Zusammenfassung / Abstract
St Benedict and the Benedictine Rule in the early Middle Ages: a cultural analysis based on the manuscripts” – This essay, conceived as a public evening conference at the conclusion of the study convention entitled Archive der Klöster und Orden vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (Vatican City, Campo Santo Teutonico, 23–25 November 2023), illustrates, from the perspective of the initial development of Benedictine monastic civilisation (6th-9th centuries), first of all the most precious manuscript testimonies of the first European diffusion of the Benedictine Rule. Still today, this text represents the point of reference for the spirituality and life of the monks of the Order of St. Benedict. The ‘written’ Rule was soon flanked in the monasteries by the ‘lived’ Rule, through the production of liturgical and practical-organisational customs. Thus, the Benedictine universe, with its Rule corroborated by experience and strong in its ‘Roman’ imprint, was able to intersect with the Carolingian cultural rebirth, the ideal basis of the future Europe, shaping it in turn and contributing in the wake of Cassiodorus to the transmission of the classical heritage, thanks to certain type of book, such as ‘Miscellaneous’, which especially at Monte Cassino and St. Gall was the object of production and study.