medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
after a few weeks away, i now have access to the OED on line again.
an interesting entry, esp. for the etymology.
c
CLERESTORY
Arch.
[Commonly believed to be f. clere, CLEAR + STORY stage of a building,
‘floor’ of a house. (Clere must here have meant ‘light, lighted,’
since the sense ‘free, unobstructed’ did not yet exist: see CLEAR a.)
This assumed derivation is strengthened by the parallel blind-story (see
BLIND a. 16), although this may have been a later formation in imitation of
clere-story. The great difficulty is the non-appearance of story in the sense
required before c 1600, and the absence of all trace of it in any sense in
14th, 15th, and chief part of 16th c. At the same time there is a solitary
instance of storys in R. Glouc. (1724) 181, which may mean ‘elevated
structure’ or ‘fortified place’. The n. estorie in OF. had no such
sense, but the pa. pple. estoré meant ‘built, constructed, founded,
established, instituted, fortified, furnished, fitted out’, whence a n. with
the sense ‘erection, fortification’ might perhaps arise.]
1. a. The upper part of the nave, choir, and transepts of a cathedral or
other large church, lying above the triforium (or, if there is no triforium,
immediately over the arches of the nave, etc.), and containing a series of
windows, clear of the roofs of the aisles, admitting light to the central
parts of the building.
1412 Contract Catterick Ch. 10 The pilers with the arches and the clerestory
of the hight of sax and twenty fote abouen erth. 1454 Black-bk. Swaffham in
Blomefield Norfolk III. 512 Thomas Hyx..did glasen a Window in the Clarestory.
c1460 Henry VI's Will in Nichols Royal Wills 303 Cloister..in height xx feet
to the corbill tabel with clear stories and butteraces with finials. 1851
RUSKIN Stones Ven. (1874) I. i. 18 The upper part of the nave, now called the
clerestory. 1870 F. WILSON Ch. Lindisf. 95 The roof of the nave was
removed..and a clerestory added. 1875 Dict. Chr. Antiq. 396 The clerestory was
a common feature in the old civil basilica; it was probably soon adopted in
buildings of the same type used for ecclesiastical purposes.
b. A similar feature in other buildings.
1523 SKELTON Garl. Laurel 479 Englasid glittering with many a clere story.
c1525 Reparacions Tower Lond. in Bailey Hist. Tower App. I. 20 Item made a new
clerestory in the west ende of the greate chambre..the bredeth of the house,
with a pent hous over the hed of it for the wether. Ibid. 21 A particion made
in the forebreste of the same jaques with a clere storey therein to give
light. 1601 SHAKES. Twel. N. IV. ii. 41 Sayst thou that house is darke?.. Why
it hath bay Windowes transparant as baricadoes, and the cleere stores toward
the South north, are as lustrous as Ebony. 1659 T. WILLSFORD Architectonice 30
Clear story, Bay windows..and sundry other things in Architecture. 1889 G.
RAWLINSON Anc. Egypt (ed. 4) 245 The lighting being, as in the far smaller
hall of Thothmes III, by means of a Clerestory.
c. A row of small windows above the main roof of a railway carriage.
a1884 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. Suppl. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 15 July 6/3 G.W.R.
eight-wheeled bogy coaches of the ‘clerestory’ pattern.
2. a. attrib.
a1502 ARNOLDE Chron. (1811) 41 A meruelous howse was bylded at Gynes..so
statly, and all with clere story lyghtys, lyk a lantorne. 1879 SIR G. SCOTT
Lect. Archit. I. 54 The want of light in the nave from the absence of
clerestory windows.
b. esp. clere-story window: see quots.
1688 R. HOLME Armoury III. 109/2 Clear Story Window, are such Windows that
have no transum or cross piece in the middle of them to break the same into
two Lights. Ibid. 473/2 A Clarester window hath no Cross barrs in. 1703 MOXON
Mech. Exerc. 159. 1823 P. NICHOLSON Pract. Build. 221.
Hence clerestoried pple. and ppl. a.
1449 in Nichols Churchw. Acc. St. George, Stamford (1797) 133 Y ordeyne and
bequethe that 11 chapelles..withyn the seyd chirch..be closid wyth ostrich
boarde and clere storied after such quantity as the closure of pleyn borde
there now conteyneth. 1848 B. WEBB Continent. Eccles. 72 A..church, with
clerestoried triforia to the chancel.
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