The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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| V. 17. |
| V.17.1. |
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| V.17.4. | V.17.4 |
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| VI. |
 | The Plan of St. Gall |  |
V.17.4
HOUSE FOR COWS AND COWHERDS
LAYOUT AND DESIGN
Hic arm[enta] tibi laċ fa & us lac atq· ministrant[626]
Here the cows furnish you with milk and offspring
Directly west of the House for Horses and Oxen, within
the fences of a large rectangular yard containing four other
livestock buildings, is the House for the Cows and Cowherds
(fig. 483). Its title makes it irrevocably clear that the
animals that find shelter in this structure perform the dual
role of serving as dairy and breeding stock. The house is
entered broadside by a door leading directly into the "hall
of the herdsmen" (domus armentariorum), which is provided
with the customary central fireplace. Ranged on three sides
around this space, in the shape of the letter U, are the stables
for the dairy cows (stabula); the extremities of this stable
479. CHEDDAR, SOMERSET, ENGLAND. LONG HALL OF THE SAXON PALACE. 9TH CENTURY
[after Rahtz, 1962-63, 58, fig. 20]
The house, slightly boat-shaped (most markedly so on the west side) was 78 feet long externally, and 20 feet wide across the middle. Its walls
consisted of closely spaced posts, 9 inches square, set against the outer edge of a continuous trench, and in certain places doubled by a row of
inner posts of lighter scantling sloping inward. The entrances were in the middle of the long walls, with a minor one toward the north end of the
east side. A spread of burnt clay in the southern half of the house close to the center may indicate the location of the hearth.
"bedrooms for the servants" (cubilia seruantiū).
Both Keller and Willis[627]
interpreted the area designated
as domus armentariorum as an "open court" and the square
in its center as "a small house perhaps inhabited by the
overseer." There would be no need to refer to this superannuated
interpretation had it not been rescuscitated lately
in Alan Sorrell's recently published reconstruction of the
sufficiently stressed in earlier parts of this study, can only
have referred to a covered portion of ground. It is the
author's favorite term for "hall" or "living room" and
cannot under any circumstances be interpreted as "courtyard."
The square in the center, which is common to all
the guest and service buildings on the Plan, is clearly
identified in some of them as "fireplace" and in others as
"louver."[629]
The House for the Cows and Cowherds is 87½ feet long
and 50 feet wide, but whether this is the length of the
original scheme is somewhat doubtful, since in this corner
of the Plan the parchment contracts, and it is possible that
the copyist found himself compelled to reduce the length
of the building in order to adjust to this condition.
The central hall of the cowherds measures 22½ feet by
52½ feet; its aisle and lean-to's have a width of 17½ feet.
The traditional way of housing a dairy herd was to tie the
cows in pairs in stalls 5 feet long and 7 feet wide.[630]
The
aisle and lean-to's of the House for the Cows and Cowherds
are wide enough for the animals to be tied up in two rows,
one facing the outer walls (their customary protohistoric
position) and another one facing the inner wall partitions.
If stalled in this manner, the House for the Cows could
have accommodated a total of seventy cows. If they were
tied in a single row against the outer walls only, this figure
would have to be reduced to forty.
480. PILTON, SOMERSET, ENGLAND. BARN OF GLASTONBURY GRANGE. 15TH CENTURY
[Photo: Quentin Lloyd]
Long barns with one or several transeptal porches are very common in the Midlands and southwest of England. They are rarely less than 100
feet long, often come close to 200 feet; and one example, the barn of the Benedictine abbey grange of Abbotsbury, Dorset, attained the astonishing
length of 267 feet. The building type has never been systematically studied. For individual examples see Andrews, 1900, passim; Horn and
Charles, 1966, Horn and Born, 1969, and Charles and Horn, 1973. F. W. B. Charles and Jane Charles recently measured this barn for us. It
is 108 feet 6 inches long, 44 feet wide, and 17 feet high from floor to wall head.
The inscription is damaged. Hic armenta tibi [lac] faetus lac atque
ministrant is the traditional reading. After the title was written, lac was
shifted forward from its position between faetus and atque to a place
between tibi and faetus; but the scribe failed to erase or strike out the
superfluous lac.
