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Encyclopedia Britannica

THURIBLE (Lat. thuribulum or turibulum, thus or tus, incense, Gr. Ms, from Ou&av, to offer a burnt sacrifice, cf. Skr. dhuma and Lat. fumus, smoke)

This article appears in Volume V26, Page 901 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: THE-TOO

THURIBLE (Lat. thuribulum or turibulum, thus or tus, incense, Gr. Ms, from Ou&av, to offer a burnt sacrifice, cf. Skr. dhuma and Lat. fumus, smoke) , the ecclesiastical

term

TERM

for a censer, a
portable vessel in which burning

incense

INCENSE

(q.v.) can be carried. The censer, to use the more general

term

TERM

, is a vessel which contains burning charcoal on which the aromatic substances to be burned are sprinkled. The early Jewish portable censer would seem to have been a bowl with a handle, resembling a ladle. A similar form was used by the ancient Egyptians

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

prior to the Jewish use. There are very numerous representations on the monuments; in some the censer appears as a small cup or bowl held by a human hand to which a

long

LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

handle is attached on which is a small box to hold the

incense

INCENSE

. The Greek and Roman censers (Bviscar, pcov and turibulum or thuribulum) are of quite different shape. They are small portable braziers (foculi) of bronze or sometimes of silver and of highly ornate

design

DESIGN (Fr. desiin, drawing; Lat. designare, to mark out)

. One type took the form of a candelabrum with a small flat brazier on the top. They were carried in processions and were lifted by cords. Terra cotta censers have also been found of a similar shape. The censers or thuribles in Christian usage have been specially adapted to be swung, though there are in existence many early specimens of heavy

weight

WEIGHT

and made of gold or silver which were obviously not meant to be used in this way and have handles and not chains. The

thurible

THURIBLE (Lat. thuribulum or turibulum, thus or tus, incense, Gr. Ms, from Ou&av, to offer a burnt sacrifice, cf. Skr. dhuma and Lat. fumus, smoke)

, the proper ecclesiastical term for the vessel in the Western

Church

, is usually spherical in form, though often square or polygonal, containing a small receptacle for the charcoal and covered by a perforated lid; it is carried and swung by three chains, a fourth being attached to the lid, thus allowing it to be raised at intervals for the volume of smoke to be increased. The early thuribles were usually simple in

design

DESIGN (Fr. desiin, drawing; Lat. designare, to mark out)

; but in the medieval period an architectural form was given to the lids by ornamenting them with towers, battlements and traceries, varying according to the prevalent

Gothic

GOTHIC

style of the period. A censer lid with a

late

LATE

Saxon tower upon it, now in the British Museum,

dates

DATES

from the r2th century or earlier.

End of Article: THURIBLE (Lat. thuribulum or turibulum, thus or tus, incense, Gr. Ms, from Ou&av, to offer a burnt sacrifice, cf. Skr. dhuma and Lat. fumus, smoke)

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