GLOSSARY

Abbreviations Agora. The Greek equivalent of the Roman forum, a place of open-air assembly or market. (Isl) refers mainly to Islamic buildings. (Bud) refers Aisles. Lateral divisions parallel with the nave in a mainly to Buddhist buildings. (Hind) refers mainly to basilica or church. Hindu buildings. Terms relating specifically to Jap- Alabaster. A very white, fine-grained, translucent, anese architecture and construction are explained gypseous mineral, used to a small extent as a building within the relevant chapters. material in the ancient Middle East, Greece, Rome the Eastern Empire of Byzantium and, nearer to our Abacus. A slab forming the crowning member of a own day, by certain Victorian architects for its capital. In Greek Doric, square without chamfer or decorative qualities (and biblical associations). In moulding. In Greek Ionic, thinner with ovolo mould- Italy a technique was evolved many centuries ago ing only. In Roman Ionic and Corinthian, the sides are (and still survives) of treating alabaster to simulate hollowed on plan and have the angles cut off. In marble while there seems little doubt that in the past Romanesque, the abacus is deeper but projects less marble was often mistakenly described as alabaster. and is moulded with rounds and hollows, or merely Alae. Small side extensions, alcoves or recesses chamfered on the lower edge. In Gothic, the circular opening from the atrium (or peristyle) of a Roman or octagonal abacus was favoured in England, while house. the square or octagonal abacus is a French feature. Alpa vimana (Hind). Basic form of shrine in south Ablaq (Isl). Alternating courses of masonry in Indian temple architecture. contrasting colours. Alure. An alley, walk or passage. A gallery behind Abutment. Solid masonry which resists the lateral a parapet. pressure of an arch. Amalaka (Hind). ‘Myrobolan fruit’; ribbed crown- Acanthus. A plant whose leaves, conventionally ing member in north Indian temples. treated, form the lower portions of the Corinthian Ambo. A raised pulpit from which the Epistle and capital. the Gospel were read in a Christian church. Acropolis. Most ancient Greek cities were built on Ambry or aumbry. A cupboard or recess in a hills, the citadel on the summit being known as the church to contain sacred vessels. acropolis, containing the principal temples and treas- Ambulatory. The cloister or covered passage ure-houses. around the east end of a church, behind the altar. Acroteria. Blocks resting on the vertex and lower Amorino. Diminutive of Amor, the Roman god of extremities of the pediment to support statuary or love, identified with the Greek Eros. Amorini were ornaments. usually represented by Renaissance artists as Adobe. Sun-dried (i.e. unbaked) brick, often used as cherubs. the core of a wall behind a facing of stone bricks. Amphi-antis. A temple with columns between Adyton or adytum. The most sacred room of a antae (i.e. a recessed portico) at both ends. None such Greek temple. Usually approached from the naos by a survives. doorway. Amphi-prostyle. A temple with a portico at both Aedicule. A small temple-like arrangement, origi- ends. nally limited to shrines, which became a common Ancones. Consoles on either side of a doorway motif in the Classical system: columns or pilasters supporting a cornice. Also, projections left on blocks carry a pedimented entablature and enframe a niche of stone such as drums of columns for use in hoisting or window. The term ‘tabernacle’ sometimes is used and setting in position. to convey a similar meaning. In Hindu architecture an Annulet. A small flat fillet encircling a column. It image or representation of a building (or shrine) used is repeated several times under the ovolo or echinus as an architectural element. of the Doric capital. 1713 1714 GLOSSARY

Anta. A pilaster terminating the side wall of a Asbestos. A fibrous mineral, which has high Greek temple, with base and capital differing from resistance to fire but is hazardous to health. those of adjacent columns; also seen in Egyptian Ashlar. Masonry of smooth squared stones in temples. See Pilaster. regular courses, in contradistinction to rubble work. Antefixae. Ornamental blocks, fixed vertically at Astragal. A small semicircular moulding, often regular intervals along the lower edge of a roof, to ornamented with a bead or reel. Torus is the name cover the ends of tiles. applied to large mouldings of similar section. Anthemion. A honeysuckle or palmette ornament Astylar. A treatment of a facade without columns. of several varieties, in cornices, neckings of Ionic Atlantes. Carved male figures serving as pillars, capitals and elsewhere in Greek and Roman also called Telamones. architecture. Atrium. An apartment in a Roman house, forming Antiquarian. The phase in western European an entrance hall or court, the roof open to the sky in Renaissance architecture, c. 1750–1830, when the centre. Sometimes the rim of the roof aperture renewed inspiration was sought from ancient Greek (compluvium) was supported by four or more col- and Roman and from mediaeval architecture. Its more umns. In Early Christian and later architecture, a specific manifestations were the Greek and Gothic forecourt. Revivals (q.v.), both continuing further into the Attic. A term first applied in the Renaissance nineteenth century. period to the upper storey of a building above the Apodyterium. A room for undressing in a Roman main cornice; also applied to rooms in a roof. bath-house. Attic base. A base to a Classic column, so named Apophyge. The cavetto or concave sweep at the by Vitruvius, and formed of upper and lower torus top and bottom of the column shaft connecting it with and scotia joined by fillets; it is the most usual of all the fillet. column bases. Apse. The circular or multangular termination of a Aumbry. See Ambry. church sanctuary, first applied to a Roman basilica. Aureole. A quadrangular, circular, or elliptic halo The apse is a Continental feature, and contrasts with or frame surrounding the figure of Christ, the Virgin, the square termination of English Gothic churches. or certain saints. Also known as the mandorla or Apteral. A temple without columns on the sides. vesica piscis (q.v.). When a circular halo envelops Arabesque. Surface decoration, light and fanciful only the head, it is called a nimbus. in character, much used by Arabic artists, in elaborate Azulejos. Tile covering for walls used during the continuations of lines. Applied also to the combina- eighteenth century in Latin America. tion of flowing lines interwoven with flowers, fruit and figures as used by Renaissance artists. Bab (Isl). Gateway. Araeostyle. A term used when the space between Bailey. Open area or court of a fortified castle. two columns is more than three diameters. Baldac(c)hino. A canopy supported by columns, Arcade. A range of arches supported on piers or generally placed over an altar or tomb, also known as columns, attached to or detached from the wall. a ‘cibonum’. Arch. A structure of wedge-shaped blocks over an Ball-flower. The ornament of Decorated Gothic opening, so disposed as to hold together when architecture, possibly from a flower form or a horse supported only from the sides. bell. Arch-braced roof. See Collar-braced roof. Balloon frame. A method of light timber framing, Architrave. The beam or lowest division of the long established in the United States for domestic entablature, which extends from column to column. buildings, in which the corner posts and studs The term is also applied to the moulded frame round (intermediate posts) are continuous from cill to roof a door or window. plate, the joists carried on girts (ties) spiked to, or let Archivolt. The mouldings on the face of an arch, into, the studs, and all these elements secured by and following its contour. simple nailing. Arcuated. A building, building system or style of Baluster. A pillar or column supporting a handrail architecture, of which the principal constructive or coping, a series forming a balustrade. feature is the arch (e.g. Roman). See also Bangaldar roof (Hind). Roof with curved ridge Trabeated. and eaves, used in later Indian temples. Arris. The sharp edge formed by the meeting of Baptistery. A separate building to contain a font, two surfaces. for the baptismal rite. Art Nouveau. A decorative movement in Euro- Bar tracery. See Tracery. pean architecture, heralded in the 1880s and flourish- Barbican. An outwork of a mediaeval castle, of ing 1893–1907, characterised by flowing and sinuous which the object was to protect a drawbridge or the naturalistic ornament and avoidance of historical entrance. architectural traits. See also Jugendstil, Stile Barge board. A board fixed to the verge of a Liberty. pitched roof. GLOSSARY 1715

