Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/518

Rh 460 ARCHITECTURE [GLOSSARY. beam that part of the entablature which rests immediately on the heads of the columns and is surmounted by the frieze ; it is also called the epistylium or epistyle. The moulded enrichment on the sides and head of a door or window is called an architrave. ARCHIVOLT, a contraction of the Italian architrave voltaic, is applied to the architrave moulding on the face of an arch, and following its contour. ARMATURE, the French term for the iron stays by which the lead lights are secured in windows. (See STANCHIONS and SADDLE BARS.) ARRIS, the sharp edge or angle in which two sides or surfaces meet. ASHLAR, also written Ashler, Ashelere, &c. , (probably from the Lat. assella), squared stones, generally applied to those used for facing walls. In a contract of date 1398 we read &quot; Murus erit exterius de puro lapide vocato achilar, plane incisso, interius vero de lapide fracto vocato roghwall.&quot; &quot; Clene hewen &quot; ashler often occurs in mediaeval documents ; this no doubt means tooled or finely scappled, in contradistinction to rough-axed, faces. ASHLKR PIECES, upright pieces of wood going from the common rafters so as to cut off the lower angle of thereof in the attic story. ASTRAGAL (Gr. affrpayahos, a bone of the ancle), a convex moulding. This term is generally applied to small mouldings, torus to large ones of the same form. (See TORUS.) ATTIC, a low story above an entablature, or above a cornice which limits the height of the main part of an elevation. Although the term is evidently derived from ArTi/crfs, we find nothing exactly answering to it in Greek architecture ; but it is very common in both Roman and Italian practice. What are otherwise called tholobates in St Peter s and St Paul s Cathedrals are frequently termed attics. BACK-CHOIR, a place behind the altar in the principal choir, in which there is, or was, a small altar standing back to back with the former. BAHUT, the French term for a wall of plain masonry on which there is some superstructure. BAILEY, said to be a corruption of Ballium by some, and derived by others from the French &quot; bailie,&quot; a corruption of &quot; bataille, &quot; because there the soldiers were drilled in battle array ; the open space between the inner and outer lines of a fortification. Some times there were more than one, as the Inner and Outer Bailey ; we have the Old Bailey at London and at York, and the Upper and Nether Baileys at Colchester. BALDAQUIN, BALDACCHINO. See CIBOHIUM. BALL-FLOWER, an ornament in the form of a ball inserted in the cup of a flower, which came into use in the latter part of the 13th, and was in great vogue in the early part of the 14th century. It is generally placed in rows at equal distances in the hollow of a moulding, frequently by the sides of mullions. The earliest known is said to be in the west part of Salisbury, where it is mixed with the tooth ornament. It seems to have been used more and more frequently, till at Gloucester Cathedral, in the south side, it is in profusion. BALUSTER, a small column or pier supporting the coping in a pierced parapet : the parapet itself when pierced is hence called a Balustrade. BALUSTER SHAFT, the shaft dividing a window in Saxon architec ture. At St Alban s are some of these shafts, evidently out of the old Saxon church, which have been fixed up with Norman capitals. BAND, a sort of flat frieze or fascia running horizontally round a tower or other parts of a building, particularly the base tables in perpendicular work, commonly used with the long shafts character istic of the 13th century. It generally has a bold, projecting moulding above and below, and is carved sometimes with foliages, but in general with cusped circles, or quatrefoils, in which fre quently are shields of arms. BAND OF A COLUMN (Fr. baguc), a series of annulets and hollows going round the middle of the shafts of columns, and sometimes of the entire pier. They are often beautifully carved with foliages, &c. , as at Amiens. In several cathedrals there are rings of bronze apparently covering the junction of the frusta of the columns. At Worcester and Westminster they appear to have been gilt; they are there more properly called Shaft Pangs. BAPTISTERY, a separate building to contain the font, for the rite of baptism. They are frequent on the Continent that at Rome near St John Lateran, and those at Florence, Pisa, Pavia, &c., are all well-known examples. The only examples in England are at Cranbrook and Canterbury the latter, however, is supposed to have been originally part of the treasury. BARBICAN, an outwork for the defence of a gate or drawbridge ; also a sort of pent-house or construction of timber to shelter warders or sentries from arrow s or other missiles. BARGE BOARD. See VERGE BOARD. BARTIZAN, supposed to be derived from the Ger. Bartizeiw (Fr. ichauguette), a small turret, corbelled out at the angle of a wall or tower to protect a warder and enable him to see around him. They generally are furnished with oylets or arrow-slits. BASE (Gr. Bc&amp;lt;m, Lat. spira, basis, Fr. and Ital. base, Ger. Fuss), that