Carthusians

Situé à Gosnay, près de Béthune, le Domaine de la chartreuse est aujourd'hui un complexe hôtelier qui succède à une occupation longue et mouvementée depuis l'installation, au début du XIV e siècle, d'un monastère cartusien accueillant une communauté masculine. La chartreuse du Val-Saint-Esprit fonctionne entre 1322 et 1791, avant d'être revendue comme bien National. Le site devient alors la propriété de la famille Gamot qui y installe sa résidence tout en transformant une partie des anciens bâtiments monastique en centre de production laitier, fromager et sucrier. Racheté par la suite par la compagnie des Mines de Bruay, le site est transformé en logements pour ingénieurs et ouvriers dès 1939, avant être revendu au Ministère de la Justice qui utilise les lieux comme foyer de jeunes en semi-liberté de 1964 à 1984. Mis aux enchères, l'ancien « Château Gamot » est racheté dès 1985 et aménagé en hôtel-restaurant. Malgré ce riche passé et une inscription à l'inventaire supplémentaire des Monuments historiques depuis 1986, la connaissance de ce site historique est très succincte. Toutefois, l'exploitation des résultats archéologiques (issus de plusieurs fouilles, diagnostics et observations du bâti) et une mise en commun avec des sources manuscrites inédites (comptes et quittances de travaux des XIV e et XVI e siècles) et toute une série de représentations et de plans anciens (XVII e-XX e siècles), permettent de remédier à cette carence. Par le recours à la pluridisciplinaire, cette communication se propose de dresser le bilan d'une première approche de l'évolution topographique de l'ancienne chartreuse jusqu'au complexe hôtelier actuel. Cette enquête contribuera ainsi à la reconstitution de la physionomie des bâtiments de l'ancienne chartreuse, à une meilleure identification des vestiges subsistants et à dégager de nouvelles perspectives de recherche archéologiques.

https://brill.com/view/title/33632
Contents
List of Contributors
Medieval Rules and Customaries Reconsidered - Krijn Pansters
The Rule of Saint Benedict - James Clark
The Cistercian Customaries - Emilia Jamroziak
The Carthusian Customaries - Stephen Molvarec and Tom Gaens
The Rule of Saint Augustine - Paul van Geest
The Customaries of Saint-Ruf - Ursula Vones-Liebenstein
The Premonstratensian Project - Carol Neel
Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights - Kristjan Toomaspoeg
The Dominican Constitutiones - Gert Melville
The Rule of Saint Francis - Holly Grieco
The Rules of Poor Clares and Minoresses - Bert Roest
The Rule of the Franciscan Third Order - Jean-François Godet-Calogeras
The Rule of Saint Albert - Coralie Zermatten
The Augustinian Rules and Constitutions - Matthew Ponesse

Il volume studia l’evoluzione delle relazioni che intercorsero tra il certosino Niccolò Albergati, vescovo di Bologna dal 1417 al 1443 e cardinale (dal 1426) con il titolo di S. Croce di Gerusalemme, e il Capitolo cittadino. Prendendo come punto di partenza la difficoltosa elezione dell’Albergati, i cui contorni vengono meglio precisati alla luce di documenti inediti, è ripercorso lo sviluppo multiforme dei rapporti tra il vescovo ed il suo Capitolo, di cui sono preliminarmente ricostruite ed analizzate l’articolazione, la composizione e le forme di reclutamento, quali si erano cristallizzate nel corso del primo Quattrocento. Un punto di svolta decisivo per comprendere l’azione riformatrice operata dal presule sul  più importante corpo ecclesiastico diocesano è una visita pastorale, di cui si fornisce l’edizione in appendice, condotta alla cattedrale di S. Pietro nel 1437, momento in cui la curia pontificia di Eugenio IV si trovava a Bologna e in cui Tommaso Parentucelli, familiaris del cardinale e futuro Niccolò V, era da poco entrato a far parte del novero dei canonici. Il decisivo impulso impresso dall’Albergati successivamente all’ispezione, grazie anche al fondamentale contributo dello stesso Parentucelli, fu teso ad un deciso innalzamento del prestigio del Capitolo bolognese sul piano materiale, morale e – soprattutto – culturale: a questo proposito vengono ripercorse attraverso nuovi documenti – relativi anche a modifiche di carattere istituzionale – le tappe della fondazione della biblioteca capitolare e del progetto di organizzazione di una scuola per i chierici, snodi decisivi che porteranno in quel delicato frangente storico (gli anni a cavallo del Concilio di Basilea) ad una accresciuta importanza della Chiesa bolognese in relazione a quella romana. Completano il volume una nutrita serie di documenti inediti, tra cui la nomina ad arcidiacono di Pietro Barbo, futuro papa Paolo II, e le schede biografiche dei sedici canonici bolognesi in carica al momento della visita.

