mantua (mantua)

[A corruption of man teau, formerly also manto, mantoe, and in the 17th century also prob. (as the Sc. form manty indicates) pron. * mantue (man'tu) (ef. beauty, pron. bū'ti), whence, appar. by a ociation with Mantua, a town in Italy, the form mantua. There was no actual connection with Mantua; and the supposed analogy of milliner, ult. Condescending (tho' she is of a great House in France) to make Mantua's for the Improvement of the English. Steele , Grief A-la-Mode, iii. 1. Scott . A new mantua of genuine French silk. ture; especially, a signature to an official document executed by the hand of a sovereign or magistrate. The treasurer obliged himself to procure some declaration under his majesty's sign manual . Clarendon, Civil Wars. II. n. 1. A small book, such as may be car ried in the hand or conveniently handled; especially, a book of convenient size containing the elements of a science, a collection of rules, or the like, designed for use as a text-book or as a reference-book: as, a manual of laws. 2. Specifically, an office-book of the medieval Catholic Church in England, containing the form to be observed by priests in the administration of the sacraments of communion (out of ma ), baptism, penance, marriage, and extreme unction, and in churchings, burials, etc. It corresponds to the Roman Catholic office-book called the ritual. The name manual (ML. manuale ) was sometimes used in France also. The Manual had in it all the services that a parish priest has to perform, with the musical notation where needed, and the full rubrics for the administration of the Sacraments. Rock, Church of our Fathers, III. ii. 213. 3. In music: ( a ) In a musical instrument, a key or lever for the hands or fingers; a . umn. having the character of a manubrium; resembling a handle: as, the manubrial part of the sternum.