Monastic Renaissance at St Albans Thomas Walsingham & his Circle c.1350-1440

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

A Monastic Renaissance at St AlbansThomas Walsingham and his Circle c.1350-1440\nAuthor(s): James G. Clark\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Oxford University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Oxford University Press\nISBN-13: 9780199275953, 978-0199275953\nSynopsis\nA Monastic Renaissance at St Albans is a study of intellectual life at the abbey of St Albans - one of Britain's greatest Benedictine monasteries - during the lifetime of Thomas Walsingham (c.[tel], one of the most prolific scholars of the later middle ages. It has always been assumed that the monasteries fell into decline long before the dissolution and that cultural and intellectual activities were largely abandoned as the monks surrendered themselves to high living and low morals. This study challenges this view. Drawing on a wide variety of manuscript sources, it shows that education, independent study, and even the co-ordinated copying of books continued to flourish at St Albans (and its affiliate houses) for much of the .