Klosterbuch: An inventory of Saxon Monasteries

Editor-in-chief: Enno Bünz
Editors: Dirk Martin Mütze, Sabine Zinsmeyer

As spiritual communities, monasteries and religious foundations constitute fundamental and formative structural elements and social formations of the pre-modern constitution, society, economy, and culture. Their significance and their influence reach far beyond the ecclesiastical area. Monasteries and foundations were, next to the comprehensive network of the parishes, the most important connection between the Church and the world. The sequence of order foundations and reform movements - elements of a trans-regional, Europe-wide network and linkages -, demonstrate the persistent topicality and attractiveness of religious community formation in the Middle Ages. In addition, it was fanned out further by the manifestations of monastic and canonical lifestyles (monastery and foundation). As a manual and reference book, the “Klosterbuch” is at the basis of any future and farther reaching inquiries. Altogether, in the area of the present Free State of Saxony, 76 monasteries, foundations, and commanderies existed in the Middle Ages. During the period from 2010 to 2012, they were fundamentally examined in the “Klosterbuch” project.

The research project is financed by the Saxon State Ministry for Science and the Arts.