Monastic spaces and their meanings : thirteenth-century English Cistercian monasteries / by Megan Cassidy-Welch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cassidy-Welch, Megan.

Series:

Medieval church studies ; 1.

Medieval church studies ; 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cistercians--England--History.

Cistercians.

Cistercian architecture--England.

Cistercian architecture.

Cistercian monasteries--England.

Cistercian monasteries.

Space and time.

History.

England.

Physical Description:

xiv, 293 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Turnhout, Belgium : Brepols, [2001]

Summary:

Medieval Cistercians distinguished between material and imagined space, while the landscapes in which they lived were perceived as both physical sites and abstract topographies. Ostensibly, Cistercians lived in intensely regulated and confined physical circumstances in accordance with the Regula S. Benedicti. However, Cistercian representations of space also express ideas of transcendence and freedom. By focusing on the abbeys of northern England during the period 1132-1400 (Fountains, Rievaulx, Jervaulx, Meaux, Sawley, Roche, Byland and Kirkstall) the author supplies a microhistory of cultural, textual, personnel and architectural comparisons. The study is richly illustrated with 45 images of the landscape and space of these houses and enables the reader to see how one monastic order positioned itself in relation to geography, architecture, institution, community and cosmos, and dealt with the dialectic between regulation and imagination, freedom and enclosure.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [255]-281) and index.

ISBN:

2503510892

OCLC:

49331971