Parvise

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Part of St. Peter's Square in Rome, the parvis of St. Peter's Basilica Basilica San Pietro din Roma6.jpg
Part of St. Peter's Square in Rome, the parvis of St. Peter's Basilica
Colonnade of St. Peter's Square Basilica San Pietro din Roma16.jpg
Colonnade of St. Peter's Square

A parvis or parvise is the open space in front of and around a cathedral or church, [1] especially when surrounded by either colonnades or porticoes, as at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. [2] It is thus a church-specific type of forecourt, front yard or apron.

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Etymology

The term derives via Old French from the Latin paradisus meaning "paradise". [3] This in turn came via Ancient Greek from the Indo-European Aryan languages of ancient Iran, where it meant a walled enclosure or garden precinct with heavenly flowers planted by the Clercs (Clerics).[ citation needed ]

Parvis of St Paul's Cathedral

In London in the Middle Ages the serjeants-at-law practised at the parvis of St Paul's Cathedral, where clients could seek their counsel. In the 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer referred to "A sergeant of the lawe, war and wys / That often hadde been at the Parvys." [4] Later, ecclesiastical courts developed at Doctors' Commons on the same site.

    Late English use

    Three-storey Perpendicular Gothic porch of Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester: an elaborate example of what in later English usage has been called a parvise Cirencester StJohnBaptistChurch.jpg
    Three-storey Perpendicular Gothic porch of Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester: an elaborate example of what in later English usage has been called a parvise

    In England the term was much later used to mean a room over the porch of a church. The architectural historians John Fleming, Hugh Honour and Nikolaus Pevsner, [1] and the theologians Frank Cross and Elizabeth Livingstone all say this usage is wrong. The Oxford English Dictionary records this use as being "historical", and current in the middle of the 19th century. [3] It may stem from an earlier misuse in F. Blomefield's book Norfolk, published in 1744. [2]

    Examples of English parvises

    See also

    References

    Sources

    Further reading