Manuscripts and Monastic Culture: Reform and Renewal in Twelfth-Century Germany

Description

Each of the studies in this volume draws upon a manuscript, or a group of manuscripts, that shed light on the practice of monastic life during this period of reform. Many, but not all, of the papers focus on the monastery of Admont in central Austria. Admont was one of the most important spiritual, cultural, and intellectual centres in the high Middle Ages, and its magnificent library still houses an extensive collection of manuscripts - a rich resource both for the history of the monastery and for the broader history of medieval religious life. The book brings together the work of an international group of scholars whose work touches on various aspects of twelfth-century Admont, and the broader movement for reform and renewal in Germany and Austria. With the publication of Charles Homer Haskin’s important work, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (1933), came a new way of looking at the civilization of the high Middle Ages. Scholars have since investigated many aspects of this revival: the rise of the universities, the development of canon law, the emergence (or re-emergence) of a heightened sense of human individuality, and the revival of religious fervour that has been labelled a reformation before the Reformation. Much of this scholarly work has focused on northern-central Italy, France, and England. Germany, however, has been little studied in this context, in part because the nature and trajectory of the reform there differed from that seen elsewhere in Europe. The essays in the book both explore connections between Germanic lands and the wider western European context, and consider the unique spiritual and intellectual climate of Germany’s monasteries. Front matter (“Contents”, “Preface”, “List of Abbreviations”, “List of Illustrations”), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. 1 Nigel F. Palmer https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3542 The Place of Germany in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, p. 19 Rodney Thomson https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3543 Art, Exegesis, and Affective Piety in Twelfth-Century German Manuscripts, p. 45 Adam S. Cohen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3544 Speaking of Spiritual Matters: Visions and the Rhetoric of Reform in the Liber visionum of Otloh of St Emmeram, p. 69 Ellen Joyce https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3545 Illustrations in the Manuscripts of the Admont Nuns from the Second Half of the Twelfth Century: Reflections on Their Function, p. 99 Stefanie Seeberg https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3546 The Multiform Grace of the Holy Spirit: Salvation History and the Book of Ruth at Twelfth-Century Admont, p. 125 Alison I. Beach https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3547 Women’s Reading and Monastic Reform in Twelfth-Century Germany: The Library of the Nuns of Lippoldsberg, p. 139 Julie Hotchin https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3548 Christ’s Educated Brides: Literacy, Spirituality, and Gender in Twelfth-Century Admont, p. 191 Christina Lutter https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3549 Scholastic Theology in a Monastic Milieu in the Twelfth Century: The Case of Admont, p. 217 Constant J. Mews https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3550 Diligens scrutator sacri eloquii: An Introduction to Scriptural Exegesis by Hugh of St Victor Preserved at Admont Library (MS 672), p. 241 Ralf M. W. Stammberger https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3551 Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermones Super Cantica Canticorum in Twelfth-Century Austria, p. 285 Lisa Fagin Davis https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MCS-EB.3.3552 Back matter (“Bibliography”, “Index”, “List of Contributors”), p. 311