{{Short description|Forecourt of a church building}} [[File:Basilica San Pietro din Roma6.jpg|thumb|Part of St. Peter's Square in Rome, the parvis of St. Peter's Basilica]] thumb|Colonnade of St. Peter's Square {{wikt | parvis}} {{redirect|parvis}} A '''parvis''' or '''parvise''' is the open space in front of and around a cathedral or church,{{sfn|Fleming|Honour|Pevsner|1980|p=238}} especially when surrounded by either colonnades or porticoes, as at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|1997|p= 1224}} It is thus a church-specific type of forecourt, front yard or apron.

==Etymology== The term derives via Old French from the Latin ''paradisus'' meaning "paradise".{{sfn|Brown|1993|p=2112}} 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).{{cn|date=June 2020}}

==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."''{{sfn|Chaucer|loc=verse 8396}} Later, ecclesiastical courts developed at Doctors' Commons on the same site.

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==Late English use== [[File:Cirencester StJohnBaptistChurch.jpg|thumb|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,{{sfn|Fleming|Honour|Pevsner|1980|p= 238}} 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.{{sfn|Brown|1993|p=2112}} It may stem from an earlier misuse in F. Blomefield's book ''Norfolk'', published in 1744.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|1997|p= 1224}}

===Examples of English parvises=== <gallery> File:CAParvise.JPG|The Parvise at Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire File:ParviseBletchingley.jpg|Bletchingley Church Parvise, Surrey File:MalmesburyParvise.JPG|Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire File:Dodford Church 16th March 2007 (2).JPG|The Parvise at Dodford Parish Church, Northamptonshire File:IMAG0104.jpg|The Parvise at Martham Parish Church, Norfolk </gallery>

==See also== *Church of the Holy Sepulchre

==References== {{reflist}}

===Sources=== *{{cite book |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Lesley |year=1993 |orig-year=1933 |title=The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles |volume=II |edition=3rd |place=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-861134-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/newshorteroxford00lesl/page/2112 2112] |url=https://archive.org/details/newshorteroxford00lesl/page/2112 }} *{{cite book |last=Chaucer |first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Chaucer |title=The Canterbury Tales |chapter=The Clerkes Tale |at=Lines 311–312 |url=http://librarius.com/canttran/genpro/genpro311-332.htm |editor=Sinan Kökbugur}} *{{cite book |editor1-last=Cross |editor1-first=F. L. |editor1-link=Frank Leslie Cross |editor2-last=Livingstone |editor2-first=E. A. |year=1997 |orig-year=1957 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-211655-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00late/page/1224 1224] |url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00late/page/1224 }} *{{cite book |last1=Fleming |first1=John |author-link1=John Fleming (art historian) |last2=Honour |first2=Hugh |author-link2=Hugh Honour |last3=Pevsner |first3=Nikolaus |author-link3=Nikolaus Pevsner |year=1980 |orig-year=1966 |title=The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture |place=Harmondsworth |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-051013-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/penguindictionar00flem_0/page/238 238] |url=https://archive.org/details/penguindictionar00flem_0/page/238 }}

== Further reading == {{commonscat|Parvises}} *{{cite book |editor-last=Hoad |editor-first=TF |year=1996 |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology |publisher=Oxford University Press }} *{{cite book |editor1-last=Soanes |editor1-first=Catherine |editor2-last=Stevenson |editor2-first=Angus |year=2005 |title=Oxford Dictionary of English |edition=2nd, revised |publisher=Oxford University Press }}

Category:Architectural elements