Endrei Walter szerk.: Textilipari Múzeum Évkönyve 8. 1995 (Budapest, 1995)

Enikő Sipos: Conservation of the mitre stored in the Treasury of the Basilica of Esztergom

certifying the two last repairs had been found, after we opened the lining in the inside of the infula. Their text is the following: "Restauratio hujus mitrae absoluta est impensis Eminentissimi Reverendissimi Domini S. R. E. Cardinalis, Principis Primatis R. Hungáriáé ArchiEpiscopi Strigoniensis Joannis Bapt. Scitovszky de Nagy-kér opera Sanctimonalium Viennensium Visitationis B. M. Virginis sub Antistite Alojsia Mensibus Majo it Junio". (The restauration of this mitre was carried out at the cost of the honourable János Scitovszky cardinal, archbishop of Esztergom, with the cooperation of the abbess of the Viennese Annuncation cloister, Alojsia Henrica, in the months May and June of 1861) The Hungarian text on the back is the following: "The mitre had been restored at the disposal of Dr. János Csemoch, cardinal, archbishop and metropolitan of Esztergom, before the coronation of king Charles IV. and queen Zita which too place on the 30-th December 1916, during the devastating World War. The restauration has been done by the Sisters of Mercy, who had their convent of Esztergom, in the so called water-town. This note was written: Esztergom, the 22-nd December 1916". It can not be determined with certainty any more, when and what kind of repairing, respectively to what extent the restauration had been done (Figure 3.). However, we know certainly that the two sides of the mitre had been made wider by strings of pearls sewn up along the hinges. The back-side of the supplement had been reinforced with a piece of cloth which was interlaced with silver threads. The plastic lower rim, embroidered with pearls, had been made of the same material. Nearly forty percent of the pearls that can be found on the mitre are not the original pearls. The place and extent of the replacement is shown by the repairing stitches made with white and yellow silk thread on the back-side, but the difference can be seen also on the face. The diameter of the pearls varies between 0,6; 0,9 and 1,5 mm. On the mitres prepared with bead-work, the plasticity of the floral ornamentation was achieved by selecting pearls of the suitable dimensions, so at it can be seen on the infulae of Győr or of Zagreb. On the mitre of Esztergom these rows of pearl got abraded at the somewhat protuberant parts of the leaves, rosettes. On occasion of the repairing done later, they had been replaced by rows of pearls consisting of pearls of identical dimensions. On the underlays of the embroideries, however, which are made of linen threads, the imprints of the original rows of pearls remained, of the rows consisting of pearls of various dimensions, i.e. bigger at the middle and decreasing towards the two edges.