A study of life inside medieval monasteries that explores monastic spirituality, daily routines, contact with the outside world, and the historical impact of these foundational institutions on the Western world.
How did the Western monastic tradition begin? What was monastic life typically like for a monk or nun? How was the institution of the monastery formative to Western culture from antiquity through the Middle Ages? This book covers the entire span of monastic history in the late-ancient and medieval periods and provides an in-depth look at several monasteries across Europe. Each chapter introduces the reader to the surviving evidence for the houses studied, such as its monastic rules, plans, records of visitation, chronicles, and biographical accounts; and aims to give an "insider" view―not only of monks' and nuns' daily activities, but what these dedicated individuals' values, ambitions, and aspirations might have been.
 • Surveys the history of the monastery, describing its origins, purpose, geographic spread, and impact on the larger society
 • Provides a glimpse of the rich and often idiosyncratic evidence that survives for medieval monasteries
 • Emphasizes the pervasiveness of monasticism in medieval Europe, the versatility of the monastic tradition, and its remarkable survival
 • Brings to life the interior experience of a typical monk or nun, allowing readers to understand what draws some individuals to the monastic life

Daily Life in a Medieval Monastery (The Greenwood Press Daily Life Through History Series)

History

Olson, Sherri

Europe

Greenwood

A Chronicle of all that Happens: Voices from the Village Court in Medieval England (Studies and Texts)

Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies

Mainstream historiography has traditionally found the roots of peasant action, and much of the meaning of that action, in legal status difference between lords and peasants, and among peasants themselves. In the last several decades, this older class conflict model has lost some ground to an interpretation of status that still emphasizes difference but focuses on questions of gender, sexuality, and 'alterity.' Other students of medieval rural society have shifted interest away from questions of status, and focused instead on peasant economic influence and self-determination. Such evolving models of peasants' economic and political agency have not only extended our understanding of the complexity of rural life, they have made the issue of villager identity as significant a research objective as the identity of members of the elite, merchants, city-dwellers, and saints. The goal of this study is to gain a more balanced view of medieval society by considering how peasants thought about themselves and their world as revealed in English manorial court rolls and other records of estate administration.

A Mute Gospel: The People and Culture of the Medieval English Common Fields (Studies and Texts)

PIMS

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Books by Olson, Sherri