CLOISTER (Claustrum). - In the monastic sense it indicates, in remote times, that enclosed site which, according to the most ancient rules of St. Pachomius, of St. Basil, of Sts. Paul and Stephen, etc., the monks were not to cross without the superior's permission. Even in the Rule of St. Benedict (IV, 67, ed. C. Butler, Freiburg im Br. 1912, pp. 21 and 118) the claustra monasterii indicate the enclosure of the monastery and not what would later be called the cloister. The Councils of Frankfurt in 794, of Mainz and of Tours in 813 and of Aachen in 816 still express themselves in this sense, as do many constitutions of the Carolingian era, when they mention claustra monachorum canonicorum and clericorum without further specification, yet without departing from the sense that emerges from the following passage of the Brevilogium: « Claustrum dicitur inhabitatio religiosorum, vel domus includens monachos et moniales sub certa regula viventes ».
The idea of grouping near the church both the quarters of the common life of the monks — such as the chapter hall, the refectory and the library — and those for their particular needs, that is the kitchen, the oven, the workshops, etc., was suggested later by the need to make the monks' passage quicker, since they were frequently summoned to church by day and by night, and to spare them the inconveniences of bad weather.
Yet the system of distributing these rooms around a courtyard was not immediately understood uniformly, as the plans of the Egyptian monasteries of Saqqarah and of Dejr, of that of Saqqah in Syria, which goes back to the 5th century, of that of el-Barah and of the monasteries of Mount Athos themselves, inform us. Only in the life of St. Philibert, who built the church and the monastery of Jumièges (Vita s. Filiberti abbat. Gemeticensis, ch. 7: J. Mabillon, Acta SS. O. S. B., II, ad an. 684), does one begin to glimpse something real that preludes what would finally prevail in the monasteries of the West. The small cloister adjoining the basilica of St. Vincent at the Tre Fontane in Rome, which Hübsch dates back to the 7th century, is the oldest example, in Western monasteries, of the square or rectangular space surrounded by porticoes onto which open the rooms prescribed by the rule, even if later the workshops would be moved away to different places. The great monastery of St. Gall, which goes back to the year 820, also offers, in its splendid state of preservation, a cloister beside the church, very similar to that of St. Anastasius at the Tre Fontane.
But in the 9th century the position of the cloister in relation to the whole complex of the monastery's buildings was not yet irrevocably fixed: for the reconstruction of the monastery of Fulda, which took place in the first quarter of that century, while some monks wanted it contra partem meridianam basilicae, others demanded it « romano more », contra plagam occidentalem (Candidus, Vita Eigilis, 22). In any case the cloister, with the corresponding systematic distribution around it of the rooms necessary to the life of the monks, had by now become an indispensable element of the Western monastery, like the peristyle in ancient Roman houses.
Bibliography
Alberto Galietti
ART
The idea of a porticoed courtyard serving to give access to the rooms in monastic buildings is due to the practical needs of cloistered life; its relation to the peristyle of Roman villas is perhaps accidental; more logical is that with the paradisius in front of the early Christian basilicas, adapted to conventual requirements.
From the uncertain descriptions that have come down to us of Benedictine abbeys it cannot be inferred that a cloister in its present form existed from the beginning; but a positive piece of evidence confirming its diffusion is provided by the canons of the already mentioned Councils of Frankfurt (794), Mainz (813), Tours (813) and Aachen
(816). In the Middle Ages it was used not only in monasteries but also in cathedral and collegiate churches. At present no cloisters earlier than the 11th century survive, but a much older representation is found in the famous plan of the monastery of St. Gall (c. 820), from which its existence in the other contemporary Benedictine monasteries (Farfa, Fulda, Montecassino, before the rebuilding by Abbot Desiderius) can be inferred with almost certainty.
