The third anonymous estate
Repperimus in illo fisco dominico domum regalem ex ligno ordinabiliter
constructam, cameram I, cellarium I, stabolum I, mansiones III,
spicaria II, coqinam I, pistrinum I, scuras III, Curtem tunimo circumdatam
et desuper sepe munita. . . Portas ligneas II. . . .[98]
We found in that crown estate the royal house constructed in timber
in the usual fashion, one chamber, one cellar, one stable, three
dwellings, two grain barns, one kitchen, one bakehouse, three
barns. The yard surrounded with a wall, protected above by a
fence . . . two wooden gates. . . .
While failing to reveal anything about the architectural
design of the enumerated structures, the Brevium exempla
are of particular value because they offer concrete information
about the relative use of stone and timber in the architecture
of a Carolingian crown estate. The account of the
sala regalis at Anappes—as we had occasion to point out in
an earlier chapter—[99]
with its open solariums, heatable
rooms, and two galleried porches reads like a description
of the Abbot's House on the Plan of St. Gall. Like the
latter, it was composed of several stories and built in
stone. The Brevium exempla, however, make it equally
clear that stone was not considered to be the ordinary
material. With the exception of the chapel of the second
anonymous estate and the two gate houses at Anappes and
Treola, stone appears to be the exclusive prerogative of the
royal mansion, and the superlative form of the epithets
associated with the use of this material (ex lapdie optime
factam) is indicative of the high esteem in which this
material was held. However, only two out of five royal
mansions recorded in the document were entirely stone
structures, those of Anappes and Treola. The domus regalis
of the first anonymous estate had its outer walls constructed
in stone, but everything else inside is in timber (exterius
ex lapide et interius ex ligno bene constructam.) The domus
regalis of the third anonymous estate was built entirely in
wood (ex ligno ordinabiliter constructam). Timber, we will
also have to assume, was used where no specific reference
to any material is made for the casa regalis of the second
anonymous estate. All the other structures of the five
estates either are explicitly said to be built in timber or
must be assumed to be built in timber because of the
absence of any statement to the contrary. And the timbered
buildings formed, of course, an overwhelming majority.
