University of Virginia Library

V.8.7

HOUSE FOR SERVANTS OF OUTLYING
ESTATES & SERVANTS TRAVELING
WITH THE EMPEROR'S COURT

This house measures 47½ feet by 60 feet (figs. 402-403)
and lies to the right of the entrance road in a tract entirely
reserved for the raising of livestock; and it is the only one
among the buildings in this sector which is inhabited by
people alone. Its general purpose is described in a hexameter
which reads:

Its layout is a classical example of what in an earlier phase
of this study we referred to as the "standard house" of the
Plan of St. Gall; a house consisting of a central hall with
open fireplace and aisles and lean-to's all around the hall.
The entrance, like those of all the other houses in this tract,

lies in the middle of the eastern long wall. Two rooms on
either side of the entrance serve as quarters for the guardians
(cubiʈ custodientiū). The great hall in the center carries the
inscription, "the hall of the serfs who come with the
service" (domƆ famuliae quae cum seruitio aduenerit). Keller,
Willis, Bikel, Leclercq, and Reinhardt[328] interpreted this to
refer to the serfs who live on outlying estates (familia foris)
and come to the monastery in the pursuit of their obligatory
services, delivery of produce, tithe, or harvest; Bischoff
thinks that the house was for the accommodation of servants
who traveled in the following of a visiting ruler.[329] Both
views may be correct, since the seruitium mentioned in the
explanatory title may refer to either or both: the service
due the king or the service due the monastery.[330] The
monastery needed lodgings for the serfs who came with
deliveries from places too distant to allow them to return
to their base on the same day. It also needed lodgings for
the servants who traveled in the king's train. As both of
these potential occupants arrived only intermittently
(uicissim, "as the case may be"), the house may have performed
the double task of giving shelter to both.