The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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VI. |
The Plan of St. Gall | ||
V.7.4
WINDOWS
There is only one place on the Plan of St. Gall where
windows are actually shown in the drawing: in the walls of
the Scriptorium (fig. 99) where they are functionally of
vital importance. The symbol used there, two short parallel
strokes intersecting the wall at right angles, is identical
with the one which the draftsman used to designate the
382.C BAKE AND BREWHOUSE FOR PILGRIMS AND PAUPERS
The number of visitors expected to lodge each night in the Hospice
for Pilgrims and Paupers may not have exceeded twelve (see below,
p. 144). But if customs prevailing at the monastery of Corbie
reflected general conditions, these transient guests were issued bread
rations considerably larger than were allotted to the monastery's
regular inhabitants: 3½ pounds per person upon arrival, and half
that amount on departure. For a complement of twelve guests this
distribution would amount to 63 pounds of bread each day. During
the great religious festivals these amounts rose steeply as the number
of travellers increased; even under ordinary conditions it would have
been necessary to add to the needs of the overnight guests those of
the transients who might stop for a noon meal and then move on.
This explanation would account for the large size of the Hospice
oven, its 7½-foot diameter being identical to the oven of the House
for Distinguished Guests.
the line that defines the course of the walls is not interrupted
by these strokes as it is in the majority of the entrances,
doors, and exits. In other buildings, such as the Church,
the Abbot's House, or the large complex that contains the
Novitiate and the Infirmary and their chapels, windows
were so clearly an integral part of the building type that the
draftsman felt it unnecessary to go into any detail in this
matter.
In the case of the guest and service buildings, however, NEOLITHIC BAKING OVEN [after Adrian, 1951, 69, fig. 2] 384.A 384.B LANGOBARDIC BAKING OVEN [after Adrian, 1951, 69, fig. 2] This later oven, retaining the daubed wattle shell of its ancestor (fig. 383), MONUMENT OF THE BAKER EURYSACES. DETAIL. FIRST [after Singer et. al, II, 1956, 118, fig. 88] The frieze appears on the funerary monument of a wealthy plebeian master
conditions were different. Traditionally, this type of house
was not provided with windows. Lighting, ventilation, and
383. TAUBRIED AM FEDERSEE, Wurttemburg,
GERMANYLANGENBECK, HARBURG, GERMANY
reveals a sophisticated awareness of heating insulation, with its boulder-lined
fire and baking chamber sunk below the surface of the ground.385. ROME
CENTURY B.C.
baker who prospered during the final years of the Republic. The oven appears
in a form it has retained into modern times.
MESOPOTAMIA, PALACE OF MARI. BAKING OVEN
386.A
386.B
BEGINNING OF 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
in the roof. This does not categorically preclude the use
of wall windows. As the need for higher degrees of privacy
led to the installation of corner fireplaces as secondary
sources for heat in rooms that were segregated from the
common hall by internal walls and ceilings, so the separation
of these rooms from the central source of light made necessary
the installation of supplementary devices for the
admission of light and air. This could take the form either
of wall windows or of dormer windows.
In the guest and service buildings of the Plan of St. Gall, 386.C ELEVATION OF OVEN OPENING PLAN AND SECTION The oven, located in the commoners' quarters, was 2 feet larger in diameter
accordingly, we may have to take into account the entire
range of possibilities, from complete absence of windows
on the lower levels of dwellings (the houses of the serfs and
the houses of the animals and their keepers) to the presence
of some windows in the rooms of the higher-ranking monastic
officials (such as the Gardener, the Physician, the Porter,
than that of the oven of the Monks' Bake and Brewhouse (fig. 382). It was
built of both fired and unfired bricks set with mud joints—a technique that
can be traced in the Near East to the middle of the 4th millenium B.C. The
dome-shaped shell, presumably built in corbelled horizontal courses of brick,
had collapsed. It rose from a well-preserved circular foundation of large
bricks. The oven opening was formed by two arched courses of bricks radially
set which survived in perfect condition.
fenestration on the highest level of dwelling (such as the
House for Distinguished Guests; or in the Outer School,
where supplementary light inlets were a functional necessity).
The small squares in the cubicles for the students of
the Outer School, as we shall subsequently show, must
probably be interpreted as symbols for dormer windows.
The Plan of St. Gall | ||