The Plan of St. Gall :: :: University of Virginia Library

Apart from the transmittal note discussed above, the
explanatory legends of the Plan consist of 340 titles of
varying length which describe the purpose of each building,
the function of the individual rooms, as well as the equipment
and furnishings therein. The general purpose of each
building, as a rule, is described in a verse (hexameter or
distich), written parallel to and at a small distance from the
entrance wall of the house to which it pertains. The titles
that define the internal functions of each building are
written in prose.[87] They are always inscribed in the center
of the area they describe or as close to the center of that
area as conditions permit. Exceptions to this are made in
only a few cases, where the object is too small to accommodate
its title, such as the cupboards (toregmata) in the
dining hall of the House for Distinguished Guests (fig.
396),[88] the abbot's living room (fig. 251),[89] and the Monks'
Refectory (fig. 211).[90]

[87]

I must stress this point, since Bischoff's remark that in a great many
cases the verses "simply synthesize or paraphrase the significance of an
individual structure without adding anything new to what may be
gathered more clearly from the prose inscriptions" is misleading
(Bischoff, in Studien, 1962, 74). For the majority of buildings supplied
with metrical legends this is distinctly not the case. I cite as a typical
example the inscriptions of the House of Distinguished Guests: the
general purpose of this house is expressed in a hexameter that runs
parallel to the entrance side of the building, Haec domus hospitibus parta
est quoque suscipiendis. The verse explains the general purpose of this
structure and could be simply translated: "This, too, is a house for
guests" ("too," in contradistinction to the Hospice for Pilgrims and
Paupers). This general definition is not repeated in any of the prose
titles entered in the interior of the structure, all of which designate the
purpose of individual rooms, or the nature of an individual piece of
furniture in these rooms.

Bischoff's unawareness of the difference between the general (metrical)
and specific (prose) titles may have been occasioned by the untraditional
use of the term domus, which on the Plan of St. Gall is never used to
designate the whole of a house (its classical and traditional meaning),
but always refers to the large central hall in the interior of the house
which contains the hearth and serves as general living room (for further
details, see II, 77, and III, Glossary, s.v.

[88]

See II, 160.

[89]

See below, pp. 321ff.

[90]

See below, pp. 269ff.

University of Virginia Library

I.5.1

DISTINCTION BETWEEN GENERAL AND SPECIFIC TITLES

DISTINCTION BETWEEN GENERAL
AND SPECIFIC TITLES