The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc

The structure of life in a monastery of the traditional monasticism of the 11th century has never been so clearly laid out as in this book, but the work also has its puzzles. This edition incorporates a further generation of scholarship to attempt to elucidate these.
"The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc", archbishop of Canterbury between 1070 and 1089, has long been recognized as one of the most important historical sources for medieval monastic life. In this revision of Dom David Knowles's classic editions of 1951 and 1967, C.N.L. Brooke incorporates further historical scholarship to offer insight into and illumination of Lanfranc and the monastic world of the 11th century. "The Monastic Constitutions" comprise a liturgical directory, a description of the functions of the leading officials of a monastery, and other fundamental regulations. Composed around 1077, they were intended for Lanfranc's own cathedral at Canterbury, for his nephew Paul's abbey of St Albans - and for any other houses which might observe them. The structure of life in a monastery of the traditional monasticism of the 11th century has never been so clearly laid out as in this book, but the work also has its puzzles, which Christopher Brooke in this edition seeks to elucidate.