University of Virginia Library

II. 1

DESCRIPTION

INTRODUCTION

THE Church of the Plan of St. Gall (figs. 82, 84, 93, and 99) is an aisled cruciform structure with an apse at either
end, an eastern and western paradise, and two detached round towers on its entrance side. Its most remarkable
feature, historically, apart from its length, is the fact that its layout is based on a system of squares that bears
startling resemblance to the so-called square schematism of the German Romanesque. This system is here carried
out with a logic and consistency unparalleled in any of the Carolingian churches actually constructed, with the sole
exception, possibly, of the cathedral and monastery church that Archbishop Hildebold (d. 819) built at Cologne
sometime after the year 800 (figs. 16-18).[1]

The Church measures 300 feet from apse to apse.[2] Its nave and transept have the same width, 40 feet, and thus
their area of intersection, the crossing, forms a square. The fore choir and two transept arms repeat the dimensions
of the crossing square, and the dimensions of the nave are so arranged as to cover a surface area of exactly four-and-one-half
times the size of the crossing square. The width of the aisles, 20 feet, is half the width of the nave (40 feet);
the interstices between the columns which support the clerestory wall on either side of the nave are spaced at intervals
of 20 feet on center.

The most striking feature to a modern visitor, were he able to enter this church, would be the many screens and
railings which divide the interior into separate areas for worship (figs. 82, 84, 93, and 99). In the time of Constantine
the Great, the Christian house of worship had only one altar, and its nave and aisles were so arranged
architecturally that the entering crowd could move from the entrances to the altar in a straight, continuous movement
that paralleled the columnar rhythm of the arcades supporting its walls (fig. 81). No barriers blocked the path
of those proceeding to the altar until they reached the chancel railing, which screened off the space for the officiating
clergy. By contrast, the Church of the Plan of St. Gall is furnished with seventeen altars (nineteen, if we add the
altars of its towers), but except for a narrow passage in each aisle by which the pilgrims gain access to the tomb of
St. Gall in the crypt, only one-sixth of the entire surface area of the Church is open to laymen (fig. 82): a portion
of the nave of the Church, 40 feet wide and 110 feet long, extending from the second pair of columns to halfway

beyond the seventh pair. The western half of this space is reserved for the performance of baptismal rites; the
eastern half for services held for pilgrims, and for the Monastery's serfs and workmen. All the remaining portions of
the Church—transept, presbytery, the terminal bays of the nave, most of the aisles, and the two apses—are screened
off for exclusive use by the monks and their clergy.

II.1.1

APPROACH

The official approach to the Church, which is also the only
legitimate access to the Monastery grounds, is a road 25 feet
wide and 145 feet long. This road is coaxial with the Church
and intersects, to the west of it, the large tract of land that
accommodates the houses for the monastic livestock and
their keepers, and the houses for servants and knights who
travel in the emperor's following (fig. 83). The road is
identified by a distich written in capitalis rustica:

There must have been other entrances to the service yards
for the passage of livestock, for hauling in the harvest and
wine on wagons or carts, and for the delivery of tithes from
outlying estates, but these passageways were not open to
pilgrims. Since the Plan does not tell us anything about the
outer wall enclosure, we do not know where such entrances
might have been. As the yards that lie to the west of the
Church are completely surrounded by fences, the Monastery
may not have required an outer gate.

II.1.2

ATRIUM

The gate to the Monastery is a large semicircular atrium,
which lies immediately west of the Church (fig. 84). This
installation comes under the jurisdiction of the Porter
(portarius) and the master of the paupers (procurator pauperum).
It is provided with three porches, in which the
visitors are received and screened for dispersion to their
respective quarters. The first of these three porches faces
west and carries the inscription:

The other two, facing south and north, lie at the ends of the
atrium. The one to the north gives access to the grounds of
the House for Distinguished Guests and the Outer School.
It is inscribed with a distich that reads:

Likewise the noble youth who attend the academic school.
The southern porch opens onto the grounds of the Hospice
for Pilgrims and Paupers and also serves as entryway for
the Monastery's serfs and workmen:

The lodgings of the porter and of the almoner are contiguous
to these porches. That of the porter abuts the
northern aisle of the Church, that of the almoner the
southern.[4]

The principal body of the atrium consists of a covered
semicircular gallery that gives access to the aisles of the
Church. The outer perimeter of this gallery is formed by a
solid wall; its inner perimeter consists of an open arcade
with arches rising from square piers. A hexameter inscribed
into the gallery in capitalis rustica states:

A title entered in the interstices of the arcades that support
the roof of the covered walk ascribes to them an inter-columniary
distance of 10 feet:

The gallery encloses concentrically an open plot of land
covered with grass, whose purpose is explained by another
hexameter, again in capitalis rustica:

II.1.3

TOWERS

Two doors in the outer atrium wall, placed midway
between the outer porch and the two inner porches give
access to two detached circular towers. Their diameter is
30 feet and their closest point lies at a distance of 7½ feet
from the outer atrium wall. Both towers are ascended by
winding stairs, suggested graphically by spirals and verbally
by an inscription in the northern tower (from the hand
of the main scribe) which reads: "Ascent by a spiral
staircase to survey the entire orbit [of the monastery] from
above" (ascensus per c·/·ocleam ad uniuersa super inspicienda).
A title in the southern tower (written by the same hand)
simply states: "another one of the same kind" (alter
similis). The northern tower has in its summit an altar
dedicated to the archangel Michael (in summitate altare sci
Michahelis archangeli), the southern tower, an altar dedicated
to archangel Gabriel (in fastigio altare sci Gabrihelis
archangeli). These last two titles are written by the hand
of the second scribe in such a pale shade of ink that they
are barely legible.[6]

CONNECTION WITH IRELAND?

The purpose of the two detached towers of the Plan of
St. Gall has been the subject of a considerable amount of
controversy. J. R. Rahn suggested a connection with the
round towers of Ireland (fig. 85).[7] But it appears that no
circular towers are known to have existed in Ireland early
enough to have been copied on the Plan of St. Gall.[8] Moreover,
there is nothing else in the architectural layout of the
Plan that would suggest any special ties with Ireland; and
the general trend of the monastic reform movement, to
which the Plan owes its existence, was away from the Irish
tradition rather than toward it.

CALL TOWERS OR FUNERARY LIGHT TOWERS?

Even more tenuous than the suggestion of an Irish
origin for the towers appears to me a theory recently
advanced by Hans Reinhardt,[9] who sketches a developmental
line leading to the towers of St. Gall from the
triumphal columns of Rome through the intermediary
forms of the Mohammedan minaret (fig. 86) and certain
funerary light towers (fig. 87), especially well-attested in
twelfth-century western France. Leaving entirely to one
side the question of the very doubtful connection of all these
disparate architectural entities, it must be stressed that
there is nothing in the Plan itself that would suggest that
the two towers of the Church were used either as call
towers, from which the monks sang their daily vigils and
announced the hours of prayer (in the sense in which this
was done in the Mohammedan ritual), or as light towers on
the top of which a lantern was lit at night in commemoration
of the dead. The author of the Plan is very specific.
The purpose of the towers, he tells us, is "to survey the
entire orbit [of the monastery] from above" (ad uniuersa
super inspicienda); this defines them as places of surveillance
—surveillance in the sense of "watch over approaching
danger." The use of the term uniuersa suggests that the
protective function of the towers was meant to extend
beyond the physical plant of the monastery; and the
patronage of the archangels Michael and Gabriel tends to
strengthen this view. Michael, through his defeat of
Lucifer, became the embodiment of the forces of light
prevailing over the powers of darkness; Gabriel was the
announcer of the human incarnation of the Saviour. Both
angels, through these accomplishments, became in a special
sense the protectors and guardians of the Church. All over
the Western world, St. Michael was venerated in sanctuaries
built on high-lying ground, on mountains, in the
upper stories of the western avant-corps of churches, or in
the steeples of towers. From there he pits himself against
the forces of darkness that rush against the House of the
Lord from the west.[10] On coins and in medieval manuscript
illuminations Rome and Jerusalem, the two terrestrial
counterimages of the City of God, were represented by a
gate flanked by two defending towers.[11] In like manner, on
the Plan of St. Gall, the Church is defended by its two
protective towers against the evil that rushes against it.

BELL TOWERS OR TOWERS OF DEFENSE
AND SURVEILLANCE?

It cannot be stressed with sufficient strength that the
explanatory titles associated with these towers fail to make
any reference to campana, signa, or tintinnabula; and for
that reason they cannot be interpreted as bell towers. On
purely historical grounds this would be a perfectly feasible
assumption. Bells set in motion with ropes, to mark the
various phases of the divine services or other festive events,
are mentioned at various places in the History of the
Franks of Gregory of Tours (d. 593/94). In the course of
the seventh and eighth centuries the evidence in contemporary
sources attesting their existence increases so
markedly that it can safely be assumed that they existed elsewhere.[12]

[ILLUSTRATION]

82. PLAN OF ST. GALL. PLAN OF CHURCH

Shaded areas distinguish parts of the Church accessible to monks,
and to laymen. Approaching by the access road (A) cutting through
the large service yard west of the Church, visiting pilgrims are
received by the Porter in a square porch (B) lying before the
semicircular atrium, and from there are directed through two more
porches (C, D), the poor to the Hospice for Pilgrims and Paupers,
the rich to the House for Distinguished Guests. Two passageways no
more than 7½ feet wide channel entering laymen through the aisles of
the Church, across the transept, to a U-shaped corridor crypt at
the end of which they may kneel before the tomb of St. Gall (E).
Two reserved areas in the nave allow them to hear sermons delivered
from the ambo (F), attend services celebrated at the altar of the
Savior at the Holy Cross (G), and participate in baptismal rites
conducted at the altar of SS John the Evangelist and John the
Baptist (H).

