Parvise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parvise or parvis may refer to:
- A room over the porch of a church — quite often found in Norman churches in England. In some churches these rooms were used for school rooms and in Castle Ashby was the home of a woman - who saved the manor house from burning when she saw the fire taking hold from her room.
- The enclosed area or court in front of a building — particularly a building such as a cathedral or a church. In some places they are like a cloister, surrounded with either colonnades or porticoes. As a result, when applied to a single portico or colonnade in front of a church, this gives rise to the description of a church porch.
The word 'parvis' derives via Old French from the Late Latin 'paradisus', meaning 'paradise'.[1] The word 'paradise' itself comes to us, via Classical Greek and Latin, from the Indo-European (Aryan) languages of ancient Iran, where the meaning signified a 'walled enclosure' or garden precinct.
The parvis of St. Paul's
At the parvis of St Paul's Cathedral, the Serjeants-at-law originally practised in mediaeval times, and there clients could seek their counsel.[2] Subsequently, the ecclesiastical courts developed at Doctors' Commons on the same site.
Examples of parvises
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The Parvise at Castle Ashby
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Bletchingley Church Parvise
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The Parvise at Dodford Parish Church, Northamptonshire
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The Parvise at Martham Parish Church, Norfolk
References
- ↑ Collins English Dictionary, p.1133.
- ↑ Geoffrey Chaucer Canterbury Tales: "A serjeant of the law, ware and wise/ That often hadde ben at the parvis.."
See also
- The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Ed. E. A. Livingstone. Oxford University Press, 2006
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Ed. T. F. Hoad. Oxford University Press, 1996.
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