A woman teaching geometry, from a 14th century illustration attributed to Abelard of Bath
In this 14th century illustration from a copy of Euclid’s Elements, a woman is shown holding a compass and square, teaching geometry to a group of monks.
Source: womenshistory.about.com
History recounts that a Cistercian monk who travelled with Hernan Cortes to Mexico, Brother Jeronimo of Aguilar, sent the first cocoa beans ever seen in Europe to the Abbot at Monasterio de Piedra, Antonio de Alvaro, together with a recipe for chocolate.
The monks at this monastery were therefore the first people in Europe to taste this delicacy, explaining the long tradition of chocolate-making in the Cistercian order. Some monasteries even have a small room over the cloisters known as the chocolate room, where chocolate was made and tasted.
Source: danielmitsui.com
Carved by Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le Moiturier between 1443 and 1456/57, the unique devotional figures, known as “mourners,” were commissioned for the elaborate tomb of the second duke of Burgundy. Crafted with astonishing detail, the alabaster sculptures exemplify some of the most important artistic innovations of the late Middle Ages.
Source: medievalarchives.com
O noble Peter, Cyprus’ lord and king,
Which Alexander won by mastery,
To many a heathen ruin did’st thou bring;
For this thy lords had so much jealousy,
That, for no crime save thy high chivalry,
All in thy bed they slew thee on a morrow.
And thus does Fortune’s wheel turn treacherously
And out of happiness bring men to sorrow.
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Monk’s Tale
Geoffrey Chaucer used the concept of the tragic Wheel of Fortune a great deal. It forms the basis for the Monk’s Tale, which recounts stories of the great brought low throughout history, including Lucifer, Adam, Samson, Hercules, Nebuchadnezzar, Balthasar, Nero, Alexander the Great,Julius Caesar and, in this passage, Peter I of Cyprus.
Specially marked by cunning, despising their own inheritance in the hope of winning a greater, eager after both gain and dominion, given to imitation of all kinds, holding a certain mean between lavishness and greediness, that is, perhaps uniting, as they certainly did, these two seemingly opposite qualities. Their chief men were specially lavish through their desire of good report.
They were, moreover, a race skillful in flattery, given to the study of eloquence, so that the very boys were orators, a race altogether unbridled unless held firmly down by the yoke of justice. They were enduring of toil, hunger, and cold whenever fortune laid it on them, given to hunting and hawking, delighting in the pleasure of horses, and of all the weapons and garb of war.
Pangur Ban
In the 9th century, an Irish monk living in Reichenau on Lake Constance revealed his humor, learning, and love for his little white cat in a poem he wrote there.
I and Pangur Ban my cat, ‘Tis a like task we are at,
Hunting mice is his delight, Hunting words I sit all night
‘Tis a merry thing to see, At our tasks how glad are we
When at home we sit and find, Entertainment to our mind.
‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye, Full and fierce and sharp and sly,
‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I, All my little wisdom try.
So in peace our task we ply: Pangur Ban my cat and I
In our arts and in our bliss, I have mine and he has his.
Excerpt from: Life in Medieval Times by Marjorie Rowling. New York: The Berkely Publishing Group, 1979.
Theodore the Studite (also known as Theodorus Studita, St. Theodore of Stoudios, and St. Theodore of Studium; 759–826) was a Byzantine Greek monk and abbot of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople. He played a major role in the revivals both of Byzantine monasticism and of classical literary genres in Byzantium. He is known as a zealous opponent of iconoclasm, one of several conflicts that set him at odds with both emperor and patriarch.
image: Ceramic icon of St. Theodor, Preslav, ca. 900 AD, National Archaelogical Museum, Sofia.
Pavel Ryzhenko. The Victory of Peresvet. 2005
Alexander Peresvet, also spelled Peresviet (Russian: Александр Пересвет), was a Russian Orthodox Christian monk who fought in a single combat with the Tatar champion Temir-murza (known in most Russian sources as Chelubey or Cheli-bey) at the opening of the Battle of Kulikovo (8 September 1380), where they killed each other.
The champions killed each other in the first run, though according to a Russian legend, Peresvet did not fall from the saddle, while Temir-murza did.
The Art of the Book in the Middle Ages
Before the invention of mechanical printing, books were handmade objects, treasured as works of art and as symbols of enduring knowledge. Indeed, in the Middle Ages, the book becomes an attribute of God .
Every stage in the creation of a medieval book required intensive labor, sometimes involving the collaboration of entire workshops. Parchment for the pages had to be made from the dried hides of animals, cut to size and sewn into quires; inks had to be mixed, pens prepared, and the pages ruled for lettering. A scribe copied the text from an established edition, and artists might then embellish it with illustrations, decorated initials, and ornament in the margins. The most lavish medieval books were bound in covers set with enamels, jewels, and ivory carvings.
Many bookmakers in the Middle Ages were monks, and monasteries kept libraries filled not only with sacred texts but also with literary, scientific, and philosophical works by Greek and Roman authors. Multivolume Bibles and huge liturgical books were housed and used in churches. Princes and emperors commissioned gospel books with many-colored illustrations and lettering in gold and silver ink. Among the most ambitious were the large books that monastic communities used daily for singing.
Source:The Art of the Book in the Middle Ages | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
image: the Abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa, France
The term “monasticism” (monachos, a solitary person) describes a way of life chosen by religious men or women who retreat from society for the pursuit of spiritual salvation. The earliest form of monasticism appeared in the late third to early fourth century in regions around the eastern Mediterranean. Men and women like Antony (died 356)—whose biography provided a model for future monks—withdrew into the Egyptian desert, depriving themselves of food and water as part of their effort to withstand the devil’s temptations. Along the Nile River, in the shadow of the great pyramids, Pachomius (died 312/13) and others established communal structures for ascetics that offered a daily regimen of work and prayer. Though the earliest monasteries were built to promote isolation, Christian intellectuals sought very early on to bring desert monasticism to the city.
Source:Monasticism in Medieval Christianity | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Portrait of a Carthusian is a painting in oils on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Petrus Christus in 1446.
The work is regarded as a masterpiece of Early Netherlandish painting. To see why visit this page.
The Codex Gigas (English: Giant Book) is the largest extant medieval manuscript in the world. It is also known as the Devil’s Bible because of a large illustration of the devil on the inside and the legend surrounding its creation. It is thought to have been created in the early 13th century in the Benedictine monastery of Podlažice in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic). It contains the Vulgate Bible as well as many historical documents all written in Latin. During the Thirty Years’ War in 1648, the entire collection was stolen by the Swedish army as plunder, and now it is preserved at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm, though it is not normally on display.
According to one version of a legend that is already recorded in the Middle Ages the scribe was a monk who broke his monastic vows and was sentenced to be walled up alive. In order to forbear this harsh penalty he promised to create in one single night a book to glorify the monastery forever, including all human knowledge. Near midnight he became sure that he could not complete this task alone, so he made a special prayer, not addressed to God but to the fallen archangel Lucifer, asking him to help him finish the book in exchange for his soul. The devil completed the manuscript and the monk added the devil’s picture out of gratitude for his aid. In tests to recreate the work, it is estimated to have taken 20 or more years to have written the work.