Baroque. A term applied to Renaissance archi- Billet. A Norman moulding of short cylinders or tecture beginning in Italy in the early seventeenth square pieces at regular intervals. century with characteristic non-Roman expression, Bipedales. Tiles, 2 ft square, used by the Romans rich, bold and full of movement. for bonding masonry. Barrel vault. A continuous vault of semicircular Bird’s beak. A moulding used in Greek archi- section, used at most periods and in many countries tecture, which in section is thought to resemble the from Roman times to the present. Also called a tunnel beak of a bird. vault, wagonhead vault, or wagon vault. Bit-hilˆani. Syrian porched house. Bartizan. A small, overhanging turret. Boss. A projecting ornament at the intersection of Bas-relief. Carving in low or shallow relief, on a the ribs of ceilings, whether vaulted or flat. The term background is also applied to the carved ends of weather Base. The lower portion of any structure or mouldings of doors and windows. architectural feature. Bouleuterion. A Greek Senate building or council Basement. The lowest stage of a building; also an house. underground storey. Bowtell. A Romanesque convex moulding (usually Basilica. A hall, with nave and aisles for the three-quarters of a circle in section) applied to an administration of justice. angle – a form of roll moulding. Pointed bowtell is a Basse-cour or base court. An inferior court or roll moulding in which two faces meet in a blunt service yard, generally at the back of a house. arris. Bath stone. Oolite building stone, not confined to Brace. In framed structures, a subsidiary member the area of Bath, Somerset, used throughout English placed near and across the angle of two main architectural history. members in order to stiffen them, as in carpentry Batter. A wall with an inclined face. roofs. Battlement. A parapet having a series of indenta- Brace-moulding. See Bracket moulding. tions or embrasures, between which are raised Bracket. A projecting member to support a weight, portions known as merlons generally formed with scrolls or volutes; when Baulk-tie. A tie-beam joining the wall posts of a carrying the upper members of a comice, brackets are timber roof and serving also to prevent walls from generally termed modillions or consoles. See also spreading. See Tie-bar. Ancones. Bays. Compartments into which the nave or roof of Bracket moulding (also called ‘brace’ or ‘double a building is divided. The term is also used for ogee’). A late Gothic moulding consisting of two projecting windows. ogee mouldings with convex facings adjoining, Bayt or beyt (Isl). A house or a building. resembling a printer’s ‘brace’ or bracket. Bead. A small cylindrical moulding often carved Branch tracery. A form of tracery characteristic of with an ornament resembling a string of beads. See German Gothic, suggesting the branches of a tree. Astragal. Brise-soleil. A screen to break the glare of Beak-head. A Romanesque enrichment like a sunshine upon windows. In recent architecture such bird’s head and beak. screens often take the form of louvres (q.v.), and are Begunets. An ornamental string course of bricks usually made a permanent and effective part of the on-edge laid in a triangular pattern. architecture. Belfry. A term generally applied to the upper room Broach spire. An octagonal spire rising without in a tower in which the bells are hung, and thus often a parapet above a tower, with pyramidal forms at to the tower itself. the angles of the tower, as in Early English Bell capital. The solid part, core, or drum of a churches. capital, especially of the Corinthian and Composite Broch. Vernacular term for a primitive Scottish Orders or of a Corinthianesque character in French fort. and English Gothic. So-called ‘bell’ capitals, moul- Brownstone. A brown sandstone found in New ded and without foliate ornament, occur frequently in Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. A the mediaeval ecclesiastical architecture of both popular building material in the nineteenth century in countries. New York and the eastern United States. Belvedere. A roofed but open-sided structure Buttress. A mass of masonry built against a wall to affording an extensive view, usually located at the resist the pressure of an arch or vault. A flying roof-top of a dwelling but sometimes an independent buttress is an arch starting from a detached pier and building on an eminence in a landscape or garden. abutting against a wall to take the thrust of the Bema. A raised stage reserved for the clergy in vaulting. Early Christian churches; it forms the germ of the Byzantine architecture. The style evolved at transept when expanded laterally in later architecture. Constantinople (Byzantium, now Istanbul) in the fifth Bhumija (Hind). One of the later, composite century, and still the style of the Eastern or Greek modes of Nagara (north Indian) temples. Church. 1716 GLOSSARY

Cable. A Norman moulding enrichment like a Chaines. Vertical strips of rusticated masonry twisted rope. rising between the horizontal string-mouldings and Caen stone. A building stone from Caen, Nor- cornice of a building, and so dividing the facades into mandy, sometimes used in the construction of English bays or panels. A popular mode of wall ornamenta- mediaeval buildings, despite difficulties of transport. tion in French seventeenth-century domestic Caisson. See Coffers. architecture. Caldarium or calidarium. A chamber with hot Chaitya hall. A Buddhist barrel-vaulted hall of water baths in a Roman baths building. worship. Camber. Slight rise or upward curve of an Chajja (Hind). Stone canopy consisting of widely otherwise horizontal structure. overhanging eaves, in Indian architecture. Cames. Slender strips of lead, grooved at the sides Chamfer. A diagonal cutting-off of an arris for the reception of pieces of glass, in casement, formed by two surfaces meeting at an angle. Hollow stained glass and other types of window. chamfer, the same but concave in form, like the Campanile. An Italian name for a bell-tower, cavetto. generally detached from the main building. Chancel. The space for clergy and choir, separated Cancelli. Low screen walls enclosing the choir in by a screen from the body of a church, more usually Early Christian churches, hence ‘chancel’ (q.v.). referred to as the choir. Canephorae. Sculptured female figures bearing Chantry. A small chapel, usually attached to a baskets on their heads. church, endowed with lands or by other means, for Cantoria. In the Renaissance the term was gen- the maintenance of priests to sing or say mass for erally used to denote a singers’ gallery, often whomever the donor directs. elaborately carved, in a major church. Chapels. Places for worship, in churches, in Capital. The crowning feature of a column or honour of particular saints. Sometimes erected as pilaster. separate buildings. Caravanserai (Isl). An inn or extensive enclosed Chapter house. The place of assembly for abbot, courtyard for travellers arriving in a town. prior and members of a monastery, often reached Carrara marble. A snow-white marble from the from the cloisters. In England, it was usually Carrara district of Tuscany, although the band of rock polygonal on plan, with a vault resting on a central also extends far to the north of this area. It was the pillar, but sometimes oblong. favoured medium of Michelangelo. It was known to Chatravalli (Bud). The umbrella ornament above the Romans as Luna. a stupa (q.v.); sometimes crowned with a gilded Caryatids. Sculptured female figures used as finial. columns or supports. Chattri (Isl). Pavilion or kiosk with a parasol Casemate. A vaulted chamber contrived in the shaped domed roof. thickness of a fortress wall, usually with embrasures Chevet. A circular or polygonal apse when sur- for defence. The term is often applied nowadays to rounded by an ambulatory, off which are chapels. other forms of armoured enclosure (e.g. gun-turret). Chevron. A zigzag moulding used in Romanesque Hence ‘casemated’, meaning strongly fortified. architecture, and so called from a pair of rafters, Casement. A wide hollow used in late Gothic, so which gave this form. called as it encased bunches of foliage. Choir. See Chancel. Casement window. A window of which the Chunam. A kind of stucco containing burnt and opening lights are hinged at the side and open in the ground seashells, and able to take polish resembling manner of a door. marble: used for rendering buildings in India over Casino. A summer- or garden-house of ornamental brick construction. character. Churrigueresque. An expression of Spanish Cast-iron. Iron shaped by pouring into moulds. Baroque architecture and sculpture associated with Cast-iron was used to a rapidly increasing extent in the Churriguera family of artists and architects, building works from the late eighteenth century (e.g. characterised by a lavish, even fantastic, but not the Iron Bridge, Coalbrookdale) until superseded by inharmonious, decorative exuberance. In architecture steel in the mid-nineteenth. a recurrent feature was the richly garlanded spiral Castellation. Fortifying a house and providing it column. with battlements. Ciborium. See Baldacchino. Caulicoli. The eight stalks supporting the volutes Cimborio. The Spanish term for a lantern or raised in the Corinthian capital. structure above a roof admitting light into the Cavetto. A simple concave moulding. interior. Cella. The chief apartment of a temple, where the Cinquefoil. In tracery an arrangement of five foils image of a god stood. or openings, terminating in cusps. Cenotaph. A sepulchral monument to a person Cladding. An outer veneer of various materials buried elsewhere. applied to a building facade. GLOSSARY 1717

