Normativity, unanimity and reform in the medieval codices of Alcobaça: from primitive times to the abaciado of Frei Estêvão de Aguiar

Abstract

From an inventory of normative texts included among the codices produced in the scriptorium of the monastery of Alcobaça during the Middle Ages, it is intended to equate its importance and functionality, both in the consolidation of a unanimity that Cîteaux sought to build and affirm around the same ideal of life, faithful to the original spirit of the Rule of Saint Benedict, as in the reform that, from the first decades of the 15th century, is introduced into Alcobaça monastery through abbots strongly marked by experiences of religious renewal and close to the royal court. Particular attention will be given to the government of abbot Estêvão of Aguiar (1431-1446) and his effort to translate the fundamental normative texts of the Order as a path to a renewed proposal of living the Cistercian ideal.