TANKARD, a type of drinking vessel. The word was formerly used loosely of many sizes, usually large, of vessels for holding liquids; thus it was applied to such as held two or more gallons and were used to carry water from the conduits in London in the 16th and early 17th centuries. The word is now generally applied to a straight, flat-bottomed drinking vessel of silver, pewter or other metal, or of glass or pottery mounted on metal, with a hinged cover and handle, holding from a pint to a quart of liquor (see Drinking Vessels). The derivation is obscure. It appears in O. Fr. as tanquart and in O. Du. as tanckaert. It may have been, as is suggested, metathesized from Gr. κάνθαρος, Lat. cantharus, a large vessel or pot. It is used to gloss amphora in the Promptorium Parvulorum {c. 1440). It is not connected with "tank," a cistern or reservoir for water, which was formerly "stank," and is from Port. tanque, 0. Fr. estang, mod. Slang, pool; Lat. slagnum, whence Eng. "stagnant."
TANNA (Aramaic, "teacher"). The root teni or tena corresponds philologically to the Hebrew shana, from which comes the word Mishnah (see Midrash and Talmud), the great Rabbinic code which (with certain parts of the Midrash and other Rabbinic books) was the main literary product of the activity of the tannaim (plural of tanna). The term tanna is used in the Talmud of those teachers who flourished in the first two centuries of the Christian era. The tannaim from the date
of the destruction of the Temple may be grouped: (1) 70-100, representative name Johanan ben Zaqqai (q.v.); (2) 100-130, representative name Aqiba {q.v.); (3) 130-160, representative name Judah the Prince, compiler of the Mishnah. The successors of the lannaim were called 'amor aim (see 'Amora).
See W. Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten. An alphabetical list of tannaim and 'amoraim is given in the Jewish Encyclopedia, xii. 49-54.
TANNAHILL, ROBERT (1774-1810), Scottish song-writer, son of a Paisley silk-weaver, was born on the 3rd of June 1774. He was apprenticed to his father's trade at the age of twelve, and, inspired by the poetry of Robert Burns, he wrote verses as he drove the shuttle to and fro, with shelf and ink-bottle rigged up on his loom-post. He was shy and reserved, of small and delicate physique, and took little part in the social life of the town. The steady routine of his trade was broken only by occasional excursions to Glasgow and the land of Burns, and a year's trial of work at Bolton. He began in 1805 to contribute verses to Glasgow and Paisley periodicals, and published an edition of his poems by subscription in 1807. Three years later, on the 17th of May 1810, the life of the quiet, gentle, diffident and despondent poet was brought by his own act to a tragic end. Tannahill's claims to remembrance rest upon half a dozen songs, full of an exquisite feeling for nature, and so happily set to music that they have retained their popularity. "Loudon's Bonnie Woods and Braes," "Jessie, the Flower o'Dunblane," and "Gloomy Winter's Noo Awa" are the best of them. "Jessie, the Flower o'Dunblane" and "The Farewell" tell the story of the poet's own unhappy love for Janet Tennant.
Tannahill's centenary was celebrated at Paisley in 1874. See edition by D. Semple (1876) for details of his life.
TANNER, HENRY OSSAWA (1850- ), American artist, of negro descent, was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of June 1859. He was the son of Benjamin Tucker Tanner (b. 1835), who became bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1888, edited the Christian Recorder, the organ of his church, from 1867 to 1883, founded, and from 1884 to 1888 edited, the African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, and published several pamphlets, poems and hymns, and an Apology for African Methodism (1867). The son was a pupil of Thomas Eakins, in Philadelphia, and of J. P. Laurens and Benjamin Constant in Paris. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1895. His "Daniel in the Lions' Den" received an honourable mention at the Salon of 1896. "The Raising of Lazarus," which received a third-class medal in 1897, was purchased by the French government for the permanent collection of the Luxembourg. Other pictures are, "The Annunciation" (Salon, 1898), "Nicodemus Coming to Christ" (1899), "The Jews' Wailing Place," and "Christ in the Temple."
