Building Community: the medieval monastery

Question 1

The Rule of St Benedict

Benedict of Nursia

c. 530

Answer 1

• Book of Precepts written by St Benedict
• Outlines Benedict’s vision of the ideal monastic community, the monks acting as brothers, the abbot their father
• Life of humility, service, ritual, silence and obedience
• Necessary conditions of living in order to understand relationship between the material and celestial realm

Question 2

What is a monastery?

Answer 2

• a religious institution providing living accommodations and worship space for monks

Question 3

What is the difference between an abbey and a cathedral?

Answer 3

A monastery is governed by an abbot, whilst a cathedral serves as the seat of the bishop

Question 4

What is the cloister? What is its purpose?

Answer 4

In a monastery, the covered walk surrounding a quadrangular court that connects the domestic buildings and the church

An open interior space - still closed off from the wider material world, can be circumambulated

Question 5

What is the refectory?

Answer 5

The monastery’s dining hall

Question 6

What is the chapter house?

Answer 6

An assembly room in a monastery, generally located off the cloister, where the monks and abbot gathered daily for reading a chapter of the Rule by which monastic life was governed

Question 7

Monastery of Cluny III

Burgundy, France

1088 ‐ 1130

Answer 7

• Associated with the Cluniac order
• Massive scale, shows the strength of this social complex
• Enormous transept
• Two towers represent the gates of heaven
• Double aisles, designed to accommodate a vast number of pilgrims in the Church itself
• **Monasteries prospered in Burgundy, able to live autonomously of local bishops, dictated by rule of the Pope

Question 8

Abbey of Fontenay

Burgundy, France

1139‐47

**Cistercian

Answer 8

• Austere in comparison to Cluny III, which was large, elaborate and ad hoc in form and plan
• Square plan, 20 miles from existing settlement
• Image of mathematic order + modularity
• System of groin vaults (intersection barrel vaults) in the cloisters and loggias
• Cloister is completley devoid of decoration
• Low ceilings in cloister - sense of seclusion, being sheltered from exploitation

Question 9

The Certosa

Pavia, Italy

1396

Answer 9

• Combines hermit and community existence
• Able to contemplate and sleep within private cell
• Readings of the order, ritual ceremonies, prayer, eating + work conducted in communal setting
• The ‘great cloister’, surrounded on three sides by the monks houses

Question 10

Time line of Monastic architecture

Answer 10

BENEDICTINE

Plan of St. Gall, Switzerland, c. 817

CLUNIAC

Founding abbot, Berno of Baume (abbot 910-26)
Cluny I, France Majolus (abbot 954-94)
Cluny II, consecrated 981
Odilo (abbot 994-1049)
Hugh of Semur (1049-1109) – Cluny III

CISTERCIAN

Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153) Abbey of Fontenay, Burgundy, France, 1139-47
Le Thoronet, Provence, France, c.1170-1200

CARTHUSIAN

St Bruno (1032-1101)
 The Certosa, Pavia, Italy, 1396-