*

The pale red tint                 defines the area of the church proper. This, in
its totality was the province of the monk. Part of it he willingly shared with laymen
so that they also might be touched by mystery and deepened in faith. Those areas of the
church where layman and pilgrim were welcome and to which their movements were
restricted for enjoyment, contemplation, and prayer are indicated in a meandering
vignetted black stipple:

The pattern of circulation began at the Entry Porch, flowed along the aisles of
the church, passed by shrines and nave columns all with carved capitals supporting
arcades and walls above the arcades aglow with the color of painting. Then reaching
the crossing square, the circulation descended by stairs beneath apse and high altar
(dedicated to St. Mary and St. Gall) to the crypt passage where at point of climax,
illuminated by candle light, immersed in vibrant shadow, could be seen the tomb of St.
Gall.

This was moving theater and impressive, even to the sophisticated viewer. In such
a setting the Order of St. Benedict would gather momentum for centuries.

SCALE OF PLAN: 3/10 ORIGINAL SIZE (1:192 × 0.3 = 1:640)

[ILLUSTRATION]

83. PLAN OF ST. GALL

ACCESS ROAD TO CHURCH & MONASTERY GROUNDS

Yet the fact remains that the explanatory titles of
the towers of the Plan of St. Gall do not contain any suggestion
that they were meant to house bells; and there is
some doubt in my mind that any bells suspended in these
towers could have successfully fulfilled their function. The
use of these instruments implies an element of timing
which requires that the brother charged with the task of
ringing them be within sight or hearing of the officiating
priest.[13] Bell ringers stationed in the isolated towers of the
Church of the Plan of St. Gall could have neither seen nor
heard the priest.[14]

THE EIGHT-LOBED ROSETTE:
A STELLAR AND APOTROPAIC SYMBOL

One of the smaller unexplained motifs of the Plan of St.
Gall is the eight-lobed rosette that decorates the area in the
center of the two church towers which corresponds to the
open shaft of its stairs. The same motif appears on the two
poultry houses in connection with a circular "tower-like"
projection.[15] It has been interpreted in various ways, as
"being of no significance,"[16] as "indicating the conical
roof of the building, or its ornamental finial,"[17] and as
representing "the decorative design in the shingles which
cover the roof of the building."[18] None of these explanations
seems convincing. The motif, rather, belongs to an
old and widespread family of stellar symbols, the origins
of which reach back into antiquity. Eight- or six-lobed
rosettes, as symbols of the stellar nature of God, are a
common occurrence in Sumerian, Babylonian, Jewish, and
Roman art (fig. 88). The motif was quickly absorbed into
the Christian cult, as a reference to the celestial nature of
the new god, and subsequently became so closely associated
with the cross of Christ as to be practically interchangeable
with it (figs. 89 and 90).[19] The symbol placed its bearers
under the stellar protection of Christ, and through a
vernacular vulgarization of its original meaning eventually
assumed the role of a charm against lightning and fire, or
against disease affecting the health of livestock. The
symbol appears frequently in monastic medieval tithe
barns (fig. 91),[20] and survives to this very day in the
repertoire of decorative motifs, which are locally referred
to as "hex-signs," on numerous barns in the state of
Pennsylvania, in the United States of America (fig. 92).[21]

II.1.4

WESTERN APSE

ALTAR OF ST. PETER

The western apse (exedra) of the Church is dedicated to St.
Peter. Its floor is raised above the level of the nave by two
steps (gradus) and it is furnished with a wall bench which
follows the apse in its entire circumference. A square in the
center of the apse is designated as the altar of St. Peter by a
hexameter:

This location of the altar of St. Peter at the western end
of the Church, in counterposition to that of St. Paul at the
eastern end, is doubtlessly patterned after the churches of
these two primary apostles in Rome, where the altar of St.

[ILLUSTRATION]

84. PLAN OF ST. GALL, ATRIUM, TOWERS, AND WESTERN PART OF CHURCH

This layout, of consummate beauty and unique in its own period, has only one parallel in Early Christian architecture (fig. 161). The Church of
the Plan is preceded by a semicircular atrium surrounding an open pratellum, which is in turn flanked by two imposing circular towers built for symbolic
rather than functional purposes. There is no façade as in the great Early Christian prototype churches designed to receive huge metropolitan crowds.
The Church of the Plan of St. Gall is constructed for monks and—inward-turned—faces the outside world with a counter apse housing the altar
of St. Peter.

Peter's faced west, while the altar of St. Paul's faced east.[22]
The importance of the cult of St. Peter and St. Paul and the
close association with Rome that it suggests finds expression
in the fact that their altars are installed in the apses,
where they are second only to the high altar. They are
smaller than the high altar but larger than any of the other
altars, including the altar of the Holy Cross in the center of
the nave of the Church.

A further sign of distinction is that their function is
expressed in the form of a verse rather than the simple
word altare by which the altars in the transept and the nave
are designated. Poeschel's suggestion that the squares in the
two apses of the Church should be interpreted as "pulpits"
or "lecterns" rather than as altars appears to me untenable,
both in the light of their inscriptions[23] and in view of their
location. The apse is the place par excellence for altars.[24]
Moreover, the raised floor level, the semicircular wall
bench for the worshiping monks, and the carefully segregated
choir (chorus) in the two contiguous bays of the nave
have distinct eucharistic implications and would be meaningless
were they not connected liturgically with the rituals
performed at an altar (see fig. 84).

II.1.5

AISLES

The apse with the altar of St. Peter would not have been
readily accessible to visiting pilgrims and noblemen; on the
contrary, those who entered the Church at the two extreme
corners of the aisles found their progress blocked in the
nave by the choir of St. Peter, and in each of the aisles by
four altars, forcing them into a narrow passageway along
the arcades, through which they could move eastward to
gain access to the sanctuary in the crypt of the Church. The
altars of the aisles are located at intervals of 40 feet and are
carefully aligned with every second pair of nave columns.
Each of these altars is surmounted by a cross, shown in
horizontal projection. Each altar is enclosed by its own
chancel barrier that extends laterally toward the walls of
the church, thus dividing the floor space of the outer two-thirds
of the aisles into separate stations for worship.

The altars of the northern aisle, as we move west to east,
are dedicated as follows: the first one, jointly to SS. Lucia
and Cecilia (altar s̄c̄ cie & cecilie); the second, to the Holy
Innocents (altare scōr̄r̄ innocent); the third, to St. Martin
(altare sci martini); the fourth, to St. Stephen (altare s̄c̄
stephani mar̄). The dedications of the corresponding altars
in the southern aisle are: the first one, jointly to SS. Agatha
and Agnes (altare sctar agtae & agnet);[25] the second, to St.
Sebastian (altare sci sebastiani); the third, to St. Mauritius
(altare sci maricii); and the fourth, to St. Lawrence (altare
sancti laurenci). The names of these saints are written in
the barely legible pale-brown ink used by the second
scribe. The choice for the patrocinium of these altars, if
Father Iso Müller is correct,[26] was influenced by the layout
of the altars in the Abbey Church of St.-Riquier, and in
certain cases, where parallels with St.-Riquier cannot be
drawn, by the existence in the monastery of St. Gall of
relics not available elsewhere.

II.1.6

NAVE

The nave (figs. 84, 93 and 99) is 40 feet wide and 180 feet
long. Its clerestory rests on nine arcades, with columns
spaced at intervals of 20 feet on center. In three places
the nave is blocked in its entirety by cross partitions which
make it impossible for anyone at any point within the
nave to move in a straight line from the western apse to
the transept. The first of these screens connects the second
pair of columns; the second lies in line with the fifth pair;
and the third, midway between the seventh and eighth pair.
In addition, in three places, the nave is also railed off from
the aisles: in the third arcade, the sixth, and the last one-and-a-half
arcades. The spaces thus segregated isolate the
areas reserved for the monks from those accessible to the
laymen.

