[n. of action f. TESSELLATE v.: see -ATION.]
1. The action or art of tessellating; tessellated condition; concr. a piece of tessellated work.
1813. J. Forsyth, Italy, 111. The work is not mosaic, for there is no tessellation.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp., VII. lxvii. 540. Like the several pieces of a variegated tessellation.
a. 1878. Sir G. G. Scott, Lect. Archit. (1879), II. 253. Wide-spreading floors, rich with marble tesselation.
fig. 1840. H. Rogers, Ess. (1874), II. v. 250. Numberless passages of Jeremy Taylor … are a little better than a curious tesselation of English, Greek, and Latin.
1863. Le Fanu, Ho. by Chyd. (ed. 2), III. 307. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers are, in a great measure, a tesselation of holy writ.
2. An arrangement or close fitting together of minute parts or distinct colors: cf. TESSELLATED 3.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 144. Yet they, instead of those elegant Tessellations, are beautified otherwise in their site with as great curiosity.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 500. The whole surface of the body … having exhibited a sordid tesselation of crusts.
1905. J. Orr, Probl. O. Test., vii. 201. The newer criticism with its multiplication of documents … and its minute tesselation of texts.
