Diptych

(Or diptychon, Greek diptychon from dis, twice and ptyssein, to
fold).

A diptych is a sort of notebook, formed by the union of two
tablets, placed one upon the other and united by rings or by a
hinge. These tablets were made of wood, ivory, bone. or metal.
Their inner surfaces had ordinarily a raised frame and were
covered with wax, upon which characters were scratched by means of
a stylus. Diptychs were known among the Greeks from the sixth
century before Christ. They served as copy-books for the exercise
of penmanship, for correspondence, and various other uses. The
Roman military certificates, privilegia militum, were a kind of
diptych. Between the two tablets others were sometimes inserted
and the diptych would then be called a triptych, polyptych, etc.
The term diptych is often restricted to a highly ornamented type
of notebooks. They were generally made out of ivory with carved
work, and were sometimes from twelve to sixteen inches in height.
In the fourth and fifth centuries a distinction arose between
profane and ecclesiastical (liturgical) diptychs, the former being
frequently given as presents by high-placed persons. It was
customary to commemorate in this way one's elevation to a public
office, or any event of personal importance, e.g. a marriage. The
consuls, on the day of the installation, were wont to offer
diptychs to their friends and even to the emperor. Those presented
to the latter often had a border of gold and were quite large.
Their tablets often exhibited on a central plate the portrait of
the sovereign, surrounded by four other plates. The (undated)
Barberini ivory at the Louvre is thus constructed and once served
as an ecclesiastical diptych (see below). Some believe it to be
the binding of a books offered to the emperor. Strzygowski holds
it to be of Egyptian origin and thinks that the portrait is that
of Constantine the Great, defender of the Faith. The oldest dated
consular diptych is that of Probus (406); it is kept in the
treasury of the cathedral of Aosta, Piedmont. The latest is that
of the Eastern consul, Basilius (541), one tablet of which is at
the Uffizi Museum in Florence and the other at the Brera in Milan.
The Theodosian Code (384) forbade the offering of ivory diptychs
to any but the regular (i.e. not honorary) consuls. The tablet at
the Mayer Museum in Liverpool, bearing the image of Marcus
Aurelius (d. l80), is prior to this enactment. The consular
diptychs are recognizable by their inscriptions or by the figure
of the consul which they bear. On the diptych of Boetius at
Brescia (487) and several others of the same type the consul is
clad in a trabea (a kind of toga); he holds in his left hand the
scipio (consular sceptre) and in his right the mappa circensis, or
white cloth which he used to wave as the signal for the games in
the circus. These games (ludi) or other liberalities offered to
the people by the consul were frequently represented on the
tablets of the diptychs.

There is less certainty concerning the diptychs of officials other
than consuls, e.g. praetors, quaestors, etc. The diptych of Rufius
Probianus V. C. (i.e. vir clarissimus) vicarius urbis Romae, in
the Berlin Museum, is the most precious relic of this class, and
probably dates from the end of the fourth century. Among the
diptychs of private individuals that of Gallienus Concessus,
discovered at Rome on the Esquiline, exhibits only the name of its
owner. Others were richly ornamented and reproduced often some of
the masterpieces of ancient art. Thus on a diptych in the Mayer
Museum, Liverpool, are seen Aesculapius and Telesphorus Hygieia,
and Amor. The most beautiful of the profane diptychs was carved at
the time of a marriage between the Symmachi and the Nicomachi (392
to 394, or 401). It represents on each leaf (one of which is at
the South Kensington Museum and the other, in a very damaged
condition, at Cluny) a woman performing a sacrifice. Many of the
profane diptychs were preserved in the treasuries of the churches,
where they were eventually used for liturgical purposes or
enshrined in bookbindings or in goldsmith work. The diptych of
Boetius, among others bears on the interior, some liturgical texts
and religious paintings, attributed to the seventh century. The
Liege diptych of the consul Anastasius (517), one leaf of which is
at Berlin and the other at South Kensington, bears an inscription
of forty-two lines and the prayer Communicantes from the Canon of
the Mass. Another of the same consul (in the
Biblioth�queNationale, Paris) has a list of the bishops of
Bourges. At the cathedral of Monza, Lombardy, a diptych represents
in the dress of consuls king David and St. Gregory the Great. It
is perhaps an ancient consular diptych, transformed in the eighth
or ninth century; according to some it appears to be of
ecclesiastical origin. Many carved diptychs reproduced purely
religious subjects. On a diptych in the treasury of Rouen
cathedral the figure of St. Paul is exactly the same as that on a
sarcophagus in Gaul. A diptych leaf in the treasury of Tongres was
evidently influenced by the carvings on the cathedra of St.
Maximinus at Ravenna, and seems to have belonged to an ancient
episcopal see. Certain diptychs with religious subjects, e.g. the
Holy Sepulchre and the holy women at the Tomb of Christ (Milan),
an angel (British Museum), probably date from the fourth or fifth
century. Diptych leaves divided into five compartments have
generally served as a cover for copies of the Gospels. The
diptychs, though often clumsily executed, are important for the
history of sculpture, there being a good number of them extant,
and several being accurately dated. At different periods in the
Middle Ages numerous diptychs or triptychs of ivory were made, to
serve as little devotional panels.

