I've updated my "#Premonstratensian Order in the Middle Ages" bibliography site. It now contains 6,250 entries and covers:
— Secondary lit on the order, 1480s-2025
— 22 languages from Basque to Swedish
— Array of digital and print sources
— Themes, houses and individuals
https://www.geneseo.edu/researchweb/kerkoapp/seale-premontre/bibliography/
What lovely portraits of the #Premonstratensian sisters of Sint-Catharinadal, which at 750+ years old is the oldest extant community of women religious in the Netherlands. Love the sense of connection to their history the sisters express here:
https://www.volkskrant.nl/kijkverder/v/2023/fotograaf-koos-breukel-portretteert-zusters-van-het-vrouwenklooster-eigenlijk-zijn-ze-heel-punk~v925693/ (In het Nederlands)
Hoe stel je de toekomst veilig van een steeds kleiner wordende gemeenschap wier levenswijze niet meer voor de hand ligt? Zolang het nog kan, portretteert fotograaf Koos Breukel de zusters van vrouwenklooster Sint-Catharinadal in Oosterhout. ‘Door in afzondering te leven, hebben ze zichzelf zeldzaam gemaakt.’
An overhauled version of my " #Premonstratensian Order in the Middle Ages" bibliography is now live! It's easier to search (by tag, source type, date and language) and much, much faster. Please let me know if you find it useful, or if you find any glitches.
Huge thanks to my Geneseo colleague David Warden for his tech wizardry!
https://www.geneseo.edu/researchweb/kerkoapp/seale-premontre/bibliography/
When lit from behind like this, the rich texture and complexity of this white-on-white linen altarcloth is readily apparent. So much work must have gone into this piece, which was made ca. 1350 by sisters of the #Premonstratensian abbey of Altenberg an der Lahn.
Now Cleveland Museum of Art, 1948.352: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1948.352
This large, embroidered altar cloth is one of the rarest, most important medieval church furnishings in existence. It was stitched by nuns in the Premonstratensian Convent in Altenberg on the Lahn River, north of Frankfurt, Germany, and was used to cover the church’s high altar in the weeks<br>leading up to Easter. The cloth is an example of linen embroidery, a specialty of German nuns in the later Middle Ages.<br>The Altenberg monastery church once had valuable furnishings; the high altar retable (a decorated frame with sculptures and paintings on the top of an altar) has survived, the main parts of which are now in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.
In theory, putting a minimalist concrete and steel shelving system into a Baroque library should be jarring—but I think this works surprisingly well? Maybe it's the light & the use of white space.
Želiv Abbey is a #Premonstratensian community founded in the 12th c.
https://www.yatzer.com/library-monastery-zeliv-monastery-sepka-architects
An interesting find! It looks very much like it's the burial ground of the #Premonstratensian abbey of Woodburn, a late 12th century foundation. Woodburn had links to the Anglo-Norman lord John de Courcy, who was himself the builder of the nearby Carrickfergus Castle.
I've made some updates to my prosopographical database of #medieval #Premonstratensian women—it now includes records for more than 1600 women across various parts of western and central Europe who were members of the order in some capacity, 12th-17th centuries.
I love the gorgeous colours of this #medieval manuscript leaf, particularly those blues—still so vivid even after all these centuries.
From a late 15th c. antiphonary, originally at the #Premonstratensian house of Magdeburg. Now Czech National Library, Teplá MS.E.11A, fol. 1r.
Yvonne Seale
