The Home of the Monk
An Account of English Monastic Life and Buildings in the Middle Ages

This brief but useful guide explains medieval monasticism for the general reader or visitor to ecclesiastical remains.

David Herbert Somerset Cranage (Author)

9781108013376, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 July 2010

182 pages, 24 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.1 cm, 0.24 kg

First published twice in 1926, and again in 1934 with an updated bibliography, Cranage's The Home of the Monk is a small but useful introduction for the visitor to any English monastic site. Working from surviving architectural and documentary evidence, he examines the buildings section by section, explaining how each part of an abbey was used. He briefly explains the history of the various monastic orders which existed in medieval England, and their differences from one another. He also provides plans of what constituted the typical arrangements likely to be found in Benedictine, Augustinian, Cluniac and Cistercian houses. The book provides a useful starting point for further study of medieval religious houses, and a handy guide for the occasional visitor to such sites.

Preface
1. The cloister
2. The eastern claustral buildings
3. The southern claustral buildings
4. The western claustral buildings
5. The abbot's house
6. The infirmary
7. Outbuildings
8. The church
9. The orders
10. The Dissolution
Plans
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC]