Preface

The ambition behind this volume is double. It is to offer an up-to-date cross-disciplinary introduction to the Cistercian Order and to reflect the character and interests of current scholarship. The content is structured in three sections. The first treats, in three chapters, the history of the Order from its foundation until today. Then follow two thematic sections, the main focus of which is the medieval period. The first, ‘Structure and materiality’, deals with the Order’s organisation, its material culture and agricultural production, and with the ever-present dynamic between unity and diversity. The second, ‘Religious mentality’, centres on authors and educators and on the ideas, texts, preaching and music which emerged from Cistercian monasteries. The chapters stand as individual essays on different aspects of the Order – and not necessarily in unison. In this sense this volume mirrors the composite nature of the Order, and of the research into it.

Sincere thanks are due to all of the authors for their brave and spirited response to the academic challenge, not to mention the severe word limit, and to Terryl N. Kinder and I. Gorevich as well as Laura Morris and Anna Lowe of Cambridge University Press.