Fragment of the Cloak of Saint John of the Abbesses

This kind of textile was one of the most appreciated in the Middle Ages. The Samit is richly decorated with eight-pointed stars and crosses adorned with vegetal arabesques (ataurique). Inside the stars, the inverted image of an eagle with open wings is repeated horizontally. This composition is articulated like a net/drawing of lattice/filigree created by a red coloured ribbon outlined with tinsel, and surrounded by/spread with a pattern of clove leaves in tinsel too. In the monastery of Saint John of the Abbesses, founded by Count Wifredo in 880 near Ripoll, it is still preserved an important part of more than one metre of this fabric. It is one of the pieces that suffered from plundering and fragmentation. Other bits, although smaller and worse conserved, can be found in several European and Spanish museums, such as those of Cluny, Lyon, Abbeg, Terrassa, Valencia de Don Juan, or Vic, among others. Most likely, Lázaro himself purchased it in the Catalonian trade during the first years of the century, since it was already listed in his catalogue in 1926.