Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In classical columnar architecture, according to the Vitruvian system, noting a conventional intercolumniation, less than that usually employed. It is commonly reckoned at one diameter and a half.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Anc. Arch.) See under intercolumniation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective architecture Having an intercolumniation of 1.5 times the diameter of the shaft of a column.
  • noun architecture A colonnade of this kind.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek with the pillars close together; close + a column, pillar.

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Examples

  • The pycnostyle is a temple in an intercolumniation of which the thickness of a column and a half can be inserted: for example, the temple of the Divine Caesar, that of Venus in Caesar's forum, and others constructed like them.

    The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio

  • In the pycnostyle, the height should be divided into ten parts, and one of these used for the thickness of the column.

    The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio

  • The columns are then to be distributed over the stylobates in the manner above described: close together in the pycnostyle; in the systyle, diastyle, or eustyle, as they are described and arranged above.

    The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio

  • There are five classes of temples, designated as follows: pycnostyle, with the columns close together; systyle, with the intercolumniations a little wider; diastyle, more open still; araeostyle, farther apart than they ought to be; eustyle, with the intervals apportioned just right.

    The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio

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