DENIS the Carthusian affirms Mary as the summa contemplatrix, interpreting the plenitude of grace of Luke 1:28 to include the theological gift of wisdom. In Dionysian thought, the gift of wisdom equates to mystical theology, unitive wisdom, or contemplation by negation, the highest form of prayer possible in this life to a wayfarer.

Denis the Carthusian makes an original contribution to Marian studies by positing the exemplarity of Mary's prayer, in accord with Denis's notion of contemplation, suggesting that Mary enjoyed a singular perfection in Her intellectual knowledge of God before the Incarnation; was later instructed in mystical theology by Her Divine Son, the God-Man; and attained to the contemplative vision of God while still on earth as a foreshadowing of the beatific vision Mary now possesses in heaven.

This doctoral dissertation, written by a cloistered monk not unlike Denis the Carthusian, seeks to penetrate the silence and solitude of contemplative monastic life lived by one of Christianity's most prolific authors and popularly hailed "the last of the schoolmen" to explore the notion of Marian contemplation and the incomparability of Mary's prayer for twenty-first century imitation and pastoral application.

This thesis examines the Carthusians in Great Britain and Ireland from an archaeological standpoint and highlights the role of the lay brother in the everyday life of the charterhouse.

Using the case studies of Witham Charterhouse and Hinton Priory, the
layouts of the lay brothers’ complexes are explored through geophysical survey and comparison with Carthusian material culture assemblages from other British charterhouses. This method of investigation provides a singular view of the lay brother in medieval society and for the first time proposes a layout of an English Carthusian lower house.

The thesis begins with an introduction to the topic and gives an overview
history of the Carthusians in Great Britain, before discussing in more detail areas of the charterhouse complex - the cell, church and cloister. Following this is a discussion of everyday life for the monks and lay brothers, exploring various facets including death and memory. The thesis then moves on to investigate the wider landscape of the monastery complex, and how the local area was exploited and utilised by the Carthusians. The monks’ and lay brothers’ interactions with secular society are considered through excavated assemblages from a number of charterhouses, which also demonstrates specific occupations for each of the inhabitants. The final chapter of the thesis presents the results of resistivity and magnetometer surveys at the two Somerset charterhouses and provides an interpretation of these results. It is concluded that it is not currently possible to identify the Carthusian lay brother as archaeologically distinct as there are not sufficient assemblages to provide an accurate understanding of the differences in monastic and lay objects. More research is therefore required before the lay brother can be properly understood.

Obeying the commands and advice of our beloved and most revered father Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, whose will we have no right to resist, we proceeded to write, and to deliver to memory — something that your love has required more than once to be done — the customs of our House. We have neglected this work for a long time, for motives that seem reasonable to us...

Os mosteiros e conventos da Idade Média e Moderna, para funcionarem em condições de higiene e salubridade adequadas, careciam de um hidrossistema sólido e tecnicamente eficiente, na forma e no traçado, desde a captação de águas, seu transporte por gravidade, armazenamento e distribuição pela área intramural dos cenóbios, até à descarga dos resíduos domésticos e pluviais. Nesse sentido, o clero regular de outrora ensinou-nos a conquistar e a domesticar a água, ou seja, como se explora, conduz, acumula e administra com racionalidade e inteligência. Os testemunhos abaixo apresentados certificam um repertório de saberes e técnicas acerca do nosso amplo e diversificado património histórico-hidráulico de concepção pragmática e instância religiosa, hoje caídos em desuso e secos ou a funcionar modificados por novos equipamentos mecânicos. Esta afortunada manifestação de experiências e aptidões legadas, referentes à pesquisa e ao uso intensivo da água, legitima uma porção substancial de memória identitária bastante ignorada e ameaçada, que ultrapassa o domínio da tecnologia e urge recuperar e restabelecer na pluralidade da nossa cultura. É uma obrigação ética comum evitar o colapso desses importantes projectos centenários, atribuídos à ousadia e firmeza de espírito dos anónimos monges e frades de antanho. Amiúde, tais infra-estruturas são vitimadas por facilitações mesquinhas e actos abusivos de interesse privado económico-financeiro especulativo, que apagam ou ocultam o seu valor e significado históricos. Por isso, é improrrogável a nossa mobilização cautelar, assente no respeito e na responsabilidade pelos bens herdados das gerações precedentes, a fim de assegurarmos a sua salvaguarda, num propósito correlacionado de usufruto e defesa estáveis do nosso devir civilizacional.

