The Changes in the Pictorial Decoration of the Rule of St Benedict at Monte Cassino in the 10th and 11th Centuries

Abstract

This article discusses the changes in the reading of the Benedictine Rule at Monte Cassino through an analysis of the pictorial decoration of the Rule in the manuscripts produced in the abbey c. 920–1100. During that period of time, the fortunes of the monastic community changed drastically. It rose from one the darkest moments of its existence at the turn of the ninth century to an era defined as the abbey’s Golden Age under Abbot Desiderius (d. 1087). I examine how the changes in the world the monks lived in affected their reading of the constitutive text of the community. Throughout the whole period under discussion, the decoration of the Cassinese Rule books emphasized the symbolical value of the Rule as the cornerstone of the Cassinese identity. Yet, during the eleventh century, the focus moved from the symbolical value of the Rule more towards the contemplation of its contents. In that process, the first chapter “On the Kinds of Monks” rose to a central position partially replacing the former emphasis on the Prologue.