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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 ...
Atthis
Was the title eventually given to the genre of Greek historiography that narrated the local history of Attica. The genre was probably created by Hellanicus in the late 5th cent. It was most popular ...
Audre Lorde
(1934–92), poet.Born in New York City of West Indian parents, Lorde was educated at the National University of Mexico, Hunter College, and Columbia University. The main themes of her ...
ba
In ancient Egyptian belief, the soul of a person or god, which survived after death but which had to be sustained with offerings of food. It was typically represented as a human-headed bird. See also ...
baptism
In the Christian Church, the religious rite of sprinkling water on a person's head or of immersing them in water, symbolizing purification or regeneration and admission to the Christian Church. ...
count-noun
A noun indicating a kind that can be counted; you can count the books or tables in a room, but not the stuff or the matter. See also mass-noun, sortal.
dead
According to a common opinion, the dead in the Middle Ages played no role in the affairs of the living: Christians honoured their dead, prayed for them, offered a cult ...
Desert of Scetis
In this depression to the west of the Egyptian delta, halfway between Alexandria and Cairo, in c.330 Macarius the Great had founded a hermitage, which was followed by others.It ...
diptych
A picture consisting of two separate panels facing each other and usually joined at the centre by a hinge.
epigraphy
The term “epigraphy”comes from the Greek epigráphein, “to write on”. It designates what is written to be brought to public knowledge in a lasting way. To ensure this publicity, inscriptions ...
epithet
An adjective or adjectival phrase used to define a characteristic quality or attribute of some person or thing. Common in historical titles (Catherine the Great, Ethelred the Unready), ‘stock’ ...
family
Family bible a bible designed to be used at family prayers, typically one with space on its flyleaves for recording important family events.the family that prays together, stays together motto ...
fraternities
In the Middle Ages fraternities of many kinds were founded in the Church to meet the religious and social needs of clergy and laity. Their primary purpose was to secure for their members mutual ...
gens
(‘lineage’) derives from a Lat. root denoting procreation, and the gens was often conceived as comprising the free‐born descendants of a common ancestor in the male line. That distant ancestor was ...
Herodium
Lying 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) southeast of Bethlehem and 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) south of Jerusalem, the truncated, conical mountain Herodium (Gk., Herodion) is described by Josephus as having the ...
image magic
In magic, injuring a model injures the person it represents, especially if it incorporates his hair or fingernails, or is given his name. In 963 a woman was executed by drowning for driving nails ...
Immanuel
(Heb., ‘With us [is] God’). The word occurs in Is. 7: 14 and 8: 8, but it is not clear to whom it refers. In Mt. 1: 23 the prophecy is interpreted with reference to the birth of Christ.
inscription
[Ar]A set of words or pictographic images cut into the surface of a block of stone, ceramic panel, metal plate, or some other kind of durable material in order to record some kind of event or ...
Israel
The northern Israelite kingdom during the period of the divided monarchy (c.928–722). After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam could not mend regional differences and discontent in his kingdom, ...
ivory
[Ma]Animal tusk, usually from the elephant, walrus, or narwhal. In Palaeolithic times, tusk from mammoth was also used.
