HIB023n Monasteries as centres of culture and economy

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2024
Extent and Intensity
0/2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
prof. Mgr. Libor Jan, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Mgr. Libor Jan, Ph.D.
Department of History – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of History – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 16:00–17:40 J22, except Tue 16. 4.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 12 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 6/12, only registered: 0/12, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/12
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 6 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
To learn about the significant phenomenon of Christianity, i.e. monastic life and living in religious orders and communities. Monasteries mediated late antique culture to their members and to those they educated. Economically, they also followed the overhead models of late Roman farming and improved the technologies of cultivating soil, growing fruit trees and vines, beekeeping, fish farming, sheep farming and the use of products (such as wool, milk, etc.). In monastic scriptoria, its members copied books of not only religious and theological nature, but also of scientific content (medicine, biology, geography, mathematics, geometry, law, etc.).
Learning outcomes
The students will be familiar with the basic medieval orders and monastic rules; they will understand and be able to characterise the main features of the development of medieval monasticism; they will be able to characterise the economic, cultural and social role of monasteries.
Syllabus
  • Origins of monastic life in Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor, anachoreticism.
  • St. Benedict of Nursia, his monastic rules and the birth of the first Benedictine monasteries.
  • Monasteries in Spain, Ireland, Iro-Scottish missions to France, Germany and northern Italy.
  • The rise of the Benedictines and the Cluniac Reforms.
  • The birth of the monastic schema.
  • Reformed orders, Cistercians and Premonstratensians.
  • The economy of the high medieval monasteries, Cistercian granges. Begging orders and their conception of religious/monastic life.
  • Devotio moderna, returns to hermitage, the crisis of monasteries in the 15th century.
Literature
    required literature
  • Benediktini a střed Evropy : křesťanství, kultura, společnost 800-1300. Edited by Dušan Foltýn - Pavlína Mašková - Petr Sommer. Vydání první. Praha: NLN, s.r.o., 2021, 429 stran. ISBN 9788074224621. info
  • FRANK, Karl Suso. Dějiny křesťanského mnišství. Translated by Zdeněk Lochovský. 1. vyd. Praha: Benediktinské arciopatství sv. Vojtěcha a sv. Markéty, 2003, 195 s. ISBN 8090268285. info
    recommended literature
  • Nigg, Walter: Benedikt z Nursie. Praha 1991.
  • SOMMER, Petr. Svatý Prokop : z počátků českého státu a církve. Vyd. 1. V Praze: Vyšehrad, 2007, 337 s. ISBN 9788070217320. info
  • CHARVÁTOVÁ, Kateřina. Dějiny cisterckého řádu v Čechách, 1142-1420. Vyd. 1. V Praze: Karolinum, 2002, 402 s. ISBN 8024603853. info
  • LAWRENCE, C. H. Dějiny středověkého mnišství. Edited by Libor Jan, Translated by Pavel Pšeja - Jan Vomlela. 1. vyd. Brno: Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury ;, 2001, 325 s. ISBN 8070215364. info
Teaching methods
Seminary, class discussion, homework
Assessment methods
A paper on a specific monastery using foreign literature or a paper on a cultural or economic sub-topic in one order or across orders.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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