The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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 | The Plan of St. Gall |  |
III.1.9
MONKS' KITCHEN
LAYOUT AND FURNISHINGS
From the western gable wall of the refectory an arched door
leads into the "exit to the kitchen" (egressus ad coquinam).
This passage is not straight, but broken, to baffle the kitchen
noise—a courtesy to the hebdomadarius reading in the refectory.
It had the additional advantage of removing the
working area of the kitchen from the sight of the dining
monks while the dishes were being carried in and out, and
perhaps also to serve as a barrier for the kitchen odors. It is
wide enough (44 inches) to permit two persons to pass each
other.
The kitchen forms a square approximately 30 × 30
feet,[188]
which appears to be the norm for the period (fig.
211). The monks' kitchen of the Abbey of Cluny, described
the kitchen for the guests of the same monastery had the
same dimensions.[190] In the center of the kitchen a space
almost 10 feet square is taken up by a large "hearth on
arches" (fornax super arcus) with four circular openings for
cooking. Around the stove are four work tables, and in each
corner of the building is a large circular container. These
are either tubs for washing the vegetables and dishes or
additional cauldrons for heating water. A continuous range
of wall benches, or work tables, runs around the entire
periphery.
The dimensions of the kitchen, like those of the cellar (see below,
p. 292) cannot be established with full accuracy, as both buildings lie
close to a seam in the parchment which the draftsman wanted to avoid,
thus slightly altering the original dimensions.
Consuetudines Farfenses, fol. 79; ed. Albers, Cons. mon., I, 1900, 137.
On the nature of this source see II, 333.
DESIGN OF COOKING RANGE
Völcker's reconstruction of a kitchen stove as an open
fireplace surmounted by an arched canopy with a pyramidal
smoke shaft overhead (fig. 217) is untenable.[191]
The stove
234. BAYEUX TAPESTRY (1073-1083). LADING OF WILLIAM'S SHIPS
BAYEUX, CALVADOS, FRANCE. MUSÉE DE LA REINE MATHILDE
The episode is the embarkation of the Conqueror's army, after the construction of his invasion fleet in or near Dives-sur-Mer, a Norman
boat-building center some fourteen miles east of Caen. The scene is of supplies and arms being taken down to the ships and, in the detail shown
above, a cart with a great barrel of wine is portrayed, as well as a shipment of helmets and lances that are being drawn to the beach by
horsemen. The barrel is of the same shape, and appears to approximate the length of the TUNNAE MINORES in the Monks' Cellar (Fig. 225).
Behind the cart walk two soldiers (not shown here), one carrying a huge animal skin and the other a small barrel; each a vessel for wine. The
inscription above the cart translates:
THESE MEN CARRY ARMS TO THE SHIPS, AND HERE THEY PULL A CART WITH WINE AND ARMS.
The tapestry, a long stretch of bleached linen embroidered in colored wools (l. 231 feet, h. 20 inches, or 70.34 × 0.50 m.) was almost certainly
commissioned by William's half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and Earl of Kent after 1067; he may have made a gift of it to Queen
Mathilde. It is a tendentious apologia of William's conquest of England justified in terms of feudal promise, perjury, and retribution. Its style
and the English spelling of place names disclose that it was made in England. For more detail see Gibbs-Smith, 1973, 4.
PLAN OF ST. GALL: MONKS' CELLAR
COMPARATIVE DIAGRAMS
235.A
For the small barrels, with an average diameter of about 4.4 feet[193]
and
an average length of about 11.5 feet, as scaled from the Plan, the volume
per barrel computes to about 175 cubic feet or about 4960 liters, rounded
off at 5000 liters.
For the large barrels, with an average diameter of about 9.6 feet[194]
and
an average length of about 14.5 feet, as scaled from the Plan, the volume
per barrel computes to about 1060 cubic feet or about 30,000 liters.
The contents of one large barrel could be drained into, and exactly fill,
six of the nine small barrels.
It is interesting that for a monastery population of 300, consuming one
hemina of 0.2736 liters per day for 365 days, the total annual consumption
computes at 29,920 liters, rounded off at 30,000 liters, identical with
the contents of one large barrel.
