University of Virginia Library

426. PLAN

426.X PLAN OF ST. GALL.
HOUSE OF THE GARDENER AND HIS CREW AND MONKS' VEGETABLE GARDEN

The position of the Monks' Vegetable Garden between the Orchard (y) and the poultry runs (21, 23) as well as its proximity to the Monks'
Latrine (4) demonstrates the awareness for functional inter-relationships characterizing the intelligence of those who designed the Plan. Both
Orchard and Garden come under the care of the Gardener. The Garden would have drawn the most effective fertilizer from the nitrogen-rich
droppings of the nearby fowl yards; grain feed for chickens and geese (the Granary is in close proximity) could be augmented by trimmings from
the vegetables. However, the most important source for fertilizer might have been the Monks' Privy, if the waste there was not swept away
through water channels but (as seems more reasonable to assume) was gathered in settling tanks.

The garden plots were devoted largely to what we today consider to be seasonings or spices; with root crops in need of more space than that
available within the monastic compound, and therefore grown on land outside the walls, the produce of the garden could be largely devoted to
crops for enhancing the flavors of the monks' heavily vegetarian diet.

PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE OF THE GARDENER AND HIS CREW

427.C WEST ELEVATION

The entrance, located in the middle of the western
long wall, leads directly into the common living
room. The northern lean-to with corner fireplace
serves as the Gardener's private dwelling.

427.B LONGITUDINAL SECTION

The door in the center leads from the common
living room into a vestibule which gives access to
the servants' quarters and has an exit to the
Garden.

427.A GROUND PLAN

Since the Gardener's private room had a corner
fireplace, it was independent of the communal
fireplace in the living room and could have been
separated from the rest of the house by wall
partitions as well as by a ceiling. If provided with
a ceiling it would have needed windows in the
outer wall for light and air.

AUTHORS' INTERPRETATION

427.F NORTH ELEVATION

The Gardener's private dwelling is a lean-to
attached to the northern end of the communal
living room. Whether its roof ended on the level
here shown or reached up to the ridge in the form
of a hip, is impossible to ascertain.

427.E SOUTH ELEVATION

The southern lean-to serves as tool shed. It
received its light and warmth (if any) from the
fireplace and louver in the communal living room.

427.D TRANSVERSE SECTION

The door to the left connects the living room with
the Gardener's private dwelling. The door to the
right leads from a vestibule, located in the middle
of the eastern aisle of the house into one of the
two bedrooms of the servants.

The layout of the Gardener's House is identical with that of the House for Cows and Cowherds (fig. 438) and the House for Foaling Mares and
their Keepers. (fig. 487). In all of these the common living room with the traditional open fireplace is surrounded with subsidiary outer spaces
on three sides only. The entrance is in the middle of the wall that lacks an aisle. The House of the Physicians (fig. 410) belongs to the same
family of structures.

428. HEURES DE TURIN (CA. 1390). LABORS OF THE MONTH OF APRIL

(FORMERLY) TURIN, BIBLIOTECA NAZIONALE, MS. K. IV. 29, FOL. 4, DETAIL

[after Durrieu, 1902, pl. IV]

The scene showing the seeding of staked and raised garden beds is one of twelve calendar pictures forming part of a manuscript begun at the
end of the fourteenth century for the Duc de Berry, but never finished. Before 1413 the manuscript was held by Robinet d'Estampes, keeper
of de Berry's jewels. Other parts of the same manuscript are in the Museo Civico of Turin, and the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Louvre,
Paris. The fragment shown above perished in a fire that destroyed the whole library in 1904; fortunately, Durrieu had published it two years
earlier.

GRIMANI BREVIARY (CA. 1490). GARDEN WITH TOPIARY TREES

429.

This masterpiece of illumination, of
uncertain authorship, provenance, and
date, was made at the period of
transition between the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance. The style of the
manuscript, in which many masters
collaborated (the majority Flemish, a
few perhaps French), suggests a date
between 1490 and 1510, probably
nearer the latter according to David
Diringer (The Illuminated Book;
New York-Washington, rev. ed.
1967, p. 455). The manuscript, one
of the largest in existence, is composed
of 832 leaves measuring 22 × 28 cm.
It was published in a facsimile edition
of thirteen volumes (ed. Scato de
Vries) in 1903-1908.

VENICE, BIBLIOTECA DI SAN MARCO. FOL. 613

[after Morpurgo and de Vries, I, 1903-1908, pl. 1165]

A typical late medieval "Ziergarten" (decorative pleasure garden) shows planting beds raised by means of staked boards above the level of
the walks, as in Walahfrid Strabo's garden (above, p. 183). The beds are laid out in two rows and are framed by a peripheral row of bordering
beds, as in the Medicinal Herb Garden (figs. 414-415).

PLAN OF ST. GALL. MONKS' CEMETERY AND ORCHARD

430.

The cemetery contains thirteen planting
areas for trees and fourteen (= twice
seven) burial plots. Seven of them lie to
the east of the great cross in the center,
and seven of them at and below it. It is
probably not an accidental arrangement
but rather one of the countless examples of
preoccupation of the drafters of the Plan
with sacred numbers. Thirteen evokes the
memory of Christ and the twelve
Apostles and in particular their
congregation at the supper that preceded
His death. (The tendril-shaped symbol
used to locate the trees of the orchard is
a key to identifying the designer of the
original Plan; see I, 27ff).

The number seven, Augustus writes,
expressed "the wholeness and completeness
of all created things" (cf. I, 118ff, and
Horn, 1975, 351-90). The modular scheme
of the Plan applies to the burial plots:
their width, 6¼ feet, is composed of two
standard 2½-foot modules plus one 1¼-
foot submodule, while their length, at
17½ feet, reflects once again the sacred
number seven: 7 × 2½ = 17½. Thus, in
each plot the bodies of seven brothers
could be accommodated, in keeping with
the application of standard modules to
achieve the human scale of the other
facilities of the Plan. And as elsewhere,
this compounding and multiplication of
sevens can hardly be fortuitous, but on
the contrary, quite purposeful in the
planning of the Cemetery.