surrounded by scenes from Christ’s life, were also used. Stained glass was in the grisaille
technique without color. Cistercian grisaille windows feature beautifully designed foliate
or abstract patterns, which were probably intended to enhance contemplation and
meditation.
The Cistercians also produced illuminated manuscripts. Their most notable works
emanated from the scriptorium at Cîteaux and other Burgundian abbeys in the 12th
century. Some of these manuscripts follow Cistercian decorative edicts by using a
monochrome style where the emphasis is on page design, calligraphed script, and
arabesque initials. Other Cistercian manuscripts utilize illumination with tinted drawings,
as in the Bible of Stephen Harding. The initials constructed of human figures in some of
the Cîteaux manuscripts display an inventiveness and humor that reveal an added
dimension of Cistercian spirituality.
Karen Gould
[See also: BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX; CISTERCIAN ORDER; CÎTEAUX;
FONTENAY; LONGPONT; NOIRLAC; OURSCAMP; PONTIGNY; ROYAUMONT;
SÉNANQUE; SILVACANE; THORONET, LE]
Aubert, Marcel. L’architecture cistercienne en France. 2 vols. Paris: Vanoest, 1947.
Dimier, Anselme, and Jean Porcher. L’art cistercienne: France. Paris: Zodiaque, 1963.
Zakin, Helen Jackson. French Cistercian Grisaille Glass. New York: Garland, 1979.
Zaluska, Yolanta. L’enluminure et le scriptorium de Cîteaux au XIIe siècle. Nuits-Saint-Georges:
Cîteaux, 1989.
CISTERCIAN ORDER
. Within fifteen years of Cîteaux’s foundation by Robert of Molesme in 1098, the
monastery began to found daughter houses, as more monks came to join the New
Monastery than could be accommodated there. Between 1113 and 1115, the “four eldest
daughters” of Cîteaux were founded, La Ferté, Pontigny, Clairvaux, and Morimond.
Relations among all these houses were spelled out in the Carta caritatis (1114), which
emphasized the mutual love and obligations binding them together.
The Cistercian order grew quickly, as all four daughter houses began founding
daughters of their own, and Cîteaux founded additional houses. The earliest houses were
all located in the French duchy of Burgundy, but within a short period Cistercian houses
were being founded in other parts of France and in England, Germany, and Italy. A brief
and unsuccessful attempt was made in the 1150s to restrict the size of this rapidly
growing order. Each of the Cistercian houses had its own abbot, who was supposed to
visit the abbot of his mother house once a year and in turn was also supposed to visit
annually each of the daughter houses that his own monastery had founded. An annual
chapter-general brought together the abbots of all the houses at Cîteaux.
From the beginning, the Cistercian order distinguished itself by a greater austerity of
life than many other Benedictine monks. They took almost exclusively adult converts,
rather than child oblates. Cistercian houses were founded far from the cities, and the
monks emphasized manual labor rather than performance of the liturgy. The land they
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