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ETYMOLOGY AND SHAPE SUGGEST DERIVATION
FROM THE OVEN

Caminus comes from the Greek κάμινος, which meant an
"oven, furnace, or kiln for smelting, baking, or burning

[ILLUSTRATION]

373. LE PUY-EN-VELAY (HAUTE-LOIRE), FRANCE

WALL FIREPLACE, 12TH CENTURY

One of the earliest and most elegant of the surviving medieval fireplaces, it is set
against a flat wall, its conical hood constructed with consummate skill supported by
cusped brackets rising from two short columns.

earthenware and bricks."[244] In classical Latin the term
apparently had come to mean "a furnace which supplies
the heat for a room or an apartment."[245] On the Plan of St.
Gall it is used in this sense in connection with the large
firing chambers (caminus ad calefaciendü) of the hypocausts
which heated the Monks' Dormitory and Warming Room
as well as the living and sleeping quarters of the novices and
the sick. In medieval Latin caminus is the standard term for
a wall or corner fireplace with a chimney, as may be inferred
from Old High German glossaries, where it is translated
both by "oven" (ofan) and "chimney" (scorenstein).[246] The
etymology of the term caminus—its original meaning of
"kiln" or "oven" and its eventual change to mean chimney
(French: cheminée; German: Kamin)—suggests that the
medieval wall or corner fireplace is, developmentally, an
offspring of the baker's oven or potter's kiln. This assumption
makes sense for functional as well as etymological
reasons. When the fire was moved against the wall, it had
to be enclosed, and the age-old solution for enclosing a fire
was the ovoid or round oven of the baker or potter. When
the baking oven had, in this manner, been transformed into

[ILLUSTRATION]

374. FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN, GERMANY

RÖMERTURM, CORNER FIREPLACE, 13TH CENTURY

The hood has the shape of a beehive. Other examples of this design are found
in the Berchfried of Castle Schönburg, near Naumburg (by some ascribed to the
11th century) and in the Berchfried of Petersberg near Freisach (see Piper,
1895, figs. 476 and 480).

a heating unit that formed an integral part of the living
room, the proper functioning of the fire and the health of
the people whom it served required a smoke flue. At precisely
what point in history this feature was introduced is
as yet uncertain.

[ILLUSTRATION]

375. PLAN OF ST. GALL. CORNER FIREPLACE

HOUSE FOR DISTINGUISHED GUESTS

Our reconstruction of the corner fireplaces in the bedrooms of the guests is
related to the design of the chimney shown in fig. 373. The hood masonry rests
on a lintel fashioned by contilevered curved stones seated deep in the masonry,
separated on corbels likewise deeply embedded. A voussior as illustrated, or a
joint, may occur at center.