I.1.7
THE SCOPE OF THE PRESENT STUDY
The opinions voiced on the various problems raised by
the Plan of St. Gall are numberless and, scattered as they
are in a vast array of books and disparate journals, prove to
be beyond the control of anyone but the most dogged
specialist. The time, therefore, is ripe for a general synthesis
of this scattered knowledge, and for a thorough and
comprehensive review of the issues raised in these
discussions.
Two queries, hitherto unsolved, require special consideration,
and perhaps more space than is desirable in the
context of the summary study that we have proposed. The
first of these is the highly controversial question of the scale
and construction methods followed in the Plan of St. Gall,
its initial mental conception and the actual drawing up of
the original scheme. The second is the question of the
constructional nature of the monastery's guest and service
structures. The former is the most tangled and most
widely debated single issue of the Plan;[50]
the latter, the
most difficult and most complex, but also probably the most
rewarding. To settle it would be a breakthrough, not only
because of the light it would throw on the history of
monastic building, but also because of the contribution it
would make to our knowledge of vernacular architecture
at the time of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious.[51]
