#charterhouse

[fedrrri]

La Certosa di Firenze

10/10/2024

[postcard-from-the-past]

St. Hugon Charterhouse in Allevard, Dauphiné region of France

French vintage postcard

[glass-spark]

Research trip to Mount Grace Priory

An old interest in monks has resurfaced. I studied Carthusians once upon a time (their manuscripts, really). The interest flares up now and again. This meant that a visit I'd long put off was back on the cards. Drove down to Northallerton in North Yorkshire on Sunday to see the ruin of Mount Grace Priory.

Mountgrace was founded in 1398 by Thomas de Holand, a nephew of Richard II. Carthusians and their brand of piety was super-fashionable at the time (due to the strictness of their Rule and a general post-Black Death rethink) but having a founder connected to Richard II became a problem. In 1415, it was re-founded by Thomas Beaufort. Mountgrace only lasted until 1539, when the Suppression of the monasteries kicked in.

I was keen to look at the reconstructed monk's cell.

I took lots of photos.

Lots.

Here's a few.

View of the church and bell tower

Entering the monk's cell

Laybrothers cooked the food, were responsible for upkeep and general day-to-day activities under the watch of the Procurator. (Laybrothering was a prestigious position. A few bishops retired to take up the job.) Among lots of other jobs, they would deliver food into hatches like this so the monks wouldn't have to interact.

Straight ahead is the living quarters. The fireplace in this cell is smaller than the one found in the sacrist's cell.

Desk by the windows. Lots of natural light.

A place to rest yourself and your reading materials

A place to rest yourself (the Carthusian schedule is brutal).

If you turn left, there's a nice glazed, private cloister looking out onto the cell garden.

If you turn right at the entrance, a covered walkway leads to the garden, freshwater drinking pipe and latrine (both plumbed in. Monastery plumbing was something else. I've seen the plans for London Charterhouse).

More garden! Small fruit tree and exterior view of the glazed private cloister.

Exterior view of the cell from the garden.

Let's go back inside and go upstairs! (These stairs really are steep. Believe the sign next to the fireplace. You have to come down backwards.)

Upstairs, we find the workshop! Spinning, weaving, copying books, woodwork, lots of useful activity.

Once that bell rings, you've got to go to church. A huge covered cloister once connected all those doorways and led to the church.

Can't remember if this is the church or chapter house I'm standing in.

Would've been a lovely window here, I bet.

The guest house was in better condition, mainly because Sir Lowthian Bell decided to restore it (and reconstruct the monk's cell). Here it is from the gardens.

There's still some original red plasterwork from the 14th century.

There's a decent museum in the guest house too. If you're into the Arts and Crafts movement, there's some Morris and Co. wallpaper and furniture, plus a couple of restored rooms. I liked this 14th century stone window looking into an Arts and Crafts lounge.

A pretty good day's research! Definitely recommend the place. Absolutely worth the trip.

[sageglobalresponse]

PICTORIAL: Inside the most expensive school in Nigeria

Inside Charterhouse Lagos, A newly commissioned primary school in Lekki with its secondary school underway that charges N42m as a fee per annum.

Charterhouse Lagos is the first British independent school in West Africa and part of the prestigious Charterhouse family of schools.

Here are inside photos of the school which is set to resume in September.

[ghkasa]

Charterhouse to announce main sponsor of Ghana Music Awards alongside nominee unveiling

The 25th edition of the Ghana Music Awards is highly anticipated, as it promises to showcase the best talent in the music industry. The process began on 29th January 2024, when a call was made to the industry and its stakeholders to submit their works from 1st January to 31st December 2023. The response was overwhelming, with thousands of entries pouring in by the 29th of February. The nominees…

[normally0]

Prints arrived home today for the OCAS Biennial. Thank you @onlinereprographics; exquisite line work

[thegirlwhorunsforthetrain]

Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves.

“England looked strange to us returned soldiers,” Continue reading Untitled

[ancientstuff]

Good lord. What humans do to each other defies imagination sometimes.

[lizziestudieshistory]

Some current reads - I have no idea why I'm reading two French classics at once but clearly I'm in the mood.

