Opus Anglicanum

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Opus Anglicanum or English work is a contemporary term for fine English needlework done for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothing, hangings or other types of cloth, primarily by nuns and then by laywomen in workshops. Most surviving examples were for church use. These exquisite and expensive embroidery pieces were often copes but could be other types of church furnishings and vestments. They were usually embroidered on velvet or silk, frequently with gold thread.

English needlework had become famous across Europe during the Anglo-Saxon period. A Papal inventory in Rome, from the 13th century, lists over 200 pieces, and a request by a Pope of the period for religious hoses to send more is reported indignantly by the Benedictine chronicler Matthew Paris of St Albans.

One particularly fine example is the The Adoration of the Magi chasuble from c.1325 in red velvet embroidered in gold thread and pearls at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It depicts a nativity scene with emphasis on decorative motifs, flowers, animals, birds, beasts, and angels.

Few surviving secular examples exist.