Research Catalog

Title

Western monasticism ante litteram : the space of monastic observance in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages / Hendrik Dey & Elizabeth Fentress, eds.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Dey, Hendrik W., 1976-
• Fentress, Elizabeth.

Description

387 p. : ill., maps; 27 cm.

Summary

• "Space has always played a crucial part in defining the place that monks and nuns occupy in the world. Even during the first centuries of the monastic phenomenon, when the possible varieties of monastic practice were nearly infinite, there was a common thread in the need to differentiate the monk from the rest: whatever else they were supposed to be, monks were beings apart, unique, in some sense separate from the mainstream. The physical contours of monastic topographies, natural and constructed, are thus fundamental to an understanding of how early monks went about defining the parameters of their everyday lives, their modes of religious observance, and their interactions with the larger world around them. The group of eminent historians and archaeologists present at the American Academy in Rome in March, 2007 for the conference 'Western monasticism ante litteram'"--Back cover.
• Space has always played a crucial part in defining the place that monks and nuns occupy in the world. Even during the fi rst centuries of the monastic phenomenon, when the possible varieties of monastic practice were nearly infinite, there was a common thread in the need to differentiate the monk from the rest: whatever else they were supposed to be, monks were beings apart, unique, in some sense separate from the mainstream. The physical contours of monastic topographies, natural and constructed, are thus fundamental to an understanding of how early monks went about defining the parameters of their everyday lives, their modes of religious observance, and their interactions with the larger world around them. The group of eminent historians and archaeologists present at the American Academy in Rome in March, 2007 for the conference 'Western monasticism ante litteram'.

Series Statement

Disciplina Monastica ; 7

Subjects

• Monasticism and religious orders > History > Middle Ages, 600-1500 > Congresses
• Monasticism and religious orders > History > Early church, ca. 30-600 > Congresses
• Monasteries > Europe > History > To 1500 > Congresses

ISBN

• 2503540910 (pbk.)
• 9782503540917 (pbk.)

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries