LECTORIUM. – A dividing wall between the choir and the nave in medieval churches. In French called *jubé*, in English *rood screen* or *roodloft* (i.e., “tribune of the Crucifix”), in Flemish *doxale*, in German *Lettner*, and in Spanish *trascoro*.
The *l.* appears from the second half of the 12th century first in France, then in Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, and England, where it reached its greatest development and diffusion. Its origin is debated: it may derive from an elevation of the head wall of Romanesque crypts or from a further development of the union between the pergola and the ambo or pulpit. The *l.* is found especially in churches with choral service: cathedrals, abbeys, collegiate churches, rarely in parish churches, and never in the churches of the Friars Minor or the Preachers. Properly speaking, it consists of an elevated tribune above a very thick wall between the choir and the nave (or naves). The wall is richly decorated with sculpture and often with painting, and is almost always integrated into the church’s architectural structure; the tribune or corridor above is accessible by one or more staircases. Generally, the *l.* incorporates two projecting pulpits, and not infrequently an organ was placed there, whence the names *doxale* and *odeum*, thus constituting a true singing gallery (*v.*), which was later placed against other walls of the church. Often, however, the *l.* consisted only of a dividing wall without a gallery or pulpits. Yet it always had an altar attached to it, usually dedicated to the Holy Cross, which either surmounted the *l.* itself or hung from the vaulting. The principal purpose of the *l.* was to maintain a separation between the presbytery, reserved for the clergy celebrating the divine office, and the nave, reserved for the laity. When, in the era of the Catholic Reformation and especially in the Baroque age, a new liturgical mentality placed the sacrifice of the Mass at the center of piety, the use of *l.* fell into disuse, and many were demolished and often replaced by grand screens that, while maintaining the prescribed separation between clergy and laity, allowed the latter full freedom to follow solemn functions.
A curious reminiscence of the *l.* is preserved in the *Pontificale Romanum*, *De ordinatione lectorum*, where the bishop, in his admonition to the ordinand, says:
> “Ideoque, dum legitis, in alto stetis, ut ab omnibus audiamini et videamini”
This phrase is already found in the *Pontificale* of William Durandus (cf. M. Andrieu, *Le Pontifical Romain au moyen âge*, II, *Le Pontifical de G. Durand* [Studi e testi, 88], Città del Vaticano 1940, p. 342), and certainly reflects the custom of the time.
The example of an older *l.* in Italy is found in the abbey church of Vezzolano (Asti), dated to 1180; that of Modena, older still, has disappeared. In France, *l.* may be seen in the cathedrals of Chartres, Bourges, Reims, Paris, and the abbey church of Chaise-Dieu, as well as those extant at Albi, Troyes (St. Magdalene), and others. In Germany, they exist at Naumburg, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Wechselburg, and many others now destroyed, as well as at Mainz, Meissen, and others. In Belgium, at Tournai, Louvain, and Dixmuiden (extant) and others. In England, at Canterbury, York, and Gloucester. In Spain, at Toledo, Burgos, León, Ávila, and others. – See pl. LXVI.