APRON (by wrong division into an apron, for a napron, O.E. napron, O.F. naperon, Fr. nap peron, dimin. of nu ppe, cloth, tablecloth, from Lat. mappa, cloth, ef. napkin). An outer gar ment, originally of linen, but often of cloth or leather, covering the front of the person and in tended to protect other clothes from injury. It is used in C'overdale's translation of the Bible (1535), and also in the Authorized Version, to render the Hebrew word ehagorah, applied to the covering of fig-leaves made by Adam and Eve after the Fall. It has also been applied to va rious mechanical devices used for purposes of protection, as (1) in military affairs, a rectangu lar piece of lead, with a projection on the under side, used to cover the vents in old-fashioned cannon; (2) in ship-building, the piece of curved timber set just above the forward end of the keel, to join the several pieces of the stem and con nect them more firmly with the keel (see SHIP BUILDING) ; (3) in engineering structures, a plat form placed at the base to protect it from heavy shocks; (4) in carpentry, the horizontal piece of timber which takes a carriage-piece or rough string on a staircase, and also the ends of joists which form the half-space or landings; (5) in plumb ing, the lead sheeting or flushing dressed on the slates in front of a dormer window or skylight; (6) in mechanics, the piece which holds the cut ting tool in a planing machine; (7) in archi tecture, a more or less fiat member placed against or above anything for protection, as the deco rative member under a veranda cornice. Besides the obvious uses of aprons in the original sense, they are also worn in elaborately decorated forms, as part of the costume of Freemasons (see MASONS, FREE) in the lodge: and bishops and deans in the Church of England wear an apron of black or purple silk which is an ab breviation of the older cassock.
APSE. (For derivation, see APSIDES.) An ar chitectural term used by Greeks and Romans In designate a vaulted Atrueture, such as a conical chamber. or even a triumphal arch. The Romans applied it particularly to the large, semicircu lar niche that projected from some of their tem ple-eellas or their basilicas; in the temples, it was the place for the cult-image of the god; in the basilica, it was the praetor's tribunal, where he sat surrounded by his assessors. In both cases it was the culminating point of the struc ture. The partial derivation of the Christian
church or basilica from the Roman basilica or law-court makes it natural that this semi-eireu lar projection or apse should appear as an inte gral part of the earliest churches; Early Church writers also called it exedra, concha, or co china bematis. Being opposite to the facade, which usually faced west, the apse end of the church was often called the east end. The higher clergy were seated on a bench around the apse; the bishop tools the prfetor's place in the centre, and the presbyters that of the assessors. The altar rose just beyond the centre of the semicircle. Being the most sacred part of the church, the apse received the richest and most artistic deco ration, and the most sacred subjects were de picted upon its semidome and walls. The width of the apse usually corresponded to that of the nave of the church, whose end it seemed to form. It was not until the Seventh or Eighth century that two smaller apses were often placed on either side to stand in the same way at the ends of the aisles. They may have developed from the small sacristies which had for centuries usu ally been placed there.
Churches without apses are very few. But in course of time variations of form were intro duced. Byzantine architects gave a polygonal form to the exterior, while preserving the in terior semicircular outline ( e.g.. Ravenna ) . Square apses, found at first only as out-of-the way freaks. became common in the Eleventh, Twelfth. and Thirteenth centuries, especially as they were adopted by the Cistercian monks and those who felt their influence. The development of transepts led sometimes to the use of apses at their terminations, as in the Romanesque churches at Cologne. Another arrangement, sel dom seen outside of Germany, was a double apse, one at each end of the church, which made it nec essary to enter the church at the sides; this is found in both Romanesque and Gothic churches. Finally, the apsidal end of the Romanesque church, first in France and then in Germany, became enriched by the use of radiating chapels and side-aisles, taking a form which is no longer called apse, but choir, and is described under that head. The exterior wall of the apse was very plain in early Christian architecture, but mediaeval art decorated it richly with false and engaged arcades in several rows.