The destruction and recovery of Monte Cassino, 529-1964 / Kriston R. Rennie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rennie, Kriston R., author.

Series:

Italy in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

Italy in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Monasticism and religious orders--Italy--Cassino Region--History.

Monasticism and religious orders.

Montecassino (Monastery)--History.

Montecassino (Monastery).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (246 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2021.

Summary:

Between the sixth and twentieth centuries, the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino (est. 529) experienced a cycle of atrocities which forever transformed its identity. This book examines how such a tumultuous history has been constructed, remembered, and represented from the Middle Ages to the present day. It uses this singular and pivotal case to analyse the historical process of remembering and its impact on modern representations of the past. Exactly how Monte Cassino is remembered is distinctive and diagnostic. The abbey is recognizable today as a beacon of western civilization, culture, and learning precisely because of its 'destruction tradition' over fourteen centuries. This book asks how the abbey's fragmented past has been ideologically, politically, and culturally constituted and preserved; how its experience with destruction and suffering - and recovery and rebirth - has become incorporated into a modern narrative of progress and triumph.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Prologue: The Oak Tree

Part I Animus and Anchor

1. An Enigma: The Legend of Saint Benedict

2. The ‘Citadel of Campania’: Growth and Prosperity

Part II Rise and Fall

3. A Destiny Repeated: Episodes of Destruction

4. Floreat Semper: Rebuilding, Stone by Stone

Part III Preservation and Valorisation

5. The People’s Patrimony: Defining Historical Value

6. A New Europe: Erasing the Destruction

Epilogue: Lighthouse

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 28 May 2021).

ISBN:

9789048552122

OCLC:

1246553836