Their tablets often exhibited on a central plate the portrait of the sovereign, surrounded by four other plates. Those presented to the latter often had a border of gold and were quite large. The consuls, on the day of the installation, were wont to offer diptychs to their friends and even to the emperor. It was customary to commemorate in this way one’s elevation to a public office, or any event of personal importance, e.g. 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. They were generally made out of ivory with carved work, and were sometimes from twelve to sixteen inches in height. The term diptych is often restricted to a highly ornamented type of notebooks. Between the two tablets others were sometimes inserted and the diptych would then be called a triptych, polyptych, etc. The Roman military certificates, privilegia militum, were a kind of diptych. They served as copy-books for the exercise of penmanship, for correspondence, and various other uses. Diptychs were known among the Greeks from the sixth century before Christ. Their inner surfaces had ordinarily a raised frame and were covered with wax, upon which characters were scratched by means of a stylus. These tablets were made of wood, ivory, bone. (Or diptychon, Greek diptychon from dis, twice and ptyssein, to fold).Ī 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. Diptychs were also sculptured as devotional panels for altars and church walls. The long passage after the Sanctus corresponds to the ancient recital of the diptych of the living, and the recitation of that of the dead is recalled by the Memento which follows the consecration. The contents of the diptychs were read aloud from the ambo or altar, and traces of the fixed usage of the Church in the 5th century may still be found in the Canon of the Mass. Exclusion from these lists was a grave ecclesiastical penalty. The “diptychs of the dead” contained the names of those otherwise qualified for inscription on the diptychs of the living. From them came the first ecclesiastical calendars and martyrologies. The “diptychs of the living” contained the names of the pope, the bishops, illustrious persons, lay and ecclesiastical, and benefactors. Saint Cyprian mentions them in the 3rd century and they were in use until the 12th in the West, and the 14th in the East. In the early Church the names of the members, living or dead, were inscribed on diptychs. They were in use among the Greeks in the 6th century, B.C. Between the two tablets others were sometimes inserted, thus giving rise to the names, triptych, polyptych, etc. Two-leaved hinged tablet of metal, ivory, or wood, the inner surface of which was covered with wax upon which characters were scratched with a stylus.
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