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TYMPANON, or TYMPANUM

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 498 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TYMPANON, or TYMPANUM (Gr. rbg ravov, from T117rTEaV, to strike), a name applied by the See also:Romans to both kettledrum and See also:tambourine, in the See also:case of the latter sometimes qualified by leve. The tympanum leve, generally included among the tympana, described as being like a. See also:sieve, was the tambourine used in the See also:rites of Bacchus and See also:Cybele. See also:Pliny doubtless described See also:half pearls having one See also:side See also:round and the other See also:flat, as tympania, on See also:account of their resemblance to the tympanum or kettledrum, which, in its See also:primitive See also:form, See also:innocent of screws or mechanism for tightening the See also:head, exactly resembled the half See also:pearl. During the See also:middle ages the tympanum was gene-rally a tambourine, the kettledrum being known as See also:nacaire. In See also:architecture the See also:term tympanum is given to the triangular space enclosed between the See also:horizontal See also:cornice of the See also:entablature and the sloping cornice of the See also:pediment. Though sometimes See also:left See also:plain, in the most celebrated See also:Greek temples it was filled with See also:sculpture of the highest See also:standard ever attained. In Romanesque and ' See also:Gothic See also:work the term is applied to the space above the See also:lintel or See also:architrave of a See also:door and the discharging See also:arch over it, which was also enriched either with geometrical patterns or in later work with See also:groups of figures; those in See also:continental work are usually arranged in tiers. The upper portion of a gable when enclosed with a horizontal See also:string-course, is also termed a tympanum.

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