And that's not all!
IN an effort to cram as much in today's edition as possible, it's time to trot out the ever popular Obscure Architectural Term of the Day!
Today's gleaning is--
PIANO NOBILE. The main floor of a house, containing the reception rooms. It is usually higher than the other floors, with a basement or ground floor below and one or more shallower storeys above.
From the Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, Third Edition.
The raised up main floor was a feature that was pretty common in Italian Renaissance
palazzi for a couple of reasons--it got the decent people up higher above the noise and smell of the nasty fetid street, and it provided security for the decent people up and away from the noise and smell of the nasty fetid street people. Renaissance Italy, after all, was a rather dangerous place, with all sorts of swordplay and intrigue. It was also nice to have
in places such as Venice that flooded often, and the form can also be found in the
raised cottages you find along the Gulf Coast.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 23, 2005 03:44 PM