MILK AND CHEESE:
PRIMARY ITEMS IN THE MONKS' DIET
The primary purpose of this herd of dairy cows was to
provide milk and cheese for the table of the monks. Butter
does not seem to have been an important item in the monastic
diet. The records of the monastery of St. Gall list altogether
not more than one pint of butter.[631]
From the same
records we learn that in the territory of St. Gall cheese
came in two sizes: a large round cheese (caseus alpinus) of
the same diameter, more or less, as a Swiss cheese of
today, usually cut into four parts (qui secantur in IV partes),
occasionally into six or eight; and a "hand cheese," which
was cut into two parts only (qui secantur in duas partes).
Cheese was one of the most common articles of tithing
contributed by the outlying farms, especially those in the
mountains which specialized in cattle raising; and the
annual revenue at St. Gall from its possessions in the
territory of Appenzell alone was over 2,000 cheeses.[632]
MEDIEVAL PARALLELS
The external appearance of the House for the Cows and
Cowherds must have been very similar to that of the
Gardener's House (figs. 426-427), except that it was considerably
larger, as one would expect it to be in view of its
different function. It is the standard house of the Plan,
minus one aisle on one of its long sides, which makes the
main room of the house directly accessible from the exterior,
a distinct advantage in buildings where great numbers
of the larger breeds of animals, and especially horned
cattle, are sheltered, because this arrangement reduces the
number of doors through which the cattle must be taken as
they enter and leave their stalls (figs. 483, 486). This house
type must have been very common in the Middle Ages. The
earliest literary evidence for its existence, so far as I can
judge, occurs in a dossier of twelfth-century lease agreements
that record the manorial holdings of the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul's in London.[633]
On a manor located in
481. TISBURY, WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND. PLAN, GRANGE BARN. 15TH CENTURY
[Redrawn after Dufty, 1947, 168, fig. 2]
The barn at Place Farm was part of a grange once owned by the abbesses of Shaftsbury. Its external dimensions are 196 feet long by 38 feet
wide. It is lengthwise divided into 13 bays by roof trusses with arch-braced collar beams meticulously aligned with the buttresses of the masonry
walls. Two transeptal porches in the middle of the barn are original. The masonry of the jambs of the other four entrances is modern; these
openings were probably not part of the original structure. The roof is thatched.
these lease agreements is described as follows:
Juxta hoc orreum est aliud, quod habet in longitudine xxx. ped. et dim.
preter culacia: et unum calacium est longitudine x. ped. et. dim.
Alterum viii. ped. Tota longitudo hujus orrei cum culatiis xlviii. ped.
Altitudo sub trabe xi. ped. et dim. et desuper usque ad festum ix. ped.,
latitudo xx. ped.; nec habet preter i. alam, quae habet in latitudine v.
ped. et in altitudine totidem. Hoc orreum debet Ailwinus reddere plenum
de mancorno preter medietatem quae est contra ostium, quae debet
esse vacua, et haec pars est latitudinis xi. ped. et dim.[634]
Adjacent to this barn there is another one, the length of which is
30½ feet, not counting the lean-to's. One of the lean-to's is 10½ feet
deep, the other 8 feet. The total length of the barn, lean-to's included,
is 48 feet. The height below the tie beam is 11½ feet, and
above, between the tie beam and the ridge, 9 feet. The width [of
the nave] is 20 feet. And it has only one aisle, which is 5 feet wide
and equally high. This barn Ailwinus must render full of mancorno
with the exception of the center bay which lies opposite the entrance
and must be left empty, and this part is 11½ feet deep.
The barn of Wickham is just a little over half as large as
the House for the Cows and Cowherds on the Plan of
St. Gall, but its layout is identical. It is noteworthy that
the twelfth-century writer in describing this barn makes a
clear distinction between the aisle (ala) which is attached
to one of the two long sides of the barn and the two leanto's
(culatium) which are attached to the narrow ends of the
building. In English this distinction is not always maintained.
Culatium (from culus = pars cujusvis rei posterior[635]
)
is a highly descriptive term for that section of the barn which
lies under the hipped part of the roof at the short end of
the building. The writer also makes a clear distinction
between the principal space of the barn, which he refers to
simply as "barn" (orreum), and all the peripheral spaces.
The dimensions listed for all the constituent parts of the
building make it clear that the center space was higher
than the surrounding spaces and that it had a double-pitched
roof (fig. 485A-D). This is strong evidence for
the correctness of our reconstruction of the House for the
Cows and Cowherds (fig. 486A-E) and all the other buildings
on the Plan which are laid out in a similar manner.
PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE FOR HORSES, OXEN, AND THEIR KEEPERS. AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION [1:192]
482.B
482.A LONGITUDINAL SECTION
PLAN
The only difference between the medieval long houses with transeptal porches shown in figs. 477-481 and the House for Horses and Oxen (fig.
474) is that the latter is furnished with aisles serving as quarters for the oxherds and horse grooms. Traditionally this building type is single-spaced
and in this form either used as a dwelling, or for the storage of harvest. Aisles were incorporated in the House for Horses and Oxen
because it was intended to accommodate both men and beasts.
The total length of this building on the Plan is 145 feet; the living space measures 35 by 37½ feet and the stables each are 52½ feet long,
suggesting that the roof-supporting trusses were placed at 11½ foot intervals.
PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE FOR HORSES AND OXEN AND THEIR KEEPERS
482.D WEST ELEVATION
482.C EAST ELEVATION
SCALE 1/16 INCH EQUALS ONE FOOT [1:192] FOR GRAPHIC SCALE SEE PRECEDING PAGE
AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION
Our reconstruction of this house as a transeptal space the ridge of which intersects the main ridge at right angles and at the same height, is
made in consideration of the fact that the transept extends across the entire width of the structure, bisecting the aisles in which the herdsmen
were to sleep. We are also visually emphasizing the great importance of this transept which may have been intended to serve as dining area for
all of the monastery's herdsmen (cf. above, p. 278).
PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE FOR HORSES AND OXEN AND THEIR KEEPERS
NORTH ELEVATION is similar but of opposite hand to
the SOUTH ELEVATION
482.F TRANSVERSE SECTION B-B
482.E SOUTH ELEVATION
482.G TRANSVERSE SECTION C-C
AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION
We saw no functional need to raise the roof over the aisles, where the oxherds and horse grooms were to be quartered, above tie-beam level of the
stables. In this same manner bedrooms are treated in all the other guest and service buildings of the Plan. To extend the main roof across the
entire width of the building would have been considerably more costly and in construction functionally superfluous—unless one can assume that
the full width of the building at floor level was needed as loft above the tie-beam level for storage of straw and hay.
PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE FOR COWS AND COWHERDS
483.X SITE PLAN
Virtually all of the houses for monastic livestock lie in a large rectangular yard that extends from the entrance Road to the southern edge of the
monastery site. They consist of the House for Sheep and Shepherds (No. 35); the House for the Goats and Goatherds (No. 36); the House for
the Cows and Cowherds (No. 37); the House for the Swine and Swineherds (No. 39); and the House for Broodmares and Foals and their
Keepers (No. 40). The House for Horses and Oxen and their Keepers (No. 33 and fig. 474) lies outside this yard, but adjacent.
The layout of the House for Cows and Cowherds is identical with that of the House for Broodmares and Foals and their Keepers as well as
with that of the Gardener's House (fig. 426). In each of these structures, the common living room with its traditional open fire place is
surrounded with subsidiary outer spaces on three sides only (variant 3B; see above, p. 85, fig. 33). The entrance is in the middle of the long
wall where the aisle is missing. As in the House for Distinguished Guests (figs. 396-399), in order to gain access to the stables animals have to
be taken through the common living room. For a 12th century structure of the same design see p. 281 and figs. 485. A-D.
484. UTRECHT PSALTER (CA. 830). DEUTERONOMY, XXXII: 1-4
UTRECHT UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, CODEX 32, fol. 86r (detail)
[Courtesy of Utrecht University Library]
The illusionistic Late Antique style was practiced with superb assurance by the illuminator of the lost manuscript after which the Utrecht
Psalter was modeled. Scenes of agricultural life such as this one of a herd of cattle and a man churning butter are of a richness of perception
surpassing any other Carolingian manuscript. This intensely classical style disappeared from the medieval scene almost as rapidly as it was
adopted, giving way to more abstract concepts of painting. It took close to 500 years of gradual reconquest of reality by art for rural scenes
again to be as accurately depicted as in this unique Carolingian manuscript. The marginal scenes of the Luttrell Psalter (figs 467, 475, and
476) are among the high-water marks in this development that, at certain stages, was stimulated by availability of copies of the Utrecht
Psalter that were made in England in the 10th and 11th centuries.
The lease agreements of St. Paul's date from 1114 to
1155.[636]
Obviously, they establish only a terminus ante quam,
telling nothing about the age of the barns. Some of them
may have been of relatively recent date, others may have
been centuries old.
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