LA GRANDE CHARTREUSE — I. HISTORY
In 1084, St Bruno, accompanied by six companions—among them Landuino—at the suggestion of St Robert of Molesme and, it seems, of Seguino of Escotay, Abbot of La Chaise-Dieu, went to Bishop Hugh of Grenoble, who led them to one of his deserted lands on the Chartreuse massif, ceding the property to Bruno and his companions. At first they built simple huts arranged around an oratory; later, with the bishop’s help, the first monastery was constructed, which then served as a model. Attached to the church was a small cloister leading to the refectory, the chapter hall, and the guesthouse; then a larger cloister gave access to the monks’ cells, each separate and consisting of three small rooms for the eremitical life.
This was dedicated to contemplation, study, and the copying of manuscripts, as attested by the Benedictine abbots Guibert of Nogent and Peter the Venerable, who traveled as far as the Grande Chartreuse to visit the anchorites.
In 1090, St Bruno was summoned to Rome by Urban II, and at the Grande Chartreuse Landuino remained with those monks who had not followed Bruno. In 1099, Landuino visited St Bruno, who had retired to Calabria at the “Torre,” and obtained from him a letter for the hermits remaining at the Grande Chartreuse. This letter, known under the name of the Testament of St Bruno, forms the first nucleus of the Carthusian legislation.
Later, in 1127, the *Consuetudines* were drawn up and approved by Innocent II in 1133. In 1142, the first General Chapter was held at the Grande Chartreuse, and it was established that the Prior of the Grande Chartreuse should be the General of the entire Order; the first to hold this office was St Anselm, the seventh Prior of the Grande Chartreuse. In 1259, the Chapter approved the *Statuta antiqua* dictated by Fr Riffier; in 1368, the *Nova statuta* of de Raynald appeared; in 1508, the “third compilation” by du Puy. A new collection of statutes, prepared by Fr Carasse, was approved by the Chapter in 1581 and reprinted in 1679 by Fr Le Masson. Yet none of these changes ever altered the substance of the norms established by St Bruno, hence the saying: *Cartusia numquam reformata quia numquam deformata*.
Suppressed during the French Revolution in 1790, the monastery was reoccupied by the monks in 1816. Expelled again in 1904, they transferred to Farneta near Lucca; recently they have returned to the Grande Chartreuse.
Two kilometers from the monastery, in a wooded area, stands the chapel of Notre-Dame de Casalibus (1440), and a little further on, beneath a rock, the chapel of St Bruno, rebuilt in 1640 and restored in 1820; it is believed to occupy the site of the original hermitage.
Today, the library of Grenoble preserves thirty-six volumes from the dispersed library of the Grande Chartreuse; they include four complete Bibles, one of which dates from the time of St Bruno. In one of these Bibles are copies of the earliest donations received for the independence of the Grande Chartreuse.
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II. ART
Of the original building, the church survives today as the chapter hall, along with part of the cloister built in the 12th century by St Anthelm. A general reconstruction of the convent, destroyed by fire, was undertaken during the 1550s by the 50th General of the Order, Innocent Le Masson.
The convent essentially consists of two main structures flanking the church and is dominated by ten bell towers of varying heights. To the left of the main entrance is a building used to house poor visitors; women are not admitted within the convent precinct and are received in a separate building called the infirmary. A quadrangular courtyard opens before the main entrance; in it are two basins fed by the spring named after St Bruno. Beyond the courtyard lies a corridor 130 meters long, from which all the galleries connecting the various parts of the convent branch off. To the right and left of the corridor are large halls to receive foreign visitors. Further on are the domestic chapel, the church, the refectory, the kitchen, the pantry, several cells, as well as the residence of the Father General and a library containing more than six thousand volumes. The church, rebuilt after the fire of 1474, has simple, elegant lines and a very high, soaring vaulted ceiling. Beneath the library is a chapel with an altar decorated by a curious mosaic composed of fragments of roots from different trees. The chapter hall contains portraits of the first fifty Generals of the Order and twenty-two paintings depicting the life of St Bruno; their originals, painted by Le Sueur, are in the Louvre.
The great rectangular cloister is supported by 130 arcades that follow the uneven terrain and date from various periods. The oldest are pointed arches, while the most recent, round arches, date from the 17th century. In the center of the cloister is the cemetery, near the Chapel of the Dead founded in 1382; opposite stands another chapel dedicated to St Louis, built by King Louis