CHOIR OF ST. PETER

Between the two westernmost arcades of the nave an area
22½ feet wide and 32½ feet long is screened off to serve as a
choir (chorus) for the monks who chant before the altar of
St. Peter. The railing of this choir has a wide central
opening toward the altar of St. Peter, and two narrow
lateral passages at the opposite end. What such choir

[ILLUSTRATION]

85. MEDIEVAL ROUND TOWER, NORTHWEST CORNER OF CATHEDRAL

VALE OF GLENDALOUGH, WICKLOW, IRELAND

The Old Irish word for these towers, some of which rise to over 100 feet, is CLOIGTHEACH or "bell tower;" but the placement in most of them
of entrances well above ground level suggests they were used as places of refuge during attack. The earliest date from about 900.

screens looked like may be inferred from the surviving
choir and altar railings of the churches of Santa Sabina and
San Clemente in Rome, as well as from numerous fragments
of other screens of this type in Greek, Syrian, and
Palestinian churches. The arrangement is traditional. We
are showing as a typical example a reconstruction of the
presbytery of the Basilica of Thasos, Macedonia (fig. 94),
which also displays the Early Christian prototype for the
semicircular wall benches in the two apses of the Church
of the Plan of St. Gall.[27]

BAPTISMAL FONT AND ALTAR

The space between the first and second cross-partitions
of the nave serves as a baptistery. In the westernmost bay
is the baptismal font of the Church, and in the bay next to
it, an altar dedicated jointly to SS. John the Baptist and
John the Evangelist (altare sc̄ī iohannis & sc̄ī iohī euangelistae).
The baptismal font (fons) is marked by two concentric
circles and the hexameter:

Francis Bond interpreted these two rings as representing
"either a circular piscina or a circular font."[28] The first
proposition in this alternative must, I think, be abandoned.
Baptismal fonts constructed in the form of piscinae sunk
below the level of the pavement were common in Early
Christian times and during the period of conversion of the
barbaric tribes, when the majority of the people to be
baptized were adults. But in Carolingian times (with the
notable exception of the conversion of the Saxons, as Bond
himself points out),[29] the baptism of adults had become
unusual. Babies,[30] unable to stand upright, had to be dipped
into the water by the officiating priest and this could be
done successfully only if the water level were brought
within reasonable range of the priest as he bent over to
perform the ceremonial immersion of the child. The
elevated tub-shaped water font was the logical answer to
this need.

A convention of bishops held at the banks of the Danube
River in the summer of 796 reaffirmed an old ecclesiastical
directive according to which baptismal rites could be held
only at Pentecost and Easter, except in cases of extreme
urgency.[31] This may explain the large dimensions of the
font of the Plan of St. Gall, whose diameter runs over 6 feet.

That same convention took it for granted that the baptismal
rite should be performed "in a font, or some such
vessel, in which one can be immersed thrice in the name of
the Holy Trinity" (in fonte, vel tali vase, ubi in nomine
sanctae trinitatis trina mersio fieri possit).[32]

Baptismal fonts were in general made of stone, but a
directive issued in 852 by Bishop Hincmar of Reims orders
that "if a parish church cannot afford a baptismal font of
stone, it must provide for other suitable substitutes,"[33]
which can only refer to portable wooden tubs. A charming
picture of a baptismal rite performed in such a temporary
contrivance may be found in one of the marginal illuminations
of the Luttrell Psalter (fig. 95).[34] Circular fonts of
stone exist in many places; like the font of the Plan of St.
Gall, they usually are raised on a plinth. I show as typical
examples (fig. 96 and 97) a highly decorated font in the
church of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, England, of pre-Conquest
date,[35] and a larger cylindrical font of around
1100 now in the possession of Dr. Peter Ludwig, Aachen.[36]

In the Middle Ages the baptismal font usually stood in
the northern aisle of the church close to the western
entrance.[37] The arrangement on the Plan of St. Gall where
the font is placed into the very axis of the church is unusual[38]
and probably owes its existence to the desire to
restrict the services for the laymen to the nave in order to
keep the aisles clear for the passage of the pilgrims who
wished to visit the tomb of St. Gall.

ALTAR OF THE SAVIOR AT THE CROSS & THE
PLACE OF WORSHIP FOR LAYMEN

The space between the second and third transverse partitions
of the nave serves as the parish church for the monastery's
serfs and tenants and as the place of worship for the
pilgrims and visitors. It contains between the sixth pair of
columns the altar of the Saviour at the Cross (altar
scī saluatoris ad crucem). This altar is surmounted by a large

[ILLUSTRATION]

86. TABRIZ, IRAN. RECONSTRUCTION AFTER PASCAL COSTE [after Saare, Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst, Berlin, 1901, 29, fig. 26]

The masjed i Kebud or Blue Mosque was built by Jehan Shah of the Kira Kuyumli dynasty (1437-1467). The mosque, now in ruins, is of a
type reaching far back to the early centuries of Mohammedism.

cross shown in horizontal projection, and has ascribed to it
the hexameter:

The cross rises 10 feet above the altar, and has a spread of
7½ feet. Altars in honor of the Holy Cross existed in the
abbey churches of Centula, Fulda, Corvey-on-the-Weser,
St. Vaast at Arras, the Cathedral of Le Mans, and at many
other places.[40] As in the Church of the Plan of St. Gall,
they were located in the axis of the church at a point lying
midway between the eastern and western ends of the
church.

AMBO

The last 1½ bays of the nave are again completely
screened off by railings. In the center of this enclosure,
which is accessible by two lateral passages from the west
and a central passage from the east, there rises a circular
pulpit (ambo) on a concentric plinth 10 feet in diameter,
from which "is recited the lesson of evangelic peace" (hic
euangelacae recitat' lectio pacis).

The Plan does not tell us from what side the ambo was
entered. But since it was from here that the abbot or
visiting bishop addressed the crowd congregated around
the altar of the Holy Cross, the lectern side of the ambo
must have been at the west, the entrance side at the east.
Pulpits of this kind were in use in Early Christian churches
from the fourth century onward.[41] They were of circular,
ovoid, or polygonal shape. A typical example from the
church of Hagia Sophia, in Salonica, now in the Museum
of Constantinople, is shown in figure 98.[42]

LECTERNS FOR READING

Further east of the ambo, yet within the same enclosure,
are "two lecterns for reading" (analogia duo ad legendū),
one to be used "at night" (in nocte), the other, by implication,
in the daytime. They are built against the railing that
separates the nave from the crossing and must have faced
eastward toward the place where the monks congregated.
The existence of these two lecterns suggests that the service
books which they supported were so large that they could
not be easily held in the hand. This holds true, practically
without exception, for the Carolingian Bibles and Psalters.[43]

II.1.7

TRANSEPT

The transept (fig. 99) is separated from nave and aisles by
screens that run across the entire width of the Church. It is
also divided internally into separate compartments by
means of longitudinal screens that separate the crossing
from the transept arms, and within the latter there is a
further separation of the areas reserved for the monks from

the passages that take the pilgrims through the transept into
the crypt. The monks and priests who seek access to the
crossing and to the presbytery must cross these passages.

The layout of the transept and the choir that adjoins it
in the east is complex and, sometime after the Plan was
drawn, someone—perhaps the author of the Plan himself—
considered it desirable that the boundaries of the constituent
spaces of this part of the Church be made more conspicuous.
He put them into visual prominence by redrawing
them in a dark brown ink, thus distinguishing the principal
architectural partitions from the furnishings shown in the
interior of these spaces. In consequence all the transept
walls, as well as the boundary lines between the crossing
and the transept arms, as well as the two lateral walls of the
presbytery, were rendered twice, first in red, and subsequently
in brown ink.

THE CROSSING SQUARE AND ITS FURNISHINGS

The crossing is the "choir for the psalmodists" (chorus
psallentium). It is furnished with four "benches" (formulae).
Schmidt's interpretation of formulae as lecterns (Pulte)
appears to me untenable. In the ninth century only the
directing monk held an antiphonary in his hands; and this
was too small to require even one lectern,[44] let alone four
of the size of the formulae on the Plan of St. Gall which are
10 feet long and at least 2½, probably 3¾, feet wide.
Moreover, the scribe's term for "lectern" is not formula but
analogium and in the three places where lecterns are shown
on the Plan, they are rendered either as simple squares (the
two lecterns by the rail that separates the crossing from the
nave of the Church; see end of preceding paragraph) or as
a square with a circle inscribed (the Reader's lectern in the
Refectory; see below, p. 268f). Formula, a diminutive of
forma[45] (used in the same sense) is the common medieval
designation for "bench" or "choirstall" as well as for those
wooden supports that are used for kneeling in prayer (prieDieu—kneeling
chair—Betstuhl) or to be leaned upon in the
act of inclination (hence also called inclinatoria) to preclude
excessive physical strain during the long hours of religious
devotion, a problem that had been of considerable concern
to the fathers of early monasticism.[46] In the choir stalls of
later monastic churches (and to an even higher degree the
large cathedral churches) both of these appurtenances are
combined into a single piece of furniture, consisting of a
wooden range of seats with panelled lean-to's in the back
and a solid range of supports for kneeling and prayer in
front.[47] The formulae in the crossing of the Church of the
Plan may have been an early variant of this type of seat. In
their simplest form, one might imagine them to have looked
like the church bench from Alpirsbach (fig. 100) with
supports for kneeling and bending either physically
attached to them or placed separately in front of them. The
reader may have observed that the formulae of the crossing
are a little wider than the corresponding benches in the two
transept arms (also called formulae). The latter have the
standard width of 2½ feet used by the designer for benches
wherever they appear on the Plan. The former look as
though they were meant to be 3¾ feet wide (1½ standard
modules). I think that this distinction is intentional, i.e.,
that the designer used this variation in size to emphasize the
greater liturgical importance of the formulae of the crossing
square.[48]

