Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/130

 88 DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT PLAN tion Avliich was painted on the walls of the abbot's house, (the "abbatia,") which records that the hall was finished by the architects of the palace, " a palatinis magistris," and deco- rated by painters from Augia^. Charlemagne himself was so fond of the monastery of St. Gall, and so familiar with its monks, that they used to call him "our Charles," "noster Karolus''." Bnt if we consider that the inscription sheAvs the plan to have been made in the days of Gozpertus, while the chronicled history tells us that the buildings of the monastery and the internal arrangements of the church, with its altars, confessionary, &c., were not completed until after his death, it must be concluded that the plan was merely a design for a complete monastery, intended to assist the abbot in planning his new buildings ; and we need not be surprised to find, by means of various allusions in the chronicles, that the monas- tery itself, as completed by Hartmotus and Grimaldus, varied in several particidars from the plan itself. It must neverthe- less be considered as a most curious document, illustrating not merely the monastic habits, but the general arrangements of the buildings of Charlemagne's period, namely, the begin- ning of the ninth century. A copy of this plan was first published by Mabillon, in the second volume of his Annals of the Benedictine Order. But this copy had no pretensions to the character of a fac- simile, either in its manner or in respect to the inscriptions with which the original is covered. A very accurate fac- simile was published by F. Keller at Zm'ich in 1844, accom- panied by a good, but somewhat prolix, descriptive and his- torical memou". I have gladly availed myself of the latter part of his description, but have found it necessary to draw up an entirely new and more concise historical introduction, and a new description of the church, in the explanation of which I have been compelled to differ from Keller in several respects. and was made abbot of Selgenstat, where Ornavit,coluit,Hi'VDOVicipriiicipisalnu he died in 839. The abbacy of Gozpertus Temporibus.niultis laetusfeliciter annis. began in tlie next year after the death of In alio puriete. Charlemagne. Aula palatinis perfecta est ista Magistris, •5 Mabillon. Annales Ben., torn. ii. p. Insula pictores transmiserat A,vgia 572. The inscriptions in the hall were as claros. follows,:— Canisii. Thes., torn. ii. 3, 228. In puriete. '' " Karolus magnus Iniperator in tan- Splendida niarmoreis ornata est aula co- turn dilexit locum S. Galli, ct ita familiaris lumnis erat fratribus, ut eum non aliter nomina- En Grimvvaldus ovans alto fundamine rentu'iai nosier Karolus." — Ekkehardus,vit struxit B. Notkeri, c. 29. G. p. 277.