SCRIPTORIUM & NORTHERN TRANSEPT ARM
An irregularity which, I confess, I cannot solve, is found
in the dimensions of the northern transept arm and of the
adjacent Scriptorium (fig. 61). Both of these spaces
should be 40 feet square, but are slightly less. In order to
be 40 feet square the head wall of the northern transept and
the adjoining wall of the Scriptorium would have had to
project by 2½ feet beyond the line of the outer wall of the
Rooms for the Visiting Monks, which abut the northern
aisle of the Church. Yet the Plan does not show such a
projection. Is this through error of the copyist? Or was it
a purposeful modification undertaken by the drafter of the
prototype plan? I am inclined to assume the former, as
only a 40-foot square would provide for a symmetrical
layout of the transept and a consistent arrangement in the
windows and writing desks along the northern and eastern
wall of the Scriptorium. However, one cannot be sure of
this. In general, the designer strove for symmetry, but to
contend that he did so without exception is a different
matter.
