Prouille,Madrid, Rome: the evolution of the earliest Dominican Instituta for nuns

The lifestyles of the three earliest Dominican women's communities were formulated according to their specific historical conditions and exigencies during the years 1206–21. Initially, the women associated with the preaching mission of Diego of Osma and Dominic Guzman were based at Prouille in the Languedoc and followed the Augustinian Rule. The development of the first instituta for Dominican nuns was the result of 15 years of overseeing the lives of the sisters. However, enclosure, and the institutional requirement for its observance, only came about in 1220 with the establishment of San Sisto, when St Dominic wrote an instituta specifically intended for a cloistered nunnery. This paper retraces and elucidates the historical development of the first Dominican instituta for women, and considers the remarkable choice of the Augustinian Rule as the basis for an enclosed women's order.     

Prouille,Madrid, Rome: the evolution of the earliest Dominican Instituta for nuns

The lifestyles of the three earliest Dominican women's communities were formulated according to their specific historical conditions and exigencies during the years 1206–21. Initially, the women associated with the preaching mission of Diego of Osma and Dominic Guzman were based at Prouille in the Languedoc and followed the Augustinian Rule. The development of the first instituta for Dominican nuns was the result of 15 years of overseeing the lives of the sisters. However, enclosure, and the institutional requirement for its observance, only came about in 1220 with the establishment of San Sisto, when St Dominic wrote an instituta specifically intended for a cloistered nunnery. This paper retraces and elucidates the historical development of the first Dominican instituta for women, and considers the remarkable choice of the Augustinian Rule as the basis for an enclosed women's order.     

Aristocratic patronage,political networking and the shaping of a private sanctuary: Countess Clemence of Flanders and the early years of Bourbourg Abbey (c.1103–21)

This article discusses the geopolitical manoeuvres of the comital House of Flanders, especially of Countess Clemence of Burgundy, to consolidate comital influence and power in the border region of western Flanders, specifically in the area of Bourbourg. By analysing and mapping the shifting patterns of interaction between alliances of both secular and ecclesiastical stakeholders in the charters issued for the abbey of Bourbourg, a female house, during the first decades of the twelfth century, it argues that the foundation and patronage of Bourbourg were engineered to create a symbolic and geo-strategic key site where the interests of the counts of Flanders and their local representatives, the abbot of Saint-Bertin, and members of the local elite converged, and alliances balanced each other. Moreover, through an anthropological approach in which the charters are also considered within the supra-institutional context of the reform movement, this study offers new insights into the dynamic role of Countess Clemence as a promoter and benefactor of Bourbourg Abbey, and also as a manager of her personal network of allies.