Classical. The architecture originating in ancient are counteracted by compressing it. Two principal Greece and Rome, the rules and forms of which were methods are applied to achieve this, post-tensioning largely revived in the Renaissance in Europe and and pre-tensioning, both using bars or wires. Pre- elsewhere. stressed concrete is reliable and relatively economical Classicism, a Classical idiom or style. for large spans (e.g. for factory buildings). In recent Claustra. A term sometimes used in the late decades pre-cast concrete, in which various concrete nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to describe elements are cast on-site or in a factory before panels, pierced with geometrical designs, as assembly, has been much used for many building employed by the French architect Auguste Perret in types. In board-marked concrete, made fashionable certain of his reinforced concrete buildings. by Le Corbusier, a supposedly pleasing effect is Clepsydra. A water-clock or instrument for meas- created by leaving the marks of the wood shuttering uring time by the discharge of water through a small on the exposed concrete. Among the many other opening. methods of treating a concrete surface is bush- Clerestory, clere-story, clearstory or clear-sto- hammering (usually on surfaces cast in situ), by rey. An upper stage in a building with windows above which a roughened, ‘rusticated’ appearance is adjacent roofs; especially applied to this feature in a attained with the aid of a bush hammer, a mechani- church. cally operated percussive tool. Cloisters. Covered passages round an open space Conoid. Having the form of a cone. The term is or garth, connecting the church to the chapter house, usually applied to the lower part of a mediaeval vault refectory, and other parts of the monastery. They were where the ribs converge against the outer wall and generally south of the nave and west of the transept, form an approximation of an inverted half-cone or probably to secure sunlight and warmth. half-pyramid. Coemeteria. Underground burial places, in ancient Console. See Bracket. Rome often taking the form of vaults each containing Coping. The capping or covering to a wall. a number of interments in funerary receptacles. Corbel. A block of stone, often elaborately carved Coffers. Sunk panels, caissons or lacunaria formed or moulded, projecting from a wall, supporting the in ceilings, vaults, and domes. beams of a roof, floor, vault or other feature. Collar-braced roof. A logical development of the Corbel table. A plain piece of projecting wall cruck-type timber frame (see Crucks) in which the supported by a range of corbels and forming a principal rafters are raised upon walls (instead of parapet, generally crowned by a coping. rising from the ground) and linked close to the ridge Corbie gable or crow-step gable. A gable with by a short tie-beam (also called a collar-beam) to stepped sides. form an A-shaped truss or collar. When this collar is Corinthian. See Order. additionally stiffened underneath by braces extending Cornice. In Classic or Renaissance architecture, from the principal rafters, the roof is described as the crowning or upper portion of the entablature, also arch-braced. used for any crowning projection. Collar-purlin. A purlin (longitudinal member) laid Coro. In Spanish churches the choir, usually centrally and stiffening the collars (see Collar-braced occupying two or more bays of the nave, the Capilla roof) of an open timber-framed roof, and supported by Mayor (comprising sanctuary, high altar and presbyt- a crown-post rising from a tie-beam. If the roof was ery) filling the east end. Rejas (q.v.) often served as long, more than one crown-post (and, therefore, more dividing screens. than one tie-beam) might be needed. Corona. The square projection in the upper part of Column. A vertical support, generally consisting a cornice, having a deep vertical face, generally plain, of base, circular shaft, and spreading capital. and with its soffit or under-surface recessed so as to Compartment. A division or separate part of a form a ‘drip’, which prevents water from running building or of an element of a building (see Bays and down the building. Severy). Corps de logis. That part of a substantial house Compluvium. A quadrangular opening in the which forrns a self-contained dwelling, i.e. without atrium of a Roman house, towards which the roof the service quarters (communs), stables, etc. sloped so as to throw the rainwater into a shallow Cortile. The Italian name for the internal court, cistern or impluvium in the floor. surrounded by an arcade, in a palace or other Composite. See Order. edifice. Concrete. A mixture of water, sand, stone and a Cosmati. The name given to craftsmen in mosaic binder (today generally Portland cement). The and marble working in Rome in the twelfth to Romans used pozzolana in place of sand, and lime. fourteenth centuries, many of whom belonged to a Reinforced concrete, is concrete with a reinforce- family of that name. Hence Cosmato work. ment of steel rods or mesh (often bamboo in eastern Cour d’honneur. The finest, most handsome, countries). Prestressed concrete is concrete in which court of a chateau or other great house, where visitors cracking (an inherent characteristic) and tensile force were formally received. 1718 GLOSSARY

Cove, coving. A large hollow, forming part of an Cushion capital. A cubiform capital, the angles arch in section, joining the walls and ceiling of a being progressively rounded off towards the lowest room. Often decorated with coffering or other part. enrichment. Cusp. The point formed by the intersection of the Credence table. A small table or shelf near the foils in Gothic tracery. altar, on which the Eucharistic elements were Cyma, cymatium. See Sima, Simatium. placed. Crenellation. An opening in the upper part of a Dado. The portion of a pedestal between its base parapet. Furnished with ‘crenelles’, or indentations. and cornice. A term also applied to the lower portions In Britain, a licence to crenellate was necessary of walls when decorated separately. before houses could be fortified. Dais. A raised platform at the end of a mediaeval Crepidoma The steps forming the base of a hall, where the master dined apart from his retainers; columned Greek temple. now applied to any raised portion of an apartment. Cresting. A light repeated ornarnent, incised or Decastyle. A portico of ten columns. perforated, carried along the top of a wall or roof. Deconstruction. A philosophic/semiological Crocket. In Gothic architecture a projecting block approach to reassesssing texts that acquired an or spur of stone carved with foliage to decorate the architectural meaning during the 1980s, mainly due to raking lines formed by angles of spires and canopies. the writings of the philosopher Jacques Derrida. The Croisee.´ (1) Transept; (2) the French term for the architectural consequence of the application of the type of casement window preferred for the last three theories of deconstruction was the apparent fragmen- centuries in France; (3) crois´ee d’ogives = inter- tation of buildings forms, the rejection of the right- secting ribs of a vault. Rarely used in English. angle and curve in favour of the sharp acute angle and Cross vault or groin vault. Vaults characterised by a general reversal or at least questioning of all arched diagonal arrises or groins, which are formed principles of design and construction conventionally by the intersection of two barrel vaults. believed to be axiomatic. Crossing. Area at the intersection of nave, chancel Decorated. The style of English Gothic archi- and transepts. tecture prevalent during the fourteenth century. Crow-step gable. See Corbie gable. Demi-columns. Columns semi-sunk into a wall. Crown-post. A post standing upright on the tie Dentils. Tooth-like blocks in Ionic and Corinthian beam of a timber roof and by means of struts or cornices. braces giving support to a central collar-purlin and Diaconicon. The vestry, or sacristy, in Early adjacent rafters but not reaching the apex of a roof as Christian churches. in the case of a king-post (q.v.). Diaper. A term probably derived from tapestry Crucks. Pairs of timbers, arched together and hangings of Ypres, and applied to any small pattern, based near the ground, erected to form principals for such as lozenges or squares, repeated continuously the support of the roof and walls of timber-framed over the wall surface. small houses: in use in the western half of England Diastyle. A term used when the space between two until the sixteenth century or later. columns is three diameters. Crypt. A space entirely or partly under a building; Diazoma. A horizontal passage dividing upper and in churches generally beneath the chancel and used lower levels of seats in an ancient theatre or for burial in early times. amphitheatre. Crypto-porticus. A passageway wholly or mainly Die. The part of a podium or pedestal between its below ground. cap-mould and base. Cubiculum. A bedroom in a Roman house, but Dipteral. A temple having a double range of sometimes used in a less specific sense to denote columns on each of its sides. other rooms. Distyle in antis. A portico with two columns Cunei. The wedge-shaped sections into which between antae. seats are divided by radiating passages in ancient Diwan or divan (Isl). Formal reception chamber theatres. smoking room. Cupola. A spherical roof, placed like an inverted Dodecastyle. A portico of twelve columns (rare). cup over a circular, square or multangular apartment. Dog-tooth. An ornament resembling a row of teeth See Dome. especially occurring in Early English buildings. Curtain wall. The logical outcome of skeleton Dome. A convex covering, usually hemispherical frame construction, in which the external walls serve or semi-elliptical over a circular or polygonal space. no load-bearing purpose, but are suspended on the See also Cupola. face of a building like a curtain. Not to be confused Domical vault. Segmental masonry shells rising to with the curtain wall of mediaeval military archi- a common apex over a polygonal, usually square, tecture, denoting a defensive (usually outer) wall ground plan. linking towers and gatehouses. Donjon. See Keep. GLOSSARY 1719

Doric. See Order. by straight lines the appearance of curving Dormer. A window in a sloping roof, usually that inwards. of a sleeping-apartment, hence the name. Ephebeion (ephebeum). A room connected with Dosseret. A deep block sometimes placed above a an ancient Greek or Roman gymnasium, or with the Byzantine capital to support the wide voussoirs of the gymnasium element of a baths building. arch above. Eustyle. A term used when the space between two 1 Dou. The notched timber block supporting the next columns is 2 ⁄4 diameters. higher bracket in the Chinese structural system Exedra. In Greek buildings a recess or alcove with employing multiple bracket arms, gong (q.v.). raised seat where the disputations of the learned took Double cone moulding. A characteristic Roman- place. The Romans applied the term to any semi- esque motif, formed by the continuous horizontal circular or rectangular recess with benches, and it is juxtaposition of cones, alternately base to base and also applied to an apse or niche in a church. vertex to vertex. Extrados. The outer curve of an arch. Dravida (Hind). Architectural language of south Indian temple architecture Facade. The face or elevation of a building. Dripstone. In Gothic architecture, the projecting Faience. Glazed earthenware, often ornamented, moulding over the heads of doorways, windows and used for pottery or for building. Originally made at archways to throw off rain; also known as ‘hood Faenza in Italy from about 1300. moulding’ or, when rectangular, a ‘label’. Fan vault. Vaulting peculiar to the Perpendicular Dromos. A long, uncovered narrow passage lead- period, in which all ribs have the same curve, and ing to an underground tholos or chamber tomb. resemble the framework of a fan. Drum. The upright part below a dome or cupola, in Fascia. A vertical face of little projection, usually which windows might be placed to light the central found in the architrave of an Order. The architrave of area of a building. the Ionic and Corinthian Orders is divided into two or Dutch gable. A shaped gable surmounted by a more such bands. Also, a board or plate covering the pediment. end of roof rafters. Feretory. A shrine for relics designed to be carried Early English. The style of English Gothic in processions. architecture prevalent during the thirteenth century. Fielded panels. Panels of which the surface is Eaves. The lower part of a roof projecting beyond raised to the same plane as that of the enclosing the face of the wall. frame. Echinus. The convex or projecting moulding, Fillet. A small flat band between mouldings to resembling the shell of a sea-urchin, which supports separate them from each other; also the uppermost the abacus of the Greek Doric capital; sometimes member of a cornice. painted with the egg and dart ornament. Finial. The upper portion of a pinnacle, bench end, Egg and dart or egg and tongue. Alternating oval or other architectural feature. (see Ovolo) and pointed motifs, originating in Greece Flamboyant. Tracery in which the bars of stone- and widely applied to mouldings in the Renaissance work form long wavy divisions like flames. Elizabethan. A term applied to English Early Fl`eche. A slender wooden spire upon a roof. Renaissance architecture of the period 1558–1603. Flemish bond. Brickwork with alternate headers Embattled. Furnished with battlements: occasion- and stretchers in the same course. ally applied to an indented pattern on mouldings. Fluting. The vertical channelling on the shaft of a Embrasure. An opening in a parapet between two column. merlons; the inward splaying of a door or window Flying buttress. See Buttress. Encaustic. The art of mural painting in any way in Foil. The small arc openings in Gothic tracery which heat is used to fix the colours. Encaustic tiles. separated by cusps. Trefoil, quatrefoil, cinquefoil, Ornamental tiles of different clays, producing colour etc., signify the number of foils. patterns after burning. Used in the Middle Ages and Folded slab. A development of the reinforced revived in the 19th century. concrete thin slab, which has both aesthetic and Entresol. See Mezzanine. structural advantages in spanning large halls and English bond. Brickwork with alternate courses of buildings of similar type, while also facilitating the stretchers and headers. provision of good natural and artificial lighting. So Enneastyle. A portico of nine columns. called because in section the resultant ribbed roof Entablature. The upper part of an Order of assumes the form of pleats or folds. architecture, comprising architrave, frieze and cor- Formeret. In a mediaeval vault, the half-rib nice, supported by a colonnade. against the wall, known in Britain as the ‘wall rib’. Entasis. A swelling or curving outwards along Formwork. Temporary casing of woodwork, the outline of a column shaft, designed to counter- within which concrete is moulded. act the optical illusion which gives a shaft bounded Fortalice. A small fortification, often a tower. 1720 GLOSSARY

