Presumptive number of craftsmen
There is no doubt in my mind that the aisles and leanto's
of the Great Collective Workshop were the sleeping
quarters for the men who worked there. This was the traditional
space for sleeping in this type of house.[426]
To what
extent the aisles and lean-to's were used additionally as
workshops would have depended on the number of men
they housed, and the amount of floor space left after they
were bedded. If beds were arranged in a single file along the
outer walls of the house, as is the case in most of the other
places of the Plan where beds are shown,[427]
the main house
could have accommodated twenty-eight workmen. Another
four men could have been established with comfort in each
of the three workshops of the Annex, which would bring
the total of men in the Great Collective Workshop to forty.
I do not know whether any good comparative figures are
available for this sort of count. Abbot Adalhard of Corbie,
whose monastery was considerably larger than that described
on the Plan of St. Gall, lists the following as the
regular contigent of laymen employed at Corbie:
twelve matricularii [odd jobbers selected from among the poor] and
thirty laymen. Of those: six at the first workshop, viz., three
shoemakers, two saddlers, one fuller. At the second workshop:
seventeen [Adalhard's arithmetic is wrong, the total of the individual
workmen listed for the second workshop is eighteen not seventeen],
viz., one at the supply room, six blacksmiths, two goldsmiths, two
shoemakers, two shieldmakers, one parchment maker, one polisher,
three carpenters. At the third workshop: three, viz., two porters at
the cellar and the dispensary, one at the infirmary. Two helpers,
viz., one at the place where the wood is stored in the bakehouse,
one at the middle gate, four carpenters, four masons, two physicians,
two at the vassals' lodge.[428]
If we subtract from this roll those laymen who on the Plan
of St. Gall are installed in other houses or have no special
space assigned to them (physicians, carpenters, masons,
and various others stationed at the Cellar, the Dispensary,
and the Infirmary), the remaining number of laymen is
twenty-one, including eleven who on the Plan of St. Gall
are installed in the Annex (blacksmiths, goldsmiths, and
metal founders).
It is hard to say whether such a comparison has any validity,
since Corbie, in addition to the craftsmen here listed,
had also no fewer than 150 prebends (adult oblates, who
received their daily sustenance in return for the performance
of some craft or service),[429]
many of whom may have
helped to supplement the work of the regular craftsmen.
In any case it appears to me safe to deduce from the layout
of the Great Collective Workshop that at the time of Louis
the Pious a crew of plus or minus forty
artifices (not counting
the coopers and wheelwrights installed in a separate
building) was considered to be the normal contingent of
craftsmen needed for the manufacture of the material requirements
of a monastic settlement, comprised of 250 to
270 souls.
[430]
There is no question in my mind that the architect who
drew the plan of the Great Collective Workshop not only
had a clear idea of the number of men to be installed in this
structure and how they should be distributed throughout
the various workshops, but also was equally well informed
about the space requirements involved in each individual
craft, their functional interdependence, and the special
demands for lighting, heating, and fire protection, as we
shall see presently. As in all other buildings of this type,
there is good reason to assume that the walls that separated
the individual workshops from the center halls were not of
rigid construction, since the workmen in these outer spaces
depended on the two central fireplaces in the hall and the
two louvers in the roof above them for their warmth and
light. I should imagine that even the Workshop's interior
looked like a large open barn with barriers substantial
enough to give the workmen that autonomous feeling indispensable
to the performance of their skills, yet not so
obstructive as to preclude almost everyone's remaining in
sight of each other.
