New Theories on Cistercian Architecture from Cambridge Historian

Maximilian Sternberg’s new book on Cistercian Architecture and Medieval Society (2013) is one of the most refreshing and unconventional scholarly approaches to Cistercian aesthetics to have appeared in recent years. Combined with profound knowledge of the secondary literature, he analyzes the networks around medieval monasteries and their negotiations between religiously motivated introspection “on the inside” and quotidian relations with lay people and non-monastic institutions “on the outside”, showing that these two fields are not so easy to separate. The first refreshing novelty is that Sternberg opens his […]