[falsenote]

The Murri Affair (1974) / The Charterhouse of Parma (1982)

dir. Mauro Bolognini

[thatstudyblrontea]

The Charterhouse of Parma | ★★★★★/5

I've read this for the Set in Italy entry of the Tackle Your Classics reading challenge, and the Historical Fiction entry of the 2023 Genre Bingo. Tagging @lizziestudieshistory because we talked about Stendhal a while back – here are my thoughts on the book, it took me less than expected to finish it!!

Few books still prove to be as entertaining for the contemporary public as they (supposedly) were for their 19th century audience – The Charterhouse of Parma is one of these books for me. I enjoyed every page, it was a fun ride. Were the protagonists all perfect examples of moral conduct? Absolutely not, especially not to modern standards. But that's not why you'd read 1830s historical fiction. Yet, I loved the incredibly strong and complex female protagonists, whose actions lured me in deeper and deeper into the story, even in scenes where the "hero", Fabrizio, was being so egotistical it was getting ridiculous. The Duchess was an especially intriguing figure, showing all the strength and willpower it took to navigate the court of an absolute monarch as a woman, and to live as a widow, before that. Clelia showed a different kind strength, made of grace and perseverance, in sheer contrast to the passionate fury of the Duchess, but equally pleasing to read. Another thing that fascinated me was, to borrow Balzac's analysis, how Stendhal "surpasses the limits of the framework of the petty court intrigues of a small principality, [and] presents the typical basic structure of modern despotism. It shows us the constant types, which are necessarily produced by that society, in their most characteristic form" (adapted from György Lukács' essay at the end of my edition); in short, I loved the subtle irony and precise considerations with which he described the complex mechanisms typical of the absolute monarchies of his time. Representing all of their intrinsic contradictions necessarily called for morally ambiguous characters. And besides, I found many of the author's remarks really funny.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

SAINTS OF THE DAY (May 4)

The Carthusian Martyrs of London were the monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in the city of London who were put to death by the English state.

The method of execution was hanging, disembowelling while still alive, and quartering. Others were imprisoned and left to starve to death.

These 18 Carthusian monks were put to death in England under King Henry VIII between 1535-1540 for maintaining their allegiance to the Pope.

The Carthusians, founded by St. Bruno in 1054, are the strictest and most austere monastic order in the western Church.

They live an austere hermitic life, their ‘monastery’ actually being a number of hermitages built next to each other.

When Henry VIII issued his “Act of Supremacy” declaring that all who refused to take an oath recognizing him as head of the Church of England committed an act of high treason, these 18 Carthusians refused and were sentenced to death.

The first to die were the Carthusian prior of London, John Houghton, and two of his brothers, Robert Lawrence and Augustine Webster, who were hanged, drawn and quartered, on 4 May 1535.

The prior is said to have declared his fidelity to the Catholic Church and forgiven his executioners before dying.

The Carthusians were the first martyrs to die under the reign of Henry VIII.

Two more were killed on June 19 of that year. By 4 August 1540, all 18 had been tortured and killed for refusing to place their allegiance to the king before their allegiance to the Pope.

They were beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 29 December 1886.

John Houghton, Robert Lawrence, and Augustine Webster were canonized by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970.

[postcard-from-the-past]

Florence Charterhouse, Tuscany region of Italy

Italian vintage postcard

[bigfriedbassoon]

got really sad reading that article about the mass killing from the bronze age in Charterhouse Warren and honestly it's been a week and I'm still shaken by it. it's so easy for us to think that things were simpler when we were more exposed to nature and less buttressed in our niceties, but something really terrible took place there and it's so similar to the terrible things that happen now.

[willcodehtmlforfood]

[dduane]

Today's rather disturbing yet nonetheless fascinating and thought-provoking read

If you're going to engage with this material—and it is an examination of, literally, brutal and explicitly violent events—don't do so as fragmentary, incomplete shocker/clickbait headlines or quotes in some tabloid. Read the whole paper.

"The authors examine the physical remains and debate the societal tensions that could motivate a level and scale of violence that is unprecedented in British prehistory."