Ambo

a raised platform or reading-desk, from which, in the primitive Church, the gospel and epistle were read to the people, and sometimes the sermon preached. Its position appears to have varied at different times; it was most frequently on the north side of the entrance into the chancel. The singers also had their separate ambo. — Bingham, Orig. Eccl. bk. 3, ch. 7.

Baldus and Durandus derive the name from the circumstance of there being a double flight of steps to the ambo; others, with more probability, from the Greek ἀναβαίνω, to ascend. Treatises on this subject are by Geret, De vet. ecclesioe ambonibus (Onold. 1757); Weidling, De ambonibus vet. ecclesiae (Lips. 1687). SEE LESSON; SEE PULPIT.