Summary
"The discovery of fragmentarily preserved inscriptions on a floor from the High Middle Ages at the former Benedictine monastery of Oberpleis/Siegburg has proven to be an unexpected stroke of luck: The references to little known and previously concealed Latin texts provide new access to the formal imagery and living conditions of monastic life, to the local art and historical building approaches, and to the monks’ theological and philosophical attitudes. Every detail of the floor and of what have come to be known as the “stone retables of Oberpleis” are analyzed in the present volume, as the discovery of the aesthetics of a monastery from the Benedictine Reform. The “Oberpleis aesthetic” was characterized by perfectio phenomena of holistic connections integrating man and the cosmos in complete harmony, by precise word and number personifications, as well as by pictorial prototypes that had already been established by the cultures of ancient civilizations in Egypt and Rome."--From the publisher's website.