Forum. The public open space, for social, civic or nineteenth century. In the USA it was the especial market purposes, found in every Roman town. characteristic of the architecture of the period Fresco. The term originally applied to painting on 1815–60. a wall while the plaster is still wet, but is often used Groin. The curved arris formed by the intersection for any wall painting not in oil colours. of vaulting surfaces. Fret. An ornament in Classical or Renaissance Groin vault. See Cross vault. architecture consisting of an assemblage of straight Guilloche. A circular interlaced ornament like net lines intersecting at right angles, and of various work, frequently used to ornament the ‘torus’ patterns. Sometimes called the key pattern. moulding. Frieze. The middle division of the Classical Guttae. Small cones under the triglyphs and entablature. See Zoophorus. mutules of the Doric entablature. Frigidarium. An apartment in a Roman baths Gymnasium (gymnasion). In ancient Greece, a building equipped with a large, cold bath. place for physical exercises and training, larger than the palaestra (q.v.). Gable. The triangular portion of a wall, between Gynaeceum. The women’s apartments in a Greek the enclosing lines of a sloping roof. In Classical (or Roman) house; also the women’s gallery in a architecture it is called a pediment. Byzantine church. Gadroon. One of a series of convex curves, like inverted fluting, used as an ornamental border. Hagioscope. An oblique opening in a mediaeval Galilee. A porch used as a chapel for penitents, church wall giving a view of the altar, sometimes etc., in some mediaeval churches. known as a ‘squint’. Gallery. A communicating passage or wide corri- Half-timber building. A building of timber posts, dor for pictures and statues. An internal and external rails and struts, and interspaces filled with brick or feature in mediaeval buildings. An upper storey for other material, and sometimes plastered. seats in a church. Hall church. Church in which nave and aisles are Garbhagriha (Hind).’Womb-house’; the sanctum, of, or approximate to, equal height. holy of holies in Indian temples.. Hall-keep. Early type of keep, rectangular in form, Gargoyle. A projecting water-spout grotesquely in which the great hall and private bed-chamber were carved to throw off water from the roof. placed side by side. Gavaksha (Hind). ‘Cow eye’; horseshoe arch Hammam (Isl). Bath. gable motif in Indian temple architecture. Hammer-beam roof. Late Gothic form of roof Georgian. British Late Renaissance architecture of without a direct tie. the period 1714–1830. Hara (Hind). Chain or necklace of pavilions in Glyph. A carved vertical channel. See Triglyphs. Indian temple architecture. Glyptotheca. A building to contain sculpture. Harem or haram (Isl). Private quarters of a house; Gong. In Chinese structure the bow-shaped or sanctuary of a mosque. cranked bracket arms: the lower and shorter brackets Hecatompedon. The name given to the naos of the support the upper longer ones at their end points on Parthenon, Athens, inherited from a former temple of shaped blocks, dou (q.v.). 566 BC upon the site, of which the length was exactly Gopura (Hind). (Sanskrit equivalent of Tamil 100 Doric feet (1 Doric foot = 12.88 in) and the width gopuram), barrel-roofed south Indian temple 50 Doric feet. gateway. Helix. One of the 16 small volutes (helices) under Gorge cornice. The characteristic hollow-and-roll the abacus of a Corinthian capital. moulding of an Egyptian cornice. Also found in Helm. Bulbous termination to the top of a tower, Persian architecture. found principally in central and eastern Europe. Gothic. The name generally given to the pointed Helm roof. Type of roof in which four faces rest style of mediaeval architecture prevalent in Western diagonally between the gables and converge at the Europe from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. top. Gothic Revival. A manifestation first evident in Hemicycle buttress. Half-moon-shaped buttress, the mid-eighteenth century, but belonging principally sometimes very large, often masked by other masonry to the nineteenth. The countries most affected were or designed to perform utilitarian tasks additional to Britain, France and Germany and, less strongly, the its purely structural purpose, widely used by the USA. Romans. Greek Revival. Like the Gothic Revival, this had Henostyle-in-antis. A portico with one column its beginnings in the mid-eighteenth century. In between antae. England it culminated in the 1820s and had con- Heptastyle. A temple having seven columns on the cluded by 1840 (later in Scotland), while in France it front. similarly was at its most evident in the early Hermes. A Greek deity. A bust (Hermes, Herm or nineteenth century. In Germany it endured to the mid- Term) on a square pedestal instead of a human body, GLOSSARY 1721 used in Classical times along highways and to mark Insula. A block of flats in a Roman town. boundaries, and decoratively in Roman and Renais- Irimoya gable. A traditional type of Japanese sance times. gable, placed vertically above the end walls and Heroum. In Greek architecture, a small shrine or marked by roofs of varying pitch. chapel dedicated to a semi-deified person or to the Iwan (Isl). Roofed or vaulted hall (or recessed area memory of a mortal. of a room) open at one end. Hexastyle. A portico having a row of six columns. Jacobean. English Early Renaissance architecture Hieron. The sacred enclosure surrounding a of the period 1603–25. temple. Jali (Hind). Net pattern grille. Hippodrome. In ancient Greece, a course for horse Jambs. The sides of doors and windows. The and chariot racing, the equivalent of the Roman portion exposed outside the window-frame is the circus. ‘reveal’. Honeysuckle ornament. See Anthemion. Jami’ masjid (Isl). Congregational mosque. Hood moulding. See Dripstone. Jarookha (Hind). Projecting aedicular balcony. Hoop-tie principle. A method developed in the Jube´. The French equivalent of the English rood Renaissance period, by which a pieced ring of timber, screen between nave and chancel. or a metal chain or hoop, binds the lower part of a Jugendstil. The movement in Germany contempo- dome or cupola to prevent splitting outwards or to rary with Art Nouveau (q.v.). minimise the burden on external buttresses having a similar purpose. Kalasa (Hind). See Sikhara. Hypaethral. A building or temple without a roof or Kapota (Hind). Curved moulding, usually as a with a central space open to the sky. cornice, in Indian temple architecture. Hypocaust. A system of ducts by which heat from Keel moulding. A moulding like the keel of a ship the furnace was distributed throughout the building. formed of two ogee curves meeting in a sharp arris; Hypogeum. In ancient times, all parts of a building used rounded in form in the fifteenth century. The underground. word ‘keel’ is also applied to the ogee form of Hypostyle. A pillared hall in which the roof rests arch. on columns. applied to the many-columned halls of Keep. The inner great tower or donjon of a Egyptian temples. castle. Hypotrachelion. The channels or grooves beneath Key pattern. See Fret. the trachelion at the junction of the capital and shaft Keystone. The central stone of a semicircular arch, of a column. See Trachelion. sometimes sculptured. Khan (Isl). Urban caravanserai (q.v.), inn for Iconostasis. A screen between nave and chancel of travellers arriving in a town. a Byzantine church. Kheker cresting. A decorative motif used by the Imbrex. In Classical architecture, a roofing cover Egyptians. tile over the joint between flat or hollow tiles. Kibla or qibla (Isl). In a mosque the direction of Imbrication. An overlapping, as of one row of Mecca: the kibla wall is marked by the mihrab scalloped roofing tiles breaking joint with the next. (q.v.). Impluvium. In Greek and Roman houses, a King-post. A vertical post extending from the shallow tank under the compluvium, or opening in the ridge to the centre of the tie-beam below. roof of an atrium. Kiosk. A light, open pavilion. Impost. The member, usually formed of mould- Knapped flint. A traditional East Anglian craft of ings, on which an arch rests. splitting flints, so that they present a smooth black In antis. A covered colonnade at the entrance to a surface on a wall face. The arrangement of knapped building is ‘in antis’ if recessed. See Prostyle. flints in patterns is sometimes called ‘flushwork’. Incrustation. The facing of a wall surface, gen- Kokoshniki. Ornamental or blind gables, ogee erally marble, with a decorative overlay. An Italian, shaped or semicircular, most often in two or three predominantly Venetian, craft. tiers around the dome of a Byzantine church. Indent. A notch. Kreshchaty vault. Method of vaulting a domed Indented moulding. A moulding cut in the form of cruciform church without pillars, with a kind of zigzag pointed notches. basket vault over the arms of the cross, and segments Intarsia. In furniture, a decorative inlay of various of domical vaulting over the corner cells. materials in another, usually wood. Kuta (Hind). ‘Peak’: in north Indian temple Inter-columniation. The space between the architecture a pavilion with a pointed spire or columns. shikhara; in south Indian temple architecture a square Intrados. The inner curve of an arch. (occasionally circular, octagonal or stellate) pavilion, Ionic. See Order. with domical roof. 1722 GLOSSARY

