Cluny II e Montecassino: la ricerca della concinnitas del monastero a cavallo dello scisma d’oriente

An organic proposal of monasticism and a consequential syntactic architectural expression is achieved at the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th centuries. The proposals are represented by two great monasteries: Cluny of Odilone and Montecassino of Desiderio. Both express monastic architecture as a pulsating intellect by faith but are different in how they extrinsic its path. Since concinnitas is the harmony to be achieved between sensible elements and intelligible thought, to trace it in architecture, it is necessary to reflect on the relationships that inevitably shape it. The Liber Tramitis of the monk Giovanni, and the Chronicon monasterii Casinensis of Leo Marsicano, are the sources that attest to us how, from the structure of the respective monasteries, can emerge a dialectic and a different way of realizing a concinnitas between theology, liturgy, and architecture. Syntax organization expresses two different visions of the path to be taken. Odilon’s construction of Cluny is a masterpiece that will be further topped by Cluny III, the largest basilica of Christianity in Europe at the time. At the same time, Montecassino is not as large but is very beautiful and is the result of the inspired study. The work aims to clarify, based on drawings from Conant’s earlier studies and more recent archaeological studies, the architectural framework that will inform the Italian peninsula on the one hand and the Franco-Germanic Central European area on the other. The critical interpretation of the drawings through proportions, orders, and measures investigate architecture with building mass; the concept of beauty, as truth. The corpus of drawings and descriptions testifies to the different interpretations of the role of monastic life in society.