Il stilo gotico

Glossary
a small list of church vocabulary
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term definition
Abbot The head of a male monastery.
Absidial chapel The easternmost chapel of a cathedral.
Aisle The passages along the sides of the nave or chancel, and separated from it by an arcade. Aisles differ from transepts in being longer East - West than North - South.
Altar A table of wood or stone before which divine services are held.
Ambulatory The aisle around the east end of the choir joining the choir side aisles to make a continuous passage. In the origin it has been conceived that the faithful could admire the relics or treasures which were disposed in the sanctuary.
Angel roof A type of late medieval roof in which the ends of the beams were carved to look like angels.
Apse Semicircular or polygonal end of a choir, chancel, or chapel .
Synonym : chevet .
Arcade A series of arches supported by piers or columns.
Arch Carved structural members that span openings . The pointed arch is widely regarded as the main identifiable feature of Gothic architecture (distinct from the round arch of the Romanesque period). The most common Gothic arches are the Lancet, Equilateral and Ogee.
Archivolt One of a series of concentric mouldings on a Gothic arch.
Attached shaft An architectural feature that looks like a shaft or column partially sunk into the wall surface.
Bay A spatial division down the length of the building which divides it into sections from the floor to the roof. The piers or columns mark the division between each bay.
Blind arcading An arcade backed by a solid wall. A very popular decorative motif in English medieval architecture.
Boss Decorative sculpture at the intersection of two vault ribs.
Braces Curved or angled pieces of wood used to strengthen a roof or other timber structure.
Buttress A structure (of stone, brick, or wood) built against a building to strengthen it by resisting the thrust of arches, roofs and vaults. A flying buttress uses arches or half-arches to transmit the thrust to a buttress standing clear of the wall.
Canon A priest attached to a (non-monastic) cathedral or collegiate church. Canons generally lived a less communal life than monks.
Capital The carved stone which caps a column or pier and which forms the transition between the shape of the column or the pier and the arches over it.
Cathedral The principal church of a religious province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. Traditionally, a cathedral faces west, in the direction of the setting sun. The altar is placed in the choir area at the east end. The main body, called nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually set out.
Chancel The area of a parish church at the east end, where the altar is located. Also known as the choir in larger churches.
Chantry 1) An endowment to provide for the singing of masses for the souls of the founders and/or of persons named by them.
2) The chapel in which these masses were performed.
Chapel 1) A separate space within a church containing its own altar. Also called chantry. Generally, a chapel is dedicated to a saint, where the believers may pray, or remain for quiet contemplation. Sometimes they are also foreseen for some occasional special service.
2) Place of worship, either a separate building or incorporated within another structure such as a house or castle, below the rank of a parish church.
Chapter house A room or separate building, part of a monastery or cathedral, where the entire community gathered for a daily assembly. In the context of building a cathedral it is the administrative center, traditionally organized for overseeing construction.
Choir 1) The part of a cathedral, monastic church or collegiate church where the main altar is situated, and services are sung. Often spelled Quire in older books.
2) A group of singers.
Choir screen Decorated screen of wood or stone separating the choir from the rest of the cathedral.
Choir stalls The seats in the choir. Often highly decorated and having misericords.
Clerestory The uppermost row of windows. So-called because it stands clear of the aisle roof.
Cloister An enclosed, square courtyard in a monastery with covered walk-ways open to the center through an arcade on each side.
Column A vertical support, usually round or polygonal, capped by a decorated capital.
Compound pier A pier comprised of a number of decorative elements such as shafts grouped around a central core.
Corbel A projecting bracket often carved with grotesque monster heads.
Corbel table A row of corbels used as a decorative feature. Often placed below the eaves of a roof, possibly in imitation of the carved ends of projecting roof beams.
Crossing The central space in a church where the nave, the chancel, and the transepts meet.
Crossing arch The arches leading from the nave, choir, and transepts into the central crossing space.
Cruciform Cross shaped.
Crypt The vaulted passage and chapels beneath the floor, traditionally reserved for burial chambers.
Cusps The projecting points formed by partial curves within an arch.