The square or slightly elongated rectangular plan prevails, with at the center the cântaro for ablutions derived from the paradisius (SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome), which was later replaced by the cistern with its wellhead that would last throughout the 16th century (S. Spirito in Florence, S. Martino in Naples) and would then be replaced by the fountain (S. Chiara in Naples). Besides this cloister beside the church, giving access to the rooms of common use (refectory, dormitory, Chapter house), in the great abbeys there was another, more internal one reserved for the abbot and the authorities, close to the library and the infirmary. The first also served for the burial of laypersons (SS. Annunziata in Florence); in the Charterhouses the great cloister often gives direct access to the monks' cells (Pavia, S. Maria degli Angeli in Rome).
Already in the 11th century a certain uniformity is noticeable in the general layout, owing to the limitation of the openings, mostly supported by paired small columns (S. Cosimato in Rome, S. Lizier near the Pyrenees), to the ground floor only, the superimposition of arcades being entirely exceptional (Torri near Siena, with a triple loggia).
A greater stylistic variety comes from the adoption of figured capitals (Moissac, St-Cugat del Vallès, Gerona and many other Spanish cloisters), while in Rome classical reminiscences survive (SS. Quattro Coronati, S. Lorenzo fuori le mura) which would be developed and enriched by a search for pictorial effects in the work of the Cosmati and the Vassalletto (v.), culminating in the masterpieces of S. Giovanni in Laterano and S. Paolo fuori le mura.
The Gothic style imported by the Cistercians (v.) produces works of transition in southern Lazio (Fossanova), in the Viterbo area (S. Maria della Verità) and in northern Italy (S. Andrea in Vercelli), while the Mezzogiorno is affected by Eastern influences in structure (horseshoe arches in S. Sofia in Benevento) and in the polychrome decoration that sometimes achieves fantastic effects (Monreale).
In the countries beyond the Alps the Gothic tendencies are manife-
display themselves with a variety of expressions, from the slender elegance of Mont St-Michel to the severe imposingness of Poblet to the late decorativism of St-Juan de los Reyes in Toledo.
The persistence of the Romanesque tradition in Tuscany (green cloister of S. Maria Novella, 1350) means that even in this field the region is ready to be the first to welcome the Renaissance forms realized by Brunelleschi (S. Croce) and by Michelozzo (S. Marco). These schemes were brought to Rome by Giuliano da Sangallo (S. Pietro in Vincoli) and at the same time developed in Lombardy (Certosa di Pavia), to reach their most mature expression in the works of Bramante (S. Ambrogio and S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan, S. Maria della Pace in Rome). The new sense of proportion manifests itself in the adoption of a single module in place of the grouping of openings and supporting elements. In this period, Spain (the great cloister of St. James of Compostela) and Portugal (S. Maria di Belem) stand out for the singularity of local styles produced by the superimposition of Renaissance currents upon traditional forms.
The movement of the Counter-Reformation does not bring any special modifications to the type of the cloister, which follows the general evolution of architectural forms: it should only be noted that, because of the increasingly frequent suppression of the parapet, which accentuated the character of open corridors along the wings, it tends to be transformed into an ordinary porticoed courtyard. Perhaps only Michelangelo at S. Maria degli Angeli succeeds in creating that atmosphere of severe recollection which brings us back to the original tradition. Only in part do Ammannati (second cloister of S. Spirito) and Dosio (S. Martino in Naples, continued by Fanzago) achieve this effect.
In the seventeenth century, the work of Borromini also stands out in this field for its genius of conception; in the cloister of S. Carlino in Rome he introduces the motif of the serliana and annuls every sense of spatial limitation.
Opposite currents succeed one another and overlap in the eighteenth century, from the illusionistic conception of the cloisters of Montecassino to the garden-like spaciousness enlivened by the polychromy of the majolica in S. Chiara in Naples, to the classicizing imposingness of S. Agostino in Rome, to the icy academicism of the cloister of the Capuchins in Paris.
In the nineteenth century, the work of Carimini stands out; in Rome, although with some decorative eclecticism, he achieves expressions appropriate to the theme in S. Antonio da Padova and in the monastery of the Sisters of Cluny. - See Plates XCVI-XCVII.
Bibliography5 works
Mario Zocca