Cope

The semicircular cope presents a stole decorated with a painting-like embroidery in which shoots of leaves and fruits are alternated with extraordinary chromatic and figurative decoration. They form a very colourful garland along the profiling, connecting the diagonal of white silk, on which there is a part of the embroidery, with a wide band of pink cotton, embellished with an overlapping and worked-in-bobbins tulle, on which fall other descriptive details of embroidery. The same band covers the border of the entire structure. The tulle that accompanies the border of the cope is further decorated with a sort of oval cavities, closed by a light lattice, in which it was used to insert rose petals for the fragrance of the garment; some petal, obviously dry, has survived to us, as evidence of a "profane" habit. Finally, on the remaining surface of the mantle some series of little flowers embroidered among numerous sequins are neatly arranged in a chessboard pattern. The embroideries used are painting or satin stitch, knot stitch, grass point and extended stitch. On the stolon there is the weapon of mgr. De Gemmis (who ruled the Altamuran Church from 1783 to 1818, Denora - Tota 2012, pp.109-110) and is composed by the quartered: in the 1st and 4th field, of blue, there is a gold band above a gold staircase placed in a bar with 5 rungs accompanied by three shiny red gems ordered in band; in the 2nd and 3rd field, of gold, there is an ox (the position of the tail distinguishes it from a bull) marching in natural white. It is topped with a green galero with six green tassels and a simple cross placed in a post behind the shield. According to a well-established Altamuran tradition, the fabric for the construction of this cope was donated by Gioacchino Murat, king of Naples, to De Gemnis. In fact, analysing the nature of the decoration of the same, very close to those made between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in France and intended for a female clientele, it would be much more likely that the "fabric" had been donated to the altamuran prelate by Giulia Clary, wife of the first Napoleonic king of Naples, Giuseppe Bonaparte, or at most by Carolina Bonaparte, wife of Murat.