Kuta-stambha (Hind). Pillar form (usually Madrassa or madrassah (Arabic or Persian) or embedded, as a pilaster) crowned by a kuta (q.v.). Medrese (Turkish). Collegiate mosque, theological college. Label. See Dripstone. Maeander. Running ornament in the form of a fret Laconicum. A dry sweating room in a Roman (q.v.) or key pattern. baths building. Makara (Bud). A type of stone console-shaped Lacunaria. See Coffers. balustrade, usually at either end of a short flight of Lancet arch. A sharp pointed arch, chiefly in use external steps. during the Early English period. Maksura or maqsura (Isl). The sanctuary in an Lantern. A construction, such as a tower, at the early mosque enclosed by a wooden latticed screen or crossing of a church, rising above the neighbouring pierced stonework. roofs and glazed at the sides. Mandapa (Hind). The hall, usually pillared, in Lararium. A room or niche in a Roman house, in Indian architecture. which the effigies of the household gods (lares) were Mandorla. See Aureole. placed. Mannerism. A term coined originally to describe Later. A Roman unburnt brick the characteristics of the work of some sixteenth- Laths. See Stambhas. century Italian architects whose work was less rigidly Latina (Hind). The basic unitary mode of Nagara governed by the stylist rules; later applied more (north Indian) shrine. widely to other similar European Renaissance Lavabo. Ritual washing-basin for celebrant; buildings. monastic washing-trough. Mansard roof. A roof with steep lower slope and Leaf and tongue. In Greek architectural ornament, flatter upper portion, named after Mansart. Also a conventional motif of the sima reversa. known as a ‘gambrel’ roof. Lesene. An undecorated pilaster without base or Marquise. A projecting canopy over an entrance capital. door, often of metal and glass. Lich or lych gate. A covered gateway to a Masjid (Isl). District mosque. churchyard, forming a resting-place for a coffin Masjid-I Jum’a (Isl). Friday mosque. where a portion of the burial service is often read. Masons’ mitre. The treatment in masonry and Lierne. A short intermediate rib in Gothic vaulting sometimes in joinery for mouldings meeting at right which does not rise from the impost and is not a ridge angles,when the diagonal mitre thus formed does not rib. coincide with the joint, but is worked on the face of Linenfold. A type of relief ornament, imitating the one piece which is carried straight through and folded linen, carved on the face of individual timber simply butts on the other. panels. Popular in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth Mastaba. An ancient Egyptian, rectangular, flat centuries. topped, funerary mound, with battered (sloping) Lintel. The horizontal timber or stone, also known sides, covering a burial chamber below ground. as the architrave, that spans an opening. Mathematical tiles. Brick tiles designed to imitate Loculi. Recesses for corpses in Roman burial facing bricks. vaults. Maydan or meydan (Isl). Ceremonial open space Loggia. A gallery behind an open arcade or or square. colonnade. Meander fret. See Maeander. Long and short work. In Anglo-Saxon building, a Mediaeval. A term taken to comprehend the method of laying the quoins or angles, in which the Romanesque and Gothic periods of architectural stone slabs are superposed vertically and horizontally development. in alternate courses. Megaron. The principal room of an early Anat- Louvre.A series of inclined slats in a vertical frame, olian or Aegean house. allowing ventilation without admitting rain or direct Merlon. The upstanding part of an embattled sunlight; a roof ventilator embodying the principle. parapet, between two ‘crenelles’ or embrasure Sometimes applied to roof ventilators in general. openings. Lucarne. A window in a sloping roof. See also Metope. The space between Doric triglyphs, Dormer. sometimes left open in ancient examples; afterwards Luna marble. See Carrara. applied to the carved slab. Lunette. A semicircular window or wall-panel let Mezzanine. An intermediate floor formed within a into the inner base of a concave vault or dome. See lofty storey. Thermal Window. Mihrab (Isl). Niche oriented towards Mecca. Minabar. The pulpit of a mosque. Machicolation. A projecting wall or parapet allow- Minaret. A slender tower, rising above (or other- ing floor openings, through which molten lead, pitch, wise connected with) a mosque, from which the stones etc., were dropped on an enemy below. muezzin (crier) calls the faithful to prayer. GLOSSARY 1723

