The Yale Alumni Magazine has an article by Angus Trumble in the latest issue called "Old hat: The evolution of your mortarboard," which despite its focus on the mortarboard (a descendant, it turns out, of the pileus quadratus, the hot new fashion item of the early 16th century) has much to say about the history of hats in general; I particularly recommend the family tree, with its fetching portraits of everyone from popes to bellhops wearing the illustrated items. (Depending on your browser window, you may have to scroll a bit to the right to see the vertical line representing the crown, which—like the papal miter on the left—does not interact with the rest of the tree.)
Posted by languagehat at July 26, 2008 01:45 PMGoogling for more on the pileus quadratus, I found this gallery of religious headcoverings (in German), which I thought might interest you. (Second page here.)
Posted by: Tim May at July 26, 2008 05:52 PMGood lord, what a collection—many thanks! I was thinking "what's that zucchetto doing in a saucepan?" until I realized it was just a specialized hatbox. And I was quite startled when I scrolled down and hit a string of homburgs after all that priestwear.
Posted by: language hat at July 26, 2008 08:00 PMAnd the second page is even wilder!
Posted by: language hat at July 26, 2008 08:06 PMI have been blogging our summer research trip to Europe, and found a wonderful advertisement for academic headcoverings on the wall at the University of Verona. Naturally, I thought of you immediately:
Posted by: xiaolongnu at July 27, 2008 05:47 PMI love it—thanks!
Posted by: language hat at July 28, 2008 09:07 AM