Tabard

This term is used by Boccaccio, as well (“Io ti lascerò pegno questo mio tabarro,” literally, ‘I will leave this tabard with you as a sign of my love’). It describes a long and ample men’s cape and in certain areas in the north of Italy, the term is still used. In particular in Venice, in the eighteenth century, the term described the broad cape with a double mantle on the shoulders, worn both by noblemen and noblewomen. It was very common during the 1960s, but the tabard traces its roots back to the Middle Ages, when it was worn as a military or ceremonial uniform.