Cistercian Stories for Nuns and Monks: The Sacramental Imagination of Engelhard of Langheim, by Martha G. Newman

Abstract

In studies of the long twelfth century, a handful of individuals—Peter Abelard, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hugh of St Victor—have long taken centre stage in discussions of theological, intellectual and institutional change. In recent years, however, there has been a shift away from this focus on big-name celebrities towards a greater interest in the careers of local and regional actors, and the manuscripts that they commissioned or produced. Martha Newman’s study of Engelhard of Langheim’s exempla collection, written for a nearby community of Cistercian nuns, is itself an exemplary contribution to this revitalised micro-historical approach, using episodes and themes from Engelhard’s collection as a way of exploring and unpicking some of the key theological, liturgical and intellectual developments of the twelfth century. The first chapter sketches out Engelhard’s place in the world: after the death of his father he entered the Cistercian house of Langheim where, aside from a brief period as abbot at an unnamed house in Austria, he would remain for the rest of his life, participating in the exchange of books and letters with monks and nuns at other houses in the region. Among his correspondents were the nuns of the abbey of Wechterswinkel, for whom he composed a collection of exempla at some point in the late twelfth century.