235.B
Cellar practice requires draining the entire content of one large barrel
into smaller containers at the same time, since small daily withdrawals
from a large barrel would shortly cause acetification of its remaining
content.
The six small barrels would contain wine used during the year, each
small barrel holding two months' supply, a period that would not cause
serious deterioration of the contents.
If the vintage of any one year were held to mature for two subsequent
years, three large barrels would have been required of the five shown
on the Plan. The supply of wine to constantly top up these three, to
offset considerable loss by evaporation, could be provided by the
three remaining small barrels, after six of them had been filled by one
large barrel.
This would leave two large barrels for extra wine or beer storage.
235.C
If the wine allowance per person were doubled, it must be assumed that
the wine would be allowed to mature for only one year after the initial
vintage year.
Four large barrels would be required, since two barrels a year would be
consumed instead of one per year (as in 235.B).
Two large barrels would be drained off during the year with six small
barrels filled every six months. This would leave two small barrels
to supply losses by evaporation, and one large and one small barrel
for beer storage.
CONCLUSION
The maximum capacity of the cellar of the Plan of St. Gall appears
to have been 0.54 liters, or two heminae of wine per day per person
with not more than one year of maturing after the year of vintage,
since two years of maturation would have required six large barrels.
The scheme shown in 235.C (requiring four barrels for a production
cycle) leaves two barrels for beer, or one barrel for beer and one for
a special reserve of wine.
The analysis given here, certainly conjectural, fits together with an
ease and flexibility not reconcilable with the notion that the drawing
on the Plan of the barrels was a draftsman's whimsical symbol for
"Here is the cellar."
See pages 292 through 305 for discussion of the cellar.
E.B.
surmounted, by arches, as its explanatory title discloses in
unmistakable terms (fornax super arcus). Square arch-supported
stoves for cooking or firing are pictured on
fifteenth- and sixteenth-century woodcuts, such as the
"Kitchen with Cook and Maid" in the Kuchemaistrey,
published in Augsburg in 1507 (fig. 218),[195] or the "Alchemist's
Workshop" in Cajus Agricola's De re metallica,
published in Basel in 1556 (fig. 219).[196] The arches that
support the cooking range release sufficient space beneath
for the storage of wood and kindling. The heat is produced
in firing chambers built into the body of the stove.
Cooking ranges of this type were in use in Mediterranean
countries at very early times. Figure 220[197]
reproduces a
sketch of a kitchen stove in the palace of Mari, Mesopotamia
(excavated in 1935-38), from the beginning of the
second millennium B.C. It was built of unbaked bricks and
consisted of five firing holes and five cooking units set up in
a single range. A square hearth on arches stood in the kitchen
of the House of the Vettii in Pompeii, but does not
appear to have been furnished with any firing chambers
(fig. 221).[198]
In Roman family life much of the cooking could
of course be done on top of the stove over open charcoal
fires; in a monastic kitchen, which had to serve 120 monks
each session, this method would have been impracticable.
ARCHITECTURAL SHELL
In reconstructing the architectural shell of this interesting
building we have a wide range of choices. One thinks
immediately, of course, of those masterpieces of functional
construction—the medieval kitchens of Marmoutier (fig.
222), Fontevrault (fig. 223), and Glastonbury, or the kitchen
of the palace of Saumur, the chimneys of which can be
spotted on the charming September picture of the Très
Riches Heures de Jean de France.[199]
These are the buildings
Gruber had in mind when he reconstructed the Monks'
Kitchen of the Plan of St. Gall as a masonry structure with
our range of choices there are such simple wooden sheds
as the one shown in the picture of the bakehouse of the
Behaim Codex in Kraków (fig. 387).[203] The Kitchen of the
Plan of St. Gall may have belonged to the latter type. A
third and perhaps more likely possibility is that its walls
were built in masonry but its roof framed in timber. An
interesting example of this variant survives in the kitchen
of the Bishop's Palace at Chichester (Sussex; fig. 224),[204] an
early example of hammer beam construction, dating probably
from the beginning of the fourteenth century.[205]
With regard to the kitchens of Marmoutier and Fontevrault, see
Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire, under "cuisine." For Glastonbury, see
Willis, 1886, and Bond, 1925; for the kitchen of the castle of Saumur,
see Durrieu, 1904, pl. IX, facing 150.
