GLOSSARY

Definitions taken from The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture by John Fleming, Hugh Honour, and Nikolaus Pevsner, third edition, 1980, Penguin Press.

Aisle

Part of a church, hall or other building, parallel to the main span and divided from it by an ARCADE of piers or columns or in rare cases by a screen wall. See figure 10. [p. 10]

Ambulatory

A semicircular or polygonal aisle enclosing an apse or a straight-ended sanctuary; originally used for processional purposes. [p.14]

Apse

A vaulted semicircular or polygonal termination, usually to a chancel or chapel. See figure 10. [p. 16]

Arcade

I. A range of arches carried on piers or columns, either free-standing or blind, i.e., attached to a wall. [p.16]

Basilica

A church divided into a nave and two or more aisles, the former higher and wider than the latter, lit by the windows of a CLERESTORY, and with or without a gallery. In Roman architecture, a basilica was a large meeting-hall, as used in public administration. The term indicated function and not form, but Roman basilicas were often oblong buildings with aisles and galleries and with an apse opposite the entrance which might be through one of the longer, or one of the shorter sides. Early Christian churches evolved from Roman basillics of this type (not from pagan Religious architecture). By the 4th century the Christian basilica had acquired its essential characteristics: oblong plan; longitudinal axis; a t imber roof, either open or concealed by a flat ceiling; and a termination, either rectangular or in the form of an apse. [p. 30]

Buttress

A mass of masonry or brickwork projecting from or built against a wall to give additional strenth, usually to conteract the lateral thrust of an arch, roof, or vault. [p.55]

Angle buttresses.

Two meeting at an angle of 90 degrees at the angle of a building.

Clasping buttress.

One which encases the angle.

Diagonal buttress.

One placed against the right angle formed by two wall, and more or less equiangular with both.

Flying buttress.

An arch or half-arch transmitting the thrust of a vault or roof from the upper part of a wall to an outer support or buttress.

Lateral buttress.

A buttress standing at the corner of a building on axis with one wall.

Pier buttress.

an exterior pier counteracting the thrust of a vault or arch.

Setback buttress.

A buttress set slightly back from the angle.

---

Cell

One of the compartments of a groin or rib VAULT, in the Romanesque period usually of plastered rubble, in the Gothic period of neatly coursed stones; the earliest known example is St. Denis of 1140-4. Also called a web. [p. 70]

Chancel

That part of the east end of a church in which the main altas is placed; reserved for clergy and choir. From the Latin word cancellus, which strictly means the screen that often separated it from the body of the church. The term more usually describes the space enclosed and is applied to the whole continuation of the nave east of the CROSSING. [p. 72]

Chevet

A French term for the east end of a church, consiting of APSE and AMBULATORY with or without radiating chapels. [p. 72]

Choir

The part of a church where divine service is sung, usually part of the chancel. [p. 74] [p.74]

Clerestory (or Clearstory)

The upper stage of the main walls of a church above the aisle roofs, pierced by windows; the same term is applicable in domestic building. In Romanesque architecture it often has a narrow wall-passage on the inside. [p. 77]

Commpound Pier

A pier with several SHAFTS, attached or detached, or demi-shafts against the faces of it; also called a clustered pier. See figure 30. [p. 79]

Crocket

A decorative feature carved in various leaf shapes and projecting at regular intervals from the angles of spires, PINNACLE, canopies, gables, etc., in Gothic architecture. See figure 31. [p. 85]

Crossing

The space at the intersection of the nave, chancel, and transepts of a church; often surmounted by a crossing tower or dome. [p. 86]

Dome

A vault of even curvature erected on a circular base. The section can be segmental, semicircular, pointed, or bulbous.

If a dome is to be erected on a square base, members must be interpolated at the corners to mediate between the square and the circle. They can be pendentives or squinches. A pendentive is a spherical triangle; its curvature is that of a dome whose diameter is the diagonal of the initial square. The triangle is carried to the height which allows the erection on itstop horizontal of the dome proper. A squinch is either an arch or arches of increasing radius projecting one in front of the other, or horizontal arches projecting in the same manner. If squinches are placed in the corners of the square and enough arches are erected on them they will result in a suitable base-line for the dome. In all these cases the dome will have the diameter of the length of one side of the square. It can be placed direct on the circular base-line, when this is achieved, or a drum, usually with windows, can be interpolated. If the dome has no drum and is segmental, it is called a saucer dome. If it has no drum and is semi-circular, it is called a calotte.

Another method of developing a dome out of a square is to take the diagonal out of the square as the diameter of the dome. In this case the dome starts as if by pendentives, but their curvature is then continued without any break. Such domes are called sail vaults, because they resemble a sail with the four corners fixed and the wind blowiing into it.