Misericord. A hinged seat, made to turn up to Naumachia. A lake for the exhibition of sea fights, afford support to a standing person, with the under- encircled by seats for spectators; sometimes refers to side frequently grotesquely carved. the spectacle itself. Mitre. The term applied, especially in joinery, to Nautilus shell. A decorative motif used by the the diagonal joint formed by the meeting of two Greeks, especially for the spiral of the Ionic volute. mouldings at right angles. Nave. The western limb of a church, as opposed to Modillion. See Bracket. the choir; also the central aisle of the basilican, Module. A measure of proportion, by which the mediaeval, or Renaissance church, as opposed to the parts of a Classical Order or building are regulated, side aisles. being usually the diameter of a column immediately Necking. The space between the astragal of the above its base, which is divided into sixty parts or shaft and the commencement of the capital proper in minutes. the Roman Doric. Monopteral. A temple, usually circular, consisting Necropolis. A burial ground. of columns only. Newel. (1) The central shaft of a circular staircase; Mosaic. Decorative surfaces formed by small (2) also applied to the post into which the handrail is cubes of stone, glass and marble; much used in framed. Hellenistic, Roman and later times for floors and wall Niche. A recess in a wall, hollowed like a shell, for decoration. a statue or ornament. Motte. The earthen conical mound of a castle; Nimbus. See Aureole. usually has a related bailey, thus a courtyard or ward. Nook-shaft. A shaft set in the angle of a pier, a Mouldings. The contours given to projecting respond, a wall, or the jamb of a window or door. members. Norman. The style, also termed English Roman- Mudejar.´ A Spanish Moslem under Christian rule. esque, of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. A vernacular style of Spanish architecture, partic- Nymphaeum. A building in Classical architecture ularly of Aragon and Castile, of twelfth and sixteenth for plants, flowers and running water, ornamented centuries, blending Muslim and Christian character- with statues. istics; its influence survived into the seventh century. Neo Mudejar´ is a perpetuation or revival of features Obelisk. A tall pillar of square section tapering of the style in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries in upwards and ending in a pyramid. Latin America. Octastyle. A portico with a range of eight Mulaprasada (Hind). Main shrine of a Nagara columns. (north Indian) temple. Odeion. A building, resembling a Greek theatre, Mullions. Vertical members dividing windows into designed for musical contests. different numbers of lights. Oecus. The main room of a Greek house, the Multivallate. Having more than one wall or successor of the megaron. rampart. Ogee. A moulding made up of a convex and Muqarnas (Isl). Small-scale ornamental corbelled concave curve. Also an arch of similar shape. brackets and niches forming concave three-dimen- Ogival. The traditional term in France for Gothic sional segments decorating (especially) the soffits of architecture. Not commonly used today. arches or vaults: also called stalactites. Opaion. A Greek term for a clerestory or top Mushrabiyah (Isl). Window with lattice-work light. screen of elaborately turned or carved wood to admit Opisthodomos. The rear porch of a temple. air and light without loss of privacy. Opus. A work. Mushroom construction. A system of reinforced Opus Alexandrinum. Mosaics inlaid in a stone or concrete construction without beams, in which the marble paving. floor-slabs are directly supported by columns flared Order. An Order in architecture comprises a at the top. column, with base (usually), shaft and capital, the Mutules. Projecting inclined blocks in Doric whole supporting an entablature. The Greeks recog- cornices, derived from the ends of wooden beams. nised three Orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The Romans added the Tuscan and the Composite (the Nagara (Hind). Architectural language of north latter also known as Roman), while using the Greek Indian temple architecture. Orders in modified form. The Greek Doric Order is Nail-head. A Romanesque motif, carved in the unique in having no base to the column. The capital is form of a small pyramidal stud or nail-head. plain; the shaft fluted. The Ionic Order is lighter, Naos. The principal chamber in a Greek temple, more elegant, than the Doric, with slim columns, containing the statue of the deity. generally fluted. It is principally distinguished by the Narthex. A long arcaded entrance porch to a volutes of its capital. The Corinthian Order has a Christian basilican church, originally allocated to bell-shaped capital, from which eight acanthus stalks penitents. (caulicoli) emerge to support the modest volutes. The 1724 GLOSSARY shaft is generally fluted. The Tuscan Order resem- Pastas or prostas. A vestibule in front of a Greek bles the Doric but has a very plain entablature. The house, with a part of one side open to a forecourt. shaft is properly unfluted. The Composite (or Pastophoria. Rooms of apses to the north and Roman) Order combines the prominent volutes of south of the main altar in Byzantine churches for use the Ionic with the acanthus of the Corinthian on its of the clergy and where vestments, etc. are kept or capital, and is thus the most decorative. The shaft where the altar of preparation or offerings stands. may be fluted or plain. Paterae. Flat circular ornaments which resemble Ordinates. Parallel chords of conic section (in the Classical saucers used for wine in sacrificial relation to the bisecting diameter) describing an libations. ellipse; a principle followed by Renaissance builders Patio. A Spanish arcaded or colonnaded courtyard. to adjust cross-vaults of equal height, but unequal Pavilion. A prominent structure, generally distinc- span. tive in character, marking the ends and centre of the Ordonnance. The disposition of the parts of the facade of a major building. A similarly distinctive building. building linked by a wing to a main block. An Oriel. A window corbelled out from the face of a ornamental building in a garden. wall by means of projecting stones. Pavimentum. A pavement formed by pieces of tile Orthostats. Courses of large squared stones at the marble, stone, flint or other material set in cement and base of a wall. consolidated by beating down with a rammer. Osiris pillars. Pillars incorporating the sculptured Pedestal. A support for a column, statue or vase. It figure of Osiris, Egyptian God of Death and usually consists of a base, die and cornice or cap Resurrection. mould. Ovolo. A convex moulding much used in Classics Pediment. In Classical architecture, a triangular and Renaissance architecture, often carved with the piece of wall above the entablature, enclosed by egg and dart or egg and tongue. raking cornices. In Renaissance architecture used for any roof end, whether triangular, broken or semi- Pai-lou. A Chinese ceremonial gateway, erected in circular. In Gothic, such features are known as memory of an eminent person. Also found in Japan. gables. Palaestra. A public building for the training of Pele-towers. Small square towers of massive athletes. construction, built in the border country between Palladian motif. An arched opening flanked by England and Scotland until the late Middle Ages. two smaller, square-headed openings. Pendant. An elongated boss projecting downward Palm vaulting. Similar to fan vaulting (q.v.). or suspended from a ceiling or roof. Palmette. See Anthemion. Pendentive. The term applied to the triangular Panel. A compartment, sunk or raised, in walls, curved overhanging surface by means of which a ceilings, doors, wainscoting etc. See also Coffer. circular dome is supported over a square or polygonal Panjara (Hind). ‘Cage’; representation of a pavil- compartment. ion with a horseshoe gable as its roofing element, in Pentastyle. A temple front of five columns. south Indian temple architecture. Peribolus. The enclosing wall or colonnade sur- Papyrus. Aquatic plant used by the Egyptians for a rounding a temenos or sacred enclosure, and hence great variety of purposes, including the construction sometimes applied to the enclosure itself. of primitive ‘reed’ huts. A recurrent motif in Egyptian Peripteral. A term applied to an edifice sur- architectural sculpture. rounded by a single range of columns. Parabolic vaulting. A thin shell covering, nor- Peristyle. A range of columns surrounding a court mally of reinforced concrete, of parabolic section (i.e. or temple. a shape made by cutting a cone parallel to one edge). Perpendicular. A phase of English Gothic evolved Such structures are comparatively light, and not from the Decorated style, and prevalent during the subject to tensional stresses under conditions of fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. uniform loading. See Shell vaulting. Perron. A landing or platform outside the portal of Parapet. The portion of wall above the roof-gutter, a domestic or public building, approached in a sometimes battlemented. Also applied to the same dignified way by a single or double flight of steps. feature, rising breast-high, in balconies, platforms and Phamsana (Hind). Mode of Indian temple with bridges. pyramidal superstructure of tiered eaves-mouldings. Parclose. A screen enclosing a chapel, as a shelter Piano nobile. The principal floor of an Italian from draughts, or to prevent distraction to wor- palace, raised one floor above ground level and shippers; also the screen around a tomb or shrine. containing the principal social apartments. Pargetting (pargeting, parging). Extemal orna- Piazza. A public open place, surrounded by mental plasterwork having raised, indented or tooled buildings: may vary in shape and in civic purpose. patterns; used from Tudor times onwards chiefly in Picturesque. The term is used in a specialised East Anglia and the south-east of England. sense to describe one of the attitudes of taste towards GLOSSARY 1725 architecture and landscape gardening in the late Portico. A colonnaded space forming an entrance eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries or vestibule, with a roof supported on at least one side (c. 1785–1835); buildings and landscape were to have by columns. the controlled informality of a picture. Porticus. In mediaeval architecture a vestibule, Pier. A mass of masonry, as distinct from a any colonnade as part of a church, a non-columnar column, from which an arch springs, in an arcade or side space or adjunct opening from the main body of bridge; also applied to the wall between doors and a building but not actually a vestibule. windows. The term is sometimes given to a pillar in Posticum. The Latin term for the rear porch of a Gothic architecture. temple. See Opisthodomos. Pilaster. A rectangular feature in the shape of a Post-Modernism. A term which describes an pillar, but projecting only about one-sixth of its architectural style or theory that is a criticism of breadth from a wall, and the same design as the Order orthodox modernism. The usual physical manifesta- with which it is used. See Anta. tion of this approach is an eclectic style mixing Pilotis. Posts on an unenclosed ground floor decorative elements of different periods, especially carrying a raised building. those of Western classical origin. These elements, Pinacotheca. A building to contain painted robbed of their traditional meanings, are usually pictures. placed out of context and scale and used with an Pinnacle. In Gothic architecture, a small turret-like ironic intent. Post-Modernisn arose in the early 1970s termination on the top of buttresses, parapets, or and was passe´ within a decade. elsewhere, often ornamented with bunches of foliage Prakara (Hind). Enclosure wall of an Indian called crockets. temple compound. Piscina. A stone basin in a niche near the altar, to Prato marble. A green marble from the district of receive the water in which the priest rinses the Prato in Tuscany.. chalice. Also applied to the tank or fountain in Roman Presbytery. The space at the eastern end of a baths. church for the clergy, but often applied to the whole Pise.´ Clay or earth mixed with gravel used for sanctuary. building by being rammed between boards which are Pronaos. The part of a temple in front of the naos, removed as pise´ hardens. often synonymous with portico. Plate tracery. See Tracery. Propylaeum (pl. propylaea). An important Plateresque. A phase of Spanish Architecture of entrance gateway or vestibule, in front of a sacred the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, an enclosure. intricate style named after its likeness to silver- Proscenium. In ancient Greek theatres, a colon- work. nade standing in front of the scene building (skene), Plinth. The lowest square member of the base of a the top of which eventually became the stage (logeion column; also applied to the projecting stepped or = a speaking place): thus all of the stage works in moulded base of any building. front of the ornamental back-stage. Nowadays, the Plough-share twist. The irregular or winding term means only the frontispiece of the stage. surface in a vault, where the wall ribs, owing to the Prostyle. An open portico of columns standing in position of the clerestory windows, start at a higher front of a building. level than the other ribs. Prothesis. That part of a church where the Podium. A continuous pedestal; also the enclosing credence table (q.v.) stands platform of the arena of an amphitheatre. Prytaneion (prytaneum). The public hall and Polychromy. A term originally applied to the art of state dining room of a Greek city. decorative painting in many colours, extended to the Pseudo-dipteral. A temple which is planned as a colouring of sculpture to enhance naturalism, and dipteral building, i.e. two columns in depth around very loosely used in an architectural context to the naos, but from which the inner range is omitted. describe the application of variegated materials to Pseudo-peripteral. A temple lacking a pteroma achieve brilliant or striking effects. As such, it is a and having the flank columns attached to the temple characteristic of the High Victorian phase and of Art walls. Nouveau (q.v.). Pteroma. The space between the lateral walls of Poppy-head. The ornamental termination of a the naos of a temple and the peristyle columns. bench-end, frequently carved with fleur-de-lis, ani- Pulpitum. A stone gallery or rood loft (q.v.) over mals or figures. the entrance to the choir of a cathedral or church. Porphyry. A hard rock, red or purple in colour, Pulvinated. A term applied to a frieze whose face used as a building stone or for sculpture, especially by is convex in profile. the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Pumice. Igneous rock derived from volcanic lava. Portcullis. A heavy lattice grating of timber or As a building stone, it was used by the Romans and, iron, sliding in vertical grooves in the jambs of a later, is present in Byzantine and Romanesque work: portal of a defended building. it had the advantage of extreme lightness. 1726 GLOSSARY

