n.
- A building in which the chapter of a church or religious residence assembles.
- A house in which a chapter of a fraternity or sorority lives and holds its meetings.
chapter house
| Dictionary: chapter house |
n.
| Architecture: chapter house |
A place for business meetings of a religious or fraternal organization; occasionally also contains living quarters for members of such a group.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: chapter house |
chapter house, a building in which the chapter of the clergy meets. Its plan varies, the simplest being a rectangle. At Worcester, England, the Norman builders created a circular chapter house (c.1100), with vaulting springing from a central pillar. Subsequent examples, adopting this central support for their vaulted roofs but frequently having a polygonal plan, are among the most distinctive achievements of the English Gothic builders. Those at Salisbury, Wells, and Westminster Abbey (1250) are octagonal, while that at Lincoln is decagonal. At York, the octagonal room (c.1300) exhibits a departure in that it dispenses with the central column and is covered with a vaulted wooden roof.
| Word Tutor: chapter house |
IN BRIEF: n. - A building, room or house used for the official of a cathedral or a branch of an organization.
| Wikipedia: Chapter house |
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monasteries.
When part of a monastery, the chapter house is generally located on the eastern wing of the cloister. It comprises a large space, in order to hold all the monks of the monastery, and is often highly ornamented. In some Romanesque or Gothic monasteries, the entrance to the chapter house constitutes a veritable façade in miniature, with a door surrounded by highly decorated archivolts.
The community of monks would meet in the chapter house with the abbot to "hold chapter"; that is, to read aloud from the rule book and bible and discuss matters concerning the monastery and its inhabitants.[1] The meetings generally took place in the morning, after mass; the monks would sit along the length of the walls in strict age-order. At the end of the meeting the monks would publicly confess their sins or denounce others' (anonymously).
The side of the cloister on which the chapter house was located was usually the first to be constructed; it would have begun to be built shortly after the church’s frame was erected.
When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. When attached to a collegiate church, the dean, prebendaries and canons of the college meet there.
Examples of chapter houses can been seen at:
- Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze
- Convent of the Order of Christ in Tomar
- St Albans Abbey
- Beauchief Abbey
- Elgin Cathedral
- Westminster Abbey
- Exeter Cathedral
- Gloucester Cathedral
- Lincoln Cathedral
- Margam Abbey
- Rievaulx Abbey
- Salisbury Cathedral
- Southwell Minster
- York Minster
- Wąchock Abbey
References
- ^
"Chapter House". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Chapter_House.
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chapter house". Read more |
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