Living and dying in the Cloister: Themes and research perspectives

The monastic life – explored through the eyes of monks and, so to speak, seen from the inside – is the perspective of the XXIII International Symposium dell’IRCLAMA. The meeting, through the study of the spaces and the time of the monastic observance, intends to penetrate deeply one of the fundamental structures of development of medieval society between East and West. The history, the art, the architecture and the archeology are the key tools whereby – through the words said and written by the protagonists, the places of prayer, the work and daily life, the images and the buildings (church, cloister, chapter, refectory, kitchen, library, scriptorium, dormitory, infirmary, garden, warehouses, guest house, etc.) untill the last home of the graves (common or elitist) in the cemetery – the forms of the small and great abbey complexes and their uses are examined, from the late antiquity to the magnificent cluniacense blooming, such as formative archetypes of the Christian medieval Europe.