Purbeck marble. A fine hard limestone from Repousse´ work. Ornamental metalwork, ham- Purbeck, Dorset. mered into relief from the reverse side. Purlin. A horizontal beam in a roof, resting on the Reredos. The screen, or ornamental work, rising principal rafters and supporting the common rafters behind the altar. and roof covering. Respond. A half-pillar at the end of an arcade Pycnostyle. A term given when the space between Retable. A ledge or shelf behind an altar for 1 two columns is l ⁄2 diameters. holding vases or candles The Spanish retablo is a Pylon. A term applied to the mass of masonry with sumptuously ornate form of reredos. a central opening, forming a monumental entrance to Retro-choir. The parts of a large church behind the Egyptian temples. high altar. Reveal. The surface at right angles to the face of a Qasr (Isl). A castle, palace or mansion. wall, at the side of an opening cut through it; known Quadrangle. A broad enclosure or court, defined as a ‘splay’ when cut diagonally. Especially applied by buildings. to the part outside the window-frame. Quadriga. A four-horsed chariot, in sculptured Rib. A projecting-band on a ceiling, vault or form, often surmounting a monument. elsewhere. Quadripartite vaulting. A vault in which each bay Ribat (Isl) Fortified monastery. is divided by intersecting diagonal ribs into four Ridge. The apex of a sloping roof, running from parts. end to end. Quatrefoil. In tracery, a panel divided by cusps Ringhiera. A balcony on the main front of an into four openings. Italian mediaeval town hall from which decrees and Quincunx. An arrangement of five objects, one at public addresses were delivered. each corner of a square, the other at the crossing of its Riwaq (Isl). Colonnade, portico, aisle, usually one diagonals. side of a courtyard; colonnaded or arcaded hall of a Quirk. A sharp V-shaped incision in a moulding, mosque. such as that flanking the Norman bowtell. Rococo. A term applied to a type of Renaissance Quoin. A term generally applied to the corner ornament in which rock-like forms, fantastic scrolls stones at the angles of buildings and hence to the and crimped shells are worked up together in a angle itself. profusion and confusion of detail often without organic coherence, but presenting a lavish display of Rampart. Defensive earthen bank surrounding a decoration. castle, fortress or fortified city. May have a stone Roll moulding. A plain round moulding. In parapet. mediaeval architecture, sometimes known as the Rath. Hindu rock-cut temple, especially in south bowtell (q.v.). India. Romanesque. The sty!e of architecture prevalent Rebate. A rectangular sinking, channel or groove in western Europe from the ninth to the twelfth cut longitudinally in a piece of timber to receive the centuries. edge of another, or a recess in the jambs of an Rood loft. A raised gallery over the rood screen, a opening to receive a door or window. name given to the chancel screen when it supports the Recursive. Repeating the same abstract organising ‘rood’ or large cross erected in many churches in principle, or design idea. mediaeval times. Reached by stairs in the chancel Reeding. A series of convex mouldings of equal wall it was also used as a gallery for minstrels and width, side by side: the inverse of fluting. The fluting singers on festival days. of the lower third of column shafts was sometimes Rose window. See Wheel window. infilled with reeds to strengthen them. Rostrum. The plural ‘rostra’ denoted the raised Refectory. The dining-hall in a monastery, convent tribune in the Forum Romanum, from which orators or college. addressed the people, and was so called because Regula. The short band, under the triglyphs, decorated with the prows of ships taken in war, as beneath the tenia of the Doric entablature, and to were rostral columns. which the guttae are attached. Rotonda. A round building. Reja. An ornate iron grille or screen, a character- Rubble. Stone walling of rough, undressed istic feature of Spanish church interiors. stones. Reliquary. A light portable receptacle for sacred Rustication. A method of forming stonework with relics. roughened surfaces and recessed joints, principally Renaissance. The term applied to the reintroduc- employed in Renaissance buildings. tion of Classical architecture all over Europe, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Sahn (Isl). Courtyard of a mosque. Rendering. Plaster or stucco applied to an external Sanctuary. A holy or consecrated place. The most wall; a first coat of plaster internally. sacred part of a church or temple. GLOSSARY 1727

Sarcophagus. Richly carved coffin. Usually elaborately sculptured with human and Sash window. A double-hung, usually wooden, animal figures. glazed frame (or sash), designed to slide up and down Sima. A moulding with an outline of two contrary in grooves with the aid of pulleys. curves – either the cyma recta or cyma reversa. Sateri¨ roof. A form of hipped roof, interrupted by Simatium. The crowning member of a cornice a smaller vertical part sometimes provided with generally in the form of a sima. windows. This low perpendicular break forms a Soffit. The ceiling or underside of any architectural middle portion between the lower part of the roof and member. its considerably smaller continuation above the break. Solar. A mediaeval term for a private chamber on It is characteristic of the great houses of the Swedish the upper floor. nobility and gentry of the seventh and eighteenth Space frame. A frame which is three-dimensional centuries. and stable in all directions. Scena. The back scene of an ancient theatre. Span. The distance between the supports of an Scholae. Places of leisure, which to the Classical arch, roof or beam. mind meant places for learned conversation or Spandrel. The triangular space enclosed by the instruction; hence ‘lecture rooms of the curve of an arch, a vertical line from its springing, philosophers’. and a horizontal line through its apex. In modern Scotia. The concave moulding between two torus architecture, an infill-panel below a window-frame in mouldings in the base of a column, throwing a deep a curtain wall. shadow. Specus. The duct or channel of a Roman aqueduct, Screen. A partition or enclosure of iron, stone or usually rectangular in section and lined with a water wood, often carved; when separating choir from nave, proofing of successive coatings of a hydraulic cement, it is termed the choir screen. See Chancel. and covered by stone slabs or by arched vaults. Scroll moulding. A moulding resembling a scroll Spere (also speer or spur). A fixed timber screen, of paper, the end of which projects over the other sometimes elaborately carved, shielding the entr part. ances of mediaeval houses and large halls. When Section. The representation of a building cut by a directly attached to a roof-principal, the resultant vertical plane, so as to show the construction. structure became a spere-truss. Sedilia. The seats for the priests, generally of Spina. The spine wall down the centre of an masonry, in the south wall of the chancel. ancient hippodrome or circus. Severy. A compartment or bay of a vault. Spire. The tapering termination of a tower in Sexpartite vaulting. A vault where each bay is Gothic or Renaissance architecture, which was the divided into parts by the intersection of two diagonal result of elongating an ordinary pyramidal or conical ribs and one transverse rib. roof. Sgraffito. A method of decoration by which an Splay. The diagonal surface formed by the cutting upper coat of white stucco is partially cut away to away of a wall, as when an opening is wider inside expose a dark undercoat and so form a design. than out or conversely. Shaft. The portion of a column between base and Springer. The lowest unit or voussoir of an arch, capital; also applied in mediaeval architecture to a occurring just above the springing line. small column, as in a clustered pier, supporting a Squinch. A small arch, bracket or similar device vaulting rib. built across each angle of a square or polygonal Shala (Hind). Representation of a barrel-vaulted structure to form an octagon or other appropriate base pavilion in south Indian temple architecture. for a dome or spire. Sometimes known as a squinch Shastra (Hind). An Indian canonical text. arch. Shastric (Hind). Pertaining to the shastras. Stalls. Divisions with fixed seats for the clergy and Shekhari (Hind). One of the later composite choir, often elaborately carved, with projecting modes of Nagara temple. elbows, ‘misericords’ and canopies. Shell vaulting. A thin curved plate-like form of Stambhas. Free-standing monumental pillars, roofing, generally of reinforced concrete and often of characteristic of Buddhist architecture. Also called striking elegance, widely used nowadays for spanning laths. large halls. See Parabolic vaulting. Stanchion. A vertical steel support. Cast-iron was Shikhara (Hind). Superstructure or ‘spire’ of a used until relatively cheap steel became available. north Indian temple. Starling. The pointed mass of masonry projecting Shingle style. The cladding of external walls with from the pier of a bridge, for breaking the force of the shingles (wooden tiles) over a timber frame. water, hence known as a ‘cutwater’. Shrine. A sacred place or object, e.g. a receptacle Steeple. The term applied to a tower crowned by a for relics. spire. Sikhara (Hind). The pyramidal roof form of a Stele. An upright slab forming a Greek tombstone Hindu temple; either over the shrine or gateways. or carrying an inscription. 1728 GLOSSARY

