Glove history

The history of gloves

Gloves are a great antiquity. Even in the myths of such books as Homer's The Odyssy, Laertes is pictured as wearing gloves as he walks through his garden to protect himself from the brambles. Another storybook myth include Herodotus, in The History of Herodotus (440 BC), who has his story character, Leotychides incriminated by a gauntlet full of silver in which was received as a bribe. In many Roman tales, there are occasional references to the use of gloves.

Gloves come in useful for a variety of things such as for fashion, ceremonial, and religious purposes. In the early 13th century, European Ladies wore gloves as fashion ornaments. Many of these fashionable gloves were made of linen and silk that sometimes reached the elbow. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth set the fashion for gloves wearing them richly embroidered and jeweled.

Embroidered and jeweled gloves also formed part of the insignia of emperors and kings. Thus Matthew of Paris, in recording the burial of Henry II of England in 1189, mentions that be was buried in his coronation robes with a golden crown on his head and gloves on his hands. Gloves were also found on the hands of King John when his tomb was opened in 1797 and on those of King Edward I when his tomb was opened in 1774.

Pontifical gloves are liturgical ornaments used primarily by the pope, the cardinals, and bishops. They may be worn only at the celebration of mass. The liturgical use of gloves has not been traced beyond the beginning of the 10th century, and their introduction may have been due to a simple desire to keep the hands clean for the holy mysteries, but others suggest that they were adopted as part of the increasing pomp with which the Carolingian bishops were surrounding themselves. From the Frankish kingdom the custom spread to Rome, where liturgical gloves are first heard of in the earlier half of the 11th century.

Latex gloves, ubiquitous in surgery and forensics, were developed by the Australian Ansell company.

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