Collections Historical Archaeological Relating To Montgomeryshire And Its Borders Volume 32 PDF Download

Excerpt from Collections Historical Archaeological Relating to Montgomeryshire and Its Borders, Vol. 33: Issued by the Powys-Land Club for the Use of Its Members The history and use of the Reredos has been well and concisely set forth by the late Rev. E. M. C. Mackenzie Walcott, in his Dictionary of Sacred Archcoelogy, and will serve as a fitting and helpful introduction to this article: - Reredos. (Retroaltare, retrotabularium, postabulum, postaltare, posticum, retable, reyretaule, retaule, reredos, lardose, l'arrieredos; Sp. retablo; Ger. postergule). Called by Bishop Andrewes the backpiece. An ornament behind an altar, of hanging carved metal-work or drapering; on it were often ranged innumerable lights 'ultra magnum altare.' It is not earlier than the fourteenth century in its later form, nor under any description previous to the end of the eleventh, or beginning of the twelfth century. As long as the old ritual lasted the altar stood free from the east end, in the chord of the apse. Until the fourteenth century it was still of the ordinary form of a table, and had only the Gospels and ciborium set on it at the time of Holy Communion, both in the Western and the Eastern churches. The tabernacle was an addition in the seventeenth century to the retable; the latter about the end of the eleventh century was introduced, being moveable and made of wood or precious metal, and set on the altar to contain relics at certain times. Even the fixed retable, a mere upright slab of stone masking a little shrine behind it, does not date further back than the beginning of the twelfth century, and was never attached then to the high-altar of a cathedral, but only used in minsters to which pilgrims were to be attracted by the exhibition of relics. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.