The Consuetudines Cartusiæ, composed around 1127 - by Guigues, fifth prior of the Chartreuse, is the oldest liturgical and disciplinary document, found in the Carthusian Order.  It is through the liturgy that this collection opens: a digniori parte, officio videlicet divino, sumentes exordium, the author tells us. According to a generally accepted tradition, it is mainly from the Church of Lyon that the Carthusians have received and their liturgical books and most of their rites, at least those which are not of monastic origin: Creduntur team Cartusiani ipsi ab illa vetustissima Lugdunensi Ecclesia, primate Galliarum, exemplaria desumpsisse.  However, as none of the authors, to whom we have just referred, is prior to the sixteenth century, it is necessary to go back further to form a definitive opinion. Let us know by the Missal. A first general remark is the absence of ecclesiastical style compositions, with very few exceptions. Guigues admitted on this head the principles emitted by Agobard, and the Carthusian Order kept them with more tenacity than the Church of Lyons. In Lyon, as well as in the Chartreuse, Pentecost has its octave, whose office is the same as that of the festival. It follows that the series of Sunday services which comes after Pentecost is in retranslation of a Sunday on the corresponding series of the Roman Office. This posed, we know what divergences exist between the manuscripts, touching the gradual responses and even more the alleluiatic verses of these offices. It is therefore interesting to compare the repertoire of the Church of Lyon with that of the Chartreuse.

Published in "Ons Geestelijk Erf" 86(3) (2015), 219-249.
doi: 10.2143/OGE.86.3.3154602

Depicting the Carthusian monk Jan Vos (successively prior of the Charterhouses of Bruges and Utrecht) kneeling in prayer in front of the Virgin and Child, Petrus Christus’ Exeter Madonna is a small painting probably destined to private devotional practices of its owner. This work is particularly interesting for it perfectly illustrates how the structuring of the pictorial space endows paintings that include devotional portraits with a dynamic dimension and how this dimension plays an essential role in the spiritual meaning and function of such images. The aim of this article is to show that by bring- ing together the worldly sphere below in the background and the sacred space in the foreground, where the Virgin welcomes the devotee, the Exeter Madonna can be under- stood as a visualization of the spiritual ascent of Jan Vos. To this end, the visual struc- ture of the painting is closely analysed, before being compared with devotional texts dealing with the theme of the spiritual ascent (such as De spiritualibus ascensionibus of Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen), which Jan Vos knew well. Secondly, this devotional painting is re-placed within its context, namely the Charterhouses of Utrecht and Bruges and Carthusian spirituality in order to demonstrate that together with books, such images played a crucial role in the meditative practices of Carthusian monks.

The Freiburg DFG project 'Making Mysticism. Mystical Books in the Library of the Erfurt Charterhouse‘ (https://making-mysticism.org/) explores the question of how the (literary) historiographical category 'mysticism' relates to the historical order category theologia mystica. The library catalog of the Charterhouse St. Salvatorberg (Erfurt, diocesan archive, Hs. Hist. 6), which was created around 1475 and was mainly expanded into the 1520s, offers the opportunity to use historically documented library holdings and the order according to which they are recorded are to examine the beginning of the category formation 'mysticism'. The catalog is not a simple inventory. Rather, the books are programmatically assigned to individual signature groups, with the program of spiritual self-perfection being developed in the introductions to the signature groups. The groups D, DF, E, F and I, which contain books on theologia mystica and revelationes, are particularly relevant for the investigation of the (literary) historiographical category 'mysticism'. Because they are the focus of the project, they were selected for the present digital, genetic new edition. The beta version with the edition of the signature groups D and I.

