The Question of Ecclesiastical Influences on French Academic Dress

The talk given at the Burgon Society’s Congregation in October 2005 on which this paper is based was intended as a tribute to Professor Bruno Neveu, one of the few French scholars to take an interest in academic dress. He had been made a Fellow of the Society honoris causa only shortly before his untimely death in 2004. I had the privilege of inheriting the archives on his favourite topic which he had collected during his lifetime, and I found amongst the documents an additional folder containing material for a history of ecclesiastical dress. [Excerpt]