In two essays published in 1965 and 1967/68[49] Father
Corbinian Gindele expressed the view that the location of
the formulae in the crossing square (all at right angles to the
longitudinal axis of the Church) indicates that the entire
choir of monks when seated faced the altar in an easterly
direction (versus or contra altare) in compliance with a
custom which he claims was common in Early Christian
times, rather than facing each other transversely across the
altar from two opposite rows of seats ranged longitudinally
along the walls of the altar space, as became the rule in later
Cluniac monasteries. This is incorrect visual exegesis. The
four formulae in the crossing square when fully occupied
could seat no more than four monks each, altogether sixteen
(counting as normal requirement a sitting area 2½ feet
square per person). The full contingent of monks attending

[ILLUSTRATION]

88. ALTAR OF MITHRAS. WIESBADEN,
ALTERTUMSMUSEUM

FROM THE MITHRAS SANCTUARY, HEDDERNHEIM

[photo: Horn]

The six- or eight-lobed rosette (a misnomer, since it is by origin a
symbol of stellar, not chthonic forces) appears in Near Eastern
imagery as an attribute of gods and royalty from the 3rd millennium
onward. It became associated with Mithras after his cult was
established in the Euphrates Valley. It spread westward into Rome
as Rome increased its hold on Asia, finding a stronghold in the army
among tradesmen and slaves, mainly Asiatics. Christian antagonism
to Mithraism prevented the rosette from becoming one of Christ's
personal attributes along with the halo, globe, and canopy
(cf. figs. 102-103), all of which Christ inherited from pagan deities.
Despite official antagonism, the rosette was nevertheless widely
diffused in the Christian communities of Syria and North Africa and
with fervor adopted by the Germanic invaders of Rome.

[ILLUSTRATION]

89. MORTUARY LANTERN

Pers, deux-sevres, france

[Archives photographiques d'art et d'histoire:
Monuments historiques, Sept. 1890]

"Lanterns of the Dead" are tall, hollow columns of stone, often of
considerable height, with entrances at the bottom and small pavilions
at the top, where the light of a lamp during the night signaled
existence of a cemetery or seigneurial tomb. The specimen here shown
is one of the finest of its kind.

the daily services ranged between 100 and 110 (see below,
p. 342). These could not under any circumstances have
been accommodated by the four free-standing benches of
the crossing square. The Plan shows with unequivocal
clarity where the main body of monks was seated: on the
long bench that runs along the walls of the presbytery and
through the round of the apse, as well as on supplementary
benches ranged along the walls of the two transept arms.
If in the course of the development that led from Early
Christian to medieval monasticism, the seats of the monks
were shifted from an eastward-facing position to one in
which the monks faced each other transversely from either
side of the altar, this shift must have been undertaken before
the Plan of St. Gall was drawn. The seating arrangement
for the monks shown on the Plan of St. Gall, however, in
fact follows a pattern that had already been firmly established
for the bishop and the secular clergy in the days of
Constantine the Great (fig. 104) and in the course of the
fifth and sixth centuries become standard for the great
episcopal churches, both in the eastern and western part of
the empire.[51]

The four free-standing benches in the crossing square
must have had a function distinct from that of the wall
benches in the presbytery, the apse and the transept arms.
I am inclined to assume (accepting a suggestion made by
my colleague, Richard L. Crocker) that they served as seats
for the specially trained singers who chanted the more
difficult sequences of the psalms in alternation with the
regular monks. A magnificent twelfth-century example of
the type of bench we might expect to have found in the
crossing of the Church of the Plan is shown in figure 100.[52]

On the eastern side of the crossing, two flights of stairs
of "seven steps" (septem gradus, similit) lead up into the
fore choir. Halfway up these steps, against the crossing
piers, there is, to the left, the "altar of St. Benedict" (altar̄
sc̄ī benedicti), to the right, the "altar of St. Columban"
(altar̄ scī colūbani).

The presence of the altars of St. Benedict and St.
Columban in such a prominent place is not surprising.
They are the representatives of the two great monastic
traditions, the Irish and the Benedictine, which shaped the
history of the monastery of St. Gall.[53]

SOUTHERN TRANSEPT ARM

In the southern transept arm, against the east wall on a
platform raised by two steps (gradus), is the "altar of St.
Andrew" (alt̄ scī andreae). It is a little larger than the altars
in the aisles of the Church, but smaller than the altars of
St. Paul and St. Peter in the apses. The three remaining
walls of this transept arm are lined with benches providing
sitting space for twenty monks. A freestanding bench
(formula) in the center of the floor can accommodate five
more monks. Like the corresponding benches in the crossing,
this bench must have been reserved for the trained
singers. The layout suggests that in such cases where
professional celebrations required that the full choir of
monks be split into smaller segments officiating simultaneously
in different parts of the Church, each transept
arm was so laid out as to be capable of serving as a liturgically
autonomous station.

The southern transept arm has entrances which make it
possible for the monks to enter it directly from the Dormitory
for night services (Matins) and at daybreak (Lauds),
and from the northeastern corner of the Cloister for the day
offices. A door in the east gives access to the Sacristy. From
the Dormitory the southern transept arm could only be
reached by a "night" stairway. The draftsman does not
tell us anything about the course or the landing of this
stairway, but stairways just like this exist in the corresponding
places in the abbey churches of Fontenay (Côted'Or)
and Noirlac (Cher), France, and in the Priory
Church of Hexham (Northumberland), England (fig. 101).[54]
The traces of others, not quite as well preserved, may be
found in the abbeys of Tintern (Monmouthshire),
Beaulieu (Hampshire), Hayles (Gloucestershire), and at
St. Augustine's in Bristol.[55]

NORTHERN TRANSEPT ARM

The layout of the northern transept arm is identical with
that of its southern counterpart. Its altar is dedicated
jointly to SS. Philip and James (alt̄ scī philippi et iacobi). A
door in the north wall communicates with the Abbot's
House, another one in the east wall leads into the Scriptorium.

II.1.8

PRESBYTERY

HIGH ALTAR: ST. MARY AND ST. GALL

Raised as it is by seven steps above the level of the transept,
the presbytery with its high altar dominates the entire
Church. The liturgical pre-eminence of this part of the
building is emphasized by a hexameter in capitalis rustica:

The "holy structures" are the high altar of the Church,
dedicated jointly to St. Mary and St. Gall (altare sc̄ē mariae &
scī galli) and the tomb of the holy body (sacrophagū scī

[ILLUSTRATION]

89. MEROVINGIAN CARVED STONE

POITIERS, MUSÉE DU BAPTISTÈRE, FRANCE

[photo: Photomecaniques]

The stone may have come from the
church of Notre-Dame l'Ancienne.

[ILLUSTRATION]

90. MARBLE SLAB WITH CROSS
& SIX-LOBED ROSETTES (8TH CENT.)
LUCCA, MUSED DI VILLA GRININI

Associated with the cross, as in many
Syrian, North African and Visigothic slabs
of earlier periods, the six-lobed rosette
probably retained its original meaning as a
symbol of light overcoming evil forces allied
with darkness. In the Middle Ages the
symbol went underground.

[after Arte Lombarda, suppl. vol. 9:1]

[ILLUSTRATION]

92. HEX SIGNS

On Pennsylvania Dutch barns, they often are several feet in diameter

[after Sloane, 1954, 67]

[ILLUSTRATION]

91. SIX-LOBED ROSETTE IN MASONRY OF
MONASTIC BARN (1211-1227) PARCAY-MESLAY, FRANCE

[photo: Horn]

The rosette was cut into masonry or timber work of many medieval
tithe barns as a spell to ward off harm to livestock or harvest.

corporis) which on the Plan is located immediately behind
the altar.

