This Companion to the Abbey of Le Bec in the Central Middle Ages (11th–13th Centuries) offers the first major collection of studies dedicated to the medieval abbey of Le Bec, one of the most important, and perhaps the single most influential, monastery in the Anglo-Norman world. Following its foundation in 1034 by a knight-turned-hermit called Herluin, Le Bec soon developed into a religious, cultural and intellectual hub whose influence extended throughout Normandy and beyond. The fourteen chapters gathered in this Companion are written by internationally renowned experts of Anglo-Norman studies, and together they address the history of this important medieval institution in its many exciting facets. The broad range of scholarly perspectives combined in this volume includes historical and religious studies, prosopography and biography, palaeography and codicology, studies of space and identity, as well as theology and medicine. Contributors are Richard Allen, Elma Brenner, Laura Cleaver, Jean-Hervé Foulon, Giles E.M. Gasper, Laura L. Gathagan, Véronique Gazeau, Leonie V. Hicks, Elizabeth Kuhl, Benjamin Pohl, Julie Potter, Elisabeth van Houts, Steven Vanderputten, Sally N. Vaughn, and Jenny Weston.

"Founded in 910 by Duke William of Aquitaine, the abbey of Cluny rose to prominence in the eleventh century as the most influential and opulent center for monastic devotion in medieval Europe. While the twelfth century brought challenges, both internal and external, the Cluniacs showed remarkable adaptability in the changing religious climate of the high Middle Ages. Written by international experts representing a range of academic disciplines, the contributions to this volume examine the rich textual and material sources for Cluny's history, offering not only a thorough introduction to the distinctive character of Cluniac monasticism in the Middle Ages, but also the lineaments of a detailed research agenda for the next generation of historians. Contributors are: Isabelle Rosé, Steven Vanderputten, Marc Saurette, Denyse Riche, Susan Boynton, Anne Baud, Sébastien Barret, Robert Berkhofer III, Isabelle Cochelin, Michael Hänchen, Gert Melville, Eliana Magnani, Constance Bouchard, Benjamin Pohl, and Scott G. Bruce"--

This book argues that abbatial authority was fundamental to monastic historical writing in the period c.500-1500. Writing history was a collaborative enterprise integral to the life and identity of medieval monastic communities, but it was not an activity for which time and resources were set aside routinely. Each act of historiographical production constituted an extraordinary event, one for which singular provision had to be made, workers and materials assigned, time carved out from the monastic routine, and licence granted. This allocation of human and material resources was the responsibility and prerogative of the monastic superior. Drawing on a wide and diverse range of primary evidence gathered from across the medieval Latin West, this book is the first to investigate systematically how and why abbots and abbesses exercised their official authority and resources to lay the foundations on which their communities' historiographical traditions were built by themselves and others. It showcases them as prolific authors, patrons, commissioners, project managers, and facilitators of historical narratives who not only regularly put pen to parchment personally, but also, and perhaps more importantly, enabled others inside and outside their communities by granting them the resources and licence to write. Revealing the intrinsic relationship between abbatial authority and the writing of history in the Middle Ages with unprecedented clarity, Benjamin Pohl urges us to revisit and revise our understanding of monastic historiography, its processes, and its protagonists in ways that require some radical rethinking of the medieval historian's craft in communal and institutional contexts.

This volume combines the results of recent excavations at Le Bec with fresh studies of documentary sources, breaking new ground in research on the organization of the monastic site and the cultural life of the community. By examining the abbey's prosperity in terms of its relations with its priories and its dealings with the powerful, especially its noble benefactors and the rulers of Normandy, this volume thus explains the unique importance of the abbey in the history of not only medieval Normandy, but also the Anglo-Norman world more broadly. Contributors are: Pierre Bauduin, Michaël Bloche, Grégory Combalbert, Fabrice Delivré, Gilles Deshayes, Jean-Hervé Foulon, Véronique Gazeau, Lindy Grant, Judith A. Green, Fabien Paquet, and Julie Potter.

