The glory round the head is properly the nimbus or aureole. The oblong glory surrounding the whole person, called in Latin the _vesica piscis_, and in Italian the _mandorla_ (almond), from its form, is confined to figures of Christ and the Virgin, or saints who are in the act of ascending into heaven. When used to distinguish one of the three divine persons of the Trinity the glory is often cruciform or triangular. The square nimbus designates a person living at the time the work was executed. In the frescoes of Giotto at Assisi, the allegorical personages are in some instances distinguished by the hexagonal nimbus. In other instances it is circular. From the fifth to the twelfth century the nimbus had the form of a disc or plate over the head.[8] From the twelfth to the fifteenth century, it was a broad golden band, round, or rather behind, the head, composed of circle within circle, often adorned with precious stones, and sometimes having the name of the saint inscribed within it. From the fifteenth century it was a bright fillet over the head, and in the seventeenth century it disappeared altogether. In pictures the glory is always golden, the colour of light; in miniatures and stained glass I have seen glories of various colours, red, blue, or green.[9] * * * * * The FISH was the earliest, the most universal, of the Christian emblems, partly as the symbol of water and the rite of baptism, and also because the five Greek letters which express the word Fish form the anagram of the name of Jesus Christ. In this sense we find the fish as a general symbol of the Christian faith upon the sarcophagi of the early Christians; on the tombs of the martyrs in the catacombs; on rings, coins, lamps, and other utensils; and as an ornament in early Christian architecture. It is usually a dolphin, which among the Pagans had also a sacred significance. The passage in the Gospel, ‘Follow me, and I will make ye fishers of men,’ is supposed to have originated the use of this symbol; and I may observe here, that the fish placed in the hands of St. Peter has probably a double or treble signification, alluding to his former occupation as a fisherman, his conversion to Christianity, and his vocation as a Christian apostle, i. e. a fisher of men, in the sense used by Christ; and in the same sense we find it given as an attribute to bishops who were famous for converting and baptising, as St. Zeno of Verona, and Gregory of Tours. * * * * *