The joint patrocinium of Mary and St. Gall has its
explanation in the fact that Mary was the patron of the
original oratory of St. Gall. The deeds of the Monastery
disclose how in the course of the eighth century the name
of St. Gall began to be associated with that of Mary with
increasing frequency until it eventually replaced it entirely
and became the local place name (coenobium sancti Galli, or
sancti Galloni).[56] The altar is raised on a plinth, a distinction
not accorded any other altars in the Church. We must
expect it to have been surmounted by a canopy. A capitulary
issued by Charlemagne in 789 directs that altars should
be surmounted by such superstructures (Ut super altaria
teguria fiant vel laquearia).[57] An ancient symbol of the
celestial dome and hence, by implication, of universal
rulership, this motif had been transmitted from the Roman

gods (fig. 102.A)[59] to the Roman emperor, as he rose into the
rank of the gods (fig. 102.B),[60] and from the emperor to Christ
as Christ acquired the status of a Roman state god. It was
no lesser person than Constantine the Great who set a
conspicuous precedent for this transmission of celestial
prerogatives to the new God of Heaven when he adorned the
high altar of the latter's prime apostle with a pedimented
canopy richly revetted with silver and gold, in the Church
of St. Peter's in Rome (fig. 104).[61]

WALL BENCHES

Wall benches lined both sides of the fore choir and
continued into the round of the apse. The monks faced
each other vultus contra vultum from either side of the
altar, except for those who sat in the curving parts of the
apse, and faced the altar westward. The abbot presumably
sat at the apex of the apse and had a counterpart in the
choir master, who occupied a position of comparable
centrality in the middle of the crossing square. The layout
of the benches discloses that crossing and presbytery—
despite their different levels—formed liturgically a unitary
space; and a count of the sitting places available for the
monks in the areas screened off for their exclusive use in the
eastern parts of the Church suggests that when the entire
community participated at a common service, even the
benches in the transept arms were occupied by monks
attending the service,[62] . On the north side "an upper
entrance leads into the library above the crypt" (introitus
in bibliothecā sup criptā superius). The qualifying adjective
"upper" implies the existence of a "lower" entrance, which
must have made the library accessible from the Scriptorium
below it. The prototype for the raised platform of the
presbytery and the apse of the Church of the Plan of St. Gall
was the raised presbytery that Pope Gregory the Great had
installed in Old St. Peter's in Rome between 594 and 604
(fig. 104) by lifting the pavement of the new choir 5 feet
above the original floor of the church and establishing
below this platform a crypt that incorporated directly
beneath the new altar the old shrine of St. Peter, which
before this alteration had been exposed to view.[63]

TOMB OF ST. GALL AND ITS RELATION
TO THE CRYPT

There has been considerable discussion on whether the
tomb of St. Gall should be interpreted as standing in the
presbytery above, or in the crypt below it; and whether, if in
the crypt, it should be thought of as standing behind or
underneath the altar.[64] It should be remarked that on the
Plan the tomb is entered on the east side of the altar, and
that the plurality of "holy structures" referred to in the
affixed hexameter as "shining above the crypt" should
lead one to think that the sarcophagus stood in the upper
sanctuary.

Despite these facts, it has generally been assumed that
the tomb of St. Gall was meant to stand in the crypt underneath
the presbytery, and for good reason, since it was the
desire to find appropriate protection for the relics, in the
first place, that had led to the invention of crypts. The
proper solution to this puzzle may have been found by
Willis when he speculated, "It is not impossible that
although the real sepulchre of the saint was in the confessionary
or crypt below, a monument to his honour may
have been erected above the altar."[65] That such a double-storied
structure actually existed in St. Gall is suggested by
two tales reported in the Miracles of St. Gall. One of these
tales speaks of a cripple who was taken by his friends to the
memoriam B. Galli and daily "laid close to the sepulcher in
the crypt" (cottidie juxta sepulchrum in crypta collocatus).
Another tale mentions "a lamp which burned nightly
before the upper altar and tomb and which also threw some
light through a small window upon the altar of the crypt"
(lumen quod ante superius altare et tumbam ardebat per
quandam fenestrum radios suos ad altare infra cryptam
positum dirigebat).[66] Some further information concerning
the topographical relation of tomb and altar at St. Gall can

[ILLUSTRATION]

93. PLAN OF ST. GALL. NAVE AND AISLES OF CHURCH

In the axis of the nave, west to east: baptismal font, altar of SS John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, altar of the Saviour at the Holy
Cross, ambo; and midway between the two latter, two crucial inscriptions designating the nave as 40 feet wide, and each aisle, 20 feet wide.

In the north aisle, west to east: altars of SS Lucia and Cecilia, The Holy Innocents, SS Martin and Stephen. In the south aisle: SS Agatha and
Agnes, St. Sebastian, SS Mauritius and Lawrence.

be extracted from the Life of St. Gall. The author of this
work informs us that on his death at Arbon, October 16,
about the year 646, the body of the Saint was taken to his
oratory at St. Gall and buried in a grave dug between the
altar and the wall.[67] Forty years later, his sepulcher was
violated by plunderers who mistook the coffin for a treasure
chest, but Boso, Bishop of Constance, replaced the coffin
"housing the relics of the sacred body, in a worthy sarcophagus
between the altar and the wall, erecting over it a
memorial structure congruent with the merits of the God-chosen."[68]
The chronicles of St. Gall report no further
translation of the Saint, and from this fact, as Willis concluded
correctly, it has to be inferred that the location of
the tomb remained the same, even in Gozbert's church.[69]
Nowhere in any contemporary allusions to the sepulcher of
the Saint, is the tomb reported to stand underneath the altar.

II.1.9

EASTERN APSE

ALTAR OF ST. PAUL

The eastern apse (exedra) houses the altar of St. Paul,
which is designated with the hexameter:

It has been argued that St. Paul was given this prominent
position in the Church of St. Gall because he was the
patron saint of an earlier church torn down in 830 to make
room for Abbot Gozbert's new building. This contention
has no base in fact. In the entire historical tradition of the
Abbey of St. Gall there is no source that would attest the
existence of a sanctuary dedicated to St. Paul.[70]

SYNTHRONON

The apse has the full width of the fore choir and is
furnished in its entire circumference with a wall bench that
continues the course of the fore choir benches. Together,
this range of benches offers sitting space for forty-eight
monks and the abbot. Its curved portion in the apse is
broader than the two straight arms in the presbytery. The
latter are 2½ feet wide (1 standard module); whereas the
former look as though they were meant to have a width of
3¾ feet (1½ standard modules). Again I think that this dimensional
differentiation is deliberate and that the designer
used it to stress the hierarchical prominence of that portion
of the bench on which the abbot and the senior monks
were seated, thus distinguishing it from the seats where
monks of lesser status were placed westward in sequence of
decreasing seniority. The designer had used the same
device in stressing the greater liturgical significance of the
benches for the specially trained singers (formulae) in the
crossing square in relation to those located in the transept
arms.

To seat the highest dignitaries of the ecclesiastical
community on a semicircular bench raised against the wall
of the apse (synthronon) is not a monastic invention, but a
transference to monastic ritual of a custom established in
the secular church. In Palestine this arrangement is
attested, as early as 314 A.D., for the basilica of Tyre
(fig. 104), built by Bishop Paulinus (known through an
unusually accurate and detailed description by Eusebius)
and such later fourth-century buildings as the Constantinian
Nativity Church in Bethlehem (333 A.D.), the
basilica of Emmaus (first half of the fourth century), the
cathedral of Gerasa (third quarter of the fourth century),
and the Church of the Multiplication of the Bread at
et-Tabgha (end of the fourth century). Toward the turn of
the same century it also appears at the coast of Istria in the
so-called Chiesetta at Grado and Santa Maria delle Grazie
at Grado. By the middle of the fifth century the layout is
standard in most Near-Eastern countries, and above all in
Greece. Frequently the semicircular benches in the apse
are prolonged by two straight arms reaching westward into
the bema. Good examples of this arrangement are the
basilica of Thasos (figs. 94 and 144) and the magnificent
church of Corinth-Lechaion (fig. 161). The Constantinian
basilicas of Rome do not appear to have been provided with
this type of bench for Bishop and clergy—unless they
were built in wood, leaving no traces for posterity—but
toward the end of the sixth century a synthronon of
impressive monumentality was set up by Pope Gregory the
Great in the apse of the most venerable church of western
Christendom, Old St. Peter's (fig. 103) forming a sight of
inescapable impressiveness to every transalpine visitor of
Rome, layman or clergyman, and inter alia the physical
stage for Charlemagne's coronation on Christmas day of
the year 800.[71]

At what time precisely this seating arrangement was
adopted by the monks is an unsolved historical problem.
But it is not unreasonable to conjecture that its acceptance

[ILLUSTRATION]

94. THASOS, MACEDONIA

Presbytery of the basilica, perspective reconstruction [after Orlandos, II, 1954, 528]

in the monastic ritual was associated with the ascendancy
(if not victory) of Benedictine monasticism over the more
individualistic forms of Irish and Near-Eastern monachism.
The earliest monastic example known to me is the synthronon
of the royal abbey of St. Denis (fig. 167) consecrated
in 775. Here the Abbot-father took his seat on a
throne of bronze placed into the apex of the apse at the very
spot where the bishop had his cathedra in episcopal
churches. The seat, of Roman workmanship and known as
"the throne of Dagobert" is still preserved, forming one
of the treasures of the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris.

Was it the close alliance between regnum and sacerdotium
in the life and administration of the Abbey of St. Denis
that gave the historical impetus for the transfer to the
abbot of a liturgical prerogative formerly exclusively
associated with episcopal churches? Is this another
Carolingian innovation, foreshadowing the powerful role
the monastery was to play as a supportive agency in the
government of this great statesman and ruler?

II.1.10

CRYPT

OUTER CRYPT

The crypt is composed of two parts: an outer corridor
crypt, by which the visiting laymen gain access to the tomb
of St. Gall, and an inner confessionary, reserved for the
worship of the monks. The corridor crypt consists of two
barrel-vaulted subterranean shafts (inuolutio arcuum) which
run outside along the foundation walls of the fore choir and
terminate in a transverse shaft a short distance west of the
apse. The arched entrances to these shafts lie next to the
eastern crossing piers. They are designated in the south, in
criptā ingressus ʈ egressus ("ingress into or egress from the
crypt") and in the north, in criptā introitus ʈ exitus ("entrance
into or exit from the crypt") which suggests that
although the tomb could be approached from two different
sides, the pilgrims generally returned on the same side on
which they had entered. There can be no doubt about the
purpose of this outer crypt. It forms the continuation of
two long passageways which lead the pilgrims in a straight
line from the entrances in the west to the transverse shaft
under the presbytery, bringing them right up to the tomb
of St. Gall itself (fig. 82).

