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Paradoxplace Italy Spain Britain Photo & History Pages Link to all Abbey and Cathedral Pages in Paradoxplace LINKS TO OTHER Paradoxplace BOOK PAGES
BOOKS ABOUT THE CISTERCIANS AND THEIR BEAUTIFUL ABBEYS
The Cistercians Master European Abbey Builders of the 1100s and 1200s
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If it's Cistercian Abbey photos you want, this is THE coffee table book. It is packed with superb colour photos of 65 Cistercian Abbeys, preceded by a 130 page illustrated history of the order and how it worked in practice (and including a template showing the typical Cistercian abbey room layout). Reissued in 2006 by the revived publishers (Könemann). The cover picture shows the Abbey of Royaumont in France.
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David Robinson's (ed) book of British Cistercian Abbeys is an A4ish sized paperback (also hardback) covering all the British Cistercian Abbey sites and including some great colour photos. Good to have in the car and the best book if it's just the UK you are interested in.
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The Cistercian monks who now look after the Carthusian Abbey of Florence (La Certosa di Firenze - that's the one on the hill that millions of drivers see from the Certosa junction of the A1 and the 4-Coursie to Siena, but very few ever visit) have produced a web site which amongst other things lists the details of every Cistercian abbey ever built, with a huge amount of accompanying information about the Cistercian order now and then. Thanks to Stephen Tobin (see below) for flagging this to us.
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Certosa di Firenze - Large Cloister and Monks' Cemetery |
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In 2008 this book was available from Amazon France
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This superb book (above), originally published by MSM in French, is now also available in an English edition. It is an attractive combination of the history (of European monasticism generally and the Cistercians in particular) and descriptions, illustrations and excellent photographs and information on some fifty abbey sites in Europe, with particular emphasis on France and Spain. It also has a good though small scale map. In size it's a largish and fairly heavy (= good quality paper) paperback. Minor challenges are that the abbey pages are grouped under each foundation house rather than geographically, and it is also not easy to work out what is still there building-wise at the various abbey sites.
MSM also publish a coffee table book (above right) full of their outstanding photos of Cistercian abbeys and art. Commentary in French, but the bulk of the book is photos.
For the French Cistercian Abbey sites, it's a good idea to also get hold of the sheet road map of France (far right) with all the Cistercian sites marked and a small photo of each of the Abbeys or their ruins and notes about accessibility.
Stephen Tobin's book (right) contains the most comprehensive listing (by country and with country maps) of Cistercian Abbey sites all over Europe - 750 of them (many of which the author has visited) - together with ratings of present status and accessibility and small scale country maps. It also has an good account of the the birth of the Cistercians, the main characters involved, how the abbeys worked and monastic life in the Middle Ages, and it is a good size and weight for carrying around.
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A tour de force in large size of the most beautiful of Britain's Cistercian abbeys - Rievaulx in Yorkshire - what it looks like, its history, how it worked.
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Mix of colour and black and white in this medium sized coffee table format.
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A black and white classic
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1060 - 1133 (73) 1090 - 1153 (63) |
One of the seminal "Spiritual journey" books of the mid 1900s. Euro-American Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968 (53)) became a (Cistercian) Trappist monk and went on to write much more.
Link to biography in Wikipedia
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This is a big book, written in Italian, covering mainly the Italian Cistercian Abbeys built between 1120 and 1160. It is packed with photos of detailing such as capitals, arches, etc plus plans and maps. One for Italian speaking architectural historians.
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LINKS TO OVER 40 PAGES OF PHOTOS OF CISTERCIAN ABBEYS IN PARADOXPLACE
Cistercian Insight Pages
INTRODUCTION EARLY YEARS LATER YEARS ABBEY PHOTOS
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Links to other Paradoxplace pages
All original material © Adrian Fletcher 2000 - 06 - The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission
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