Alma mater

==Etymology==
[[File:Legate John, Alma Mater Cantabrigia Emblem 1600 (Golden Chaine print).jpg|thumb|right|John Legate's Alma Mater for Cambridge in 1600]]
Although ''alma'' (nourishing) was a common epithet for [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]], [[Cybele]], [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with ''mater'' in classical Latin.<ref name="Sollors">{{cite book |last=Sollors |first=Werner |author-link=Werner Sollors |title=Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture |url=https://archive.org/details/beyondethnicityc00soll |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1986 |isbn= 9780198020721 |page=[https://archive.org/details/beyondethnicityc00soll/page/78 78]}}</ref> In the ''[[Oxford Latin Dictionary]]'', the phrase is attributed to [[Lucretius]] in his ''[[De rerum natura]]'' where he used the term as an epithet to describe an earth goddess:
<poem lang="la" style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">Denique caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi
omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquentis
umoris guttas mater cum terra recepit (2.991–993)<ref>{{Cite Wikisource|wslanguage=la|wslink=De rerum natura (Titus Lucretius Carus)|title=De rerum natura|chapter=Liber II|author=[[Lucretius|Titus Lucretius Carus]]}}</ref></poem>
<poem style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">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</poem>{{Clear|left}}

After the [[fall of Rome]], the term came into Christian liturgical usage in association with [[Mary, mother of Jesus]]. "[[Alma Redemptoris Mater]]" is a well-known eleventh century [[antiphon]] devoted to Mary.<ref name="Sollors" />

The earliest documented use of the term to refer to a university in an English-speaking country is in 1600, when the [[University of Cambridge]] printer, John Legate, began using an emblem for the [[Cambridge University Press|university press]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Stokes |first=Henry Paine |title=Cambridge stationers, printers, bookbinders, &c. |year=1919 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Bowes & Bowes |page=12 |url=https://archive.org/stream/cambridgestation00stokrich#page/12/mode/2up |access-date=18 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=S. C. |author-link=Sydney Castle Roberts |title=A History of the Cambridge University Press 1521–1921 |date=1921 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofcambrid00roberich#page/34/mode/2up |access-date=18 May 2015}}</ref> The first-known appearance of the device is on the title-page of a book by [[William Perkins (theologian)|William Perkins]], ''A Golden Chain'', where the Latin phrase ''Alma Mater Cantabrigia'' ("nourishing mother Cambridge") is inscribed on a pedestal bearing a nude, lactating woman wearing a [[mural crown]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Stubbings |first=Frank H. |title=Bedders, Bulldogs and Bedells: A Cambridge Glossary |edition=2nd |year=1995 |page=39}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Perkins |first=William |author-link=William Perkins (theologian) |title=A Golden Chaine: Or, the Description of Theologie, containing the order and causes of salvation and damnation, according to God's word |year=1600 |publisher=University of Cambridge |location=Cambridge |url=https://archive.org/details/goldenchaineorde00perk |access-date=18 May 2015}}</ref>

In English etymological reference works, 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.<ref>{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas |title=Alma mater |website=Online Etymological Dictionary |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Alma+Mater |access-date=18 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ward |first=Richard |date=1710 |title=The Life of the Learned and Pious Dr. Henry More, Late Fellow of Christ's College in Cambridge |publisher=Joseph Downing |location=London |page=148 |url=https://archive.org/stream/lifelearnedandp00wardgoog#page/n178/mode/1up |access-date=18 May 2015}}</ref>