Alma mater

Etymology

Although alma (nourishing) was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. In the Oxford Latin Dictionary, the full phrase's origin is attributed to De rerum natura, in which Lucretius uses the term as an epithet for an unnamed earth goddess: Denique caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquentis umoris guttas mater cum terra recepit (2.991–993) We are all sprung from that celestial seed, all of us have same father, from whom earth, the nourishing mother, receives drops of liquid moisture

After the fall of Rome, the term was used in Christian liturgy to describe Jesus' mother, Mary. "Alma Redemptoris Mater" is a well-known eleventh century antiphon devoted to Mary.

The earliest documented use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when the University of Cambridge printer, John Legate, began using an emblem for the university press. The first-known appearance of the device is in William Perkins', A Golden Chain, a book first printed by Legate in 1600. On the title-page, the Latin phrase Alma Mater Cantabrigia ("nourishing mother Cambridge") is inscribed on a pedestal bearing a lactating woman wearing a mural crown.

In reference works of English etymology, often the first university-related usage is cited as 1710, when an academic mother figure is mentioned in a remembrance of Henry More by Richard Ward.

Special use

Many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The Latin name of the University of Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum (nourishing mother of studies), refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At other European universities, such as the Alma Mater Lipsiensis in Leipzig, Germany, or Alma Mater Jagiellonica, Poland, the title emphasizes historic ties to a founding city or dynasty.

The Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, an international university founded by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2010, uses the term as its official name.

In the United States, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the "Alma Mater of the Nation" because of its ties to the founding of the country.

At Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the main student government is known as the Alma Mater Society.

Monuments

Sculptures of Alma Mater are found on several North American university campuses. In 1901, to commemorate the opening of the Low Library, Columbia University commissioned Daniel Chester French to design a bronze statue of for the library's steps. French chose the alma mater to allegorically embody the university without depicting its founder, King George II. A similar sculpture, cast in 1919 by Mario Korbel, sits on the main entrance steps at the University of Havana.

Other tributes to alma mater include Lorado Taft's 1929 sculpture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Cyrus Dallin's 1925 sculpture at the Mary Institute in 1925, commissioned by Washington University supporters.

An altarpiece mural in Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library, painted in 1932 by Eugene Savage, depicts the Alma Mater as a bearer of light and truth, standing in the midst of figures representing the arts and sciences.

| File: Universidad de la habana fachada.JPG | Alma Mater at the University of Havana | File:Alma Mater Restored 2014.jpg | Alma Mater by Lorado Taft (1929) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | File: Alma Mater statue by Cyrus Dallin - vertical.jpg | Alma Mater by Cyrus Dallin at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School | File: Yale Alma Mater Mural Highsmith.jpg | Alma Mater altarpiece mural by Eugene Savage at Yale University (1932)

References

References

1. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180513081122/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/alma_mater?filter=dictionary&query=Alma "alma"], Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
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5. ''Shorter [[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 3rd edition
6. Martin, Charles E.. (July 14, 2003). "Alma Mater". Mississippi College Department of Music.
7. Sollors, Werner. (1986). "Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture". Oxford University Press.
8. [[Lucretius. "De rerum natura".
9. Stokes, Henry Paine. (1919). "Cambridge stationers, printers, bookbinders, &c.". Bowes & Bowes.
10. Roberts, S. C.. (1921). "A History of the Cambridge University Press 1521–1921". Cambridge University Press.
11. Stubbings, Frank H.. (1995). "Bedders, Bulldogs and Bedells: A Cambridge Glossary".
12. Perkins, William. (1600). "A Golden Chaine: Or, the Description of Theologie, containing the order and causes of salvation and damnation, according to God's word". University of Cambridge.
13. Harper, Douglas. "Alma mater".
14. Ward, Richard. (1710). "The Life of the Learned and Pious Dr. Henry More, Late Fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge". Joseph Downing.
15. "History & Traditions". William & Mary.
16. Holzer, Harold. (2019). "Monument Man: The Life and Art of Daniel Chester French". Princeton Architectural Press.
17. (20 February 2014). "Dos rostros, dos estatuas habaneras".