Romanesque
means "Romanlike." first applied in the early 19th century to describe European architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries
leige lord
landholding person who might grant tenure of a portion of his land to vassals
vassals
swore allegiance to their liege and rendered him military service in return for land and protection
charters
enumerated the communities' rights, privilages, immunities, and exemptions beyond the feudal obligations they owed the lords
tribune
upper gallery over the aisle opening onto the nave
radiating chapels
semicircular openings off of the ambulatory
transverse arches
in the nave, cylindrical piers support barrel vaults that run perpendicular to the nave's axis, one in each bay, separated by these
springing
the lowest stone of an arch
compound piers
piers with columns or pilasters attached to their rectangular core
campanile
bell tower
ribs
supporting arches
sexpartite vault
six sections of a large square vault compartment divided by ribs
incrustation
wall decorations consisting of bright panels of different colors
diaphragm arches
divide nave into equal compartments
cloister
enclosed space
vita comtemplative
the medieval church expressed the seclusion of the spiritual life
historiated
ornamented with figures
tympanum
the prominent semicircular lunette above the doorway proper
voussiors
wedge-shaped blocks that form the archivolts of the arch framing the tympanum
lintel
horizontal beam above the doorway
trumeau
center post supporting the lintel in the middle doorway
jambs
tside posts of the doorway
hall chuch
a church where the aisles are approximately the same height as the nave