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| | nave on Encyclopedia.com |
 | | NAVE [nave], in general, all that part of a church that extends from the atrium to the altar and is intended exclusively for the laity. |
 | | The nave, in the developed Gothic style, became the main body of the structure. |
 | | Internally the piers, rising the full height of the nave walls to carry the ribs of the four-part vault or sexpartite vault, divided the walls into a series of bays in which three features, ground floor arcade, triforium, and clerestory, were evident, one above another. |
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