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CLERESTORY, or CLEARSTORY (Ital. chia...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 496 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLERESTORY, or CLEARSTORY (Ital. chiaro piano, Fr. clairevoie, claire etage, Ger. Lichtgaden)  , in See also:architecture, the upper See also:storey of the See also:nave of a See also:church, the walls of which rise above the aisles and are pierced with windows (" clere " being simply " clear," in the sense of " lighted ") . Sometimes these windows are very small, being See also:mere quatrefoils or spherical triangles . In large buildings, however, they are important See also:objects, both for beauty and utility . The windows of the clerestories of See also:Norman See also:work, even in large churches, are of less importance than in the later styles . In See also:Early See also:English they became larger; and in the Decorated they are more important still, being lengthened as the See also:triforium diminishes . In Perpendicular work the latter often disappears altogether, and in many later churches, as at See also:Taunton, and many churches in See also:Norfolk and See also:Suffolk, the clerestories are See also:close ranges of windows . The See also:term is equally applicable to the See also:Egyptian temples, where the See also:lighting of the See also:hall of columns was obtained over the See also:stone See also:roofs of the adjoining aisles, through slits pierced in See also:vertical slabs of stone . The See also:Romans also in their See also:baths and palaces employed the same method, and probably derived it from the Greeks; in the palaces at See also:Crete, however, See also:light-See also:wells would seem to have been employed .

End of Article: CLERESTORY, or CLEARSTORY (Ital. chiaro piano, Fr. clairevoie, claire etage, Ger. Lichtgaden)
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