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| Pane — an old term formerly used in reference to various parts of buildings, such as the sides of a tower, turret, spire, &c., which were said to be of four, eight, &c., panes, according to the number of their sides; it was also applied to the lights of windows, the spaces between the timbers in wooden partitions, and other similar subdivisions, and was somtimes synonymous with the term panel: occasionally it was applied to a bay of a building.
| | Patera — (Lat.=a bowl), a circular ornament resembling a dish, othen worked in relief on friezes, &c., in Classical architecture; the term has also come to be applied to a great variety of flat ornaments used in all styles of architecture, to many of which it is extremely inappropriate.
|  | Pedestal — A support for a column consisting in classical architecture of a base, dado, and capital.
| | Pedestal — (Gr. Pous = a foot, and stulos = a column), a substructure frequently placed under columns in Classical architecture. It consists of three divisions: the Base or foot, next the ground; the Dado or die, forming the main body; and the Cornice, or surbase mouldings, at the top.
| | Pediment — (Lat.), the triangular termination used in Classical architecture at the ends of buildings, over porticoes, &c., corresponding to a gable in middle-age architecture: it is much less acute at the top than a gable. Most of the porticoes on the fronts of Greek and Roman buildings support pediments; in Roman work the dressings over doors, and windows are sometimes arranged in a similar form, and called by the same name; in debased Roman work pediments of this last-mentioned kind are occasionally circular instead of angular on the top, a form which is also common in Italian architecture. The term is sometimes applied by modern writers to the small gables and triangular decorations over niches, doors, windows, &c., in Gothic architecture.
|  | Pergola — A garden structure with an open frame roof, often latticed, supported by regularly spaced posts or columns.
| | Peristyle — (Gr.), a court, square, or cloister, in Greek and Roman buildings, with a colonnade round it; also the colonnade itself surrounding such a space. In mediaeval Latin it is called the Quadriporticus, and was the usual arrangement in Italy in fronnt of the churches as well as in front of houses. We have no examples remaining in England. The nearest approach is our Cloister (See Atrium and Paradise.)
| | Pier — (Sax.): (1.) The solid mass between doors, windows, and other openings in buildings; (2.) The support of a bridge, on which the arches rest. (3.) This name is constantly given to the Pillar in Norman, and sometimes in Gothic architecture, but not so correctly. Although perhaps the same in their ablolute meaning, the word 'pier' is more properly applied to large masses in the construction of a building. The pillar is the support of an arch, and generally partakes of an ornamental character as well as structural.
|  | Pilaster — A pillar that is attached to and projecting from a wall. It must be half or less than half the width of the column.
| | Pilaster — (Ital.), a square column or pillar, used in Classical architecture, sometimes disengaged, but generally attached to a wall, from which it projects a third, fourth, fifth, or sixth of its breadth. The Greeks formed their pilasters of the sames bredth at the top and bottom, and gave them capitals and bases different from those of the orders with which they were associated; the Romans usually gave them the same capitals and bases as the columns, and often made then diminish upwards in the same manner. (See Anta.)
| | Pillar — A square column or post.
| | Pillar — (Fr.): the column supporting the arch. In the Norman style the pillars are generally massive, and are frequently circular, with capitals either of the same form, or square; they are sometimes ornamented with channels, or flutes, in various forms, or spiral, zigzag, reticulated, &c. In plain buildings a square or rectangular pillar, or pier, is occasionally found; a polygonal, usually octagonal, pillar is also used, especially towards the end of the style, and is generally of lighter proportions than most of the other kinds. But, besides these, clustered or compaund pillars are extremely numerous and much varied; the simplest of them consists of a square with one or more rectangular recesses at each corner, but a more common form is one resembling these, with a small circular shaft in each of the recesses, and a larger one, semicircular, on two (or on each) of the faces: most of the compound pillars partake of this arrangement, though other varieties are by no means rare.
| | Plate — Plate, a general term applied to almost all horizontal timbers which are laid upon walls, &c., to received other timber-work: that at the top of a building immediately under the roof, is a wall-plate; those also which receive the ends of the joists of the floors above the ground-floor are called by the same name. Plate tracery is the term applied to that kind of solid tracery which appears as if formed by piercing a flat surface with ornatmental patterns. It is used in contradistinction to Bar tracery. (See Tracery.)
|  | Plinth — The plain, continuous surface under the base molding of any column, pilaster or pedestal connecting it to the floor.
| | Plinth — (Gr.), a square member forming the lower division of the base of a column, &c.: also the plain projecting face at the bottom of a wall immediately above the ground. In Classical buildings the plinth is sometimes divided into two or more gradations, which project slightly before each other in succession towards the ground, the tops being either perfectly flat or only sloped sufficiently to prevent the lodgment of wet; in Gothic buildings the plinth is occasionally divided into two stages, the tops of which are either splayed of finished with a hollow moulding, or covered by the base-mouldings.
| | Pomel — (Lat. Pomellum, from Pomum = an apple), a knob, knot, or boss; the term is used in reference to the finial, or ornament on the top of a conical or dome-shaped roof of a turret, the summit of a pavilion, &c., and is especially applied to articles of plate and jewellery, It also denotes generally any ornament of globular form.
| | Portico — a range of columns in the front of a building; when of four columns it is called tetrastyle; when of six, hexastyle; of eight, octostyle; of ten, decastyle. The Latin porticus, however, from which the Italian portico and the French portique, as well as the English porch is derived, (e.g. Solomon's Porch, Acts iii. 11), has a more extended signification in all these languages; comprehending, in fact, every kind of covered ambulatory of which one or more sides are opened to the air, by rows of columns or of arches, whether it be attached to the front of a building or to its sides, or to the inner sides of an area. so sa to form a cloister, (See Temple.)
| | Purlins — Purlins, the horizontal pieces of timber which rest on the principals, or main rafters, of a roof, and support the common rafters. In some districts purlins are called ribs, and rafters spars. (See Roof.)
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