Trail:

Glossary

Predella
In an altarpiece, the horizontal strip below the main representation, often used for subsidiary representations.
Prefabrication
Manufacture of buildings or components off-site for assembly on-site.
Presbytery
The part of a church lying east of the choir where the main altar is placed. Also a priest’s residence.
Principals
In a roof, a pair of inclined lateral timbers or rafters of a truss. Usually they support horizontal side timbers called purlins, and mark the main bay divisions.
Pronaos
The space within the portico of a classical temple.
Prostyle
Of a porch or portico: with columns standing free.
Pulpit
Raised and enclosed platform for the preaching of sermons. Three-decker: with reading desk below and clerk’s desk below that. Two-decker: as above, minus the clerks’ desk.
Pulpitum
Stone screen in a major church dividing choir from nave.
Pulvinated
(lit. cushioned): Of a frieze: of bold convex profile.
Purbeck
A dark limestone from Purbeck in Dorset, which can be polished; used especially in the first two centuries of English Gothic architecture.