부산대학교 도서관

Principal assembly hall in a medieval religious community, whether monastic, canonical, or secular, normally located next to the church in the eastern range of the cloister. The chapter house first appeared in the 9th or 10th century and subsequent examples are to be found in all countries of western Europe; they are still sometimes constructed for the use of modern monastic communities. The chapter house is so named became it was there that a chapter of the Rule of St Benedict was read aloud each day to the assembled community (see Benedictine Order, §1). This is the oldest component of what by the 11th century came to be a meeting with multiple purposes. So essential was this reading that the assembly itself was also known as chapter. Benedict of Nursia (c. ad 480–547) called for his Rule to be ‘read aloud often’, so that monks would constantly be reminded of the structure that regulated their existence and encouraged to rededicate themselves to the goals of the monastic life. The saint, however, left no specifications as to the frequency of such readings, nor did he stipulate where they should take place. As a result, there was for some time considerable variation in the way his requirements were met, with meetings being held daily, weekly, or semi-weekly (either in the morning or at night) and in the church, the dormitory, or some other room of the monastic complex. No structures intended solely for these meetings were to be built for several hundred years....