Das Freiburger DFG-Projekt ‚Making Mysticism. Mystische Bücher in der Kartause Erfurt‘ (https://making-mysticism.org/) geht der Frage nach, wie sich die (literatur-)historiographische Kategorie ‚Mystik‘ zur historischen Ordnungskategorie theologia mystica verhält. Der Bibliothekskatalog der Erfurter Kartause St. Salvatorberg (Erfurt, Bistumsarchiv, Hs. Hist. 6), der um 1475 entstand und hauptsächlich bis in die 1520er Jahre erweitert wurde, bietet die Gelegenheit, anhand historisch bezeugter Bibliotheksbestände und der Ordnung, nach der sie verzeichnet sind, den Anfang der Kategorienbildung ‚Mystik‘ zu untersuchen. Der Katalog stellt nämlich kein einfaches Bestandsverzeichnis dar. Vielmehr sind die Bücher programmatisch einzelnen Signaturengruppen zugeordnet, wobei das Programm einer spirituellen Selbstvervollkommnung in den Einleitungen zu den Signaturengruppen entwickelt wird. Die für die Untersuchung der (literatur-)historiographischen Kategorie ‚Mystik‘ besonders relevanten Signaturengruppen sind die Gruppen D, DF, E, F und I, die Bücher zur theologia mystica und zu revelationes enthalten. Weil sie im Fokus des Projektes stehen, wurden sie für die hier vorliegende digitale, genetische Neuedition ausgewählt. Einen ersten Einblick in die Möglichkeiten, die die zukünftige Neuedition bietet, gewährt Ihnen die jetzt schon vorliegende Beta-Version mit der Edition der Signaturengruppen D und I.

Close reading of the principal testimonies of Carthusians Bruno, Guigo I, Guigo II, and some other witnesses, as well as some passages in Saint Augustine, argues that Carthusian scribal work was more preliminary practice for spiritual development than it was the sacralization of codices and texts.  The two-step structure, composed of contrary movements of presentation and effacement, guarded what the Carthusians regarded as spiritual activity within a  changing historical environment and became a fundamental part of Latin Christian mysticism in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Der Versuch, den überlieferten Buchbestand der 1803 aufgehobenen Erfurter Kartause zu erfassen und den Verbleib der im mittelalterlichen Standortkatalog verzeichneten Bände zu ermitteln, wurde von Paul Lehmann 1928 zum ersten Mal unternommen. 60 Jahre später präsentierte Sigrid Krämer eine aktualisierte Dokumentation des erhaltenen Buchbestands der Erfurter Kartause, die im ersten Teil des von Krämer erstellten Nachschlagewerks „Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters“ 1989 erschienen ist. Der von diesen beiden Verzeichnissen erfasste Buchbestand bildet den Grundstock der vorliegenden Übersicht, die eine nach Möglichkeit korrigierte, nochmals aktualisierte und bibliographisch fundierte Dokumentation über den Verbleib von Büchern (in erster Linie von Handschriften, in geringerem Maße auch von Inkunabeln und Frühdrucken) aus der Kartause Erfurt bietet. Auch in der 3., korrigierten und erweiterten Version erhebt sie nicht den Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit und Fehlerlosigkeit. Vielmehr bildet sie den Zwischenstand eines work in progress ab, der in eine Datenbank münden soll. Ergänzungen und Korrekturen sind jederzeit möglich und höchst willkommen.

The Office of Mary Magdalene is one of the rare offices of the Carthusian liturgy that was changed after it had been established as a solemn feast with twelve lessons. In Matins, several chants changed their position or were even replaced by new ones. This article examines the relationship between the earlier and the later Office of St Mary Magdalene. Later corrections in the Lauds first antiphon, Maria stabat ad monumentum receive some special attention since they open new questions concerning the unity of the Carthusian liturgical tradition, and a possible connection between individual Carthusian manuscripts.

Se presentan de manera breve las principales conclusiones de la intervención arqueológica llevada a cabo con motivo de la reurbanización del campus universitario de Cartuja (Granada). La intervención ha tenido dos fases, una de excavación con sondeos en el año 2013 y otra de seguimiento, control de movimiento de tierras y excavación de nuevas áreas entre 2014-2015. Todo ello ha permitido obtener una visión conjunta de la evolución de este espacio al norte de la ciudad de Granada desde época romana hasta la época contemporánea, incluyendo reformas en época medieval y moderna.

EN: The aim of this paper is present briefly the main findings of the archaeological research carried out in connection with the redevelopment of the university campus of Cartuja (Granada). The intervention has had two phases, one of excavation surveys during the summer of 2013 and another, since May 2014 to June 2015, with archaeological monitoring, control earthmoving and excavation of new areas. All this works has led to an overview of the historical evolution in this area, northern of the city of Granada, from Roman times to the present day, including medieval and modern occupation.

