CONCERNING THE LAYOUT OF THE TRANSEPT
AND THE CHOIR OF GOZBERT'S CHURCH
In examining the drawings of Gabriel Hecht, Hardegger
observed that the dimensions of the choir built by the
abbots Eglolf and Ulrich VIII between 1439 and 1483
corresponded almost precisely to the layout of the eastern
portion of the Church of the Plan.[18]
He felt convinced
that the masonry of Eglolf's choir followed the lines of the
Carolingian work (figure 512A-C). Eglolf apparently had
simply merged the space of the crossing of Gozbert's church
with that of its presbytery, converting them into the nave
of a choir whose aisles extended to the eastern end of the
church, but did not project laterally beyond the body of
Gozbert's church. The new choir absorbed in its mass
the subsidiary spaces which in the church of the Plan
accommodated Scriptorium and Library.
Hardegger's observations were keen and his argument
is persuasive. One fails to understand why he had so little
influence on the controversy generated by those who tried
to resolve, in retrospect, what a Carolingian architect might
have done had he redrawn the Church of the Plan in the
light of the corrective measurements given in its explanatory
titles.[19]
To leave choir and transept intact made sense
in functional terms: it was here that the monks were
stationed during their religious services for a total of four
hours each day.[20]
To effect the required reduction of
space by changing the dispositions of the nave also made
sense, for here the loss of space was incurred not by the
monks, but by the laymen, who attended only a fraction of
the total cycle of services held in the church, and even those
not on a regular schedule.
