Architecture of Solitude: The Medieval Monastery

Religious men and women, as well as their patrons, sought to establish places of devotion and learning across the medieval landscape. This course examines the rise and development of the medieval monastery from its late antique beginnings in the deserts of Africa to the rise of the preaching orders in early thirteenth-century Europe. Emphasis will be placed upon the material expressions of western monasticism and upon the notion of the monastery as an architectural, archaeological and historical research problem through examination of individual case study examples. Instructor permission required. Enrollment limited to 12.