This study provides a historical overview of Kinalehin priory, the sole foundation of the Carthusian order in Ireland, who followed an austere and predominantly eremitical form of religious life. Following an introduction to the origins, principles and characteristics of the Carthusians, the order’s relatively brief tenure in Kinalehin, Co. Galway, will be considered. The establishment of a Franciscan friary in Kinalehin following the suppression of the Carthusian priory will be addressed, in addition to a possible association between this site and the Knights Hospitaller.

Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Vol. 142-143 (2012-13) 100–113

Entre los años 1998 y 2004, Hispanoamérica ha asistido al proceso de gestación y consolidación del primer monasterio cartujo de su historia. La equilibrada fusión entre elementos tradicionales de la arquitectura popular argentina, neocolonial y cartujana lo han elevado como un hito dentro de la escasa praxis de una arquitectura monacal contemporánea.
-------------------------------------------------
From 1998 to 2005, Spanish Americahas witnessed a process of genesis and consolidation of the first Carthusian monastery in its history. It has been raised a milestone in the limited practice of the contemporary monastic architecture by the balanced fusion between different elements from the Argentinian, Spanish Colonial and Carthusian architectures.

https://www.peeters-leuven.be/detail.php?search_key=9789042949485&series_number_str=49&lang=en --- The articles in this volume share an interest in the subject of 'Carthusians and mysticism', which is treated by way of example and with a broad European horizon. They all share a decidedly historical approach to the chosen topic, which goes hand in hand with a focus on those Carthusian contexts that have proven to be the hubs of the production, reception and distribution of mystical texts. What they also have in common is the question of how mystical focal points of interest can be developed and described in individual charterhouses or in the case of individual cartusians, with the chronological focus – apart from a detour into the High Middle Ages and into the Early Modern Age – being on the Late Middle Ages. It is therefore traced how mysticism was 'on the move' in the Carthusian order. But not only that: Several contributions are themselves on the way to a definition of mysticism, at least they reflect the (research) historical background of the term and its heuristic use for the constitution of a special corpus of texts.

This publication emerged from the colloquium series of the DFG project "Making Mysticism. Mystical books in the library of the Erfurt Charterhouse" , see https://making-mysticism.org/

REVIEWS: literaturkritik.de (26.09.2023), URL: https://literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=29983 (Jörg Füllgrabe)

It was in the early spring of 1890 that one night I sat in the cold, bare gallery at the west end of the chapel of the monks of the Grande Chartreuse Monastery. Over the rough wooden balustrade, as I knelt, I looked down on the dim-lighted chapel. The monks, in their white woollen robes, with their white hoods falling over their faces, sat or knelt, each one in his stall. Alternating between chant and prayer and reading, the solemn night service went on. I had been summoned from the cell allotted to me and had been led by the lay-brother through vast corridors— all silent as the grave, dimly lit and icily cold — into the little strangers' gallery. I had watched the brothers of the Chartreuse glide in one by one noiselessly, each carrying a little lighted lamp. This solemn service, monotonous but yet intensely earnest, went on every night, summer and winter, sometimes lasting two hours, sometimes— on certain holy days— going on for nearly three hours. With the interlude of the Terror, a.d. 1793, and the few years succeeding that time of confusion and dread, had this vigil of prayer and meditation been kept up for more than eight hundred eventful years. The map of Europe had been constructed and reconstructed — living languages had become dead, had become the solitary property of a few learned and patient scholars; new tongues had grown up; new nationalities had sprung into existence; royal dynasties had risen and fallen; new peoples had occupied the old seats of almost forgotten races— since the first night of that long and monotonous chant, of that ceaseless prayer of the white-robed, white-cowled fathers of the Grande Chartreuse...

Based on the official Declaration of Obedience solemnly celebrated in May, 1440, scholars have generally supposed that the Carthusian Order supported the Council of Basel and the Conciliar pope Felix V without any reservation and for the full duration of the synod. However, the General Chapter’s liturgical directives of intercession and commemoration make it clear that the Order – in spite of a significant sympathy on the part of many Carthusians for the reform projects of the Council, as well as the geographical location of the Grande Chartreuse on Savoy territory – left the decision open to its individual members while ultimately returning in silence to obedience to Eugenius IV. One aim of this pragmatic policy, which had the effect of preventing a renewed schism within the Order, was to allow individual members to take ecclesiological positions for or against the Council. This explains how Bartholomeus of Maastricht, for example, could take a pro-Conciliarist position, although it was not representative of the attitude of the Order as a whole.