part of a column on which the shaft stands. The only base used by the Egyptians was a mere square plinth. The Assyrians evidently understood the value of a base as an archi tectural accessory, and some bases shown on the bas-reliefs are strongly moulded. But all actually remaining are like the one. recently placed in the British Museum, which consists merely of a large torus. The Persian bases were finely moulded, elegant in outline, and more richly ornamented than in any other style. The chief mouldings are a torus, and a large reversed cyma. In pure Greek work a base is never used in the Doric, but always in the Ionic and Corinthian. The plainer sort is that well known as the Attic, consisting mainly of a hollow between two tori ; but the tori are, in other instances, deeply channelled, so as to have a very complicated appearance. The Romans had bases to all their orders, the more usual form being like the Attic. The Romanesque and Norman bases were evidently copies, for the most part, from classic forms; but were often adorned with leaves at the angles of the square plinths, thereby leading them into the round in a very pleasing way. This was done still more elegantly in the Early English style, whose most characteristic base was much like the Attic, but with the hullow prolonged up wards in a deep water-holding section. The Perpendicular were mostly very high, formed with two or more plinths and bold mouldings, chiefly reversed ogees. BASE COURT (Fr. basse cour, i.e., the lower court), the first open space within the gates of a castle. It was used for exercising cavalry, and keeping live stock during a siege. (See ENCEINTE.) BASE OF A AVALL, or GROUND TABLE, mouldings round a building just above ground; they mostly consist of similar members to those above described (BASE), and run round the buttresses. The flat band between the plinth and upper mouldings is frequently panelled and carved with shields, as in Henry VII. Chapel at Westminster. BASEMENT. A basement story is a story placed wholly or partly below the level of the ground on the outside of and about the building. Basement, applied specially, as architects apply it, means the compartment in the elevation of a building upon which any columnar pilastered or arcaded ordinance may rest ; as in the Strand front of Somerset House, of which the basement begins at the level of the floor of the vestibule, being about that of the street pavement, and extends upwards to half the height of the adjoining building east and west. BASILICA (Gr. &acriiK-fi, i.e., the royal house), a term given by the Greeks and Romans to the public buildings devoted to judicial purposes. (See separate article.) BATEMENT LIGHTS, the lights in the upper part of a perpendicular window, abated, or only half the width of those below. BATTER (Fr. battre, to beat). Building over in projecting courses like inverted steps is termed battering, gathering, or corbelling over. The term is often applied to the converse operation of throwing back, as in a revetement or retaining wall. BATTLEMENT (Fr. brctcssc, Ital. mcrlo, Ger. Zinne), a parapet with a series of notches in it, from which arrows may be shot, or other instruments of defence hurled on besiegers. The raised portions are called merlons, and the notches embrasures, or cre nelles. The former were intended to cover the soldier while dis charging his weapon through the latter. Their use is of great antiquity ; they are found in .the sculptures of Nineveh, in the tombs of Egypt, and on the famous Francois vase, where there is a delineation of the siege of Troy. In ecclesiastical architecture the early battlements have small shallow embrasures at soino distance apart. In the Decorated period they are closer together, and deeper, and the mouldings on the top of the merlon and bottom of the embrasure are richer. During this period, and the earlier part of the Perpendicular, the sides or cheeks of the em brasures are perfectly square and plain. In later times the mouldings were continued round the sides, as well as at top and bottom, mitring at the angles, as over the doorway of Magdalene College, Oxford. The battlements of the Decorated and later periods are often richly ornamented by panelling, as in the last example. In castellated work the merlons are often pierced by narrow arrow-slits. (See OYLET.) In South Italy some battle ments are found strongly resembling those of old Rome and Pompeii ; in foreign ecclesiastical architecture the parapets are very rarely embattled. BAY (Fr. travee, Ital. compartimcnto, Ger. Abtheilung), any division or compartment of an arcade, roof, &c. Thus each space from pillar to pillar, in a cathedral, is called a bay, or severey. BAY WINDOW, any window projecting outwards from the wall of a building, either square or polygonal on plan, and commencing from the ground. If they are carried on projecting corbels, they are called Oriel windows. Their use seems to have been confined to the later periods. In the Tudor and Elizabethan styles they are often semicircular on plan, in which case some think it more correct to call them Bow Windows. For those in medieval halls, see DAIS, HALL.