Medieval Monastic Studies

The fragmentary remains of the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Pierre d'Orbais in northwest Champagne preserves a particular iteration of Gothic style and technological achievement as well as the built environment of a community deeply embedded in the world around them. Through their architecture successive generations of monks of Orbais whose institutional life stretched from the end of the seventh century to end of the eighteenth century were constantly seeking to clarify their position in the changing physical and social landscapes they inhabited. Although connected by a shared site the architectural evidence from Orbais preserves remnants from several episodes of use and reuse. The site is treated thematically starting with the boundaries that define the site then the resources that shaped monastic life in this particular location followed by the monastic landscapes that shaped the community as an institution. These categories reflect both the nature of our evidence for the contexts of building construction and the types of landscapes that were most active for the monastic community at Orbais over the long life of the site. The final chapter resituates the architectural history of the monastic church in light of these interrelated landscapes contextualizing existing scholarship that treats it as a specifically Gothic monument and providing lines of connection to medieval built environments more broadly.

When Saint Dominic (c. 1174-1221) came to Rome to seek papal approval of the Order of Preachers he founded two houses on the periphery of the city - a nunnery at S. Sisto in structures rebuilt by Pope Innocent III and a priory next to the early Christian basilica of S. Sabina. The Dominicans modified and enlarged the existing buildings according to their needs. Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226) also came to consult the Pope but he did not make any foundations in Rome. In 1229 Pope Gregory IX ordered the Benedictine monks of SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea to cede to the Franciscans their hospice of S. Biagio in Trastevere where Saint Francis had stayed. The friars built the church and friary of S. Francesco a Ripa there. Later Gregory IX took over the Benedictine monastery itself where he established the Franciscan nunnery of S. Cosimato in 1234. Moving into the more densely inhabited parts of the city the Friars Minor built a new friary and church at S. Maria in Aracoeli on the Capitoline Hill from c. 1248-1252 onwards. The Dominicans in 1266 acquired a convent near the Pantheon where they constructed the Gothic church of S. Maria sopra Minerva. In 1285 the Colonna family established a Franciscan nunnery at S. Silvestro in Capite. In the context of the origin and evolution of the two Mendicant Orders this book traces the history of these thirteenth-century Dominican and Franciscan foundations focussing on their location in Rome the history of each site their architecture and the medieval works of art connected with them. Popes and cardinals members of important families and Franciscan Tertiaries contributed generously to their construction and decoration. The book ends with Saint Catherine of Siena who lived near S. Maria sopra Minerva where she was buried.

Founded in 1132 Fountains Abbey became the wealthiest English Cistercian monastery - yet relatively little analysis has been made of its surviving records to investigate how its wealth was controlled and sustained. This book deals with this secular aspect of the religious community at Fountains investigating in particular the way in which prosaic business records were compiled and redacted. It traces the transmission of data from original charters through successive versions of cartularies and in the process establishes the existence of a previously unknown manuscript. It also reveals how abbots in the fifteenth century interacted with and adapted the records in their care.

In this process two quite different aspects of monastic life are uncovered. First it sheds new light on the history of Fountains Abbey through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries amongst other things how it responded to the turmoil of the Black Death and discloses for the first time the allegiance of one abbot to the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses. Second it reveals the worldly skills shown by the community of Fountains that were successfully applied to exploit the monastery’s large landholdings across Yorkshire mainly through wool and agricultural production but also through fisheries tanning mining and metalworking. The economic success of these activities enabled the abbey to become a prosperous institution which rivalled the wealth of the aristocracy.

Monasticism became part of European culture from the early period of Christianity and developed into a powerful institution that had a profound effect on the greater Church on wider society and on the landscape. Monastic communities were as diverse as the societies in which they lived following a variety of rules building monasteries influenced by common ideals and yet diverse in their regionalism while also contributing to the economic and spiritual well-being inside and outside their precincts.

This interdisciplinary volume presents the diversity of medieval European monasticism with a particular emphasis on its impact on the immediate environs. Geographically it extends from the far west in Ireland Scotland and Wales to the east in Romania and the Balkans through the north of Scandinavia to the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Drawing on archaeological art and architectural textual and topographical evidence the contributors explore how monastic communities were formed how they created a landscape of monasticism how they wove their identities with those around them and how they interacted with all levels of society to leave a lasting imprint on European towns and rural landscapes.

There has long been a tendency among monastic historians to ignore or marginalize female participation in monastic life but recent scholarship has begun to redress the balance and the great contributions made by women to the religious life of the Middle Ages are now attracting increasing attention. This interdisciplinary volume draws together scholars from Spain Italy France the Low Countries Germany Transylvania Scandinavia and the British Isles and offers new insights into the history art history and material culture and the religiosity and culture of medieval religious women.

The different chapters within this book take a comparative approach to the emergence and spread of female monastic communities across different geographical political and economic settings comparing and contrasting houses that ranged from rich powerful royal abbeys to small subsistence priories on the margins of society and exploring the artistic achievements the interaction with neighbours and secular and ecclesiastical authorities and the spiritual lives that were led by their inhabitants. The contributors to this volume address issues as diverse as patronage and relationships with the outside world organizational structures the nature of Cistercian observance and identity among female houses and the role of male authority and in doing so they seek to shed light on the divergences and commonalities upon which the female religious life was based.