INNER CRYPT

On the other hand, it is equally clear that the inner crypt
must have been used for the services the monks conducted
before the tomb of St. Gall. Its entrance, between the two
flights of stairs that lead from the crossing to the high altar,
is in an area entirely set aside for the monks. It is designated
with the title, "access to the confessio" (accessus ad confessionem).
That such private oratories should be constructed
"near the place where the sacred bodies rest, so
that the brothers can pray in secrecy" (ut ubi corpora
sanctorum requiescunt aliud oratorium habeatur, ubi fratres

secrete possint orare), was ordered by Charlemagne in a
capitulary issued in 789.[72]

II.1.11

SACRISTY AND VESTRY

In the corner between the fore choir and the southern
transept arm, and directly attached to them, there is a
double-storied structure, 40 feet square, which contains
"below, the Sacristy, above, the repository for the church
vestments" (subtus sacratorium, supra uestiū ecʈae repositio).
The Plan gives the layout of the Sacristy. In the center a
large square table for the sacred vessels (mensa scōr̄ uasorum)
is raised on a plinth. Benches and a chest or table are set
against the walls, and the room is heated by a corner fireplace.
The Plan does not disclose the location of any stairs
connecting the Sacristy with the Vestry, but it is reasonable
to assume that they were located above the arm of the
corridor crypt that lies beneath the Sacristy.[73]

The custodianship of Sacristy and Vestry was the
responsibility of the Sacrist (custos ecclesiae)[74] who also was
in charge of the preparation of the host and the holy oil.
This task was performed in a separate building, as the title
indicates: the building where the holy bread is baked
and where the oil is pressed (domus ad pparandū panē scm̄ &
oleum exprimendum.); this building measures 22½ × 37½
feet and is connected to the Sacristy by a covered passageway
that is bent twice at right angles. The room contains
a press, a table, and an oven as well as benches all along
the remaining parts of its walls.

II.1.12

SCRIPTORIUM AND LIBRARY

Alcuin's poem On the Scribes offers a metrical inscription
intended to decorate the entrance of a monastic scriptorium,
perhaps the scriptorium of the Monastery of St. Martin's
at Tours.[78]

[ILLUSTRATION]

95. LUTTRELL PSALTER, LONDON, BRITISH MUSEUM. Add. Ms. 42130, fol. 37

Baptismal scene [by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum]

[ILLUSTRATION]

97. AACHEN, COLLECTION DR. PETER LUDWIG

Baptismal font, around 1100

[ILLUSTRATION]

96. DEERHURST, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND

Priory church, Saxon baptismal font

LAYOUT

On the northern side of the Church of the Plan, in a
position corresponding exactly to that of the Sacristy and
Vestry, there is a double-storied structure of like design,
which contains "below, the seats for the scribes, and above,
the library" (infra sedes scribentiū, supra bibliotheca). From
a purely functional point of view the location of these two
important cultural facilities is ideal. Their situation at the
northeast corner of the church, in the shadow cast by
transept and choir, protected the scribes from the glare of
the sun as it travelled through the southern and western
portion of its trajectory and allowed them to work in the
more diffused light made available by their east and north
exposure.

The Scriptorium is accessible by a door from the northern
transept arm of the Church. The Library is reached from the
presbytery by a stairway or passage designated the "upper
entrance into the Library above the crypt" (introitus in
bibliothecā sup criptā superius). This implies that there was
another lower entrance, not shown on the Plan, presumably
an internal stair connecting Library and Scriptorium
directly. The Plan depicts the layout of the Scriptorium.
This has in its center a large square table, identical in size
and shape with that for the sacred vessels in the Sacristy
and like the latter, it, too, is raised on a plinth. Along the
north and east walls of the room, there are seven desks for
writing, and seven windows[79] placed to provide the scribes
with adequate lighting. This, incidentally, is one of the
only two instances where windows are marked on the
Plan.[80] Unquestionably they owe this distinction to the
fact that they were of vital importance for the work performed
in this room. The windows must have been glazed.
Glass windows, although still a considerable luxury in
Carolingian times, were indispensable in a monastic scriptorium.
That they were actually in use in Carolingian times
is attested in the chronicles of the Abbey of St. Wandrille
(Fontanella) for the period of Abbot Ansegis (823-833) and
by sources pertaining to the cathedral of Reims, for the
time of Bishop Hincmar (845-882).[81] Also to be mentioned
in this context is a passage in the Casus sancti Galli of
Ekkehard IV, where we are told that Sindolf the Maligner,
while eavesdropping on a conversation carried on in the
scriptorium of St. Gall, pressed his ear at night "to the
glass window where Tutilo was seated" (fenestrae vitreae
cui Tutilo assederat).[82] The tale, written around 1050, is
almost certainly fictitious, but may in fact reflect the
architectural conditions of the Carolingian scriptorium of
St. Gall, which was rebuilt by Abbot Gozbert, when he
reconstructed the monastery church between 830 and 837.
One observes, not without surprise, that the scriptorium is
not furnished with any facilities for heating.

LOCATION

The position of the sacristy "to the right of the apse" (a
dextra absidae) and of the library in a corresponding place
"to the left" (a sinistra eiusdem) is traditional. It existed, as
George H. Forsyth has pointed out, as early as the fifth
century, in the church which St. Paulinus had erected at
Nola near Naples.[83] Forsyth also drew attention to the
interesting fact that the double-storied side chambers of
the kind found on the Plan of St. Gall were common in
many Early Christian churches of the Near East. The most
striking parallel is to be found in the church of St. John of
Ephesus where this motif is combined with the centralized
Latin-cross plan exactly as in the Church of the Plan of St.
Gall.[84]

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION

The Scriptorium and the Library were the intellectual
nerve centers of the monastery. Without the cultural
activities carried on in these spatially relatively modest
facilities, western civilization would not be what it is today.
A substantial portion of what is known to us of classical
learning was transmitted in manuscripts copied in monastic
scriptoria and rescued for posterity in the carefully protected
bookcases (armaria) of monastic libraries (fig. 105).

By the time the Plan of St. Gall was drawn these two
institutions had already developed internally into a fairly
complex organization. Their management was in the hands
of an official who received his orders from the abbot. In
pre-Carolingian times this was, in general, the choirmaster
(cantor) whose leading role in the performance of the daily
choral services made him a natural candidate for this position.[85]
Under the impetus of the Carolingian renaissance,
scriptorium and library were placed in the care of a special
official, the bibliothecarius or armarius (from armarium, the
"press" or "wardrobe" in which the books were kept).[86]
This official became responsible for the maintenance and
administration of an entire system of different collections
of books: the main collection (kept in the central library),
the liturgical collection, i.e., the books used in the divine
services (often chained to their places of use in the church;
otherwise, kept in the Sacristy), and several branch
libraries: viz., a reference library of school books needed

[ILLUSTRATION]

98. AMBO, HAGIA SOFIA AT SALONIKA

ISTANBUL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

[redrawn from Orlandos, 11, 1954, fig. 11]

for the training of the novices (by necessity kept in the
Novitiate), another one needed for the teaching in the
Outer School (by necessity kept in that location), and a
third collection used for the daily readings of the monks,
the lectio divina established as a primary monastic occupation
by St. Benedict, for which each monk was allowed in
the aggregate some four hours per day.[87]

READING COLLECTION

The reading collection was of substantial size and must
have been composed of at least as many books as there were
monks in the monastery, since the Rule prescribes that
each monk be handed a book at the beginning of Lent
which as the year went by he was bound "to read it in
consecutive order from cover to cover."[88] The selection
and distribution of this material was one of the duties of the
provost. A directive issued at the synod of 816 allowed him
to augment the regular annual allotment at his discretion.[89]

The titles of the books loaned out in this manner were
entered in a check-out list (breve) to facilitate their return
and assure control over the holdings.[90] Hildemar, in his
commentary to the Rule, written around 845, provides a
detailed, here abridged, description of this procedure:

The librarian (bibliothecarius) with the aid of the brothers
takes all the books to the chapter meeting. There they
spread out a rug, upon which the books are placed. After
the regular business of the chapter meeting has been concluded
the librarian announces from the check-out list
(breve) the titles of the books and the names of the monks
to whom they had been lent in the preceding year. Thereupon
each brother deposits his book on the rug. Then the
provost, or anyone else to whom he may have delegated this
task, collects each book, and as it is being returned, he
probes the brother with questions whether he has diligently
studied his assignment. If the response is satisfactory, he
inquires of the brother which book he considers to be of
use to him in the coming year and provides him with the
desired book. However, if the abbot finds that a book is not
suited for a brother who asked for it, he does not give it to
him but hands him a more suitable one. If the interview
establishes that the brother was derelict in his study, he is
not given a new book, but asked to study the old one for
another year. If the abbot finds that the brother has studied
with diligence, but is nevertheless not capable of comprehending
it, he gives him another one. After the brothers
have left the chapter meeting, the abbot sees to it that all
books that have been entered in the check-out list are
accounted for, and if they are not on record, searches until
they are found.[91]

