Cell or Dormitory? : Monastic Visions of Space amidst the Conflict of Ideals

Abstract

The way from ‘dormitory to cell’ is considerably less straightforward than Pierre Minard, Nancy Bauer, and many other monastic historians have imagined it to be. Furthermore, from a modernist theorist point of view the cell does not mark a temporary end, but rather represents a return to the mythical origins of occidental monasticism, which was marked by the spirituality of the cell. Using the example of the Cistercian monastery of Bebenhausen and its rich embellishment with images and inscriptions, this article introduces the most important stages and caesurae that lead from the cell to the dormitory and back again to the cell.