The baldric.
The baldric, a ceremonial adaptation of the medieval knife belt
slung over the shoulder, is another part of formal academic regalia. Information
about them is hard to find, even from institutions that grant them, so this
discussion is built partly on observation and partly on inference.
You will have seen them among members of the faculty at formal graduation or
matriculation ceremonies. They are approximately 3-foot-long strips of cloth
with a large fastener for the shoulder. The strip is perhaps 4 inches wide.
Baldrics pin to the right shoulder and the strip of cloth drops in front and
behind.
The fastener usually bears a heraldic device of the granting institution,
which may be more or less abstractly symbolic. I recently saw one which looked
like a large butonnaire (or maybe a rosette) in bright fuscia and white, with
cloth strip in the same colors. The baldric of the American Academy in Rome
bears the Janus-head device of the institution on a medallion fastener.
This secures the cloth strip of the academic colors for the fields pursued at
the Academy, brown (fine arts) and white (humanities, arts and letters).
Thin horizontal fur strips articulate this baldric at either end and about a
foot up from the bottom of the front, below the fastener.
So much for observation. Now for inference. Why baldrics? The code governing
academic regalia forbids wearing two hoods at one time. Recipients of honorary
degrees, no matter how academically eminent, come to their hooding ceremony
with only a gown. Unless I am much mistaken, the baldric is a device which permits
institutions to confer distinctive honorary ornaments without forcing the recipient
to divest herself of her alma mater's PhD hood.
Post scriptum.
Those wanting to delve further into the history (and, I fear, inherent vanity,
in more than one sense of that word) of academic regalia may profitably consult
the following:
Fussell, Paul. 1991. BAD,
or, the Dumbing of America. (Pages 74-75, tracing the fad for colored
doctoral gowns to Harvard.)
----------. 2002. Uniforms. Why We Are What We Wear. (Pages 142-145,
offering a fuller history of the evolution of US academic garb.)