The books disposed of in this manner were obviously
not kept in the central library, but were in permanent
circulation, each monk retaining his own copy, which he
probably kept on a shelf or locker under or near his bed,
together with the other modest supplies that the Rule
allowed him.[92]

MAIN LIBRARY

In his Renaissance of the Twelfth Century Charles Homer
Haskins made the remark that "when men spoke of a
library in the Middle Ages they did not mean a special
room, and still less a special building" but rather thought
of a "book press" or wardrobe, as is suggested by the word
armarium commonly used for libraries.[93] I do not know
whether this assessment is tenable for the later Middle
Ages. It is certainly not what the framers of the Plan of St.
Gall had in mind for a monastic library of the time of
Charlemagne or Louis the Pious. The Plan provides for a
central library of a surface area of 1600 square feet, located
over a scriptorium of identical dimensions, the two together
totaling 3200 square feet. We know at least of one
other Carolingian library that was installed in a separate
building: that of the monastery of St. Wandrille (Fontanella).
It stood in the cloister yard in front of the Refectory,
and opposite it, on the other side of the yard, was a
twin building which served as charter house.[94] In the
monastery of St. Emmeran there must have been a special
library, for it is said of Bishop Wolfgang (972-94) that he
had it decorated with metrical inscriptions of his own composing.[95]
If Haskins infers from Lanfranc's description of
the annual distribution of the daily reading matter that "all
of the books of a monastery can be piled on a single rug"
this cannot be taken as referring to the whole of the
monastic library, but only to that portion of it that was
checked out to the monks at the beginning of Lent.[96] In
such monasteries as St. Riquier and Corbie, which housed
as many as 350 to 400 monks, even this circulating portion
of the general library holdings must have been of substantial
bulk.

WRITING POSTURE AND VARIOUS
CLASSES OF SCRIBES

All of these books were written by the monks themselves
in the scriptorium. The scriptorium served not only as
work room for copying scribes, it was also the monastery's
chancellery, where letters, deeds, and documents were
written. The scribes sat upon stools before tables or desks,
the writing surface of which rose at a sharp angle so that
the scribe wrote almost in a vertical plane. The book from
which a new text was copied was held in a firm position by
a reading frame. This is a posture quite distinct from that
which was in use in ancient times, when the scribes wrote
either standing (as seems to have been the rule in court
procedure) or seated held their writing materials in their
lap, as is shown in the illumination of prophet Ezra, on fol.
5r of the famous Codex Amiatinus (fig. 105), that was
copied, early in the eighth century, in the monastery of
Jarrow and Monkwearmouth in Northumbria from an
illustration of the same subject in the sixth century manuscript
of the Institutiones of Cassiodorus. The transition
from this ancient custom of holding on one's lap the scroll or
codex on which one was writing to the medieval custom of
writing on a desk (fig. 106) was made in the course of the
eighth century, as a recent study has disclosed. It has two
probable causes: for one the growing popularity of large
deluxe codices, which it was well nigh impossible to cover
with writing without the use of some firm support to steady
the hand of the scribe, and second, the fact that the craft of
writing (in ancient times essentially in the hands of slaves),
in the monastic scriptoria in the north had become the
prerogative of an intellectual elite, whose high social
standing called both for greater comfort and greater efficiency.[97]

Medieval sources in referring to scribes distinguish
between antiquarii, the experienced writers whose skills
were reserved for the making of liturgical books; scriptores,
the less trained but still reliable writers; rubricatores,
writers who specialized in the insertion of decorative letters
rendered in different colors, usually in connection with
opening words; miniatores, the highly skilled scribes who
embellished the manuscript with its pictorial illuminations;
and last, but not least, the correctores, the proof

[ILLUSTRATION]

99. PLAN OF ST. GALL. TRANSEPT, PRESBYTERY, EASTERN APSE AND PARADISE

From the crossing two flights of stairs, each of seven steps, lead to the Presbytery, leaving between them a passage to the CONFESSIO where monks
can pray in privacy near the tomb of St. Gall. Presbytery and Crypt are one of two places on the Plan where different levels are shown in the
same plane: above, the high altar dedicated to SS Mary and Gall; and below, a u-shaped corridor leading laymen to the tomb of St. Gall. In the
two-storied spaces located between Presbytery and transept arms the draftsman delineates the plan of just one level. He identifies another level only
by an inscription—his standard method of indicating a superincumbent level.

readers. The latter were among the most experienced and
most learned monks. The manuscripts of the Abbey of St.
Gall as well as those of many other writing schools abound
with marginal or interlinear annotations that testify to the
care with which this work was done.[98] At Reichenau this
task was performed by Reginbert (d. 847), librarian under
four successive abbots—that same Reginbert who seems to
have supervised the writing of the explanatory titles of the
Plan of St. Gall.[99] At St. Gall this work was done by such
famous teachers as Ratpert, Notker, and Tutilo. Purity and
correctness of the sacred texts was a primary concern of the
period (as Alcuin's poem attests) and of sufficient interest
even to the emperor to be singled out as a matter of
statewide importance in a capitulary issued in 789, or 805,
in which it is stipulated that the copying of such sacred
texts as the Gospels, the Psalter, and the Missal should
only be entrusted to men of superior intellectual attainment
(et si opus est evangelium, psalterium et missale scribere,
perfectae aetatis homines scribant cum omni diligentia).[100]

METHOD OF CATALOGING AND SHELVING BOOKS

Once a manuscript was written and corrected, its title
was entered in the catalogue that listed the monastery's
holdings in books—not in alphabetical sequence, but
according to subject matter, and probably in the same
order in which the books were shelved in their wooden
cases.[101] A splendid example of this kind of furniture is
shown in the illumination of Prophet Ezra on fol. 5R of the
famous Codex Amiatinus (fig. 105).[102] Another one of
practically identical design is depicted on the mosaic of St.
Lawrence in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia (424-450).[103]
The books, as these works disclose, lay on their sides, and
did not stand. This is confirmed by the fact that their titles
are, in general, entered lengthwise, not crosswise, on the
back of the book.[104] To judge by the number of volumes
listed in extant monastic catalogues, Carolingian libraries
must have been equipped with a considerable number of
such wooden "wardrobes" for the shelving of books. A
catalogue compiled by Reginbert of Reichenau enumerates
415 manuscripts.[105] The holdings of the library of St. Gall,
according to a catalogue compiled at the time of Abbot
Grimald (841-872), lists 400 volumes.[106] Grimald himself
had a private collection of 34 volumes that after his death
went to the general library.[107] His follower, Hartmut (872883)
collected for himself another 28 volumes. These, too,
were bequeathed to the general library on his death.[108]
The longest title list found for any Carolingian monastery
appears to be the list of the library of the monastery of
Lorsch. It amounted to 590 titles.[109]

NUMBER OF SCRIBES & COLLABORATION

The number of monks who sat at work in the scriptorium
must have varied greatly. The layout of the Scriptorium on
the Plan of St. Gall would allow fourteen monks to write
simultaneously, if we assume that each writing desk was
manned by two scribes. Since there are ten feet of space
between each window, two scribes could have worked in
comfort at a single desk. But the total number of scribes at
work each day in the Scriptorium could have been considerably
increased if the scribes worked in shifts.

A. Bruckner, on the basis of an actual count of the hands
at work in individual manuscripts, has calculated that the
monastery of St. Gall, between 750 and 770, employed
some twenty-five scribes for copying manuscripts and
around fifteen more for writing documents—a total of
forty.[110] Under Abbot Waldo and shortly after him (770790)
the number of scribes rose to about eighty;[111] under
Abbot Gozbert (816-836) to about a hundred.[112] Some of
these may have worked in carrels, in one of the cloister
walks, as was customary in Tournai in the eleventh
century[113] and to be found later on in many other places.[114]

A codex was rarely written entirely by a single hand. At
the scriptorium of St. Martin's at Tours, in the first half of
the eighth century, more than twenty scribes collaborated
in a copy of Eugippius.[115] The texts of other manuscripts
copied at that same school were written, variously, by five,
seven, eight, or twelve different hands.[116] Fourteen scribes
listed by name in manuscripts of St. Martin appear in a
register drawn up in 820.[117]

[ILLUSTRATION]

ROMANESQUE CHURCH BENCH, MONASTERY OF ALPIRSBACH

100.

100.X

FORMERLY STUTTGART, SCHLOSSMUSEUM

(DESTROYED IN WW II.) After Falke, 1924, pl. 1

Although probably not antedating the thirteenth century, this medieval church bench with its simple carpentry embodies a type one
would expect to have been in use centuries earlier. The drafter of the Plan referred to this type of bench as FORMULA (see above
p. 137 and Glossary, III, s.v.). Four such benches, each with a seating capacity of not more than four people, would have been
set up in the crossing of the Church probably for use by a specially trained choir singing in antiphon.