With regard to the kitchen of the Bishop's Palace at Chichester, see
Hannah, 1909, 3; VHC, Sussex III, 1935, 148; Wood, 1935, 390;
Emmery, 1958, 195. The picture of the interior of the kitchen, shown in
fig. 224, is from a painting made around 1850 by George Barry. The
upper part of the roof was closed in with a ceiling in 1929.
A date in the early fourteenth century is suggested by the fact that
the braces that support the hammer beams of the kitchen of the Bishop's
Palace at Chichester have certain similarities with the timbers that brace
the frame of St. Mary's Hospital in Chichester (end of the thirteenth
century). For St. Mary's Hospital, see Dollman, 1885, pl. 21 and 22;
idem, II, 1863, pl. 26 and 27; VHC, Sussex, III, 1907, 100-102; Ostendorf,
1908, 100; Powell, 1955; Arch. Journ., XCII, 1935, 394, fig. 2
(plan).
KITCHEN UTENSILS
A complete account of the equipment and utensils "that
should never be wanting" in a monastic kitchen is given in
the Customary of Cluny, written by the German monk
Ulrich in the last quarter of the eleventh century.[206]
We
could not ask for a more authentic interpretation of the
accoutrements in the Kitchen of the Plan of St. Gall:
Three cauldrons (caldaria): one for cooking the beans
(fabas); the other for cooking the vegetables (olera); and
the third on an iron tripod (cum tripode ferrea) for heating
water, should it be needed for the washing of clothes. Four
additional basins (cuppae): one to keep the half-cooked
beans; the second with running water (in qua cadit aquaeductus)
for cleaning the vegetables before they are put
into the cooking cauldron; the third for washing the plates
(scutellae); and the fourth for heating the water that is
needed for washing the feet of the monks (mandatum) and
for shaving (ad rasuram).
Further, four ladles (cochlearia): one for the beans; one
for vegetables; the third, a little smaller, for skimming the
fat (ad saginam exprimendam); and a fourth, made of iron,
to cover the cinders of the stove. Lastly, a pair of tongs
(forceps) to reduce or quench the fire.
In addition: four pairs of protective sleeves (manicae), to
prevent the shirts of the monks from being soiled by the
ever present soot of the kitchen; two special gloves (palmariae),
to shield the hands of the monks against the heat
of the cooking vessels as they are removed from the fire and
tipped; three towels (manutergiola), to be replaced each
Thursday, with which the kitcheners clean their hands;
a knife to cut the lard (cultrum ad lardum) and a whetstone
for sharpening it (cotis ad acuendum); a skillet (patella) for
heating water and for melting lard, and a smaller one, with
tiny holes in the bottom, to strain the fat (in fundo minutatim
perforata ut ipse adeps coletur). Also: a salt box (pyxis in qua
sal recondatur); a chest (scrinium) to store odds and ends
(minora); a bucket (urna) for drawing water; two brushes
(scopae) for scrubbing the cauldrons after cooking; two ends
of wire netting (retis abcisiones) to clean both cauldrons and
plates; two tables, one for stacking the plates (scutellas)
236. PLAN OF ST. GALL. NOVITIATE AND INFIRMARY WITH KITCHENS & BATHHOUSES
SHOWN ½ ORIGINAL SIZE (1:384)
Right: the Novitiate; left: the Infirmary, each a smaller replica of the Cloister of the Monks. These facilities flank a double-apsed church,
internally divided by a median transverse wall into two separate chapels: one for the Novices (facing east), the other for the ill (facing west).
