| Term | Definition |
|---|
| nave | the central area of an ancient Roman basilica or of a church |
| narthex | a porch or vestibule of a church, generally colonnaded or arcaded and preceding the nave |
| altar | an elevated place or structure at which religious rites are performed or on which sacrifices are offered to gods, ancestors, etc. |
| gallery arcade | gallery-upper story over an aisle, opening onto the nave. The arcade is the row of arches in the gallery |
| clerestory | the windows that form the nave's uppermost level below the timber ceiling or vaults |
| ambulatory | a covered walkway, outdoors or indoors; the passageway around the apse and choir of a church |
| trumeau | the pillar or center post supporting the lintel in the middle of the doorway |
| tympanum | the space enclosed by a lintel and an archivolts over a doorway |
| voussoir | a wedge-shaped block used in the construction of a true arch |
| Last Judgement | day when God will decree the fates of all men and women according to the good and evil of their earthly lives |
| Normandy | a region in N France along the English Channel; invaded and settled by Scandinavians in the 10th century |
| pilgrimage | a journey made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion |
| Holy Roman Empire | a political entity in Europe that began with the papal coronation of Otto I as the first emperor in 962 and laster until 1806 when it was dissolved by Napoleon |
| west facade | the west side of a medieval building |
| Gislebertus | sculptor of the Last Judgement, who inscribed his name on the tympanum in the hope that people would pray for his salvation |
| apse | a recess, usually semicircular in the wall of a Roman basilica or at the east end of a church |
| choir | the space reserved for the clergy and singers in the church |
| aisle | the portion of a basilica flanking the nave and separated from it by a row of columns or piers |
| tribune | a gallery over the inner aisle flanking the nave |
| buttress | an exterior masonry structure that opposes the lateral thrust of an arch or vault |
| radiating chapels | chapels for the display of relics that opened directly onto the ambulatory and transept |
| jamb | a side post of a doorway |
| archivolt | the continuous molding framing an arch |
| cloister | a masonry courtyard, usually with covered walks or ambulatories along its sides |
| Lombardy | a region of northern Italy bordering on Switzerland |
| Tuscany | a region of the northwest Italy; inhabited by the Etruscans, it fell to Rome in the mid-fourth century BC. |
| relics | the body parts, clothing, or objects associated with a holy figure, relics were stored in reliquaries |
| Holy Crusades | military expeditions undertaken by European Christians in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims |
| abbey church | a monastery under the supervision of an abbot or a convent under the supervision of an abbess |
| compound pier | a pier with a group, or cluster, of attached shafts, especially characteristic of Gothic architecture |
| campanile | a bell tower of a church, usually, but not always, freestanding |
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