and also the invention of a special kind of balance, which goes .by
his name.
His works were published in 1693 by the Abbé Gallois, in the Recueil of the M érnoires de FA cadérnie des Sciences.
See J. A. N. de C. Condorcet, Eloge de Roberval (Paris, 1773); I. E. Montucla, Histoire des rnathérnatiques (1802).
ROBES (Fr. robe, Late Lat. roba, raupa, meaning (1) spoils, (2) robe, stuff, cf. Mod. Ital. roba, connected with a Teutonic root raup, raub, German rauben and English rob), the name generally given to a class of official costume, especially as worn by certain persons or classes on occasions of particular solemnity. According to Du Cange, the word .robe was earliest used, in the sense of a garment, of those given by popes and princes to the members of their household or their great, , officers. Thus Matthew Paris (Chron. Majora, Rolls Series, V. 38) tells how, in 1248, the pope gave to some Tatar envoys “ vestes pretiosissimas quas Robas vulgariser'appellamus», ide escarleto praeelecto, cum pellibus et furruris, ”-with which 'Du Cange compares the “ festiva indumenta ” given, e.g., by King John magnaturn snorum rnultitudini at Christmas time (1214, Matt. Paris, 'Rolls Series, II. 520) and the raubae papales scntiferorum, and the like, given by the popes to members of their households, after the fashion of a livery. It would, however, 'be perhaps going too far to assume that, e.g., peers' robes were originally the king's livery, for there seems to be no proof that this was the case; but itiis curious that in most early cases where robes are mentioned, if not of cloth of gold, &c., they are of scarlet, furred. A robe is properly a long garment, 'and the term “' robes ” is now applied only intthose cases where a long garment forms- part of the official costume, though inf ordinary usage it is taken to include all the other articles of dress proper to the costume in question. The term “ robes, ” moreover, connotes a .certain degree of dignity, or honour in the wearer. We speak of the king's 'robes of state, of peersf robes, of the robes of the clergy, of academic robes, judicial robes, municipal or civic robes; we should not speak of" the robes, of a cathedral verger, though hetoo wears a long gown of ceremony, and it is even only by somewhat stretching the term “probes” that we can include under it the ordinary academical dress of 'the universities. In the case of the official costume of the clergy, too, a distinction must be drawn. The vestirnenta sacra are not spoken of as “ robes ”; 'a priest is not " robed ” but “vested ” for Mass; yet the rochet and chimere of an English bishop, even in church, are more properly referred to as robes than as vestments, and while the cope he wears in church is a vestment rather than a robe, the scarlet cope which is partof his parliamentary full dress is a robe, not a vestment. lfor the sakeof convenience the official, non-liturgical costume of the clergy is dealt with under the general heading VESTMENTS and the subsidiary articles (eg. COPE).
The coronation robes of emperors and kings, representing as they, dogthe sacerdotal significance of Christian kingship, are essentially vestments rather than robes (see CORONAT1ON)» Apart from these, however, are the royal robes of state; in the case of the king of England a crimson velvet surcoat and long mantle, fastened infront of the neck, ermine lined, with a deep cape or tippet of ermine.1, , ¢-The subject of official robes is too vast for any-attempt to be made to deal with it comprehensively here. All countries, East and West, which boast an ancient civilization have 'reor less degree, and the tendency in
to multiply rather than to diminish
republican France they survived the
the universities and the 'law courts.
tained them in greater
modern times has been
their number. Even in
Revolution, at least in
But nowhere has custom been so conservative in this matter as in the United Kingdom, where in this-as in other matters the wise Machiavellian principle has' been followed of changing 1 For the sovereign's coronation robes, see “ The King's Coronation Ornaments, ” by W. St John Hope, in The Ancestor, vols. i. and ii., also L. Wickham Legg, English Coronation Records, 1901. The “parliamentary robes” used to be of crimson or purple velvet, ffurred with ermine. See the above, 'also 'the inventories of the wardrobes of sovereigns, &r;
the- substance of institutions without altering their outward semblance. The present article, then, does not attempt to dealt with any but British robes, ” under the headings of (1) peers' robes, (2) robes in the House of Commons, (3) robes of the Orders 'ofKnighthood, (4) 1 judicial and forensic robes, (5) municipal and civic robes, (6) academic costume. Peers* Robes.-As early as the end of the 14th century peers seem to have worn at their creation some kind of robe of honour; this we may conclude from the descriptions of the investiture of the earl of Somerset in 1397 (Rot. Parl..iii1 343), which says: “ le dit Monsieur John fut amesnée devant le Roy en Parlement entre deux Contes, c'est assavoir Huntyngdon et Mareschall, vestuz en urrpane (Du Cange; pannus=3. habitus vestimenlnrn) come vesture de honor ”; while in accounts of various creations of about the same time (Rot.- ..Parl. iii. .2o5, soo) areused thefwords “ advenienteque . . prefato Duce honorihce togato et ornate.” ~An early illustration of their use is to be found in an illumination on thetfoundation charter of King's College, Cambridge (see fig. 1), which represents the peers as
From the foundation charter of Kingls College, Cambridge, ,1446. ~ FIG. I.+Peers spiritual and temporal. A
early as T446 wearing gowns, mantles' and hoods of "scarlet, furred with miniver, the mantle opening on the right shoulder and guarded with'two, three or four bars of miniver, 3in the form of short stripes high up on the shoulder. The origin of these is as yet unknown, and it is not certain precisely when the peers"velvet robe of estate was first used. At the coronation of Henry VI. the king's own parliament robewas of scarlet and miniver (Gregory's Chronicle, ed. Gairdner, Camden Soc. pp. 16 5-7o), so the peers"robes were certainly not yet of velvet; at that of Henry VII.” (see Rutland- Papers, 1842; “ Device for the Coronation of Henry VII.”)' the king had a robe of crimson velvet and erminefbut the “lords temporally” are only said to have been “ in their robes ”; at that of Henry VIII. (see Hall"s Chronicle) the king in his progress through the city wore a crimson velvet robe furred with ermine, “ his knights and esquires for his body" wore crimson velvet, and “ all the gentlemen, ” &c., 'scarlet, while we hear of the “lords spiritual and temporal, and of their costly and rich apparel; of several devises and fashions, ” and notably of the duke of "Buckingham's robe of gold 'and needlework (Stow's Annals, p. 813)-, which would show that the velvet robeof estate was not 'yet worn”at the king's coronation. The duke of 'Richmond at his creation in 1 S2 5 (17 Henry VIII., see Brewer; State Papers, iv. 639) is' described as clad in robes of estate, and the description of the investiture says that “ the patent was read, the robe, sword, cap and circlet put on, ” and about this time references are found to the “parliament robes” of peers, implying that there were other-s. ' ' ' f »
An account of the coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1533, fiI1 ].'Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, vol. i. p. 1, says that in 'her progress through the city “all the lordes 'for the most part were clothed in crimson velvet/" while at 2 in the United States few, save Federal judges wear robes. The scarlet judicial robes were discarded at the Revolution. Those of black silk nowgworn are slightly modified academic gowns. John jay, first Chief']ustice of the Supreme Court (1787). set the fashion by sitting in the LL.D. gown granted' him by Columbia University.