medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The site for the Cistercian monastery at Dunbrody, Co. Wexford in
South East Ireland was inspected by Alan, a laybrother from Buildwas
abbey in Shropshire, England, sometime between 1171 and 1175. His
negative report resulted in Buildwas deciding not to establish the
foundation. Despite this, a monastery was later established there by
monks from St Mary's abbey in Dublin and Dunbrody developed into one
of the more prosperous medieval Irish houses.
Roger Stalley in The Cistercian monasteries of Ireland (Yale, 1987)
states that in 1194 the Cistercian general chapter decided that two
abbots should be sent to inspect new sites in future but doesn't give
a reference for this. I presume a glance at either the Waddell or
Canivez editions of the Cistercian statutes would confirm this.
Two other (excellent) recent books might be relevant:
James France, Separate but Equal: Cistercian Lay Brothers, 1120-1350
(Collegeville, 2012) has a section 'Monks and laybrothers as builders,
pp 48-56.
Emilia Jamroziak, The Cistercian Order in Medieval Europe 1090-1500
(Routledge, London & New York, 2013) is particularly valuable, both
for its new perspectives and for the number of insights derived from
Central European scholarship. She also makes very good use of material
published in the scholarly journals produced by the monastic orders
themselves, which tend to get overlooked because of their relative
inaccessibility.
Hope that this helps,
Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB
Glenstal Abbey,
Murroe,
Co. Limerick,
Ireland
On 25 March 2014 08:32, Madeleine Gray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> A student of mine is working on the practicalities of site choice and
> design. Somewhere he has found a reference to a landscape engineer
> accompanying the foundation group of monks to establish the site, but we
> can't now track that down - has anyone else come across this? We are
> particularly interested in the water management aspect of so many locations:
> David Austin's work at Strata Florida has identified a huge water management
> landscape with symbolic aspects, and my student has identified something
> similar at Strata Florida's daughter house at Llantarnam, so we wonder
> whether the potential for this may have influenced choice of site.
>
> We are also struggling with references to conversi in charge of the group
> inspecting potential sites but I'm aware that people of high social status
> did become conversi so that may explain it.
>
> Best wishes
> Maddy
>
> Dr Madeleine Gray PhD, FRHistS, FSA
> Reader in Church History/ Darllenydd mewn Hanes yr Eglwys
> School of Humanities and Social Sciences /Ysgol Ddyniaethau a Gwyddoniaethau
> Cymdeithasol
> University of South Wales/Prifysgol De Cymru
> Caerleon Campus/Campws Caerllion,
> Newport/Casnewydd NP18 3QT Tel: +44 (0)1633.432675
> http://www.southwales.ac.uk
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>
> 'History repeats itself. The first time as tragedy, the second time as a
> three-part BBC series.' (Andrew Anthony)
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