A study of life inside medieval monasteries that explores monastic spirituality, daily routines, contact with the outside world, and the historical impact of these foundational institutions on the Western world. How did the Western monastic tradition begin? What was monastic life typically like for a monk or nun? How was the institution of the monastery formative to Western culture from antiquity through the Middle Ages? This book covers the entire span of monastic history in the late-ancient and medieval periods and provides an in-depth look at several monasteries across Europe. Each chapter introduces the reader to the surviving evidence for the houses studied, such as its monastic rules, plans, records of visitation, chronicles, and biographical accounts; and aims to give an "insider" view-not only of monks' and nuns' daily activities, but what these dedicated individuals' values, ambitions, and aspirations might have been. Surveys the history of the monastery, describing its origins, purpose, geographic spread, and impact on the larger society Provides a glimpse of the rich and often idiosyncratic evidence that survives for medieval monasteries Emphasizes the pervasiveness of monasticism in medieval Europe, the versatility of the monastic tradition, and its remarkable survival Brings to life the interior experience of a typical monk or nun, allowing readers to understand what draws some individuals to the monastic life

Animal Metropolis brings a Canadian perspective to the growing field of animal history, ranging across species and cities, from the beavers who engineered Stanley Park to the carthorses who shaped the city of Montreal. Some essays consider animals as spectacle: orca captivity in Vancouver, polar bear tourism in Churchill, Manitoba, fish on display in the Dominion Fisheries Museum, and the racialized memory of Jumbo the elephant in St. Thomas, Ontario. Others examine the bodily intimacies of shared urban spaces: the regulation of rabid dogs in Banff, the maternal politics of pure milk in Hamilton and the circulation of tetanus bacilli from horse to human in Toronto. Another considers the marginalization of women in Canada's animal welfare movement. The authors collectively push forward from a historiography that features nonhuman animals as objects within human-centered inquiries to a historiography that considers the eclectic contacts, exchanges, and cohabitation of human and nonhuman animals.