Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Turibulum

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TURIB'ULUM or THURIB'ULUM (θυμιατήριον). A censer, or vessel in which incense was burnt (Liv. xxix. 14.), as contradistinguished from acerra, the box in which it was carried to the temple, and thence taken out to be put into the censer, or sprinkled upon the burning altar. It was often carried in the hand by a chain, and swung to and fro for the purpose of diffusing the odoriferous vapour along the streets (Curt. viii. 9.) or through the temples (Virg. Aen. xi. 481.), in the same manner as still practised in the Roman Catholic churches. The illustration (Turibulum/1.1) represents an original of bronze found at Pompeii. One of the three chains by which it was suspended from the hand is attached to the top of the lid, which would be raised a little, and the vapour thus permitted to escape, every time the vessel was swung backwards or forwards.

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