Hart
104. Case Studies in Ancient
and Medieval Architecture
Fall
Semester 2004
Week
11. The Saint-Gall Plan
Team
3 Discussion
Marcus
Roman
Kaitlin
Simmons
Charles
Sharpless
Sara
Milberger
Sarah
Brandt
Katie
Ferlisi
Mikaela
Dennison
Read
all three articles.
Reading
1
The
first article by Paul Meyvaert is a simple description of the activities and
function of a cloister in a monastic setting. Don't spend too much time presenting this to the class--you
might just list the various activities that take place in this part of the
monastery.
Reading
2
The
excerpts by Mary Carruthers from her book The Craft of Thought can be discussed in two
parts.
The
first excerpt:
3. The "Plan of St. Gall":
Building Plan as a Meditation Machine"
I
realize that you have not read the entire book so the context here is not
quite
clear but she still makes a clear claim about the function of
the
Saint-Gall plan.
QUESTION 1. How does Carruthers interpret the inscription on the plan
written by Bishop Haito?
QUESTION 2. What do you think she means by the plan as a device of
memory work?
The second excerpt:
15. The Cloister as a Memory Machine and
Encyclopedia
QUESTION 1. How does she describe the cloister as a
memory machine?
Reading
3
Leah Rutchick's article applies
Carruthers interpretation of the cloister as a memory machine to the sculpture
of the cloister of Moissac.
Discuss one example in particular--how does the capital of the Marriage
of Cana, (see page 203), function as a mnemonic device? Is this convincing? Use the images available on the web to
illustrate this.