The houses of the citizens were, up to the fourteenth century, similar to those just described. A wide entry led to a spacious, undivided apartment, which, serving as an entrance-hall, extended from the ground to the roof and as far inward as the hearth. The portion around the hearth was at most separated by a wooden partition, and in smaller dwell ings served both as kitchen and sitting-room. That the city dwellings also formerly had stalls is shown by the common occurrence even in later times of the Biihnen, as the rooms above the stalls are still called in the Low German dialect. Figures 3 and 7 (pl. 40) show the small windows immediately above the large ones. The former were to light the rooms constituting the half-story above the stables; the latter were built after the removal of the stables to light the extensive space under the half story. This half-story, divided into sleeping, storage, and other rooms, was surrounded on the inside by a gallery, upon which the rooms opened.
In the fourteenth century, when the bourgeoisie first came into exist ence, men began to appreciate the fact—whose full import has become apparent only in our day—that Germany was better fitted for trade and commerce than for agriculture. Nuremberg soon surpassed all com petitors, and in a certain sense became even the supreme head of the empire, for the later emperors preferred being its guests rather than to live on their own domain. It had purchased all the castles of the nobility, and even the imperial stables; the burgraves, weary of continual strife, had before this withdrawn from the neighborhood of the jealous city. Between emperor and city arose a relationship which was found to be mutually advantageous. When the town-hall in Wi5hrt, a suburb of Nuremberg, was burned, the emperor gave a room in his castle (p1. 39, fig. 2, No. 7), which was long used for the city assemblies. The city on its part furnished quarters (No. 2o) to the imperial mayor when the rooms of the castle were found to be too small. No. 23 is the house of the "Golden Shield," only lately modernized, in which Charles IV. promul gated the famous fundamental law known as the "Golden Bull." The gradual change in the manner of living effected a corresponding change in the character of the house. The large hall was divided into separate rooms suited to the different occupations of the inmates. The chief part of it was used for the storage of merchandise. Rooms were arranged tinder the gallery for the doorkeeper and his assistant, for count ing-rooms, etc. The kitchen, which had previously occupied one end of the hall, was placed in a separate apartment. Figure 4 (p1. 4o) exhibits such an arrangement: No. i is the large hall; Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are the rooms under the half-story; No. 5, the early location of the kitchen; No. 6,
its later situation; Nos. 9 and io are the yard and entrance, which were perhaps fonnerly connected with No. 1, and which still serve their prim itive purpose. The ancient attic is easily distinguishable behind the gable of the house (No. 3). It continued to be used in the city house as a place for storing provisions, which, on account of difficulties of trans portation and unquiet times, had to be kept in large quantities.
The plan of an old house (X .v.. 5) at Goslar is much the same: No. r is the hall, which includes the first and second stories; Nos. 2 and 3 are rooms belonging to the original construction; No. 4 and the adjoining square, which is not numbered, are also rooms, but undoubtedly of later construction; No. 5 is the principal kitchen and wash-room.
Increasing wealth enabled the people to build houses of stone. The lower story was vaulted as a greater protection against fire and robbery; the second story became a complete one, and was the place where the family assembled. The further development of the house consisted in the rooms becoming larger and more numerous at the expense of the hall, which accordingly became considerably smaller. As a solid stone vault furnished the most secure storage-room, and as the vault could not be built higher than a single story, the latter had to be partitioned off from the rest of the hall. In consequence, the chief entrance was placed else where, and thus another advantage was secured in that the family-rooms were continued around to the front of the house. This arrangement con verted the hall into a dark space completely surrounded by apartments in the centre of the house.
It was customary, on account of the narrowness of the available space, to build the house with its narrow side to the street. Consequently, the hall could receive no light, the sides being closed by adjacent houses and the front by the small rooms. The solution of the difficulty was effected by the removal of part of the roof. The hall was thus changed into a courtyard, with the roof continued up only over the rooms which sur rounded it. This, of course, was possible only in large dwellings. That the courtyard originated in this manner is proved by many examples of ancient buildings in which the front, the side wings, and the rear are connected by galleries overlooking the court ( 9). Luxurious embel lishments were soon added to the court, in imitation of the Italians, who had themselves borrowed the usage either from the Orientals or from the ancient Romans. A glance at the ground-plan of the Grassi Palace at Venice (pl. 40, fig. 6) shows the interior area chiefly occupied by arcades and a fine courtyard.