A monastic renaissance at St. Albans
Subtitle: Thomas Walsingham and his circle, c. 1350-1440
By: James G. Clark.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Oxford; New York; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 316
Subjects: Walsingham, Thomas, fl. 1360-1420.; Walsingham, Thomas, fl. 1360-1420 -- Friends and associates.; Walsingham, Thomas, fl. 1360-1420 -- Homes and haunts -- England -- St. Albans.; St. Albans Abbey.; Monasticism and religious orders -- England -- St. Albans -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.; Monastic and religious life -- England -- St. Albans -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500.; Historiography -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500.; Historians -- Great Britain -- Biography.; Great Britain -- History -- Medieval period, 1066-1485 -- Historiography.; St. Albans (England) -- Intellectual life -- To 1500.; England -- Intellectual life -- 1066-1485.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "A Monastic Renaissance at St. Albans is a study of intellectual life at the Abbey of St. Albans - one of Britain's greatest Benedictine monasteries - during the lifetime of Thomas Walsingham (c. 1340-1422), one of the most prolific scholars of the later middle ages. It has always been assumed that the monasteries fell into decline long before the dissolution and that cultural and intellectual activities were largely abandoned as the monks surrendered themselves to high living and low morals. This study challenges this view. Drawing on a wide variety of manuscript sources, it shows that education, independent study, and even the co-ordinated copying of books continued to flourish at St. Albans (and its affiliate houses) for much of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In fact the abbey emerged as one of the country's most influential centres of learning, a clearing-house for books and ideas in Ricardian and Lancastrian England."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [277]-303) and index.
Based on the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--Oxford University, 1997.