the strong hand and visionary policies of Char- lemagne (742-814). Uniformity, rationality, planning-these were the watchwords of the day, reflected in the concept of St. Gall. Dating from the early 9th century, the Plan itself (a 30-by- 44-inch piece of calfskin now preserved in the library of a Swiss monastery) is a masterpiece of design, one of the great original documents of Western civilization. For hundreds of years, it held religious and secular architecture under its spell. More impor- tant...