Glossary · A
Abacus
The flat slab forming the top of a capital, on which the architrave rests. Square in the Tuscan, Doric and Ionic; concave-sided with clipped corners in the Corinthian and Composite.
Rules that use the word
The column is a plant. Model the column on a plant of the Nile (a papyrus stem or bundle, a bundle of lotus, a palm trunk), bound at the neck with five bands, standing on a round base disc and carrying a small square abacus.
The fluted shaft before the Greeks. Cut a shaft with sixteen shallow flutes or facets, give it a square abacus and a low round base: the “proto-Doric” column of the Middle Kingdom rock tombs at Beni Hasan.
The Minoan column tapers downward. Make the timber column narrower at the foot than at the top, set it on a stone disc, and crown it with a fat cushion capital and a square abacus.
The Corinthian capital. The Corinthian capital is as high as the column is thick; its abacus is one seventh of that height, and the rest is divided in three: the lower leaves, the upper leaves, and the stalks from which the volutes spring.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters The Tuscan Order, The Doric Order, The Ionic Order, The Corinthian Order.
Nearby in the glossary
Ablaq · Abutment · Acanthus · Acroterion