Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/78

* LECOTIVIIETJR. 68 LECTISTERNITTM. among French actresses. Her force of character, high spirit, and noble l)eauty gave all her im- personations the stamp of her individuality. Her favorite roles were those of exalted pas- sion, like Pauline. Monime. Berenice, Athalie, and Ph&drc. She delighted Paris, and for thir- teen years her real life, like her acting, was a stormy elysium. filled with the loves and gal- lantries of the most eminent men of her time. She died in Paris. March 20. 1730. poisoned, it is said, by means of a bouquet of llowers sent by the Duchess de Bouillon, a rival mistress of Maurice of Saxony. Her story is the subject of a well-known drama bv Scribe and Legouve. which was first acted at the TheAtre Francais by Rachel in 1S49. LECOY DE LA MARCHE, Ic-kwU' de la nuirsh. Albeht ilsaO-OTi. A French antiqua- ry and historian. He was born at Nemours and educated at the Ecole des Chartes (1858-01). From 18C1 to 1804 he was keeper of the depart- mental archives of Haute-Savoic. and in the lat- ter year became connected with the archives at Paris. There he was professor of history at the Catholic Institute (1877-80), and in 1884 found- ed classes for the higher education of women, which were held at the Salle Albert le Grand and later at the rooms of the Geographical Society. His writings, which have a certain value, as they are all founded on manuscripts usually con- tcmpijiary with the period treated, include: De Viijioritc de Origoire de Tours (1861); Notice histon(jue sur liipaUle en Chablais (1863) : La chaire fransnise an moyen age (last edition 1886) ; La soeiete au XIII^ siicU (1880) ; La guerre aux erreurs historiques (1888) ; and Relations fiolitiques de la France avec le royaume de Majorque (1802). EE CRETJSOT, le kre'z*'. A town of France. See rp.KrsoT, Le. EECTEBN (also let tern, lettron, from OF. letlrin. lettron, leutrin. Fr. lutrin, from ML. lectrinum, lectruni. reading-desk, from Gk. Aeic- rpnv, lektrnn, couch). A reading-desk or stand, movable or stationary, from which the Scrip- ture lessons {lectiones). which form a part of the vai-ious Church senices, are chanted or read. The term is properly applied only to the class mentioned as independent of the pulpit. Such lecterns were either fixed or movable; when fixed they were sealed to the pavement in the centre of the choir and were made of wood or metal — ordinarily brass or latten. The light, movable lecterns, usually of iron or wood. are less decorative. The lectern is of very an- cient use. from the early Christian period to the present in the dilTcvent Christian denomina- tions, especially the Catholic and Episcopal. It is made of ver' various materials — gold, silver, bronze, brass, marble (plain or inlaid), or wood. It either had an independent base or stand, or else was ])art of the pulpit (q.v.), or ambone. None of the lecterns in precious metal have been preserved, but descriptions of such stands, in the Lihrr Pnntificalis. shows them to have been in early use. and to have been flanked with candelabra. The earliest preserved are the stationary marble lecterns on pulpits in Italy, as on those of San Lorenzo and the Araco>Ji in Rome. Richer are the lecterns on pulpits of the Pisan TiLScan school of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, especially those carved by the Pisan sculptors Niccola and Giovanni. In these examples an eagle with outspread wings supported the booklike slab, and it rested upon a composite group of the three other living creatures, siiinbols of the Evangelists, the Angel, the Lion, and the Ox. Usually only the eagle was carved under the book, and this became the nor mal type of lectern preserved to the present time. So usual was it to make the eagle the central ornament that the mediirval name for this choir lectern was ordinarily aquila ; but sometimes tli.' pelican was substituted (wooden lectern of lit teenth century at Zammel). This was often the case in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with the weakening of the old religious traditions, when other figures were substituted, such as grif- fins, angels, or men. eontrarj- to true iconography. Sometimes, as in the case of the iron lectern at Tournai Cathedral, there is no figured decora- tion. During the Gothic and Renaissance periods the churches of Central and Northern Europe were decorated with beautifully carved lecterns, and even in Italy there were many inlaid with intarsia, or carved, in connection with the choir-stalls, like that of Verona (Santa Maria in Organo). LECTIONABY (ML. lectionarium, lectiona- rius. book of lessons, from Lat. lectio, lesson, reading, from legere. to read. Gk. Xiyuv, legein, to say). One of the service books of the media>- val Church containing the portions of Scripture to be read in public worship. There are two lectionaries which deserve special notice. The first is the .so-called 'Roman lectionary." which contained the cpi.stles and gospels of the Roman missal, and sometimes all the lessons of all tlic various services in use in the Roman Church, in which case it was named the plenarium. The most ancient form of the Roman lectionary was called comes or liher comitis. Its compilation was attributed to Saint .Jerome, and it appears certain that it belongs in substance, although ii- i in form or in details, to his age. The collection was revised and remodeled in the eighth century. The second of the ancient lecMonaries is tlial known as the 'Galilean lectionary.' which was published by ^Mabillon from a MS. of the monas- tery of Luxeuil. and which is believed to repro- .sent the rite of the ancient Galilean Church. It is, however, imperfect, and no other copy Iki- since been discovered. LEC'TISTER'NIUM (Lat., a couch-spread- ing, from led us. couch -^ sternerc. to spread) . A sacrificial ceremony among the ancient Romans; it had its analogue among the Greeks {kKIvtiv arpQaai), on occasions of extraordinary solem- nity, v.ben figures of the greater deities were placed reclining or seated on the sacred pulrinrr in the street shrines, and a feast was spread on tables before them. Such a ceremony was first ordained by the Sibylline Books on the occasion of a pestilence in B.C. 399. Generally, the gods were placed on the couches in pairs, as Apollo and his mother Latona. Diana and Hercules. Mercurs' and Neptune. The ceremony was earlier resorted to in times of trouble, with the idea of appeasing the angry deities, but later also (and particularly) on occasions of general exultation, as a part of the supplicatio. or thanksgiving. Sometimes it was customary to represent the female deities seated, when the ' ceremony was technically called sellistemium.