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The Plan of St. Gall

a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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LECTERNS FOR READING
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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]

 
[43]

For typical cases see Koehler, I, 1930, pl. 42-52 (Grandval Bible)
and pl. 69-89 (Vivian Bible); and Merton, 1923, pl. XXI-XXVI
(Folchart Psalter) and XXVIII-XXXII (Psalterium aureum).