Hermits in the Metropolis

The Monks of the Marienzelle Charterhouse in Nuremberg (1380‒1525): An Interdisciplinary Study of Prosopography, Religious Life and Social Networks

Project duration: since May 2023
In cooperation with the DFG Research Training Group 2337 Per-modern Metropolitanism at the University of Regensburg
Further support: Private Foundation

The project’s focus is on the medieval Nuremberg Charterhouse founded in 1380 and dissolved in 1525 in the course of the Reformation. It was established during the still under-researched late medieval Carthusian heyday when many charterhouses showing a remarkable spatial and social proximity to urban society were founded.   

The project aims to produce a “thick description” of the individuals, religious identity, daily life and social networks in an urban charterhouse in Germany at the end of the Middle Ages as exemplified by the Nuremberg Charterhouse. Historical written sources as well as archaeological finds and features, including the monastic cemetery, will be evaluated.

By bringing together history/history of religious orders, physical anthropology and archaeology the project pursues the following interrelated key questions:

• Who were the Nuremberg Carthusians?
• What was the nature of their lives, their religiosity and their communication within the monastery?
• What kind of interactions took place between the charterhouse and the citizens of Nuremberg and how did the metropolitan environment influence the monastery’s religious life?

The project will access hitherto unedited or only partially edited archival material (charters, contracts, inventories of possessions), necrologies and library catalogues to draw conclusions about the monastic community and its social networks. It also seeks to reconstruct the monastery library and in doing so to obtain significant insights into religious identity and education at the time.