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"Throughout Europe, some of the most arresting sites are Cistercian monasteries, where even the most jaded travelers are bewitched by their breathtaking beauty and simplicity. This stunningly photographed architectural study is the most complete visual record available. The feeling of serenity this architecture evokes pervades every cloister, refectory and chapter house with an almost magical sense of harmony." "Stephen Tobin gives a detailed and insightful account of the founding and development of the Cistercian Order, which swept across Europe in the twelfth century. His discussion of architectural practice and the precepts of design behind these enduring monasteries is invaluable; maps covering all of Europe, instructive tables and over too magnificent photographs detail all the male abbeys founded during the Middle Ages, highlighting their style and accessibility. An appendix provides useful information on those converted into hotels, guest houses or restaurants."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius declared firmitas, utilitas, and venustas-firmness, commodity, and delight- to be the three essential attributes of architecture. These qualities are brilliantly explored in this book, which uniquely comprises both a detailed survey of Western architecture, including Pre-Columbian America, and an introduction to architecture from the Middle East, India, Russia, China, and Japan. The text encourages readers to examine closely the pragmatic, innovative, and aesthetic attributes of buildings, and to imagine how these would have been praised or criticized by contemporary observers. Artistic, economic, environmental, political, social, and technological contexts are discussed so as to determine the extent to which buildings met the needs of clients, society at large, and future generations.
"This little book is inteded as a study of certain aspects of the Cistercian Order in the first century of its history in Engliand. Although the book's central theme is a constitutional problem, in a broader sense it is concerned with the economic and political influences which shaped the spiritual bases of a monastic institute." [Preface].
Presents the Order's figureheads, practical life and spiritual horizon, and its contribution to medieval Europe's religious, cultural and political climate.
This volume presents the composite character of the Cistercian Order in its unity and diversity, detailing the white monks' history from the Middle Ages to the present day. It charts the geographical spread of the Order from Burgundy to the peripheries of medieval Europe, examining key topics such as convents, liturgy, art, agriculture, spiritual life and education, providing an insight into Bernard of Clairvaux's life, work and sense of self, as well as the lives of other key Cistercian figures. This Companion offers an accessible synthesis of contemporary scholarship on the Order's interaction with the extramural world and its participation in, and contribution to, the cultural, economical and political climate of medieval Europe and beyond. The discussion contributes to the history of religious orders, and will be useful to those studying the twelfth-century renaissance, the apostolic movement and the role of religious life in medieval society.
Thanks to their spirituality, asceticism, technical skills, and craftsmanship, the Cistercians became one of the most influential monastic orders of the high Middle Ages. Nine centuries ago, when the dynamic energy of the Benedictine order was threatening to ossify into mere grandeur and formalism, the Cistercians returned to the original "holy rules" of Benedict of Nursia and working with their hands. The stone witnesses of this era include majestic monastic buildings. With their austere dignity and sublime absence of decoration, Cistercian ecclesiastical buildings came to stand for awe-inspiring spiritual clarity and purity. This book presents masterpieces of Cistercian architecture in France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. A selection of original texts, pictures, and chronological tables offers information on the artistic and cultural-historical characteristics of the individual monasteries and their inhabitants.
This publication is primarily a study of the various aspects of the use and situation of the land held by the Cistercian order in medieval Leinster. A number of key topics form the central elements of this study. These include an examination of the physical landscape into which the Cistercian order settled and the changes that occurred within that landscape during the later medieval era. The book examines whether the location of the monasteries indicated any underlying nuances or if the monks were happy to settle wherever they were given land. The involvement of the Cistercian order in the agricultural and economic life of Leinster is also examined. A breakdown of the acreage and land type t...
The Cistercian Order in Medieval Europe offers an accessible and engaging history of the Order from its beginnings in the twelfth century through to the early sixteenth century. Unlike most other existing volumes on this subject it gives a nuanced analysis of the late medieval Cistercian experience as well as the early years of the Order. Jamroziak argues that the story of the Cistercian Order in the Middle Ages was not one of a ‘Golden Age’ followed by decline, nor was the true ‘Cistercian spirit’ exclusively embedded in the early texts to remain unchanged for centuries. Instead she shows how the Order functioned and changed over time as an international organisation, held together ...
The Cistercians (White Monks) were the most successful monastic experiment to emerge from the tumultuous intellectual and religious fervour of the 11th and 12th centuries. This book seeks to explore the phenomenon that was the Cistercian Order.
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