TANNER, THOMAS (1674–1735), English antiquary and prelate, was born at Market Lavington in Wiltshire on the 25th of January 1674, and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, taking holy orders in 1694. Next year he became chaplain and then fellow of All Souls College, and a few years later private chaplain to John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Norwich and afterwards of Ely, who appointed him chancellor of the diocese of Norwich. In 1706 he became rector of Thorpe, near Norwich,
in 1713 a canon of Ely, in 1724 a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1732 bishop of St Asaph. He died in Oxford, where he had passed most of his life, on the 14th of December 1735.
Tanner's chief work is his Notitia Monastica, a short account of all the religious houses in England and Wales. This was published at Oxford in 1695; it was reprinted with additions by the author's brother, John Tanner, in 1744; and was reprinted again with further additions by James Nasmith (1740-1808) in 1787. He also wrote Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, a dictionary of all the authors who flourished in England, Scotland and Ireland before the opening of the 17th century, at which he laboured for forty years. This was not published until 1748, thirteen years after the author's death. The bishop collected materials for a history of Wiltshire and worked for some time on a new edition of the works of John Leland. His valuable collection of books and manuscripts is in the Bodleian library at Oxford.
Another writer of this name was Thomas Tanner (1630-1682), the author of The Entrance of Mazzarini (Oxford, 1657-58). Educated at St Paul's School, London, and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, he became a barrister and later a -clergyman, being vicar of Colyton, Devon, and afterwards of Winchfield, Hants.
TANNHÄUSER, or Tanhuser, German Minnesinger of the 13th century, who lived for a time at the court of Frederick II., duke of Austria. After Duke Frederick's death he was received at the court of Otto II., duke of Bavaria; but, being of a restless disposition, and having wasted his fortune, he spent much time in wandering about Germany. He also went as a Crusader to the Holy Land. His poems belong to the decadence of the Minnesang, and combine a didactic display of learning with descriptions of peasant-life in a somewhat coarse tone. His adventurous life led him to be identified, in the popular imagination, with the knight Tannhauser who, after many wanderings, comes to the Venusberg, or Horselberg, near Eisenach. He enters the cave where the Lady Venus — the Frau Hulda of German folk-lore — holds her court, and abandons himself to a life of sensual pleasure. By and by he is overcome by remorse, and, invoking the aid of the Virgin Mary, he obtains permission to return for a while to the outer world. He then goes as a pilgrim to Rome, and entreats Pope Urban to secure for him
the forgiveness of his sins. The pope declares it is as impossible for him to be pardoned as for the staff he has in his hand to blossom. Tannhauser departs in despair, and returns to the Venusberg. In three days the staff begins to put forth green leaves, and the pope sends messengers in all directions in search of the penitent, but he is never seen again. This legend was at one time widely known in Germany, and as late as 1830 it survived in a popular song at Entlebucb in Switzerland, a version of which was given by Uhland in his Alle hoch- und niederdeutsche Volkslieder. Among the attendants of Hulda was the faithful Eckhart, and in the preface to the Heldenbuch he is said to sit before the Venusberg, and to warn passers-by of the dangers to which they may be exposed if they linger in the neighbourhood. The legend has been reproduced by several modern German poets, and by R. Wagner in an opera.
For Tannhauser's lyric poetry, see F. H. von der Hagen's Minnesinger, ii. (1838); K. Bartsch, Deutsche Liederdichler des 12: bis 14. Jahrhunderts (3rd ed. 1893),' No. 47. See also F. Zander, Die Tannhauser sage und der Minnesinger Tannhauser (1858); J. G. T. Grasse, Die Sage von Tannhauser (1846; 2nd ed. 1861); A. Ohlke Zu Tannhdusers Leben und Dichlen (1890); J. Siebert, Tannhauser Inhalt und Form seiner Gedichte (1894).
TANNIN, or Tannic Acid, the generic name for a widely disseminated group of vegetable products, so named from their property of converting raw hide into leather (q.v.). They
