Centers of Power and Spiritual Life in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern Period: Mendicant Orders in the Context of Urban Development and Royal Patronage

Based on Jacques le Goff”s seminal work on urban development and mendicant orders, these types of investigations were in the front line of monastic studies during the last three decades. More recent investigations, at the same time, have shown that the general pattern of the mendicant presence as an urban indicator should be modified or at least partially modified in some areas, particularly in East-Central-Europe. Therefore, a comparative study between different parts of Central Europe (German towns, Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary) can be particularly important for the understanding of urban development in this region. Furthermore, a more general perspective of these issues in the Central-European, East-Central European and South-East-European monastic regions can contribute to our understanding of this complex research question. The comparison will be based on the general chronology of mendicant foundations and on the particular studies of those Mendicant institutions, where the influence of a court can also be seen (Prague, Buda, Visegrád, etc.). These examples and their comparative studies can highlight the problem of residence and mendicant foundations, and also the different approaches of the Franciscan and Dominican orders in Central Europe. Contributions to this workshop are based on different methodological approaches, including urban development, architectural history, courtly culture, mendicant hagiography, archaeology of royal residences, art and patronage, etc.