The layout is more Roman in spirit than any other building on the Plan, and is without antecedent in either Early Christian or early medieval
architecture. It has its roots instead in Roman imperial audience halls (fig. 240) and luxurious Roman villas (figs. 241-242).
the other for stacking them for the subsequent day after
being thoroughly cleaned. Lastly: two seats (sedilia), called
benches (banci) in vulgar Latin; a four-legged stand of
moderate height (cella quadripoda et submissa) on which
the basin with the vegetables is placed before they are put
into the cooking cauldron; a large stone, perhaps even a
millstone, upon which any of the cauldrons may be put when
beans or vegetables are served; another one to serve as a
stand for the basin in which the plates are washed between
meals.
There is a bellows to blow the fire (follis ad sufflandum
ignem) and a fan woven of pliant twigs to air it (flabellum
vimineum ad ventilandum); a pole (contus) to carry cauldrons,
another one to reduce the fire (ad ignis dimotionem); a trough
(canalis) for water, for the frequent washing of hands; two
swinging cranes of triangular shape (trigoni), each made of
three beams so joined together at irregular angles (de tribus
lignis licet imparibus angulis facti) that they may be turned
like doors in this and in that direction. To this frame,
chains are attached to carry the cauldrons which, suspended
in this manner, may be filled with water at the aqueduct
(prope aquaeductum) and then moved without strain
to the fire.
Among other things, Ulrich also tells us that the fire in
the kitchen is never allowed to die out, but is carefully
covered in the evening, so that on the coming morning it
is found alive.[207]
Udalrici Cluniacensis monachi Cluniacenses consuetudines, Book II,
chap. 36; Migne, Patr. Lat., 149, cols. 729-30.
RULES GOVERNING WORK IN THE KITCHEN
The management of the kitchen, like that of the refectory,
comes under the jurisdiction of the cellarer, whom
Adalhard warns about getting so immersed in the detail of
chores that can be handled by others, that he may not keep
himself free for the important task of directing and supervising
237. PLAN OF ST. GALL. KITCHEN & BATHHOUSE OF NOVITIATE AND INFIRMARY[208]
AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION
Because of their different diets and remoteness from the Monks' Kitchen and Bathhouse, the planner provided the ill with a kitchen-bath
building adjacent to the infirmary, and a similar kitchen-bath building for the novices symmetrically located on the south. The Plan, in this
part, reveals remarkable responsiveness to administration, practical convenience, and professional care. The walls could have been of masonry
where we show timber construction.
done by the monks themselves, who are assigned to this
task in weekly shifts. Talk is permitted only when the
fulfillment of a chore makes speech inevitable. For the rest
of the time all work is done with the brothers continually
singing psalms.[210]
Laymen and serfs are not permitted in the kitchen.
Adalhard of Corbie is very emphatic on this point and
orders that if laymen assist in the task of preparing and
cleaning the food, "some window, niche, or opening outside
of the kitchen should be set up as a place where the
brothers may pick up the food to be prepared or carry the
food to be washed."[211]
"If there are vegetables to be cleaned or dressed for cooking,
or fish to be gutted or scaled, or beans of different
sorts to be washed or prepared," he adds, "the laymen must
fully and honestly perform these tasks outside the kitchen as
many times as is necessary, and in places assigned for the
purpose. They must use great care to place or stack the
food in a spot where the brothers can conveniently pick it
up. . . . If this procedure is followed, the laymen will not
have to come in to the brothers, nor will the brothers have
to go out to them."[212]
238. ROGER OF SALERNO
CHIRURGIA (13th century), III, 25 fol. 7. (London, British Museum, Sloane 1977)
[by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum]
The illustration portrays a medical bath. The Chirurgia of Rogerius Salernitanus (1108-1170) is a work marking the beginning of the
medieval renascence of ancient surgical learning and practice. From Roger's time to the end of the Middle Ages, it served as the authoritative
text for surgery both north and south of the Alps. Roger was a student of Greek and Arabic sources, and as a practicing surgeon, a man of vast
experience and great originality of judgement. The Church prohibited the clergy from practicing surgery, and not until the 18th century was
surgery accepted as an autonomous discipline in European universities.