The liturgical use of diptychs offers considerable interest. In
the early Christian ages it was customary to write on diptychs the
names of those, living or dead, who were considered as members of
the Church a signal evidence of the doctrine of the Communion of
Saints. Hence the terms "diptychs of the living" and "diptychs of
the dead." Such liturgical diptychs varied in shape and dimension.
Their use (sacrae tabulae, matriculae, libri vivorum et mortuorum)
is attested in the writings of St. Cyprian (third century) and by
the history of St. John Chrysostom (fourth century), nor did they
disappear from the churches until the twelfth century in the West
and the fourteenth century in the East. In the ecclesiastical life
of antiquity these liturgical diptychs served various purposes. It
is probable that the names of the baptized were written on
diptychs, which were thus a kind of baptismal register. The
"diptychs of the living" would include the names of the pope,
bishops, and illustrious persons, both lay and ecclesiastical, of
the benefactors of a church, and of those who offered the Holy
Sacrifice. To these names were sometimes added those of the
Blessed Virgin, of martyrs, and of other saints. From such
diptychs came the first ecclesiastical calendars and the
martyrologies. The "diptychs of the dead" would include the names
of persons otherwise qualified for inscription on the diptychs of
the living, e.g. the bishops of the community (also other
bishops), moreover priests and laymen who had died in the odour of
sanctity. It is to this kind of diptychs that the later
necrologies owe their origin. Occasionally special diptychs were
made to contain only the names of a series of bishops; in this way
arose at an early date the episcopal lists or catalogues of
occupants of sees. Whatever their immediate purpose the liturgical
diptychs admitted only the names of persons in communion with the
Church; the names of heretics and of excommunicated members were
never inserted. Exclusion from these lists was a grave
ecclesiastical penalty; the highest dignity, episcopal or
imperial, would not avail to save the offender from its
infliction. The content of the diptychs was read out, either from
the ambo (q. v.) or from the altar by a priest or a deacon. In
this respect a variety of customs obtained in different churches
and at different periods, sometimes the diptychs were simply laid
on the altar during Mass, and when read publicly, such reading did
not always occur at the same stage of the Mass. The order of which
traces are now seen in the Roman Canon of the Mass was the fixed
usage of the Roman Church as early as the fifth century. In that
venerable document a long passage after the Sanctus corresponding
to the ancient recitation of the diptychs of the living; it
contains, as is well known, mention of those for whom the Mass is
offered, of the pope, of the bishop of the diocese, of the Blessed
Virgin, and of several saints. At Easter and at Pentecost the Hanc
igitur furnished a proper occasion to mention the names of the
newly baptized, now mentioned only as a body. Finally the
recitation of the "diptychs of the dead" is still recalled by the
Memento which for the consecration.

R. MAERE
Transcribed by Michael C. Tinkler


From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

-------------------------------------------------------

  Provided courtesy of:

       Eternal Word Television Network
       PO Box 3610
       Manassas, VA 22110
       Voice: 703-791-2576
       Fax: 703-791-4250
       Data: 703-791-4336
       Web: http://www.ewtn.com
       FTP: ewtn.com
       Telnet: ewtn.com
       Email address: sysop@ ewtn.com

  EWTN provides a Catholic online
  information and service system.

-------------------------------------------------------

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.ratthing.com. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.