From their arrival in England in 1128 to the end of the twelfth century, the Cistercians established fifty monasteries, including some of the largest and most famous abbeys in the country. The author traces the evolution of Cistercian architecture in England during the this period and explains it as a manifestation both of the order's spiritual aims and of the manifestation of Gothic architecture in France. He shows how the founding houses in France influenced Cistercian architecture in England and how the order's spiritual commitments to poverty and solitude isolated its building from English architectural tradition.
Author(s): Peter Fergusson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 1984
Language: English
Pages: 320
City: Princeton, NJ
List of Figures ix
List of Plates xi
Abbreviations xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Preface xxi
1. A Way of Life in Search of an Architecture 3
2. The Earliest Architecture 23
3. The Colonization of the North 30
4. The Advent of Early Gothic 54
5. The Cistercian Church Transformed 69
6. Cistercian Architecture in the West Country 91
7. Conclusion 101
Catalog of Individual Houses 111
Appendixes
A. The Dissolution and After 157
B. The Builders of Cistercian Monasteries in England 165
C. Temporary Foundations: Twelfth-Century Cistercian Houses in England 173
Select Bibliography 175
Index 181
Plates 191
