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:
Adueniens aditum populus hic cunctus habebit
Here all the arriving people will find their entry
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:
Exi & hic hospes uel templi tecta subibit
Discentis scolae pulchra iuuenta simul[3]
At this point the guests will either go out or enter
quietly under the roof of the church.
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:
Tota monasterio famulantum hic turba subintret
Here let the entire crowd of the servants enter the
monastery quietly
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:
HIC MURO TECTUM IMPOSITUM
PATET ATQUE COLUMNIS
HERE A ROOF EXTENDS, SUPPORTED
BY A WALL AND BY COLUMNS
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:
Has interque pedes denos moderare columnas
Between these columns count ten feet
The gallery encloses concentrically an open plot of land
covered with grass, whose purpose is explained by another
hexameter, again in capitalis rustica:
HIC PARADISIĀCUM SINE TECTO
STERNITO CAP̄UM[5]
HERE STRETCH OUT A PARKLIKE
SPACE WITHOUT A ROOF