Glossary

Bay

Division of an elevation or interior space as defined by regular vertical features such as arches, columns, windows etc.

Chapter house

The place of assembly for the members of a monastery or cathedral, usually located off the east side of the cloister.

Crown

The upper part of an arch or vault.

Decorated

A distinctive phase of English Gothic which developed at the end of the 13th century and continued into the later 14th; sometimes abbreviated to Dec. Named from its elaborate window tracery, which abandoned the simple circular forms of Geometric in favour of more varied patterns based on segments of circles. Dec tracery makes much use of ogee or reversed curves, which were combined in the 14th century to produce reticulated and flowing tracery composed of trefoils, quatrefoils and dagger shapes. Similar inventiveness is seen in the patterns produced by the lierne and tierceron vaults of the period, in the three-dimensional handling of wall surfaces broken up by canopy work and sculpture and in imaginative spatial planning making use of diagonal axes.

Liernes

Short decorative ribs in the upper part of a vault, not linked to any springing point; hence lierne vault.

Pier

Large masonry or brick support, often for an arch. A compound pier is composed of grouped shafts, or a solid core surrounded by shafts.

Shaft

Vertical member of round or polygonal section, including the main part of a classical column, and by extension also of a pilaster.

Tierceron

In a rib-vault, an extra decorative rib springing from the corner of a bay; hence tierceron vault.

Vault

An arched stone roof, sometimes imitated in timber, plaster etc. For the different kinds see barrel vault, fan-vault, groin-vault, rib-vault, sail vault.