Norman archbishop in choir robes of the 12th century, writing with a quill pen in an illuminated manuscript book, against a yellow background within a scarlet border.. "One sees in fig. 142 the choir habit worn by an archbishop at the end of the 12th century. The artist had wanted to paint, Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, but the Saxon costume was unknown to him, so he is depicted wearing choir habit in use at the time of this portrait.". "The mitre, which, to the Saxons, was flat at the top, appears here very much like modern mitres; it rises considerably above the head, and terminates in two points." . Handcolored copperplate engraving from Robert von Spalart's "Historical Picture of the Costumes of the Principal People of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages" (1796).