Bruno the Carthusian and his Mortuary Roll

Studies, Text, and Translation

Edited by Hartmut Beyer Edited by Gabriela Signori Edited by Sita Steckel

Book cover: Bruno the Carthusian and his Mortuary Roll

Extent: 338, 338 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Europa Sacra

Series volume number: 16

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(December 2014)

ISBN: 9782503550091

6.1 x 9.17 inches

Price: $120.00

In stock

The present volume offers the complete text of the mortuary roll of Bruno of Cologne ( 1101), founder of the Carthusian order, in an English and German translation, and five studies contextualizing this unique medieval source.


As founder of the Carthusian order, Saint Bruno of Cologne (a 1101) is known as a leading figure in the twelfth-century religious renewal. As recent research has emphasized, he was also one of the first proponents of a new intellectual culture of the French schools as a teacher at Reims before his conversion and retreat to the Italian hermitage of La Torre. Various contrary aspects of his life are commemorated in his mortuary roll, a unique document that was sent around churches and monasteries of Europe upon his death by his fledgling hermit community. Over 150 entries by individuals and monastic or clerical communities in Italy, France, and England, mostly in verse, survive in an early sixteenth-century text witness. In celebrating Bruno’s life and saintly death, the many-voiced entries comment upon intellectual and religious ideals, illustrating literary practices and intellectual and spiritual values as well as the pragmatic workings of memoria. The present edition includes all materials accompanying the sole surviving sixteenth-century print of the roll. It offers complete translations into English and into German, and includes five studies by experts debating the most important aspects and contexts of this singular and multi-faceted medieval text.

  • Edited by Hartmut Beyer
  • Edited by Gabriela Signori
  • Edited by Sita Steckel