I think subdialia are more like open-air galleries. I imagine by courtyard he means an unroofed area at ground level with grass, and perhaps trees or a garden, that's enclosed (at least partially) by the building.
I believe the word is normally spelled peristylium. "Library courtyard" would then be peristylium bibliothecae. An alternative spelling is peristylum.
I believe columns generally are involved, yes. Was there any particular requirement for there to be no columns implied in the translation?
No, but was there any particular requirement for there to be columns?
Most usually, yes. But in post-classical it can also mean "An open space in a house, an area, court-yard", so perhaps it's still a possible option...
Where has all this talk of columns come from all of a sudden? The OP never mentioned the things.No, but was there any particular requirement for there to be columns?
I think it's normal to let the OP know what a peristylium precisely is in order to see if it's what he needs, no...? I don't understand why you seem to be taking this as a problem/attack.
That's fair enough. On the other hand, the OP had the chance to stipulate the specifications of his courtyard in three separate posts, and yet even when Imber Ranae put words into his mouth by suggesting what the OP may have had in mind, the OP side-stepped the prompt for further information and merely put forward his own suggestion of peristylium.
The only problem is understanding why you seem to regard persons requesting translations as entirely exonerated from the need to be specific even when prompted to do so, whilst apparently insisting that translators should anticipate a requester's requirements from every conceivable angle. If you are painstaking enough to be capable of such a degree of anticipation then that's clearly not a fault, but I think it is a little unfair to expect everyone to come up to your own exceptionally high standards.
Of course it's better for us when the one making a request gives precisions, but I think people don't necessarily always realize how many different things may be meant by a word. Perhaps he thought of a courtyard as something straightforward enough not to need any more precision, and it's understandable. Imber Ranae did not formulate his post exactly as a question, so perhaps the OP agreed with IR's definition without feeling the need to say "yes, that's it". And IR made no mention of columns actually, so even if he had replied... I think that on this point we can't really reproach the OP for not thinking of letting us know whether his courtyard had columns or not before we actually asked him - if we can't think of every conceivable angle, he can't either.
Strictly, yes. But I think it's good to check a little further if it's really the word he needs, in case he had found it without an accurate definition. So I think Ealdboc's post was appropriate and not misplaced at all.
By the way, I think this is something you are sometimes guilty of.
