Parvise

A parvis or parvise is the open space in front of and around a cathedral or church,[1] especially when surrounded by either colonnades or porticoes, as at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

[citation needed] In London in the Middle Ages the Serjeants-at-law practised at the parvis of St Paul's Cathedral, where clients could seek their counsel.

In the 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer referred to "A sergeant of the laws ware and wise/ That often hadde yben at the paru[a]is...".

The architectural historians John Fleming, Hugh Honour and Nikolaus Pevsner,[1] and the theologians Frank Cross and Elizabeth Livingstone all say this usage is wrong.

The Oxford English Dictionary records this use as being "historical", and current in the middle of the 19th century.

Part of St. Peter's Square in Rome, the parvis of St. Peter's Basilica
Colonnade of St. Peter's Square
Three-storey Perpendicular Gothic porch of Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester : an elaborate example of what in later English usage has been called a parvise