23.09.26: topic; architecture [3]; Comenius (1658) LXVII; domus [3]

Part [4]

They go up into the upper stories by stairs. |  Ascenditur in superiōrēs contignātiōnēs per scālās. 

contignātiō, -iōnis [3/f]: story; floor (of a building)

scāla, -ae [1/f]: (sg.) ladder; (pl: scālae, -ārum) stairs

Part [5]

The windows appear on the outside, and the grates, the galleries, the water tables, and the buttresses to bear up the walls. |  Fenestræ apparent extrīnsecus, et cancellī (clāthra), pergulæ, suggrundia et fulcra fulciendīs murīs.

[i] fenestra, -ae [1/f]: window

[ii]

cancellus, -ī [2/m]; used in the plural (cancellī, -ōrum): grating, balustrade, bars, railings

clāthrī, -ōrum [2/m/pl]; clāthra, -ōrum [2/n/pl]: lattice; grate

[iii] pergula, -ae [1/f]: the English derivative pergola, via Italian from Latin, refers to a passageway of columns that supports a trelliswork roof; used to support and train climbing plants. The original Latin term had far broader meanings including the booth, stall or shop in front of a building, and hut or hovel.

[iv] (sub-) sug-grundium -ī [2/n]; suggrunda, -ae [1/f]: lower border of a roof; eaves

The translator renders the word as “water table,” a term usually applied to a sloping feature at the base of a wall; however, the accompanying image shows a projection at roof level, i.e. the eaves, whose function is to throw rainwater clear of the walls and foundations.

In discussing the properties of larch wood, the Roman architect Vitruvius makes the following observation:

… tabulae in subgrundiīs circum īnsulās sī essent ex eā conlocātae, ab trāiectiōnibus incendiōrum aedificia perīculō līberārentur

… if planks made from it were placed in the eaves around the apartment-blocks, the buildings would be freed from the danger of fires spreading across.

īnsulae, -ae [1/f]: in an urban setting, the word refers to a residential block of apartments, usually occupied by the lower classes

[v] fulcrum, -ī [2/n] < fulciō, -īre [4]: prop up; CL: a bedpost, the post or foot of a couch; Engl. deriv: fulcrum is a technical term used in mechanics to describe a fixed support on which something turns or pivots. Comenius uses the word to describe supports (i.e. buttresses) of a 17^th century house, placed externally to support the walls.

[vi] mūrus, -ī [2/m]: wall, usually of a city, as opposed to:

pariēs, pariētis [3/m]: wall (of a house or room)

moenia, -ium [3/n/pl]: city walls, defensive walls

Dīvidimus mūrōs et moenia pandimus urbis (Vergil) |  We breach the walls and lay open the defences of the city.