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Table of Contents

Abacus, a square tablet which crowns the capital of the column.

Acanthus, a plant, the foliage of which was imitated in the ornament of the Corinthian capital.

Agora, the place of general assembly in a Greek city.

Alæ (Lat. wings), recesses opening out of the atrium of a Roman house.

Alhambra, the palatial fortress of Granada (from al hamra—the red).

Ambo, a fitting of early Christian churches, very similar to a pulpit.

Amphitheatre, a Roman place of public entertainment in which combats of gladiators, &c., were exhibited.

Antæ, narrow piers used in connection with columns in Greek architecture, for the same purpose as pilasters in Roman.

Arabesque, a style of very light ornamental decoration.

Archaic, primitive, so ancient as to be rude, or at least extremely simple.

Archivolt, the series of mouldings which is carried round an arch.

Arena, the space in the centre of an amphitheatre where the combats, &c., took place.

Arris, a sharp edge.

Astragal, a small round moulding.

Atrium, the main quadrangle in a Roman dwelling-house; also the enclosed court in front of an early Christian basilican church.

Baptistery, a building, or addition to a building, erected for the purposes of celebrating the rite of Christian baptism.

Basement, the lowest story of a building, applied also to the lowest part of an architectural design.

Bas-relief, a piece of sculpture in low relief.

Bird’s-beak, a moulding in Greek architecture, used in the capitals of Antæ.

Byzantine, the style of Christian architecture which had its origin at Byzantium (Constantinople).

Carceres, in the ancient racecourses, goals and starting-points.

Cartouche, in Egyptian buildings, a hieroglyphic signifying the name of a king or other important person.

Caryatidæ, human figures made to carry an entablature, in lieu of columns in some Classic buildings.

Cavædiam, another name for the atrium of a Roman house.

Cavea, the part of an ancient theatre occupied by the audience.

Cavetto, in Classic architecture, a hollow moulding.

Cella, the principal, often the only, apartment of a Greek or Roman temple.

Chaitya, an Indian temple, or hall of assembly.

Circus, a Roman racecourse.

Cloaca, a sewer or drain.

Columbarium, literally a pigeon-house—a Roman sepulchre built in many compartments.

Columnar, made with columns.

Compluvium, the open space or the middle of the roof of a Roman atrium.

Corona, in the cornices of Greek and Roman architecture, the plain unmoulded feature which is supported by the lower part of the cornice, and on which the crowning mouldings rest.

Cornice, the horizontal series of mouldings crowning the top of a building or the walls of a room.

Cuneiform, of letters in Assyrian inscriptions, wedge-shaped.

Cyclopean, applied to masonry constructed of vast stones, usually not hewn or squared.

Cyma (recta, or reversa), a moulding, in Classic architecture, of an outline partly convex and partly concave.

Dagoba, an Indian tomb of conical shape.

Dentil band, in Classic architecture, a series of small blocks resembling square-shaped teeth.

Domus (Lat.), a house, applied usually to a detached residence.

Dwarf-wall, a very low wall.

Echinus, in Greek Doric architecture, the principal moulding of the capital placed immediately under the abacus.

Entablature, the superstructure—comprising architrave, frieze and cornice—above the columns in Classic architecture.

Entasis, in the shaft of a column, a curved outline.

Ephebeum, the large hall in Roman baths in which youths practised gymnastic exercises.

Facia, in Classic architecture, a narrow flat band or face.

Fauces, the passage from the atrium to the peristyle in a Roman house.

Flutes, the small channels which run from top to bottom of the shaft of most columns in Classic architecture.

Forum, the place of general assembly in a Roman city, as the Agora was in a Greek.

Fresco, painting executed upon a plastered wall while the plaster is still wet.

Fret, an ornament made up of squares and L-shaped lines, in use in Greek architecture.

Garth, the central space round which a cloister is carried.

Girder, a beam.

Grouted, said of masonry or brickwork, treated with liquid mortar to fill up all crevices and interstices.

Guttæ, small pendent features in Greek and Roman Doric cornices, resembling rows of wooden pegs.

Hexastyle, of six columns.

Honeysuckle Ornament, a decoration constantly introduced into Assyrian and Greek architecture, founded upon the flower of the honeysuckle.

