Medieval Church Studies
MCS 14
Studies in Carthusian Monasticism in the Late Middle AgesJ. Luxford (ed.)
XVI+367 p., 45 b/w ill., 1 b/w tables, 160 x 240 mm, 2009, Hardback
ISBN 978-2-503-51699-8, EUR 70.00
Available
English Text:
This volume focuses on aspects of Carthusian history and culture of the later Middle Ages, a period of growth and vitality within the order. There is a primary but not exclusive focus on the English Province, which to date has received at best unbalanced attention. While the fundamental ambitions and ideals of Carthusianism formulated, articulated, and lived by the disciples of St Bruno between the late eleventh and the thirteenth centuries changed very little, the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries witnessed developments stimulated by and often commensurate with the progress of external culture. In such areas as devotional practice, literature, art and architecture, patronage, and monastic-lay relations generally, the houses of the order grew increasingly sophisticated: in some cultural spheres Carthusians were in the vanguard. The late Middle Ages thus offer rich opportunities for assessment of how a religious organization defined and justified by essentially reactionary conventions responded to constant forinsec evolution.
The volume’s approach is multi-disciplinary, involving both senior and younger Carthusian scholars in investigation of the main facets of Carthusian life for which significant data survives. This permits a thorough analysis of the order’s character, one that reflects concern with synoptic understanding of medieval Carthusianism rather than partial assessment through a specifically devotional, literary, or more narrowly historical approach. Subject areas covered include the historical growth of individual Charterhouses, patronage of Carthusians by secular agents, Carthusian architecture and manuscript decoration, devotional practice, and textual culture.
Main Subject:
* 25 - Religion & Theology / Christian Church : religious orders
Other Subject:
* 814 - Medieval & Renaissance History (c.400-1500) / Medieval European history (400-1500) : main subdisciplines / Religious history
* 841 - Medieval & Renaissance History (c.400-1500) / Medieval European history (400-1500) : local & regional history / British Isles
Prices in Euro, excluding taxes and shipping costs.
Distribution Code: M, DBBC
Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts
MWTC 10
Virgins and Scholars
A Fifteenth-Century Compilation of the Lives of John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Jerome, and Katherine of AlexandriaC. Waters (ed.)
XII+494 p., 2 colour ill., 160 x 240 mm, 2008, Hardback
ISBN 978-2-503-51452-9, EUR 90.00
Available
English Text:
This collection of prose vitae of four virgins and scholars - Saints John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Jerome, and Katherine of Alexandria - was almost certainly copied, and the texts very likely composed, at Syon Abbey or Sheen Charterhouse in the mid-fifteenth century. The lives cover a wide range of hagiographic modes, from hagiographic romance to affective, devotional appreciation to doctrinal treatise in narrative form. From the life of Jerome, composed by a monk for his aristocratic spiritual daughter, to the life of Katherine, reputedly translated for Henry V, to those of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, which set their subjects in a recognizably Birgittine context, they show the interaction of men and women, lay and monastic, in the production of devotional literature. The diversity of their approaches and sources, moreover, shows the links between English dynastic politics and continental religious literature and spiritual traditions. As examples of translation practices, of monastic politics, and of religious instruction, these lives provide a window onto the devotional culture and literary worlds of fifteenth-century Europe.
Main Subject:
* 234 - Religion & Theology / Christian devotion & forms of religious expression / Hagiographical writings & the cult of saints
Other Subject:
* 254 - Religion & Theology / Christian Church : religious orders / Women's orders (nunneries, beguinages etc.)
* 841 - Medieval & Renaissance History (c.400-1500) / Medieval European history (400-1500) : local & regional history / British Isles
* 484 - Medieval & Modern (Indo-European) Languages & Literatures / Comparative & cultural studies through literature / Translation & vernacularity
* 464 - Medieval & Modern (Indo-European) Languages & Literatures / English language & literature / Middle English language & literature
Prices in Euro, excluding taxes and shipping costs.
Distribution Code: M, DBBC
