Monasteries in the High Middle Ages. Laboratories of Innovation for European Designs of Life and Models of Order
Project lead: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gert Melville
Employees: PD Dr. Jörg Sonntag (department head) and Dr. des. Marcus Handke
During the social and religious changes of the 11th to 13th centuries, medieval monasteries developed a rationality of life-style that had never been achieved before. At that time, models of that social and cultural awakening emerged from which the specific configurations of order of European modernity were formed.
The project, funded by the Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften and with a duration from 1. January 2010 to 31. December 2024 aims to explore these foundations of European culture. The part of the project that will be based at FOVOG as of 1 January 2011 is a department of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig. There is a direct connection with another department of the project part, which (under the direction of Prof. Dr. Bernd Schneidmüller and Prof. Dr. Stefan Weinfurter) is supported by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanitie and located at the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg.
By linking text-oriented basic research and cultural studies perspectives, the project aims to make important sources accessible to the public, analyse them and make them available in editions. The focus will be on texts that make the monasteries' power of social interpretation tangible in a special programmatic way: Admonitions and didactic treatises, monastic or order rules and statutes as well as their commentaries, which determined the legal order of the communities. Such writings were intended to have an inward effect, yet they were also always in relation to the world and had an impact here.
The research of the Dresden department will on the one hand focus on the normative structures of monastic life during the 11th to 13th centuries. The focus will be on the establishment of such structures, which led to the development of new forms of social constitution; on the other hand, the question will be investigated as to how the individual placed himself in relation to the new organisational structures and at the same time formed them again. Thus, it is essentially a matter of redefining the relationship between the individual and the community and the resulting developments towards new ways of life and models of order. This project is complemented by the research of the Heidelberg department, which, while addressing the same questions and tasks, is dedicated to works on the interpretation of the world and those designs which convey configurations of order and constructions of meaning to the world and attempt to bring them to fruition.
Publications
within the project series „Klöster als Innovationslabore“ (Verlag Schnell und Steiner, Regensburg)
Gert Melville, Bernd Schneidmüller und Stefan Weinfurter (Hgg.)
Innovationen durch Deuten und Gestalten. Klöster im Mittelalter zwischen Jenseits und Welt (Klöster als Innovationslabore. Studien und Texte 1), Regensburg 2014.
Online access
Stefan Burkhardt (Hrsg.)
Vita Arnoldi archiepiscopi Moguntinensis. Die Lebensbeschreibung des Mainzer Erzbischofs Arnold von Selenhofen. Edition, Übersetzung und Kommentar (Klöster als Innovationslabore. Studien und Texte 2), Regensburg 2014.
Online access
Harald Sellner
Klöster zwischen Krise und Correctio. Monastische "Reformen" im Hochmittelalterlichen Flandern (Klöster als Innovationslabore. Studien und Texte 3), Regensburg 2016.
Mirko Breitenstein
Vier Arten des Gewissens. Spuren eines Ordnungsschemas vom Mittelalter bis in die Moderne (Klöster als Innovationslabore. Studien und Texte 4), Regensburg 2017.
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within the series „Vita regularis. Abhandlungen“ (LIT-Verlag, Berlin)
- Jörg Sonntag (Hg.): Sermones in Regulam s. Benedicti. Ein zisterziensischer Regelkommentar aus Pontigny (Vita regularis. Editionen 6), Berlin 2016.
- Geist und Gestalt. Monastische Raumkonzepte als Ausdrucksformen religiöser Leitideen im Mittelalter, hg. von Jörg Sonntag unter Mitwirkung von Petrus Bsteh, Brigitte Proksch und Gert Melville (Vita regularis. Abhandlungen 69), Berlin 2016.
- Identität und Gemeinschaft. Vier Zugänge zu Eigengeschichten und Selbstbildern institutioneller Ordnungen, hg. von Mirko Breitenstein, Julia Burkhardt, Stefan Burkhardt und Jörg Sonntag (Vita regularis. Abhandlungen 67), Berlin 2016.
