Overview
Isidore of Seville
(c. 560—636) Spanish archbishop and Doctor of the Church
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Abecedarium nordmannicum
A runic alphabet of sixteen signs with a simple explanatory text in alliterative verse. This is written in Old Saxon with traces of Anglo-Saxon. The alphabet is entered in a ...
Ages of Man
(see children, Nature, old age, youth). In his work on old age, Cicero (Tullius) remarks that nature has a single path which is run only once, and to each stage ...
Alcuin
(c. 735–804)English scholar and theologian. In 782 was employed by Emperor Charlemagne as head of his palace school at Aachen, where his pupils included many of the outstanding figures in the ...
All Souls' Day
The commemoration of the souls of the faithful departed on 2 Nov., the day after All Saints' Day. Its observance became universal through the influence of Odilo of Cluny (d. 1049). In the C of E it ...
allegory
A story, poem, or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. The word comes (in late Middle English) via Old French and Latin from Greek ...
anatomy
The study of the structure of living organisms, especially of their internal parts by means of dissection and microscopical examination. Compare morphology.
annals
(from Latin annus, ‘year’) The yearly records kept by the priests in Rome from the earliest times. They noted ceremonies, state enactments, and the holders of office. The high priest (Pontifex ...
antiphon
(from Gr., ‘sounding across’).1 A versicle or phrase sung by one choir in reply to another.2 In the RC Church the antiphon is intoned or sung during the recitation of Divine Office, before and after ...
apologetics
In theology, the attempt to show that a faith is either provable by reason, or at least consistent with reason. More generally, the attempts to defend a doctrine.
architect
In the fifteenth century, anyone who was concerned with erecting a building, even by supervising financial arrangements, could be called an architect. The specialized profession of architect, in ...
ars praedicandi
(Lat., ‘the art of preaching’). The medieval artes praedicandi provided instruction in the composition of sermons either as an adjunct to a collection of sermons or as a manual which circulated with ...
astrology
The study of movements and relative positions of celestial bodies interpreted as having an influence on human affairs and the natural world. Ancient observers of the heavens developed elaborate ...
basilica
A large oblong hall or building with double colonnades and a semicircular apse, used in ancient Rome as a law court or for public assemblies. The name was then applied to a building of this type used ...
Bede
(673–735,historian and scholar, when young placed in the charge of Benedict Biscop, the abbot of Wearmouth. From there he went in 682 to Jarrow, where he spent most of his life. He was a diligent ...
bestiary
A description of animal life in verse or prose, in which the characteristics of real and fabulous beasts (like the phoenix or the unicorn) are given edifying religious meanings. This kind of allegory ...
Book of Judges
This OT Book traces the history of the Israelites from Joshua's death to the beginning of the monarchy, describing incidents connected with the conquest of Palestine, and woven round the names of ...
Braulio of Saragossa
(d. 650),bishop. He is one of the most famous of early Spanish saints, both as pastor and writer. He was born of a noble Hispano-Roman family, his father Gregory being bishop of Osma, while his two ...
Capitilavium
(Lat., ‘washing of the head’).A name given to Palm Sunday in the early Middle Ages, acc. to Isidore of Seville in reference to the custom of washing the heads ...
cartography
The science and craft of drawing maps and charts; on the latter, see charts and chart-making. In Babylonian and Greek antiquity the world was thought to be a disc surrounded ...
Castile
A region of central Spain, on the central plateau of the Iberian peninsula, formerly an independent Spanish kingdom. The marriage of Isabella of Castile to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 linked these ...
