The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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LEX ALAMANNORUM |
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 | The Plan of St. Gall |  |
LEX ALAMANNORUM
The earliest document of this nature is the so-called Lex
Alamannorum, an Alamannic code of law laid down between
716 and 719 by an assembly of thirty-four dukes, thirty-three
bishops, and sixty-five counts, under the presidency
of Duke Lantfrid I (d. 730).[56]
Article 82 of this code, which
fixes the compensation for arson, bears out what Tacitus
had stated some seven centuries earlier about the loosely
scattered character of Germanic settlements. This article
establishes the following sanctions:[57]
If at night a man sets
somebody's house (domus) or hall (sala) on fire and is
caught and found guilty, he is bound not only to restore
whatever he has destroyed by fire but, in addition, to pay a
fine of 40 shillings. If he lays fire to any other houses in the
yard (in curte), viz., the barn (scuria or granica) or the
storehouse (cellarium), he must likewise compensate for the
inflicted damage and settle with an additional fine of 21
shillings.
Fines are specified in the same manner for damage and
destruction to all the other service structures, the bathhouse
(stuba), the sheepfold (ovilis), and the pigsty (porcaricia),
as well as the houses and barns for the serfs (servi
domus, scura servi, spicaria servi). From this it follows that
century consisted of a group of separate buildings in a
common yard (curtis); its principal structures were the
house (domus) and the hall (sala). Whether domus and sala
are synonymous or indicate a separation of the principal
unit into a living house (domus) and an eating hall (sala)
remains uncertain.
From another passage in the same Lex Alamannorum
we gather incidentally some insight into the inner architectural
layout of such a dwelling. Article 94 states that if a
mother dies in childbirth, leaving a child who expires
after having lived for one hour and opened his eyes during
this time so that he could see the ridge (culmen) and the
four walls (iv parietes) of the house, the maternal inheritance
will fall to the father.[58]
This stipulation presupposes a
building open to the roof with internal subdivisions, whatever
they might have been, that did not obstruct the
simultaneous visibility, from the mother's bedstead, of the
four walls of the house and of the ridge of its roof.[59]
The latest edition of the Lex Alamannorum, including a German
translation, is K. A. Eckhardt, 1934. For previous editions and literature
concerning date and origin of the Lex Alamannorum, see the article
"Germanic Law" by Christian Pfitzer and K. A. Eckhardt in Encyclopedia
Britannica, X, 1941, 211.
1. Si quis aliquem foco in noctem miserit, ut domum eius incendat seu
et sala sua et inventus et probatus fuerit, omnia qui ibidem arsit, similem
restituat et super haec XL solidos conponat.
2. Si enim domus infra curte incenderit aut scuria aut granica vel
cellario, omnia simile restituat et cum XII solidis conponat.
3. Si quis stuba, ovilem, porcaricia domum alequis concremaverit,
unicuique cum III solidis conponat et similem restituat.
4. Servi domo si incenderit, cum XII solidis conponat et similem restituat.
5.
Scura servi si incenderit, cum VI solidis conponat et similem restituat.
6.
Si enim spicaria servi incenderit, cum III solidis conponat [et si
domino, cum VI et similem restituat] (Eckhardt, 1934, 58-59).
1. Si quis mulier qui hereditatem suam paternicam habet post nuptum et
prignans peperit puerum et ipsa in ipsa ora mortua fuerit et infans vivus
remanserit tantum spacium vel unius horae possit operire oculos et videre
culmen domus et IV parietes, et postea defunctus fuerit, hereditas materna
ad patrem eius perteneat. Tamen si testes habet pater eius qui vidissent illum
infantem oculos aperire et potuisset culmen videre et IV parietes, tunc pater
eius habeat licenciam cum lege defendere; cui est propriaetas, ipse conquirat
(Eckhardt, 1934, 66-67).
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