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The Cistercian Reform and the Art of the Book in Twelfth-Century France

Diane Reilly author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Amsterdam University Press

Published:14th Aug '18

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The Cistercian Reform and the Art of the Book in Twelfth-Century France cover

This book is a study of the programmatic oral performance of the written word and its impact on art and text. Communal singing and reading of the Latin texts that formed the core of Christian ritual and belief consumed many hours of the Benedictine monk's day. These texts-read and sung out loud, memorized, and copied into manuscripts-were often illustrated by the very same monks who participated in the choir liturgy. The meaning of these illustrations sometimes only becomes clear when they are read in the context of the texts these monks heard read. The earliest manuscripts of Cîteaux, copied and illuminated at the same time that the new monastery's liturgy was being reformed, demonstrate the transformation of aural experience to visual and textual legacy.

"Reilly's exemplary interdisciplinary work demonstrates how monastic artists and liturgists made tangible links between what they heard, painted, and read, and it shows how these connections shaped the religious experience of early Cistercian monks."
- Martha G. Newman, The University of Texas at Austin, Speculum, 96/1, January 2021

"This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the spiritual project that animated the early life of Cîteaux, founded in 1098."
- Monica Brînzei, sehepunkte.de, May 2019. Read the full review online

"This volume contributes to our understanding of the liturgical and mental world of the early Cistercian monks and to the oral and aural community associated with early Cîteaux... It is a welcome contribution."
- Constance Hoffman Berman, Mediaevistik 32, 2019

"Diane J. Reilly’s study provides a productive interpretation of familiar material, not by applying new methodologies but rather by insisting on the importance of the liturgy as the context for and within which these manuscripts were made."
- Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Medium Ævum, Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 2, 2019

ISBN: 9789462985940

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

246 pages