239. ROME. TRAJAN'S BASILICA AND FORUM (DEDICATED 313). PLAN
[after Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, VI, 1965, 838, fig. 951]
Platner termed this complex the "last, largest and most magnificent of the imperial fora built by Trajan . . . probably the most impressive and
magnificent group of buildings in Rome." In final form it had five parts: the forum proper; the basilica Ulpia; the column of Trajan; two halls
housing the library; and the great temple of Trajan erected by Hadrian after Trajan's death in A.D. 116. The site dimensions are 185 × 310 m.
The forum itself consists of a rectangular court, with colonnades on three sides and two semicircular exedrae facing each other across the court
in the middle of its two long sides. The court is entered through a central gate in a convex wall contiguous to the forum of Augustus. The
basilica Ulpia lies at the eastern end of this court, its axis at right angles to that of the forum. It is rectangular in plan, five-aisled, with an
apse at each of its two narrow ends, and three monumental portals on the long side facing the forum. Two doors in the opposite wall give access
to the small, open court that accommodates in its center the famous column of Trajan, whose pedestal served as a sepulchral chamber for the
emperor's ashes and whose shaft displays reliefs arranged in a spiral band, representing the principal events of Trajan's campaign in Dacia
(A.D. 101-106). The rest of the court is taken up by two halls housing the library, one for Greek, the other for Latin manuscripts.
In the east the forum terminates in a monumental hemicycle, in the axis of which Hodrian erected the great temple honoring Trajan and his
wife Plotina. The ruins of the temple of Trajan were eventually covered by almost two millennia of rubble. But during the Carolingian period its
buildings, although damaged, were probably sufficiently well preserved to convey an accurate image of their original appearance and composition.
The real disintegration occurred in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, when Rome began to grow again and the ruins of the ancient city
were quarried by everyone needing building materials.
The culmination of interest in this great expanse of magnificence and splendor is the
Column of Trajan, A.D. 114.
Of special interest, set above the doorway to the sepulchral chamber in the base of the
shaft, is a single stone about nine feet wide and a little less than four feet high. On this
stone is to be seen a dedicatory inscription, carved and composed in six lines of lettering
created and executed in a manner never surpassed and rarely equalled.
Here, one finds exemplified "a monumental writing such as the world has not seen since"
(David Diringer). Roman capital letters, capitales quadratoe, attained the level of their
highest perfection in the first and second centuries A.D.
Roman letters of this excellence (on the tomb of a great emperor, flanked on each side by a
library for manuscripts) became symbols that helped shape learning and education in the
renaissance of Charlemagne. The Roman letter prevails today. The display type used in
this book, designed by Eric Gill, himself a cutter of letters in stone, is directly related to
the Roman model cut in stone.
E.B.
240.A TRIER. AULA OF IMPERIAL PALACE
PLAN (4th century)
The aula, whose axis runs from south to north is 67 × 30 × 27.5m.
It was preceded by a monumental narthex and terminates in the
north in a large apse, which contained the emperor's throne. The
entire floor of the hall (nearly 1700 sq. m.) was underpinned by a
hypocaust system with tubes in the long walls carrying heat to a
height of 8m. The aula was flanked on either side by a narrow
colonnaded court. While the precise layout of these courts became
known only through recent excavations, it is possible that in
Charlemagne's time they were still intact. They might therefore have
exerted a direct influence on the creation of concepts embodied in the
layout of the Novitiate and Infirmary of the Plan of St. Gall.
The illustration, figure 237, shows the facility for Novices. The
Infirmary facility is identical but of opposite hand, i.e. flopped plan.
Consuetudines Corbeienses, chap. 5; ed. Semmler, Corp. cons. mon.,
I, 1963, 384, and Jones, III, Appendix II, 109.
Consuetudines Corbeienses, chap. 5; ed. Semmler, Corp. cons. mon.,
I, 1963, 385: "But to keep these matters from slipping from anyone's
mind, because of some earlier code, we herewith briefly formulate the
three principles underlying all these statements: that is, either keep quiet
if the matters are not essential, or say what is necessary, or else chant
psalms" and Jones, III, Appendix II, 110.
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