High Medieval Monasteries as Communities of Practice: Approaching Monastic Learning Through Letters

The theme of learning in high medieval monasteries can be approached by analysing such contexts as “communities of practice” on the basis of preserved monastic letters and letter-collections. The letters’ propagandistic function makes it extremely interesting to analyse the ways in which they represent learning in order to serve different purposes: to attract people to a monastery, to offer advice to members of monastic communities, and even to intervene in the debate that opposed monastic to secular and scholastic modes of study. Moreover, epistolary sources offer insights into the complex dynamics of social interactions within the monastery, in particular the plurality of learning agents and the reciprocal nature of learning exchanges. Therefore, this approach can offer a valuable contribution to the study of learning as a shared and dialectical process, which takes place through social interaction within a heterogeneous community. In addition, it helps to understand the way in which learning is linked to the shaping of identities, both individual and communal, because it affects and transforms the reciprocal social roles of the members of a monastic community.