The best location for a monastery was one that was close to water and wood. Many monastic chroniclers mention this. Orderic Vitalis, born in England near Shrewsbury in 1075 and sent to the Norman ...
In the early Middle Ages, Irish monks transported an important collection of texts to continental Europe. Written during Ireland’s golden age (between the sixth and ninth centuries), the manuscripts ...
Jamie Kreiner (Hist/Mus,’04) thinks a lot about thinking. Her new book, The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction, achieved a rare feat for a scholarly work: The Wall Street ...
In the middle ages, monks, nuns, and friars had it relatively easy. They lived quiet lives within friaries and monastic complexes, reading manuscripts, praying, and tending to gardens in which they ...