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

All linear work on the Plan is rendered in a clear vermilion
ink which has retained its original intensity. The lines are
traced without the aid of instruments, in firm and fluent
strokes suggesting that the draftsman had experience with
this type of drawing. The textual annotations are written in
a deep-brown ink, bordering on black. In the crossing,
transept, and forechoir of the Church, brown ink is also
used to thicken the architectural line (fig. 99), obviously
with the intent of clarifying the basic spatial divisions of
the Church, which are somewhat blurred in this area by the
heavy concentration of stairs, altars, benches, and choir
screens.[241] It is impossible to say whether this was done at
the time the Plan was copied, or at a later stage, preparatory
to its use in actual construction.

The Plan of St. Gall is not the only Carolingian manuscript
where a vermilion red is used for the delineation of
buildings. The Zentralbibliothek in Zurich has among its
holdings an early ninth-century copy of Adamnan's book
De locis sanctis,[242] written in the scriptorium of the monastery

[ILLUSTRATION]

41. PLAN OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER, CHURCH OF JERUSALEM

ZURICH, Zentralbibliothek. Codex Rhenaugensis LXXIII, fol. 5r [243]

[courtesy of the Zentralbibliothek, Zurich]

This plan, as well as the plans shown in the three subsequent figures, were drawn by Walahfrid (d. 849), who copied them from drawings
displayed in Adamnan's De locis sanctis.

Adamnan, abbot of the monastery of Iona from 679-708, in turn derived his knowledge about the layout of these buildings from the
verbal account of the Frankish bishop Arculf who visited the Holy Land around 680, and from drawings engraved into wax tablets by
Arculf for Adamnan's benefit.

[ILLUSTRATION]

42. THE CHURCH OF MOUNT SION

ZURICH, Zentralbibliothek

Codex Rhenaugensis LXXIII, fol. 9v

[courtesy of the Zentralbibliothek, Zurich]

of Reichenau (Cod. Rhenaug. LXXIII), which displays the
plans of a group of Early Christian pilgrimage churches of
the Holy Land drawn, it seems, by the hand of Walahfrid
Strabo,[244] viz., on fol. 5r, the Holy Sepulcher Church of
Jerusalem (fig. 41); on fol. 9v, the Church of Mount Sion
(fig. 42); on fol. 12r, the Ascension Church on Mount
Olive (fig. 43); and on fol. 18v, the cruciform church of
Samaria (fig. 44). As on the Plan of St. Gall, so here, the
architectural plans are drawn in red, while the explanatory
titles are written in black. This suggests that red might
have been the preferred color for architectural drawings in
the early Middle Ages.

[241]

See below, p. 137. Not available to me when these lines were written
was an article by Gerhard Noth, published in 1969, where it is suggested
that this thickening of certain lines in transept and presbytery occurred
"just before and in connection with the reconstruction of the church of
St. Gall by Abbot Gozbert." This is possible, even probable. Yet one
cannot exclude the alternative that this might have been done already in
the scriptorium of the abbey of Reichenau (after the Plan was finished,
but before it was transmitted to Abbot Gozbert) as a last clarifying
measure, undertaken by the corrector, perhaps upon the suggestion of
Bishop Haito, in response to the desire to identify more clearly the outlines
of the basic building masses of nave and transept (cf. below, p. 137).
I am utterly unconvinced of Noth's conjecture that the thickened lines
were meant to convey the idea that the transept was internally divided
into three virtually separate compartments by strongly protruding wall
spurs. It is much more reasonable to assume that these lines were added
to emphasize the fact that the nave intersected the transept in its full
height and width, and to preclude a confusion between the boundaries of
these two primary spaces with lines that designate such secondary
appurtenances as choir screens, steps and benches of which there is a
heavy concentration in these parts of the church. On Noth's reluctance
to admit the concept of a disengaged crossing for the Church of the Plan
of St. Gall, see the arguments offered below, pp. 92ff.

[242]

For Cod. Rhenaug. LXXIII, see Katalog der Handschriften der
Zentralbibliothek Zürich, III, 1936, 190-91. Adamnan, abbot of Iona
from 679 to 704, based his book De locis sanctis (presented to King
Aldfrid the Wise of Northumbria in 701) on the travel account of Arculf,
a Frankish bishop and pilgrim, who visited the Holy Land about 680 and
on his return to Gaul was driven by adverse winds to Britain where he
took refuge in the monastery of Iona. See S. Adamnani . . . de locis
sanctis, ed. Migne, Patr. Lat., LXXXVIII, 1844, cols. 779-815, and the
annotated English translation published by Macpherson in 1899. For
excerpts see Schlosser, 1896, 50-59; and Preisendanz, 1927, 20ff. For
better and more recent editions and translations (brought to my attention
by Charles W. Jones) see James F. Kenny, Sources, I, 1929, 285-88.

[243]

Figures 41, 42, 43, 44 reproduced at same size as the original.

[244]

Preisendanz, loc. cit.

University of Virginia Library

I.12.1

USE OF DIFFERENT COLORS FOR DRAWING AND EXPLANATORY TITLES

41. PLAN OF THE HOLY SEPULCHER, CHURCH OF JERUSALEM

42. THE CHURCH OF MOUNT SION

USE OF DIFFERENT COLORS FOR
DRAWING AND EXPLANATORY TITLES