The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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 | V. |
 | V. 1. |
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| V. 15. |
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FROM CHINA TO EUROPE DURING THE
MIGRATION PERIOD? |
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| VI. |
 | The Plan of St. Gall |  |
FROM CHINA TO EUROPE DURING THE
MIGRATION PERIOD?
The display of water-powered trip-hammers on the Plan
of St. Gall gives added credence to such literary sources
as had been adduced by Bloch, Gille and Carus-Wilson[530]
in favor of the contention that hydraulic trip-hammers were
operated in eleventh- and twelfth-century Europe; as well
as the claim advanced by Uccelli and White[531]
that the fulling
mills of Prato made use of hydraulic trip-hammers from
the beginning of this industry in A.D. 983.[532]
An even
earlier reference (datable 883-904) to molinis vel pilis is to
be found in the Formulae Sangallenses miscellaneae.[533]
Bradford B. Blaine, in his forthcoming book, Water-Power in
Medieval Industry, focuses more intensely than has hitherto been done
on the profoundly significant industrial revolution, discernible by the
beginning of the eleventh century throughout the Alpine forelands,
involving the marriage of the waterwheel and the cam, as witnessed by the
appearance of water-driven hammers used for fulling, crushing hemp,
and forging iron (personal communication). The pilae of the Plan of
St. Gall disclose that this union was achieved considerably earlier (cf.
p. 235, n. 26 and my remarks, pp. 237ff).
Formulae Sangallenses Miscellaneae, Chap. 11, in Mon. Germ. Hist.
Leges, Sec. V, 1886, 385: Dedi itaque ego N. ad cellam sancti ill. villam
eidem loco vicinam . . . id est domibus, pomariis, exitibus et introitibus, viis,
aquis aquarumque decursibus, at clausuris, molinis vel pilis, agris, pratis,
silvis communibus aut propriis pascuisque in omnem partem vergentibus
mancipiisque, iumentis et peccoribus vel cunctis utensilibus. The passage was
brought to my attention by Bradford B. Blaine.
| The Plan of St. Gall | |