PULPIT. This term affords a striking instance of the great change of meaning and application which words frequently undergo, for, exclusively of the Latin termination, it is identical with Pulpitum, which signified that part of the Roman stage (distinguished from the orchestra) on which the actors recited and performed their parts. The French pupitre and the English pulpit both come from the same source, but arc dissimilar in signification ; the former meaning merely a rcwlingslesk, and chairs (cathedra) being the term that corresponds with our English pulpit. The ambo of the early Christians appears to have been different both In form and purpose from pulpits afterwards used for preaching, it being rather a low platform on which parts of the service were sung or recited. The most ancient pulpits now existing are supposed to be those in S. Lorenzo fuor dells Mures and S. Clemente at Rome ; and these and other early pulpits of the same kind are of marble, with inlaid or mosaic compartments. In the church of S. Lorenzo at Florence, and several other modern basilicas, there are two pulpits, one on each side of the nave. Great cord both of material and workmanship was frequently bestowed on pulpits; and some of them rank among the most celebrated monuments of art of their period. The pulpit in the baptistery of Pisa, by Niecola, is hexagonal, and supported on seven columns, one at each angle and a central one. Giovanni Tisane executed that in the nave of the Dumno at Pim, besides which there are two others in the same church, on the opposite sides of the choir. The Argumo of Santa Croce at Florence, by B. da Majano, is greatly extolled by Vasari for the beauty of its reliefs and sculptures. The two pergami in S. Lorenzo at Florence, are the work of Donatello; and of the mastery of composition displayed in their reliefs some idea may be formed from the specimen given of them in Cicogreu-a's Stories della Scultura.' Notwithstanding the richness of such pulpits, and their elaborate execution, their general forms aro not always the most pleasing or appropriate! For a long time the pulpit appears to have been treated as an architectural feature, being constructed, if not of marble, of the same material as the rest of the interior. Among numerous other examples
of Gothic stone-pulpits may be mentioned one that has been much admired, though it is very impure in style, in the nave of Strasburg cathedral. One of the most celebrated as a performance of art is the magnificent oak pulpit in the nave of St. Guthile, at Brussels ; the whole is elaborately carved, and the pulpit itself is supported by figures representing Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise.
Of stone-pulpits we have only a few remaining in this country; but there is one in Bristol cathedral dated 1624, another in Worcester, drawings and details of which latter are given in Pugin's Gothic! Specimens;' and others in Huish-Epiecopi, Sornersetahire ; Coombe, Oxfordshire, &c.; but old carved wooden pulpits are much more common. The Worcester pulpit, and a atone pulpit in the outer court of Magdalene College, Oxford, are instances of what may be termed oriel pulpits, being made to project after the fashion of an oriel, from a pier or wall, and similarly corbelled below, instead of being supported from the ground. Another, still more ancient and curious—and we may add, more beautiful—is that at Beaulieu, Hants, which projects from an elegant open Gothic arch, and is supported, not on a corbelled and moulded oriel-stool, but on a short reversed spire, whose angles are decorated with small pillar-shafts, and the sides between them with foliage. Besides pulpits of this kind in the courts and cloisters of religious houses, there were others called preaching-crosses, from which sermons were delivered in the open air : Paul's Cross is a celebrated and well-known instance.