parvis
(ˈpɑːvɪs)
Also 5 parvys, per-, par-vyce, 5–9 erron. parvise.
[a. F. parvis, ‘place in front of the principal door of a church, particularly of a cathedral, as the Parvis of Notre Dame’, in OF. parevis (12–13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), earlier pareïs (paraïs, -aÿs, parewis) (Godef.):—L. paradīs-um paradise (a name given in the Middle Ages to the atrium or court in front of St. Peter's at Rome, and to the courts before other churches: see Du Cange). From F. also a med.L. form paravīsus, paravīsius.]
1. The enclosed area or court in front of a building, esp. of a cathedral or church; in some cases, surrounded as a cloister with colonnades or porticoes; whence, sometimes applied to a single portico or colonnade in front of a church, and (in dictionaries) explained as a church-porch.
The parvis of St. Paul's in London was a noted place of resort, esp. for lawyers.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 310 A Sergeant of the Lawe war & wys That often hadde been at the Parvys. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 385/2 Parvyce, parlatorium. 1476 J. Paston in P. Lett. III. 156, I prey yow as ye se hym at the parvyse and ellys where, calle on hym for the same letter. c 1485 in Digby Myst., Mor. Wisd. (1882) 167 At the parvyse I wyll be A' Powlys, be-twyn two and three. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 80 Before this Mosque there is a Parvis or Walk of many Angles, and in the middle of it a Bason of Water likewise Polygone. 1706 Phillips, Parvis, a Court before a Church-Porch, or any Palace or stately House. 1745 F. Blomefield Norfolk II. 748 In 1300, I find Mention of a Publick School for Children to learn to read and sing, kept in the Parvis of this Church [St. Martin's, Norwich]. 1864 Longfellow Div. Commedia ii, Canopied with leaves Parvis and portal bloom like trellised bowers. 1875 H. James Transatlantic Sk., Rom. Neighb. 179 It stands perched on a terrace as vast as the parvise of St. Peter's. 1881 Daily News 1 Apr. 3/1 Its illuminating power was clearly proved by the two lamps on the parvis of St. Paul's Cathedral. 1886 [see sense 2]. 1895 H. Rashdall Universities II. ii. xii. §5. 448 note, The word ‘Parvis’ is used of the Cloister of Notre Dame at Paris, the Palace Yard at Westminster, etc. |
¶ b. By some 19th c. writers applied in error to ‘a room over a church-porch’.
App. originating in a misunderstanding of quot. 1745 above. See Penny Post 1868, pp. 159, 213.
| 1836 Parker Gloss. Archit., Parvis, a small room over the porch, formerly used as a school. 1838 Ibid. ed. 2 s.v. 1842 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Parvis..It seems also to have signified a room over the church porch, where schools used to be held. 1848 Rickman's Archit. p. xlvi, A plain porch..with a room over it (commonly but erroneously called a parvise). 1852 Hook Ch. Dict. (1871) 568. 1856 J. Allen Liskeard viii. 120. 1867 Gwilt's Archit. (ed. 6) 956 A Norman porch, with an upper story or parvise, a chamber which appears to have been variously appropriated. 1881 Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., Parvise or Parvis... Modern writers have applied this term, but apparently without any good authority, to a room often found over church porches. 1888 N. & Q. 7th Ser. VI. 203/1. |
† 2. A public or academic conference or disputation. (So called from being originally held in the court or portico of a church.) Obs.
| 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) iii. vi. 142/1 There [in chirche] they holde theyr peruys of many wronges whiche they thynke to doo. c 1530 More Answ. Frith Wks. 841/2 Whan he was a young sophister he would I dare say haue been full sore ashamed so to haue ouerseene himselfe at Oxforde at a peruise. 1579 Fulke Heskins's Parl. 296 M. Hesk. will set..a boy in the Paruis to answere the Bishop. 1706 Phillips, Parvis, a Court before a Church-Porch,..whence that Disputation at Oxford, call'd Disputatio in Parvisiis. It is also apply'd to the Mooting or Law-Disputes among young Students at the Inns of Court. 1886 H. C. Maxwell-Lyte Univ. Oxford 205 A ‘general sophister’..was required to attend the logical ‘variations’ that were held ‘in the parvise’ for at least a year, ‘disputing, arguing, and responding’ on sophisms... The parvise being a cloister, paved platform, or other open space, immediately adjoining a church. A curious instance of the survival of old names is to be found in the ‘testamur’..which is nowadays [down to 1893] issued by the examiners at ‘Responsions’, to the effect that a successful candidate has answered to the questions of the Masters of the Schools ‘in parviso’. |