ABSTRACT
On the vigils of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, the church and cloister were decorated with foliage and flowers. At Bologna, the ancient abbey of Santo Stefano still carries on its twelfth-century facade an open-air brick pulpit, the outward and visible sign of a pastoral role it discharged to the surrounding city. The experience and mental furniture of a Benedictine monk living in the fifteenth century would have been different from those of a monk of the twelfth century, and the life-style and expectations of both would have differed from those of a monk living in a Carolingian abbey of the eighth century. The virtual elimination of manual work in favour of intellectual activities was partly the result of the great elaboration of the monk's liturgical duties. The work that went on in the scriptorium or writing-room was vital to the interior life of the monastery and it also provided an important service to the outside world.
