Monasteries of the World by Christopher Brooke

Monasteries of the World

The Rise and Development of the Monastic Tradition

by Christopher Brooke, photographs by Wim Swaan

Omega Books, 1982, colour and b/w photographs throughout, b/w frontispiece, oversized hardcover, dustjacket, ISBN 0907853307

Fine Condition, minor edge and shelf wear with minor rubbing to corners, dustjacket has minor edge and shelf wear.

'44 colour plates, and over 380 black and white plates, plans and maps.

By exploring the literature and the visible legacy of the monastic life, Professor Brooke demonstrated the close relationship in it between the spiritual and temporal, the interdependence of monarch, church and subject.  Absorbing its aspirations from Egypt and Syria, the movement was given its traditional form by St Benedict.  Then came the twelfth-century renaissance, a time of revitalising ideas, of argument and discussion, when new orders arose as part of an ascetic and puritan reaction and from the inspiration of men like St Bernard of Clairvaux...
The many magnificent photographs in this book have been specially commissioned to provide a close accompaniment to the text.  They give the reader a breathtaking experience of the grandeur and the mystery of the finest monastic buildings that survive.'