Diocese The area of territory, with its parishes, under the religious jurisdiction of an individual bishop. An archdiocese is a larger area, including several dioceses, controlled by an archbishop.
Doom A representation of the Last Judgement. Often painted above the chancel arch in a medieval parish church.
Elevation A vertical wall face of a building.
Finial The top or finishing stone of a pinnacle.
Flamboyant Flame like, applied to aspects of the Late Gothic Style, particularly tracery.
Flamboyant Gothic The last phase of French Gothic (fourteenth, fifteenth and part of sixteenth century), named after its flame-like tracery.
Flying buttress Where the high vaults meet the wall of the clerestory. The side thrust is carried to the outside buttresses by an arch or group of arches that span the aisle roof.
Formwork Temporary wood structures used in constructing the ribbing and vaulting. Also known as centering.
Foundation The stonework below the ground that supports the entire structure.
Fresco Painting on wet plaster whereby the pigment becomes absorbed into the wall rather than sitting on top of it.
Gable The vertical, triangular-shaped end of a roof.
Gallery A balcony or mezzanine overlooking the main interior space of a building. In a church the gallery is an upper storey directly above the aisle, with arches looking down into the nave.
Gargoyle A spout usually carved in the shape of an animal or demon, and connected to a gutter for throwing rain water from the roof of a building.
Gothic The dominant architectural style in the Middle Ages, used primarily from the later 12th century until the mid 16th century, in Europe. It is characterised by pointed arches, rib-vaults, and large tracery windows.
Greek Cross A cross in which all the arms are the same length.
High altar The main altar, usually located towards the east end of the choir.
Iconography Applies to the symbolic meaning of images depicted in works of art.
Inner flyers The inner flying buttress arch over a double aisle, usually at the apse end.
Jamb One of a pair of vertical parts (of stone) that form the side of a door or window.
Jamb figures Located on either side of the portal doors; the first carved figures you see before entering the gothic cathedral. Traditionally, they depict Old Testament prophets or martyred saints; sometimes also kings and queens with the others.
Keystone The central stone of an arch that locks the other units in place. See voussoir.
Labyrinth A symbolic maze which for our purposes applies to the intricate symmetrical diagrams found on Cathedral floors.
Lady Chapel A chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary; very often, it is the absidial chapel.
Lancet A tall, narrow window with a pointed arch.
Lantern The windowed upper stage of a tower or dome, often situated above the crossing.
Lay A lay person was anyone who was not a priest, monk, or otherwise in religious orders.
Lierne An ornamental vaulting rib that joins two other ribs into a net-like pattern but has no structural function.
Lintel A beam of any material used to span an opening.
Liturgy The words and music of a religious service.
Lunette A semicircular opening above a window or door.
Mass The main rite of the Christian Church, at which the Last Supper is commemorated through the consecration of bread and wine, which is then shared by the priest and the believers; the latter is called Communion or Eucharist.
Misericord A folding seat which has a shelf on its underside to support to provide relief for clergy who had to stand during long church services. Misericords are often highly carved.. The bracket supporting the shelf was usually carved.
Mosaic Images created by setting small pieces of glass and stone in cement or plaster on a wall.
Mullion A vertical post that divides a window into two or more parts.
Nave The main-body of the church west of the chancel arch or crossing. The place where lay people stood during the mass.
Niche Vertical recess in a wall, often for a statue.
Nimbus A halo appearing around the head of a holy figure to signify divinity.
Oculus A small circular or eye-shaped window.
Ogee A sweeping S-curve commonly used for arches and in tracery from c.1300.
Outer flyers The outer flying buttress arch over a double aisle, usually at the apse end.
Parclose screen A wooden screen partitioning a section of an aisle as a chapel.
Paten A plate of gold or silver used to hold the host during the Eucharist.
Perpendicular A style of Gothic architecture popular in England from the mid 14th to the mid 16th century. Characterised by tracery with patterns of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines.
Pier A support (usually made of masonry or brick) for an arch, which may comprise groups of individual shafts or a monolithic unit. Generally larger and heavier than a column.
Pinnacle A slender, pointed summit placed on top of buttresses, gables, etc.