[ILLUSTRATION]

HEXHAM, NORTHUMBERLAND, ENGLAND

NIGHT STAIRS, PRIORY CHURCH

Unquestionably one of the finest extant medieval night stairs, located in the southern transept arm, it leads directly from dormitory into church.
In general such stairs provided the only connection between dormitory and cloister. In the 12th and 13th centuries, they were invariably made of
stone; in earlier times perhaps of timber. Except for those in the Church, the author of the Plan of St. Gall omits stairs from it.

[ILLUSTRATION]

102.A GOD JANUS UNDER A CELESTIAL CANOPY

Roman medal of A.D. 187, more than twice original size
[after Gnecchi, II, 1912, pl. 84, fig. 5]

[ILLUSTRATION]

104. TYRE, PALESTINE (LEBANON)

Basilica built by Bishop Paulinus in A.D. 314. Reconstructed plan [after
Nussbaum, 1965, II, 24, fig. 1]. The reconstruction is based on a
description by Eusebius, History of the Church (X, 4, 44) where
the layout of Synthronon and Bema is referred to:

"after completing the great building he [Constantine] furnished it with
thrones high up, to accord with the dignity of the prelates, and also with
benches arranged conveniently throughout. In addition to all this, he placed
in the middle the Holy of Holies—the altar—excluding the general public
from this part too by surrounding it with wooden trellis-work wrought
by the craftsmen with exquisite artistry, a marvellous sight for all who
see it."

[ILLUSTRATION]

102.B EMPEROR DOMITIAN ENTHRONED
UNDER CELESTIAL CANOPY

Sestertius, nearly three times original size [after Mattingly, II, 1930, pl. 77,
fig. 9]

[ILLUSTRATION]

103. ROME. OLD ST. PETER'S

Presbytery, as rebuilt by Gregory the Great between 594-604. Drawing by
S. Rizzello [after Toynbee and Ward-Perkins, 1956, 215, fig. 22]

DAILY WORK SPAN

The daily work span of a medieval scribe, to judge by an
anonymous writer of the tenth century, was six hours.[118]
In Cluny, in the twelfth century, the scribes were exempted
from certain choir prayers;[119] but in the ninth century,
according to Hildemar, a scribe was not allowed to complete
a verse "once the bell for the divine service was rung,
not even a letter which he had started, but must instantly
set it aside unfinished."[120] The same author lists as the
indispensable tools of the scribe: the pen (penna), the quill
(calamus), the stool (scamellum), the scraping knife (rasorium),
the pumice stone (pumex), and the parchment
(pergamena).[121]

In general, writing was a daytime activity but occasionally
we hear of a monk being at this task before or after
sunset, as in a marginal annotation to a ninth century copy
of a text by Cassidorus, made in a monastery at Laon,
which reads: "It is cold today. Naturally, Winter. The
lamp gives bad light."[122] From Ekkehart IV we learn that
Ratpert, Notker, and Tutilo had permission from the abbot
to convene at night in the scriptorium for collating and
correcting texts.[123]

But there were also those more joyous occasions in the
spring or early summer when a monk would do his writing
outdoors under the shade of a tree, as evidenced in a
charming marginal gloss of an Irish manuscript of an
eighth- or ninth-century Priscian in the Library of St. Gall
(ms. 904), which reads:

A NOBLE OR BACKBREAKING TASK?

The work in the scriptorium was conducted in silence
and during the hours assigned for that purpose no monk
could leave the scriptorium without permission of the
abbot. Apart from the scribes themselves, only the abbot,
the prior, the subprior, and the librarian had access to the
scriptorium.[125] The writing of sacred texts was held in high
esteem and in general considered a more noble task than
such physical labors as working in the fields. This is expressed
in unmistakable terms in Alcuin's poem about the
scribes.[126] In Ireland where the art of calligraphy had risen
to unprecedented heights the life of a scribe was held in
such high regard that the penalty for killing a scribe was
made as great as that for killing a bishop or abbot.[127]

Yet there is no dearth of evidence that, Alcuin notwithstanding,
writing was also bemoaned as an arduous physical
task, as witnessed by such marginal annotations as:

Writing is excessive drudgery. It crooks your back, dims
your sight, twists your stomach and your sides. Three
fingers write, but the whole body labors.

II.1.13

EASTERN PARADISE

Like the western apse of the Church, the eastern apse is
enclosed by a paradise. This repeats the general dispositions
of the western paradise, but is shorter in radius and
lacks the latter's covered gallery. The inscription is rendered
in capitalis rustica:

The eastern paradise does not communicate with the interior
of the Church. It is accessible by means of two triangular
vestibules from the side of the Novitiate and the
Infirmary, respectively. This suggests that it may have
served as an outdoor space of recreation for the Novices
and the ill.

[ILLUSTRATION]

105. CODEX AMIATINUS I, FOL. 5R. PROPHET EZRA WRITING

FLORENCE, BIBLIOTHECA LAURENZIANA

This illumination was copied at the beginning of the 8th century by a Northumbrian monk. The same subject was shown in a 6th-century
manuscript (no longer preserved) of the Institutiones of Cassiodorus (ca. 490-585). Ezra, seated on a cushioned chair, legs crossed and feet
on a stool, holds a large codex in which he writes in the ancient manner, i.e. without aid of a lectern. To his left stands a low table with writing
utensils, in the background, a magnificent chest with five shelves on which books are stored horizontally. The perspective of chair, stool, table,
and chest with open hinged doors is typical of late Antiquity. For a bookchest of identical design compare the detail from a mosaic of the
mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, dating from ca. 450. (See F. W. Diechmann, Frühchristliche Bauten und Mosaiken von
Ravenna, Weisbaden, 1958, Pls. 5, 6; cf. above, p. 151.)

[ILLUSTRATION]

106. IVORY BOOK COVER. SCHOOL OF METZ, CA. 960-980

VIENNA, KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM, SAMMLUNG FÜR PLASTIK UND KUNSTGEWERBE, INV. NO. 8399

[by courtesy of Bildarchiv der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek]

The relief shows Pope Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604) writing the Vere dictum of which he is presumed author, inspired by the Dove of the
Holy Spirit, into a lectern-supported codex. Beneath, three scribes write in the ancient manner, books on legs or held in arms. The cover is the
work of a distinguished Ottonian ivory carver whose hand can be identified in other ivories. The classicism of the acanthus frame, as well as
the entire figurative and architectural composition, suggests a late Antique model of high quality. (Also see Rhein und Mass, Kunst und
Kultur, 800-1400, 1974, 180).

[ILLUSTRATION]

107. PLAN OF ST. GALL
CHURCH AND CLAUSTRUM

AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION

The Plan opposite demonstrates how the Church and claustral
buildings would have appeared had they been rendered with all of
their wall thickness.

On the Plan itself the walls of all buildings are rendered as simple
lines (see above, pp. 57ff)—a procedure which even today an architect
follows, if faced with designing a project of similar complexity
drawn at a similar scale. (Even the Romans used this method in
comparable cases; see above p. 58.) This mode of rendering presents
no difficulties where buildings stand separately on their sites, because
necessary space allowance for wall thickness is, in construction,
available from outside and need not be subtracted from the proposed
structure's interior.

The author of the Plan was aware that where several buildings
shared common walls (as in the case of Church and Cloister, or
Church and lodgings built against it in the north), severe deficiencies
of interior space might occur in construction unless special provisions
were made for wall thickness from the very outset. For this reason
he allotted to each aisle of the Church a width of 22½ feet although
an explanatory title states explicitly that it should be 20 feet (see
above, pp. 97ff).

In rendering interiors on the Plan, the drafter insured against
potential congestion by another precaution. Wherever normal
dimensions of furniture could not be accurately expressed by the
standard module 2½ feet, he invariably chose the larger, never the
smaller module. He thus accumulated extra interior space in
numerous small increments that eventually provided for the wall
thickness not explicitly drawn.

Because all these precautions were taken by a designer whose acuity
in planning has been unjustly underrated for more than a century of
modern scholarship, we encountered no difficulty, when preparing
the Aachen model, in furnishing its builder with working drawings.
He was able to build without distortion the buildings of the Plan
including their full-scale wall thickness, at four times the surface
area of the Plan. These working drawings are so true to the idea
embodied in the Plan that with their aid, the entire monastery
might actually be erected at the monumental scale intended by its
originator, when supported by appropriate large-scale detailed
construction drawings.

Essentially the Plan of St. Gall depicts a ground-level plan.
Consequently the bed layout of the Monks' Dormitory (which
occupies the upper level) is shown in dotted line in the authors'
interpretation, as explained by the inscription within the space
designated Monks' Warming Room.

It will be seen that the Warming Room had access on the south to
the Monks' Laundry and Bathhouse, and on the west opened onto
the east cloister walk.

The Monks' Privy above, at Dormitory level, likewise renders the
toilet layout in dotted line (see fig. 192, p. 244). Location of the
stair access from ground floor Warming Room to Dormitory and
Privy is not shown.