This Cambridge Companion offers readers a comparative cultural history of north-western Europe in the crucial period of the eleventh century: the age of William the Conqueror. Besides England, Normandy, and northern France, the volume also explores Scandinavia, the North Sea world, the insular world beyond the English Channel, and various parts of Continental Europe. This Companion features essays designed specifically for those wishing to advance their knowledge and understanding of this important period of European history using a holistic and contextual perspective, deliberately shifting the focus away from William the man and onto the rich and fascinating culture of the world in which he lived and ruled. This was not the age created by William, but the age that created him. With contributions by leading international experts, this volume provides an inclusive and innovative study companion that is both authoritative and timely.

This volume provides a record of the response, by eight expert scholars in the field of medieval monastic studies, to the question "To what extent did abbots and abbesses contribute as a `human resource' to the development of reformed monastic communities in the ninth- to twelfth-century west?" Covering a broad geographical area, papers consider one or several of three key points of interest: the direct contribution of abbots and abbesses to the shaping of reformed realities; their influence over future modes of leadership; and the way in which later generations of monastics relied upon the memory of a leader's life and achievements to project current realities onto a legitimizing past.

This collection of studies investigates how people of the 10th to early 12th century experienced and represented processes of intentional change in the Church, and what the consequences are of modern scholars’ reliance on ‘reform’ to describe and interpret these processes. In 11 thematic chapters it takes stock of the current state of research and offers suggestions to deepen our understanding of the ideological, institutional, and cultural dynamics at play. Contributors are Julia Barrow, Robert F. Berkhofer III, Gordon Blennemann, Katy Cubitt, Nicolangelo D'Acunto, Anne-Marie Helvétius, Ludger Körntgen, Rutger Kramer, Brigitte Meijns, Diane Reilly, Rachel Stone, and Steven Vanderputten.

This Element contributes to the burgeoning field of medieval publishing studies with a case study of the books produced at the Benedictine monastery of Engelberg under its celebrated twelfth-century abbot, Frowin (1143–78). Frowin was the first abbot of Engelberg whose book provision policy relied on domestic production serviced by an internal scribal workforce, and his tenure marked the first major expansion of the community's library. This Element's in-depth discussion of nearly forty colophons inscribed in the books made for this library during Frowin's transformative abbacy offers a fresh perspective on monastic publishing practice in the twelfth century by directing our view to a mode of publication that has received only limited attention in scholarship to date.

Medievalists have long taught that highly emotional Christian devotion, often called ‘affective piety’, appeared in Europe after the twelfth century and was primarily practiced by communities of mendicants, lay people and women. Emotional monasticism challenges this view. The first study of affective piety in an eleventh-century monastic context, it traces the early history of affective devotion through the life and works of the earliest known writer of emotional prayers, John of Fécamp, abbot of the Norman monastery of Fécamp from 1028–78. Exposing the early medieval monastic roots of later medieval affective piety, the book casts a new light on the devotional life of monks in Europe before the twelfth century and redefines how medievalists should teach the history of Christianity.

The Deeds of the abbots of St Albans records the history of one of the most important abbeys in England, closely linked to the royal family and home to a school of distinguished chroniclers, including Matthew Paris and Thomas Walsingham. It offers many insights into the life of the monastery, its buildings and its role as a maker of books, and covers the period from the Conquest to the mid-fifteenth century. The Deeds of the abbots of St Albans is the longest continuous chronicle of a medieval monastery in England, following its fortunes from its first foundation in the wake of the first Viking raids to its status as a proud and prosperous pillar of the church establishment more than six centuries later. More than merely a common, conventual annal, the Deeds drew contributions from the most accomplished chroniclers of the St Albans school including Matthew Paris, Thomas Walsingham and perhaps William Rishanger. It is a history of one of the most important abbeys, under royal patronage and always at the apex of the church hierarchy; it also offers a glimpse of life inside the monastic community from the Conquest to within a century of the Dissolution. There are detailed descriptions of the building, and rebuilding, of the abbey church, and recounts the abbey's commitment to the making of books, from thefirst flowering of the scriptorium in the twelfth century - when a famous psalter was made for the anchorite Christina of Markyate - to its Indian summer in the years before 1400 under Thomas Walsingham himself. There are rare snapshots of the daily routine of the monks, their liturgical observances, their interactions with their staff, tenants, townspeople and guests. And it captures the colour and character of the celebrated figures seen at the abbey, from King John to Edward the Black Prince.