| Title: | Alphabet, Greek and Latin |
| Original Title: | Alphabet grec et latin |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 1 (1751), p. 297 |
| Author: | Edme-François Mallet (biography) |
| Translator: | Peter Daniels |
| Subject terms: |
Theology
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| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.300 |
| Citation (MLA): | Mallet, Edme-François. "Alphabet, Greek and Latin." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Peter Daniels. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2015. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.300>. Trans. of "Alphabet grec et latin," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 1. Paris, 1751. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Mallet, Edme-François. "Alphabet, Greek and Latin." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Peter Daniels. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.300 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Alphabet grec et latin," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1:297 (Paris, 1751). |
Alphabet, Greek and Latin , characters or letters used by Greeks or Latins, that during the consecration of a Church, the Prelate carrying out the consecration draws with his finger in the ashes with which the pavement of the new Church has been covered. Some believe this practice is an allusion to what is said of Jesus Christ in the Apocalypse 1:7, 22, ego sum alpha & omega, primus & novissimus, principium & finis : [1] but if so, it would suffice to draw only a Greek alpha and omega , and a Latin a and z . Others, who are more likely to be correct, claim that this ceremony relates to a prayer recited at that time, which mentions elements , a name given to the letters of the alphabet . Bruno Signiensis, de consecr. Eccles . [2]
Notes
1. 1 “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” [Douai–Rheims; the correct reference is 22:13; 1:8 includes the first and third pairs of attributes. trans. ]
2. No idea what this book is – entering the name as “Signiensis” and the abbreviation yields exactly this one single reference. Conceivably it refers to Abbot Suger, Libellus de consecratione ecclesiae S. Dionysii (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suger)?