From a post that I wrote on this topic previously:
The kinds of chasubles were distinguished by the cut of the fabric. These come immediately to mind:
- fiddle-back } {
- square-back ]
(both of the above are also sometimes referred to as Roman style)
(both of the above are sometimes referred to as Gothic style - with the conical sometimes also termed “semi-gothic” and the other “full” or “ample” gothic; in distinguishing the two, gothic is a narrower oval than the conical; looked at from the back and spread out, it is maybe the difference between 135 degrees of a circle versus 180 degrees of same)
Here’s a photo of a
fiddle-back; note that it is in the front of the vestment that the distinctive fiddle-back outline appears; it gave the priest easier range of arm motion than did the square-back, which lacked the curvature in front to accomodate his arms. This is a good photo of a
square-back, another photo of a
square-back is here, interesting for its peculiar history.
The difference between the
conical and
gothic can hopefully be seen in these two photos.
There were also distinctions once made by styles common to various countries, but those are pretty uncommon now. Here’s a site that displays drawings of these:
St. Benet’s Guild
In Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches of the Byzantine Rite, the name for the equivalent vestment is the phelonion (spelling may vary slightly among different ethnic groups within the Byzantine tradition). You can see examples here of
Greek and of
Russian phelonions, they are the outermost of the vestments displayed; note that the major difference is that the upper front section of the Russian vestments is cut slightly higher than are those of the Greek.
Many years,
Neil