Stellar vault. A vault in which the ribs compose a Taenia or tenia. A flat projecting band capping the star-shaped pattern. architrave of a Doric entablature. Stepped gable. A gable with stepped sides, Tauf. Arabic for packed mud walling. The mud is especially characteristic of the Netherlands. mixed with straw to prevent cracking, and is laid by Stijl, de. A short-lived geometric-abstract move- hand in courses. Each layer is left to dry before the ment in Holland (1917–31), which had a lasting next is added. influence on the development of modernist archi- Tegula. The Latin term for a large flat tile. tecture and of industrial design. Telamones. See Atlantes. Stile Liberty. In Italy the contemporary equivalent Temenos. A sacred precinct in which stood a of Art Nouveau (q.v.), named after the London temple or other sanctuary. store. Tempera. In painting, the same as distemper. Stilted arch. An arch having its springing higher Tempietto. A small temple. The term is usually than the line of impost mouldings, to which it is reserved for Renaissance and later buildings of an connected by vertical pieces of walling or stilts. ornamental character, compact circular or temple- Stoa. In Greek architecture, a portico or detached like structures erected in the parks and gardens of colonnade. country houses, although the most famous instance is Storey. The space between two floors. Bramante’s chapel in the cloisters of S. Pietro in Strapwork. A type of relief ornament or cresting Montorio, Rome. resembling studded leather straps, arranged in geo- Tepidarium. An apartment in a Roman baths metrical and sometimes interlaced patterns; much building equipped with warm baths. used in the early Renaissance architecture of Britain Terracotta. Earth baked or burnt in moulds for use and the Low Countries. in construction and decoration, harder in quality than String course. A moulding or projecting course brick. running horizontally along the face of a building. Tessera. A small cube of stone, glass or marble, Stuart. A term applied to English Late Renais- used in making mosaics. sance architecture of the period 1625–1702. Tetrastyle. A portico of four columns. Stucco. A fine quality of plaster, much used in Thermal window. Semi-circular window, Roman and Renaissance architecture for ornamental usually furnished within a pair of mullions, derived modelled work in low relief. In Britain, it was from widows set with barrel or groin vaults in extensively employed in the late eighteenth and Roman Baths, particularly in the Baths of Dio- early nineteenth centuries as an economical clesian, thus also called Dioclesian window. See medium for the modelling of external features, in Lunette. lieu of stone. Tholos. The dome (cupola) of a circular building, Stupa (Bud). An earth mound, usually dome hence the building itself. shaped, forming a sacred Buddhist monument. Often Thorana (Bud). Ceremonial gateway through the faced with brickwork and/or rendered and painted fence of a stupa (q.v.). Resembles a Chinese pai-lou white. Early examples were surrounded by a stone or a Japanese torii. ceremonial fence with thoranas (q.v.) at the cardinal Thrust. The force exerted by inclined rafters or points. beams against a wall, or obliquely by the weight of an Stylobate. In Classical architecture, the upper step arch, vault or dome. forming a platform on which a colonnade is placed. Tie-bar. A beam, bar or rod which ties parts of a Collectively, the three steps of a Greek Doric temple building together, and is subjected to tensile strain. constitute a crepidoma. Sometimes of wood, but usually of metal. Tie-bars Sudatorium. The sweating room in a Roman baths are especially notable in Byzantine, Italian Gothic building. and Renaissance architecture to stiffen arcades or to Systyle. A term used where the space between two contain the outward thrust of vaults. columns is two diameters. Tie-beam. Normally the lowest member of a roof truss, extending from wall-plate to wall-plate and primarily intended to prevent the walls from spread- Tabby. A form of concrete made from oyster ing. A secondary function may be to carry a king-post shells. or crown-post. Tabernacle. A recess or receptacle – usually above Tierceron. An intermediate rib between the main an altar – to contain the eucharistic Host; also applied ribs of a Gothic vault. to a niche or arched canopy. ‘Tabernacle work’ is the Torii. The characteristic entrance gateways to name given to elaborately carved niche and canopy Shinto temples, comprising upright posts supporting work. beams. Tablet-flower. A variation of the ball-flower Torus. A large convex moulding, used principally ornament of Decorated Gothic architecture in the in the bases of columns. See Astragal. form of a four-petalled open flower. Trabeated. A style of architecture such as the GLOSSARY 1729

Greek, in which posts and beams form the main Turkish triangles (Isl). Small-scale faceted cor- constructive features. See also Arcuated. belling built up to serve the same purpose as a Tracery. The ornamental patternwork in stone, pendentive (q.v.) or for decorative purposes in the filling the upper part of a Gothic window; it may be same way as muqarnas (q.v.). either ‘plate’ or ‘bar’ tracery. Plate tracery appears Turrets. Small towers, often containing stairs, and to have been cut out of a plate of stone, with special forming special features in mediaeval buildings. reference to the shape of the lights, whereas bar Tuscan. See Order. tracery was designed principally for the pleasing Tympanum. The triangular surface bounded by forms produced by combinations of geometrical fi the sloping and horizontal cornices of a pediment; gures. It is also applied to work of the same character also the space enclosed between the lintel and the in wood panelling. arch of a mediaeval doorway. Trachelion. The neck of a Greek Doric column, between the annulets and the grooves or hypotrache lion. Unctuaria. Rooms for oils, unguents, and various Transept. The part of a cruciform church, project- forms of treatment in Roman public baths. ing at right angles to the main building. Undercroft. In mediaeval architecture, vaulted Transoms. The horizontal divisions or cross-bars chambers upon which the principal rooms are some- of windows. times raised. Transverse rib. A rib which extends at right angles to the wall across a bay or other vaulted space. Travertine stone. A calcareous deposit from Vakif (Isl). Financial or property trust. springs, yellowish in colour, used since Roman times Valabhi (Hind). Type of north Indian shrine with as a building stone, especially in Italy where there are wagon-roof. large accumulations. In modern architecture, often Vault. An arched covering in stone or brick over seen as a decorative facing material, in thin panels. any building. Trefoil. In tracery, a panel divided by cusps into Velarium. A great awning drawn over Roman three openings. theatres and amphitheatres to protect spectators Triangulation. The principle of the design of a against the sun. roof-truss, in which every panel or space enclosed by Vesica piscis. A pointed oval form, so called from its members is triangular. its shape. See Aureole. Tribune. Platform inside a church, usually raised Vestibule. An ante-room to a larger apartment of a on columns and overlooking the interior; originally a building. raised platform in a Roman basilica, sometimes in a Vihara. A Buddhist monastery. semicircular addition to the end of the building, thus Vimana (Hind). Main shrine of a Dravida (south also used as an alternative name for the apse in a Indian) temple. basilican church. Vine ornament. Variations on the theme of the Triclinium. A Roman dining room with couches vine-leaf, a characteristic motif of the Gothic Decor- on three sides. ated style. Triforium. A shallow passage above the arches of Volute. The scroll or spiral occurring in lonic, nave and choir in a mediaeval church but below the Corinthian and Composite capitals. clerestory and opening into the nave; sometimes Voussoirs. The truncated wedge-shaped blocks called a triforium gallery when floored above the forming an arch. aisle vaults. Triglyphs. Blocks with vertical channels which form a distinguishing feature in the frieze of the Doric Wakf (Isl). See Vakif. entablature. Wagon or wagonhead vault. See Barrel vault. Tristyle-in-antis. A portico having three columns Waqf (Isl). Charitable endowment. between antae. Wave moulding. A typical moulding of the Trussed-rafter roof. A form of roof composed Decorated period consisting of a slight convexity of pairs of rafters, closely spaced and without a flanked by hollows. ridge piece. To contain the outward thrust, the Weathering. The slope given to offsets to but- rafters were joined by collars and further stiffened tresses and the upper surfaces of cornices and by braces. mouldings, to throw off rain. Tudor. A term applied to English Late Gothic Westwork. A multistorey gallery at the west end of architecture of the period 1485–1558. some German and Netherlandish churches, sur- Tufa. A building stone of rough or cellular texture, mounted by towers or turrets. of volcanic or other origin (travertine may be Wheel (or rose) window. A circular window, described as calcareous tufa). whose mullions converge like the spokes of a Tunnel vault. See Barrel vault. wheel. 1730 GLOSSARY

Zakomara. Semicircular gable usually corre- Among the many sources consulted in revising and sponding to the shape of the vault in a Byzantine extending this glossary, the following works have church, but sometimes used in a purely ornamental been of especial value: manner. Ziggurat or ziqqarat. A high pyramidal staged AHLSTRAND, J. R. and others. Architektutermen. Lund, tower, of which the angles were oriented to the 1969. cardinal points, which formed an important element HARRIS, J. and LEVER, J. Illustrated Glossary of in ancient Mesopotamian temple complexes. the Architecture: 850–1830. Rev. edn, London, 1969. number of stages rose from one to seven in the course LONGMORE, J. and MURAD, F. A Glossary of Arabic of time, and in the Assyrian version the stages were Architectural Terms. Bartlett School of Architecture developed into a continuous inclined ramp, circulat- and Planning, University College London, 1980. ing the four sides in turn. SCOTT, J. S. The Penguin Dictionary of Building. 3rd Zigzag. See Chevron. edn, Harmondsworth, 1984. Zoophorus. A frieze in which reliefs of animals —. The Penguin Dictionary of Civil Engineering. 3rd are introduced. edn, Harmondsworth, 1980.