Lituus

The lituus was a crooked wand (similar in shape to the top part of some Western European crosiers) used as a cult instrument in ancient Roman religion by augurs to mark out a ritual space in the sky (a templum).

One example is the lituus, the traditional staff of the ancient Roman augurs, as well as the staff of Moses in the Hebrew Bible.

The lituus was a crooked wand (similar in shape to the top part of some Western European crosiers) used as a cult instrument in ancient Roman religion by augurs to mark out a ritual space in the sky (a templum).

Membership gave the lifelong right to participate prominently in processions at ludi and in public banquets; augurs proudly displayed the symbol of his office, the lituus.

A more particular term, lituus alpinus, was used in 1555 by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner when he published the earliest detailed description of the Alphorn: "nearly eleven feet long, made from two pieces of wood slightly curved and hollowed out, fitted together and skillfully bound with osiers".

For a long time, scholars believed that the alphorn had been derived from the Roman-Etruscan lituus, because of their resemblance in shape, and because of the word liti, meaning Alphorn in the dialect of Obwalden.

The only known Baroque composition specifying an instrument by the Latin name lituus is Bach's motet O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (BWV 118).

In the second half of the 18th century the lituus was described in one source as a Latin name for the trumpet or horn.

The word lituus originally meant a curved augural staff, or a curved war-trumpet in the ancient Latin language.

The lituus was a crooked wand (similar in shape to the top part of some Western European crosiers) used as a cult instrument in ancient Roman religion by augurs to mark out a ritual space in the sky (a templum).

The lituus was a crooked wand (similar in shape to the top part of some Western European crosiers) used as a cult instrument in ancient Roman religion by augurs to mark out a ritual space in the sky (a templum).

The lituus was a crooked wand (similar in shape to the top part of some Western European crosiers) used as a cult instrument in ancient Roman religion by augurs to mark out a ritual space in the sky (a templum).

The ancient lituus was an Etruscan high-pitched brass instrument, which was straight but bent at the end, in the shape of a letter J, similar to the Gallic carnyx.

The ancient lituus was an Etruscan high-pitched brass instrument, which was straight but bent at the end, in the shape of a letter J, similar to the Gallic carnyx.

The ancient lituus was an Etruscan high-pitched brass instrument, which was straight but bent at the end, in the shape of a letter J, similar to the Gallic carnyx.

The ancient lituus was an Etruscan high-pitched brass instrument, which was straight but bent at the end, in the shape of a letter J, similar to the Gallic carnyx.

For the Roman military it may have been particular to the cavalry, and both the Etruscan and Roman versions were always used in pairs, like the prehoistoric lurer.

Players of the lituus were called liticines, though the name of the instrument appears to have been loosely used (by poets, not likely by soldiers) to describe other military brass instruments, such as the tuba or the buccina. From the end of the 10th through the 13th centuries, chroniclers of the Crusades used the word lituus vaguely—along with the Classical Latin names for other Roman military trumpets and horns, such as the tuba, cornu, and buccina and the more up-to-date French term trompe—to describe various instruments employed in the Christian armies.

Players of the lituus were called liticines, though the name of the instrument appears to have been loosely used (by poets, not likely by soldiers) to describe other military brass instruments, such as the tuba or the buccina. From the end of the 10th through the 13th centuries, chroniclers of the Crusades used the word lituus vaguely—along with the Classical Latin names for other Roman military trumpets and horns, such as the tuba, cornu, and buccina and the more up-to-date French term trompe—to describe various instruments employed in the Christian armies.

In 17th-century Germany a variant of the bent ancient lituus was still used as a signalling horn by nightwatchmen.

From the end of the 10th through the 13th centuries, chroniclers of the Crusades used the word lituus vaguely—along with the Classical Latin names for other Roman military trumpets and horns, such as the tuba, cornu, and buccina and the more up-to-date French term trompe—to describe various instruments employed in the Christian armies.

From the end of the 10th through the 13th centuries, chroniclers of the Crusades used the word lituus vaguely—along with the Classical Latin names for other Roman military trumpets and horns, such as the tuba, cornu, and buccina and the more up-to-date French term trompe—to describe various instruments employed in the Christian armies.

In the early 15th century, Jean de Gerson listed the lituus among those string instruments that were sounded by beating or striking, either with the fingernails, a plectrum, or a stick.

In the early 15th century, Jean de Gerson listed the lituus among those string instruments that were sounded by beating or striking, either with the fingernails, a plectrum, or a stick.

Other instruments Gerson names in this category are the cythara, guiterna, psalterium, timpanum, and campanula.

Other instruments Gerson names in this category are the cythara, guiterna, psalterium, timpanum, and campanula.

Other instruments Gerson names in this category are the cythara, guiterna, psalterium, timpanum, and campanula.

Throughout the postclassical era the name lituus continued to be used when discussing ancient and Biblical instruments, but with reference to contemporary musical practice in the Renaissance it usually referred to "bent horns" made of wood, particularly the crumhorn and the cornett.