- Die Klöster der Franziskaner im Mittelalter. Räume, Nutzungen, Symbolik, hg. von Gert Melville, Leonie Silberer und Bernd Schmies (Vita regularis. Abhandlungen 63), Berlin 2015.
- Rules and observance. Devising forms of communal life, hg. von Mirko Breitenstein, Julia Burkhardt, Stefan Burkhardt und Jens Röhrkasten (Vita Regularis. Abhandlungen 60), Berlin 2014.
- Innovation in Klöstern und Orden des Hohen Mittelalters. Aspekte und Pragmatik eines Begriffs, hg. von Mirko Breitenstein, Stefan Burkhardt und Julia Dücker (Vita regularis. Abhandlungen 48), Berlin 2012.
- G. Melville, J. D. Mixson (Hrsg.), Virtuosos of Faith. Monks, Nuns, Canons, and Friars as Elites of Medieval Culture, Bd. 78, 2020.
- M. Breitenstein, G. Melville (Hrsg.), Between Community and Seclusion. Defining the Religious Life in the South Asian Traditions, in Buddhism, and in Eastern and Western Christianity, Bd. 79, 2021.
- M. Jerkovic, G. Melville, B. Schneidmüller, J. Sonntag (Hrsg.), Konsens und Dissens in mittelalterlichen Klöstern und Orden, 2024 [in Preparation].
Events within the project
From 19 to 21 September 2011 the 1st study week of the project on "Innovation in Klöstern und Orden des Hohen Mittelalters - Aspekte und Pragmatik eines Begriffs" took place: Programme / Flyer.
From 4 to 6 October 2012 the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig organised the conference "Innovationen durch Deuten und Gestalten. Klöster im Mittelalter zwischen Jenseits und Welt" in Mainz: Programme
From 14 to 16 April 2013, the Forum for World Religions, the project "Klöster im Hochmittelalter" at the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig and the FOVOG organised the conference "Geist und Gestalt. Monastische Raumkonzepte als Ausdrucksformen religiöser Leitideen" in the Johannes-Schlößl der Pallottiner: Programme, pictures from the conference can be found here.
From 19 to 21 September 2013 the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig and the Research Centre for Comparative History of Religious Orders, in cooperation with the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, organised the 2nd study week of the project entitled: "Identity and Community" in Heidelberg: Programme.
From 14 to 16 November 2013 a working conference of the project took place at the FOVOG premises on the topic "Neue Aspekte zur strukturierten Dokumentation variabler Texte": Programme.
From 6th to 8th April 2016 a conference of the project took place in Nimbschen Monastery on the topic"Die Wirkmacht klösterlichen Lebens im Mittelalter Modelle – Ordnungen – Kompetenzen – Konzepte". Programme.
From 11 to 13 February 2019, an international conference was held at the Academy of Sciences in Heidelberg: "Kreative Impulse. Innovations- und Transferleistungen religiöser Gemeinschaften im mittelalterlichen Europa" statt. Programme
From 28 to 29 October 2021 an international conference was held at the University of Zagreb: „Authority and Consent in Medieval Religious Communities“. Programme
From 23 to 25 June 2022 an international conference was held at the Scheyern Monastery: "Mechanismen des Innovativen im klösterlichen Leben des hohen Mittelalters". Programme
From 14 to 16 June 2023, an international conference was held at the Academy of Sciences in Heidelberg: „(Er-)Leben von Spiritualität. Die fünf Sinne in religiösen Gemeinschaften des Mittelalters“ statt. „(Er-)Leben von Spiritualität. Die fünf Sinne in religiösen Gemeinschaften des Mittelalters“ statt. Programme
A conference report is available online. Report
Contact
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gert Melville:
Phone: +49 (0) 351 4793 4181
Email: gert.melville(at)tu-dresden.de
PD Dr. Jörg Sonntag (Department Head):
Phone: +49 (0) 351 4793 4182
Email: joerg.sonntag(at)tu-dresden.de