The textile and clothing room of the Vic Episcopal Museum
The collection of textiles and liturgical garments at the MEV is one of the most important in Catalonia and really constitutes a museum within a museum. It is contained in a separate space with controlled lighting and climate to assist the conservation of the pieces. There are two sections which are especially interesting: liturgical garments and ornaments, and the fragments of textiles.
The first part consists of the liturgical vestments. The history of this collection is documented from pieces of the 14th to the 15th centuries, and is in itself a genuine museum of the history of liturgical vestments.
The second part is the collection of historical textiles, from the 4th century Coptic cloth to the 18th century. Some formed part of reliquaries while other were decorations from the cathedral itself. Other pieces were acquired from private collections.
The Hispano-Arabic textile collections include the so-called Drap de les Bruixes and the papal ornaments of Sant Bernat Calbó. The cape of Bishop Bellera in opus anglicanum, the chasuble of bishop Ricomà, the vestments of Canon Bernat Despujol and the embroidered frontals are all brilliant examples of medieval liturgical cloth work, followed by examples from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
