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

From the southern gable wall of the dormitory an exit
opens into an L-shaped passageway that leads into the
Monks' Privy. This building is 30 feet wide and 40 feet
long. Along its southern wall it is furnished with a bench
containing nine toilet seats (sedilia) that are slightly larger
than the seats in the other privies, and, unlike them, not
set directly against the wall but parallel to it at a small
distance. A square support in the north-eastern corner of
the room serves as a stand for a light (lucerna) which,
Hildemar postulates in his commentary to the Rule of St.
Benedict,[73] was a necessity. Short strokes intersecting the
walls at suitable distances designate that the privy should
be furnished with window slits for daylight and ventilation.[74]
Not easy to identify in the absence of any explanatory
titles are three oblong areas in front of the three
remaining walls. Keller interpreted them as tables.[75] Later

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[ILLUSTRATION]

208. PLAN OF ST. GALL. MONKS' DORMITORY AND WARMING ROOM, WITH PRIVY, BATHHOUSE,
AND LAUNDRY

The Dormitory forms the second story of a building 40 feet wide and 85 feet long (see fig. 192). It is furnished with seventy-seven beds that
one must assume were separated by wooden partitions as well as equipped with head and foot boards, and a modicum of locker space for storing
extra clothing. It is not clear whether the Dormitory could be heated, but its location above the Warming Room suggests the possibility that on
cold days heat from the lower chambers might rise into the upper through ducts in the walls or adjustable openings in the floor.

St. Benedict ruled (see above, p. 249) that the brothers "if possible should sleep in one room." This directive is probably the primary historical
impetus for construction of such large sleeping halls. The earliest structure of this type appears to be the dormitory of the Abbey of Jumièges,
ca. 650. (See the reconstruction of the layout of this monastery by Horn, 1973, 35, fig. 35. For procedure followed by the maker of the Plan
in developing the layout of beds within a grid of 2½-foot squares, see above, p. 89. The term DORMITORIUM is not classical and does not appear
in general use before the 8th century; see III, Glossary, s.v.)

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students of the Plan, sufficiently puzzled by their purpose,
ignored them entirely. That they were meant to be tables
seems to me precluded by their dimensions alone (5 × 10
feet and 5 × 17½ feet), not to mention the fact that tables
are not a traditional part of the furnishings of a privy. From
a purely functional point of view one would expect to find,
besides the toilet seats, one or two areas serving as urinals,
a stand with pitchers filled with water or some other means
of providing water for washing the hands, and perhaps a
bin for the storage of straw.

[73]

Expositio Hildemari, ed. Mittermüller, 1880, 331: Intelligitur autem,
ut non solum ardeat candela in dormitorio, verum etiam in exitu, quia ubi
et ubi non possunt seniores adolescentiores custodire, nisi fuerit, sicut dixi,
candela ad exitum.

[74]

The only other instance where windows are indicated on the Plan
of St. Gall is the Scriptorium, in both cases for compelling functional
reasons, see above, p. 147.

[75]

Keller, 1840, 21.

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LAYOUT

208. PLAN OF ST. GALL. MONKS' DORMITORY AND WARMING ROOM, WITH PRIVY, BATHHOUSE, AND LAUNDRY

208. PLAN OF ST. GALL. MONKS' DORMITORY AND WARMING ROOM, WITH PRIVY, BATHHOUSE,
AND LAUNDRY