The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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DESCRIPTION OF HOUSE |
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 | The Plan of St. Gall |  |
DESCRIPTION OF HOUSE
fleotomatis hic gustandum ʈ potionariis[395]
Here is the place for bloodletting and for purging
The House for Bloodletting (fig. 416) lies west of the
Physicians' House and consists of a large rectangular space
35 feet by 45 feet. It is furnished with a central fireplace
with the customary louver and contains, besides this traditional
heating device, four additional corner fireplaces
as well, doubtless in consideration of the weakened condition
of the monks after being bled. The wall space between
these fireplaces is taken up by six benches and tables
(mensae) on which the monks were bled and purged.
The primary function of this separate house, as Leclercq
has correctly pointed out, is to relieve the Monks' Infirmary
of the many people who were to receive the incision of the
lancet as a cure for a vast variety of ailments, real and
imaginary.[396]
PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE FOR BLOODLETTING
The vulnerable condition in which patients found
themselves through the process of bleeding
required that the House for Bloodletting be well
heated. This was accomplished by installation of
four corner fireplaces, in addition to the traditional
open fireplace in the center of the building. Safety
from fire hazards would require that the walls of
the House for Bloodletting be built in masonry.
416.X.2 TRANSVERSE SECTION LOOKING EASTWARD
Without doubt Carolingian builders could have
covered a house 35 feet wide with a single span
(the nave of the Church after all had a span of 40
feet) but in most medieval buildings such a span
would have had additional support in two rows of
free-standing inner posts, if more than 25 feet
wide. For this reason in our reconstruction we have
introduced four additional inner posts carrying
roof plates, which in the longitudinal direction of
the building are slightly cantilevered to support the
rafters of the hips of the roof.
416.X.1 PLAN AT GROUND LEVEL
AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION
416.X.3 LONGITUDINAL SECTION, LOOKING SOUTHWARD
416.X.5 ELEVATION LOOKING NORTHWARD
416.X.4 ELEVATION LOOKING SOUTHWARD
416.X.6 ELEVATION LOOKING WESTWARD
Caring for the ill was a primary Christian, and therefore also an important monastic occupation, and included study and transmission of
teachings of the great physicians of classical times. Yet monastic tradition also made it clear that the "ultimate decision about sickness and
health" was "the concern of the Lord," not of man (see above, p. 176), which may explain why the physician, although his arts were often
performed by monks, was not a member of the monastery's regular staff of administrative officers.
Among monastic foundations, the separate House for Bloodletting is, we believe, unique to the Plan of St. Gall, attesting the high curative and
prophylactic value attached to this procedure, and demonstrating the perspicuity of the designers of the Plan, who separated this medical facility
from the infirmary. This made sense because of the large number of monks to be bled, and their convalescent state for a few days afterward. If
the full monastic complement of 130 at St. Gall were to be bled at six-week intervals (1,170 bleedings in a year) as was customary at Ely (cf.
p. 188 below), the Infirmary alone could hardly have served both those with longer-term or contagious illnesses requiring lengthy recuperation
or isolation, and those merely recovering from bleeding.
417. LUTTRELL PSALTER (1340). LONDON, BRITISH MUSEUM, ADD. MS 42130, FOL. 61
[By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum]
A physician bleeds a patient under the interested gaze of a large kingfisher. The iconography of this bird is ancient and complex; with its
ability to hurl itself into the water and then arise after having apparently drowned, it captured the Christian imagination to become a symbol
for the resurrected Christ. Perhaps its association with the act of bleeding symbolizes the hope of the patient for restored health.
| The Plan of St. Gall | |