The burial garments of the 14th century Portuguese Archbishop Gonçalo Pereira (†1348)

In 1344, D. Gonçalo Pereira commissioned his burial chapel in the Cathedral of Braga (North of Portugal), the Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Glória, where his tomb effigy depicts a middle-aged man in pontifical rich vestments. In 1992, during renovation works in Cathedral, the tomb was open, and some woven and embroidered fragments of the textiles that had been used for dressing the archbishop were removed before the tomb was closed again.
Silk fibres and gilt leather strips recovered from the different fragments were analysed using optical microcopy, SEM-EDS, FTIR and HPLC-DAD-MS. A graphical reconstruction of the decorative motives (Fig.1, for the “Lion” Lampas) was done based o macro digital especially treated images and stereo-microscope observation of the textile fragments, fundamental for perceiving the weave structure and identify the respective decorative motifs.
With this study it was possible to identify the burial vestments of the archbishop, some of which made with textiles likely from Central Asia or China. The uniqueness and richness of some textiles suggests that the care and detail followed by D. Gonçalo Pereira in the construction of his burial chapel was extended to his choice of burial garments.