Pulpit

Pulpit (Lat. pulpitum), an elevated tribune or desk, from which sermons, lectures, and other solemn religious addresses are delivered. In great churches the pulpit is commonly placed on the north side of the nave against the wall, or in juxtaposition with a pillar or buttress (see also AMBO). The pulpits of the Low Countries and of Germany are often masterpieces of elaborate carving in wood and stone, frequent subjects for treatment being the Conversion of St Paul, the Call of Peter and Andrew, and Adam and Eve (as in the wood-carved pulpit by Verbruggen in St Gudule at Brussels). Sometimes the canopy or sounding-board is the part most elaborately adorned by carving in wood or stone, as in the pulpit at Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire. Amongst the masterpieces of Nicola Pisano are the beautifully wrought marble pulpits of the baptistery at Pisa, and of the cathedral at Siena. Some are adorned by bronze-work. The pulpit (in Arabic, minbar) forms one of the scanty appliances of Mohammedan worship. See Dollman's Examples of Ancient Pulpits in England (1849).