Porch The covered projecting structure in front of the doorway.
Portal A doorway, entrance or gate. One that is large and imposing.
Presbytery 1) The area of the church around and in front of the main or high altar.
2) The priest's residence.
Prior A superior officer in a male religious house.
Pulpit A raised platform for preaching. A two-decker pulpit incorporates a reading-desk, while a three-decker pulpit has a reading desk and also a parish clerk's desk.
Pulpitum A stone screen dividing the nave and choir of a great church. The upper section was used as a pulpit for preaching, for a choir, and sometimes for an organ.
Quatrefoil An architectural ornament having four lobes or foils.
Quire Archaic term for the chancel or choir.
Rayonnant A thirteenth-century slender radiant style from the court of Louis IX (St Louis).
Refectory The communal dining room or hall inside a monastery.
Reticulated A type of window tracery which has a net-like pattern formed by a series of inter-linked ogee arches. It was common in the early 14th-century. Decorated style (from Latin opus reticulatum: net or lace-work).
Ribbing Arches used to support the vault.
Romanesque The architectural style common in Western Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. It is characterised by massive masonry and round-headed arches inspired by ancient Roman models, and by the use of stylised ornament. In England it is often called Norman.
Rood A representation of Christ on the Cross, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John.
Rood screen Screen originally surmounted by a Rood.
Rose window A large, circular window with heavily foliated tracery branching out from a common center.
Secular Not sacred. Of, or pertaining to the world. Secular clergy were priests, not monks.
Sedilia A row of one or more seats near the altar for the officiating priest and his assistants.
Shaft The body of a column or pillar between the base and the capital. It is especially used for the small columns found around a window, door, or other opening. Shafts are generally round, but may also be polygonal.
Shrine A repository for the relics of a saint. Often in the form of an elaborate tomb embellished with gems and precious metals.
Spandrel A wedge-shaped area of an arch.
Spire The pointed top of a tower.
String course A horizontal moulding projecting from the surface of the wall. Used to visually separate different parts of the elevation.
Suger(ius) Abbot of the abbaye of St. Denis near Paris from 1122-1151 (born 1080 or 81, died 1151). He was the prime spokesperson for the elaboration of the Gothic architectural style.
Tabernacle A canopied frame like a miniature building, used around an image or over a statue.
Tie rods Steel rods placed between walls and piers or between piers to keep them from separating from each other.
Tierceron A type of ornamental vaulting rib.
Tracery The open-work pattern within an opening, especially the upper part of awindow. Blind tracery is applied to a solid wall. Plate tracery has a decorative pattern of shapes cut through a solid surface, while in bar tracery the patterns are formed by shaped intersecting bands of stonework.
Transept A cross-ways compartment of a church, generally used as a pair (north and south) leading off the crossing at the junction of the nave and choir.
Trefoil An architectural ornament having three lobes. Decorative element with three lobes.
Triforium The middle story, between the aisles and the clerestory, designed as a passage that is screened from the nave with an arcade of columns.
Trumeau A pillar in thecenter of a Gothic portal. Generally a carved stone statue, representing the Christ, St Mary or some other holly person.
Tympanum The surface panel above a main portal or a doorway, usually heavily decorated with carved stones.
Typology The use of prototypes and antitypes as in the use of the Old Testament as a prefiguration of the New.
Upper flyers The upper arch of a multi-arched flying buttress system.
Vault A curved stone ceiling. A barrel vault is simply an arched stone tunnel. A groin vault is formed from intersecting barrel vaults. The edges (groins) where the vaults meet do not have ribs or other strengthening. A rib vault is similar to a groin vault but the vault surface (or webbing) is supported by diagonal ribs at the intersections of the compartments. Tierceron and lierne vaults are rib vaults with added decorative ribs. A fan vault was constructed of intersecting conical shapes, usually covered with blind tracery motifs.
Vestry 1) A room in a church where the ministers changed into their vestments, which were sometimes also stored there, especially in smaller churches.
2) A group of parishioners who oversaw the secular functions of the parish.
Voussoir A wedge-shaped component of an arch.