoods designed and tailored to your ov/n meas- 
 urements. In addition to the personal satisfaction of 
 owning your costume, tailored especially for you from 
 material of your choice, the necessity of making arrange- 
 ments for the use of a cap, gown, and hood will be elim- 
 inated. 
 
 Collegiate will be most happy to provide complete 
 and accurate information to assist you in the selection of 
 the proper cap, gown, and hood to represent you degree. 
 A catalogue will be sent to you promptly at your request 
 if you will complete and mall the enclosed postage-paid 
 
 19 
 
erj^Kf^ 
 
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 THE best; 
 
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 3 0112 025306249