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The Plan of St. Gall

a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery
Horn, Walter William
  
THE PLAN OF ST. GALL
  
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[title page]
  
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
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CONTENTS: VOLUME II
  
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SYNOPSIS OF THE WORK
  
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INTRODUCTION
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EPILOGUE
  
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THE MONASTERY: A PLANNED SOCIETY

The basic ecological reason for these comparatively high
standards of monastic sanitation are easy to define: in
contrast to the medieval or classical city, whose growth was
subject to pressures beyond the control of its inhabitants,
the monastery was a planned society. Its population was
stable, and in general not subject to unexpected fluctuations.[669]
The same care that was used in regulating the
spiritual life of the community, therefore, could also be
applied to the organization of its physical environment.

 
[669]

Compare the interesting remarks of Abbot Adalhard of Corbie on
the fluctuation of the number of men to be fed in his monastery, quoted
I, 342-43; and translation, III, 106-107.

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