Horse-shoe Arch, an arch more than a semicircle, and so wider above than at its springing.

Hypostyle, literally “under columns,” but used to mean filled by columns.

Impluvium, the space into which the rain fell in the centre of the atrium of a Roman house.

Insula, a block of building surrounded on all sides by streets, literally an island.

Intercolumniation, the space between two columns.

Keyed, secured closely by interlocking.

Kibla, the most sacred part of a Mohammedan mosque.

Lâts, in Indian architecture, Buddhist inscribed pillars.

Mammisi, small Egyptian temples.

Mastaba, the most usual form of Egyptian tomb.

Mausoleum, a magnificent sepulchral monument or tomb. From the tomb erected to Mausolus, by his wife Artemisia, at Halicarnassus, 379 B.C.

Metopes, literally faces, the square spaces between triglyphs in Doric architecture; occasionally applied to the sculptures fitted into these spaces.

Minaret, a slender lofty tower, a usual appendage of a Mohammedan mosque.

Monolith, of one stone.

Mortise, a hollow in a stone or timber to receive a corresponding projection.

Mosque, a Mohammedan place of worship.

Mutule, a feature in a Classic Doric cornice, somewhat resembling the end of a timber beam.

Narthex, in an early Christian church, the space next the entrance.

Obelisk, a tapering stone pillar, a feature of Egyptian architecture.

Opus Alexandrinum, the mosaic work used for floors in Byzantine and Romanesque churches.

Ovolo, a moulding, the profile of which resembles the outline of an egg, used in Classic architecture.

Pendentive, a feature in Byzantine and other domed buildings, employed to enable a circular dome to stand over a square space.

Peristylar, or Peripteral, with columns all round.

Peristylium, or Peristyle, in a Roman house, the inner courtyard; also any space or enclosure with columns all round it.

Piscina, a small basin usually executed in stone and placed within a sculptured niche, fixed at the side of an altar in a church, with a channel to convey away the water poured into it.

Polychromy, the use of decorative colours.

Precincts, the space round a church or religious house, usually enclosed with a wall.

Presbytery, the eastern part of a church, the chancel.

Profile (of a moulding), the outline which it would present if cut across at right angles to its length.

Pronaos, the front portion or vestibule to a temple.

Propylæa, in Greek architecture, a grand portal or state entrance.

Prothyrum, in a Roman house, the porch or entrance.

Pseudo-peripteral, resembling, but not really being peristylar.

Pylon, or Pro-Pylon, the portal or front of an Egyptian temple.

Quadriga, a four-horse chariot.

Romanesque, the style of Christian architecture which was founded on Roman work.

Rotunda, a building circular in plan.

Sacristy, the part of a church where the treasures belonging to the church are preserved.

Shinto Temples, temples (in Japan) devoted to the Shinto religion.

Span, the space over which an arch or a roof extends.

Spina, the central wall of a Roman racecourse.

Stilted, raised, usually applied to an arch when its centre is above the top of the jambs from which it springs.

Struts, props.

Stupa, in Indian architecture, a mound or tope.

Stylobate, a series of steps, usually those leading up to a Classic temple.

Taas, a pagoda.

Tablinum, in a Roman house, the room between the atrium and the peristyle.

Talar, in Assyrian architecture, an open upper story.

Tenoned, fastened with a projection or tenon.

Tesselated, made of small squares of material, applied to coarse mosaic work.

Tetrastyle, with four columns.

Thermæ, the great bathing establishments of the Romans.

Topes, in Indian architecture, artificial mounds.

Trabeated, constructed with a beam or beams, a term usually employed in contrast to arches.

Triclinium, in a Roman house, the dining-room.

Triglyph, the channelled feature in the frieze of the Doric order.

Tumuli, mounds, usually sepulchral.

Typhonia, small Egyptian temples.

Velarium, a great awning.

Vestibule, the outer hall or ante-room.

Volutes, in Classic architecture, the curled ornaments of the Ionic capital.

Voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones of which arches are made.

N.B. For the explanation of other technical words found in this volume, consult the Glossary given with the companion volume on Gothic and Renaissance Architecture.

The Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.