A domical vault is not a dome proper. If on a square base, four webs (CELLS) rise to a point seperated by GROINS (see VAULT). The same can be done on a polygonal base..

For geodesic dome, see FULLER.

An umbrella, parachute, pumpkin or melon dome is a dome on a circular base, but also divided into individual webs, each of which, however, has a baseline curved segmentally in plan and also curved in elevation.

Dwarf Gallery

A wall-passage with small arcading on the outside of a building; usual in Romanesque architecture, especially in Italy and Germany. [p. 101]

Elevation

The external faces of a building; also a drawing made in projection on a vertical plane to show any one face (or elevation) of a building. See figure 6. [p. 105]

Gallery

In church architecture, an upper storey over an aisle, opening on to the nave. Also called a tribune and often, wrongly, a TRIFORIUM. Found as an exterior feature with continuous small open ARCADING in medieval Itali an and German churches, and sometimes called a DWARF GALLERY.

Groin

The sharp edge formed by the intersectioon of vaulting surfaces. [p. 145]

Lancet Window

A slender pointed-arched window, much used in the early CI3. See figure 59. [p. 190]

Nave

The western limb of a church, that is, the part west of the CROSSING; more usually the middle vessel of the western limb, flanked by AISLES. [p. 225]

Oculus

A circular opening in a wall or at the apex of a dome, e.g., Pantheon, Rome. [p. 229]

Pier

1. A solid masonary support, as distinct from a COLUMN. 2. The solid mass between doors, windows, and other openings in buildings. 3. A name often given to Romanesque and Gothic pillars varying from a square to composite secti on (see COMPOUND PIER). [p. 243]

Pinnacle

A small turret-like termination crowning spires, buttresses, the angles of parapets, etc.; usually of steep pyramidal or conical shape and ornamented, e.g., with CROCKETS. See figure 80. [p. 244]

Radiating Chapels

Chapels projecting radially from an AMBULATORY or APSE. See also CHEVET.[p. 257]

Responds

A half-PIER bonded into a wall and carrying one end of an ARCADE. [p. 261]

Rib

A projecting band on a ceiling or vault, usually structural but sometimes purely decorative, separating the CELLS of a groined VAULT. [p. 261]

Skeleton Construction

A method of construction consisting of a framework (see FRAMED BUILDING) and an outer covering which takes no load (see CLADDING). The skeleton may be visible from the outside. [p. 298]

String Course

A continuous horizontal band set in the surface of an exterior wall or projecting from it and usually moulded. [p. 313]

Tracery

The ornamental intersecting work in the upper part of a window, screen, or panel, or used decoratively in blank arches and vaults. The earliest use of the term so far traced is in Sir Christopher WREN, the medieval word being form-pieces or forms. [p. 323]

Transept

The transverse arms of a cross-shaped church, usually between NAVE and CHANCEL, but also occasionally at the west end of the nave as well, and also doubled, with the eastern arms farther east than the juncti on of nave and chancel. The latter form is usual in English Gothic cathedrals. [p. 325]

Tribune

1. The APSE of a BASILICA or basilican church. 2. A raised platform or rostrum. 3. The GALLERY in a church. [p. 326]

Triforium

An arcaded wall-passage facing on to the NAVE, at a level above the arcade and below the CLERESTORY windows (if there are any). The term is often wrongly applied to a TRIBUNE or GALLERY. [p. 326]

Vault

An arched ceiling or roof of stone or brick, sometimes imitated in wood or plaster. [p. 334]

Barrel vault,

see tunnel vault.

Cloister vault,

see domical vault.

Cross vault,

see groin vault.

Domical vault.

A dome rising direct on a square or polygonal base,the curved surfaces separated by GROINS. See DOME. In America called a cloister vault.

A fan vault consists of solid concave-sided semi-cones, meeting or nearly meeting at the apex of the vault. The areas between are flat and, if the cones meet, form concave-sided lozenges. The cones and centres are decorated with panelling so a s to give the appearance of a highly decorated rib vault.

A groin vault is produced by the intersection at right angles of two tunnel vaults of identical shape.

Handkerchief vault, see DOME.

Lierne. A tertiary rib, that is, one which does not spring either from one of the main springers or from the central BOSS. A lierne vault is a ribbed vault with liernes.

A ploughshare vault or stilted vault has the wall ribs sprung from a higher level than the diagonal ribs, in order to increase the light from a clerestory window.

In a quadripartite vault one bay is divided into four quarters or CELLS.

A rampant vault is a wagon vault with abutments at different heights.

A rib vault is a framework of diagonal arched ribs carrying the cells which cover in the spaces between them.

Ridge-rib. The rib along the longitudinal or transverse ridge of a vault, at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the main diagonal ribs.

Sail vault, see DOME.

In a sexpartite vault one bay of quadripartite vaulting is divided transversely into two parts so that each bay has six compartments.

Shell vault