In the course of doing some reading and thinking about lectio divina
as practiced in pre-1200 English monasteries, I began to wonder about
WHERE monks read when that time was alloted to them. I assumed in some
form of library, but my reading of the Regularis Concordia and
Lanfranc's Statutes now leads me more to the cloister, or perhaps to
church itself. I have seen references to "checking" books out to monks
(on an annual basis). Also, there appears to be a close relationship
between reading and private prayer, with the Regularis Concordia making
a distinction between juniors and seniors in this regard (juniors engage
in lectio, seniors in prayer, presumably based on some kind of learning
curve wherein juniors need to focus on a written text to learn while
seniors have the base texts memorized and so can reflect internally
without external stimuli).
My query: is it possible that the more elaborate display texts (I
am working on the Eadwine Psalter) were placed in side chapels or
altars, and that meditative monks would repair to these areas not only
to engage in prayer (meditating on the psalms as the Rule suggests) but
also to peruse such a text for study as a focus for their meditation? I
have yet to find any architectural descriptions (in this case of Christ
Church Canterbury) that indicate a book stand or the like.
I wonder because a text like Eadwine is not marked for liturgical
use, but it is far too expensive to have been checked out to monks (it
is entirely possible it was used only by certain elites, but I don't
want to assume that yet). I am also interested in looking at earlier
glossed texts (bilingual psalters in particular) to see how they might
have been used, and where, especially those that seemed to be designed
for more advanced readers than just students in the initial stages of
learning Latin and the psalter.
I am admittedly still in the reading stage and so may have just not
come across any obvious answers to this query. I am also using this
forum to think aloud as I read. Any thoughts?
Karen Jolly
--
Dr. Karen Jolly
Associate Professor, History
University of Hawai`i at Manoa
[log in to unmask]
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly
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