Meaning of quinity | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Synonym of quintet: A group of five.
   countable, uncountable
2. Synonym of fiveness: The state of being five or having 5 parts.
   countable, uncountable

Examples

“His subject is a "strange image" among the llth century drawings of the Winchester school, which he calls a quinity. But what is a quinity? Let⟳ me explain⟳ it in his own⟳ words: "It is a Quaternity of God the Father, the Son, St. Mary, and the Holy Ghost; or, if we add⟳ the Infant on the lap of the Virgin, we face⟳ the seemingly unique representation of what logically must be called a Quinity".”

“In 1947, for example, in a wonderful study⟳ of the "quinity" of Winchester, Kantorowicz interprets an astonishing sketch⟳ in a book of offices (officia) copied in Winchester at the beginning of the eleventh century. He invents the term quinity to describe⟳ a curious composition showing the Holy Family, in which there appear⟳ two identical representations of the divinity side by side.”

“It is thus of particular interest⟳ to find⟳ the Trinity and the Incarnation combined in one medallion in the so- called Quinity of Winchester, of 1023-1035 (fol.75v- fig. 119)195. The Virgin and Child, who holds a book, is next to the two similar figures of God the Father and God the Son, who are sitting on a bow and also holding books. The Holy Ghost alights on Mary's crowned head, and all but she have⟳ crossed haloes.”

“Plate 3 shows Mary as part of what has been called a heavenly Quinity; not the traditional trinity of father, son and holy spirit, but a fivesome where the usual three are joined by Mary and her infant”

CEFR level