M. Cassidy-Welch
Monastic Spaces and their Meanings
Thirteenth-century English Cistercian Monasteries
XVI+296 p., 160 x 240 mm, 2001
ISBN: 978-2-503-51089-7
Languages: English
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The author focuses on the Cistersian
abbeys of northern England during the period 1132-1400, and supplies a
microhistory of cultural, textual, personnel and architectural
comparisons.
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 ideals of enclosure
articulated in the Regula S. Benedicti. However, Cistercian
representations of space also express ideas of transcendence and
freedom. This monograph focuses on the abbeys of northern England
during the period 1132-1400 (Fountains, Rievaulx, Jervaulx, Meaux,
Sawley, Roche, Byland and Kirkstall) to facilitate a microhistory of
cultural, textual, personnel and architectural comparisons.
Post-twelfth century Cistercian history has been understudied, in
comparison with research into the euphoria of the order's
foundation, and has tended to focus on 'ideals' versus
'reality', whereas this study considers Cistercian houses in
terms of contingency, singularity and specificity. The author engages
with the work of theorists such as Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and
Henri Lefebvre, all of whom have explored the cultural production of
space and the meanings attributed to certain spaces by abstract
reference, performative practice and institutional direction. 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. Patrick Geary (UCLA) commends
this study as being 'based on a wide reading of Cistercian texts
and blends solid text-critical historical scholarship with more
conceptual approaches in a most convincing way'. [Dr Cassidy-Welch
is a fellow of the History Dept. at the University of
Melbourne.]
Review
"This book breaks exciting new ground in monastic scholarship
and will be of interest to scholars of medieval religion in a
variety of fields." (N.B. Warren in Parergon 20.1, 2003,
p.205)
"This is a most stimulating, thought-provoking interpretation
that will be required reading for all historians of medieval
monasticism." (B. Golding in The American Historical
Review, october 2003, p. 1205)
"By taking a different line of approach with strong emphasis
upon local contemporary literature, she has given fresh insights
into monastic life, its thought and its meaning." (L. Butler in
Review in Yorkshire Archaeological Society, vol. 15, 2003,
p. 225)
"This study is al welcome addition to the literature on
Cistercian monastic culture, and successfully blends textual and
material sources." (J. Burton in English Historical
Review, CXVIII. 475, february 2003, p. 138)
"It should prove a stimulating enterprise that architectural
theorists will read with profit." (N. Wu in CAA Reviews,
April 2003)
"This is an important book for any study of the Cistercian Order
in its early centuries. The twenty-seven-page Bibliography is a
rich reference library in itself." (J. Holman in Cistercian
Studies Quarterly, vol. 39.2, 2004, p.215-217)
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