[L. vēsīca, a bladder, blister.]
1. Anat. A bladder.
Rarely used exc. with defining term, esp. v. natatoria or v. urinaria.
[1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Vesica, the Bladder, an hollow membranaceous Part, wherein any Liquor that is to be excerned, is contained.]
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vesica, a Bladder. [Hence in Bailey, etc.]
1859. Mayne, Expos. Lex.
† 2. A copper vessel used in distilling. Obs.
1683. Salmon, Doron Medicum, I. 21. Put a quarter of the infusion … into a vesica and powre on more rain or river water. Ibid. (1694), Bate’s Dispens. (1713), 12/2. You may either distil in a Copper Vesica,… or … in a Glass Body.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Vesica,… the large Copper Body Tinned within-side, which is commonly used in Distillation of Ardent Spirits.
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, I. 126. Put all the Matter into a Copper Vesica, tinn’d within.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Distillation, Odoriferous Plants … are distill’d by the Cucurbite, or Vesica.
3. Vesica piscis (also piscium), a pointed oval figure, the sides of which are properly parts of two equal circles passing through each other at their centers, freq. employed as an architectural feature and by early artists as an aureole enclosing figures of Christ, the Virgin, etc.
The reason for the name (fish’s or fishes’ bladder) is disputed: see quot. 1813.
1809. T. Kerrich in Archaeol. (1812), XVI. 313. [A figure] formed by two equal circles, cutting each other in their centers…. We are told that it was called Vesica Piscis.
1813. J. S. Hawkins, Gothic Archit., 244. Vesica piscium cannot, therefore, signify a fish’s bladder, but a bladder, which when filled with wind, would be in the form of a fish.
1820. T. Kerrich in Archaeol., XIX. 353. Observations on the Use of the mysterious Figure, called Vesica Piscis, in the Architecture of the Middle Ages, and in Gothic Architecture.
1845. Parker, Gloss. Archit. (ed. 4), I. 399. Vesica piscis, a name applied by Albert Durer to a pointed oval figure [etc.].
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. v. 189. Their heads [sc. of the two portals of Ely] were formerly filled with the Vesica Piscis.
attrib. 1884. Imp. Dict., s.v., Vesica piscis Seal, Wimborne Minster.
1901. Athenæum, 16 Nov., 667/2. A Vesica Piscis window of unusual character at Millom Church, Cumberland.
b. ellipt. in this sense. Also attrib. and Comb.
1820. T. Kerrich, in Archaeol., XIX. 361. The precise form of the Vesica which was used.
1848. Rickman, Styles Archit., App. p. xxxvi. A figure standing in a shallow niche, holding a vesica, probably intended to represent the Trinity.
1878. M‘Vittie, Christ Ch. Cathedral, Dublin, 68. The figures are combined in vesica-shaped medallions.
1907. Times Lit. Suppl., 25 Jan., 30/2. The very beautiful vesica form … adopted in consequence of the prevailing taste for the pointed arch, and the fashion for the vesica in architecture.
