LAYOUT OF THE CLOISTER
The cloister containing the Infirmary lies on the northern
side of the double chapel:
Fribūs infirmis pariter locus iste par & ur
For the sick brethren similarly this place should
be established
The layout of its buildings corresponds in every detail to
that of the Novitiate. The warming room (pisal) and the
dormitory (dormitoriū·) lie in the east wing; the supply
room (
Camera) and the refectory (
Refectorium) in the west
wing—but the sequence is reversed, resulting in a complete
mirror reflection of the arrangement of the corresponding
spaces of the Novitiate. The room which in the Novitiate is
reserved for the sick (
infirmorum domus), is in the Infirmary
designated as "the place for those who suffer from acute
illness" (
locus ualde infirmorum). The dormitory of the Infirmary
(
dormitoriū·), then, must have served as sleeping
quarters for those afflicted with minor ailments, as well as
for the aged and infirm who made the Infirmary a permanent
home.
[280]
Its bedding capacity is the same as in the dormitory
of the novices: twelve beds, if they were ranged in single
file along the four walls of the room; about twenty, if they
were staggered. The apartment of the master of the
Infirmary (
mansio magistri eorum) and the "room for the
critically ill" each have a corner fireplace, but lack the other
facility shown in the corresponding rooms of the Novitiate,
the privy. This is one of the few genuine oversights of the
Plan and may be an inadvertent omission by the copyist.
[281]