The Life of St. Philibert

Primary sources are the closest information we have to 'eye witness' accounts of a distant past. They provide evidence contemporary (or nearly so) to a building's construction, materials, and appearance as well as patrons and craftsmen. Every source contains some historical and/or personal bias that reflects the author's agenda and the cultural attitudes of the society and class in which he or she lived; the values and beliefs of the audience for which the work is intended are also important factors. As can be appreciated from reading these sources related to the historical period and architecture of Jumièges, documents vary enormously in how much they reveal about buildings and how well they may answer the questions we ask.

The sources cited here from the Early Middle Ages are biased in favour of Benedictine monasticism and have an interest in praising religious leaders (mostly male). Nonetheless, in the authors' zeal to recount the pious works of an abbot, bishop, or saint, he often reveals a personal enthusiasm for splendid architecture and its decoration. Scale, craftsmanship, and the number of features (columns, towers, windows, etc.) and arrangement of buildings seem to be of particular interest aside from extolling the patron. Measurements are also often given.

These excerpts from the documentary sources are well known and have often been cited in the context of patrons as active participants in the building process; however, they have not been considered from the standpoint of historic carpentry and the valuable information they relate for the existence of early medieval ceilings.

VITA S. FILIBERTI ABBATIS GEMETICNSIS (The Life of St. Philibert of Jumièges by an anonymous monk) in Acta Sanctorum S. Ord. S. Benedicti, II (Paris, 1969) ed. Lucas d'Achery and Joh. Mabillon, excerpted here from W. Braunfels, Monasteries of Western Europe, Princeton, 1972. Insertions in brackets are mine.

Like the description of the conventual buildings at Fontenelle, the anonymous life of Saint Philibert, the founder of Jumièges, gives the monastic author an opportunity to express his feelings towards the magnificence of the buildings, albeit expressed in the spiritual language and scriptural phraseology of the mid 8th century. What is interesting to note in is that he comments quite specifically on the presence of stone buildings, which were probably not the norm for monastic buildings in this period and region. Also of note is the exceptionally large single span of the great dorter, which evidently had numerous glazed windows and was built over an aisled hall. If the dimensions are correct, one can suggest that this vast open hall containing beds in rows could have accommodated several hundred choir monks.

…divine excellence… put into the heart of this most holy Man [Philibert] that of his own efforts he should build a monastery. Then obtaining by humble supplication from Clovis, King of the Franks, and his queen, Baldechilde, a site in the district of Rouen, called Gemeticum by the ancients, he was seen to construct a most noble monastery. …

There, Divine Providence built battlemented ramparts rising up in a massive square (or rectangle), an enclosure of remarkable capacity, appropriate for those who came to it. …The cell of God's saint himself looks out from the south, adorned with an edging of stone. Arcades accompany the laboriously stone-built cloister; the soul is by varied decoration and girt about with bubbling waters. The two-storeyed dormitory, two hundred and ninety feet long and fifty wide, points southwards. Light shines through windows above each bed, penetrating like a lamp through the glass to assist the eyesight of those reading. Underneath are twin rooms suitable for different purposes: one is a buttery for wines to be served from, the other is for preparing wholesome food; there gather those who worthily serve Christ, … .