International Conference "The Architecture of the Cassinese Congregation, 15th-18th Centuries", January 30 - February 1, 2025.
Curated by Gianmario Guidarelli with the collaboration of Ilaria Papa, Paola Placentino and Riccardo Tonin.

The University of Padua (ICEA Department), in collaboration with the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura "Andrea Palladio"/Palladio Museum and the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua, is organising a conference dedicated to the architecture of the Cassinese Benedictine Congregation that will be held in Padua and Vicenza on January 30-31 and February 1, 2025.

The conference is part of the PRIN 2022 research project "CoenoBIuM. Art and Architecture of the Cassinese Benedictine Congregation (XV-XVIII centuries): digital and spatial analysis strategies through BIM models", which studies the architectural and artistic practice of the Cassinese Benedictine Congregation from its foundation until the end of the 18th century from a comparative perspective and with the use of the innovative and experimental Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology. The project is coordinated by P.I. Gianmario Guidarelli (University of Padua), is structured in three Research Units belonging respectively to the Universities of Padua, Bologna (Associated Investigator: Sonia Cavicchioli) and Brescia (Associated Investigator: Paolo Borin), and gathers a team of professors and young researchers.

The Reform of the monastic life, instituted by Ludovico Barbo and formalized in 1419, revolutionized the Benedictine monasteries by reorienting monks’ lives towards contemplation and personal prayer. This new model of monastic life entailed the transformation of cenobitic spaces of the cenobia, and the introduction of new theological and iconographic themes in painting and sculpture in the congregation's churches and monasteries. This broad topic of study was inaugurated by the studies of James Ackerman (1977), Mary-Ann Winkelmes (1996) Bruno Adorni (1998), Guido Beltramini (1995, 2007, 2013), Andrea Guerra (2006) and Tracy Cooper (2005) and further developed in the 2017 conference "Network of Cassinese Arts" (organised by Alessandro Nova and Giancarla Periti, KHI Florence). The "CoenoBIuM" project aims to verify this hypothesis using the BIM methodology, which facilitates the management of large amounts of data of different nature (archival, bibliographic, iconographic, material, geometric-spatial) within a framework of interdisciplinary collaboration; the project will gradually extend to the study of the entire network of monasteries of the Congregation, thanks to the sharing of data (open access) and results (thematic seminars, conferences and publications).

The conference will focus on the building practices and architecture of the Congregation. It welcomes studies on individual monasteries but also on the following general thematic issues:

- shared building regulations
- shared building practices: site management and economy
- circulation of architects, workers, materials
- relationship with local building traditions
- relationship with the urban and territorial context
- circulation and use of architectural drawings
- relationship with treatises
- antiquarian culture: spatial models and architectural language
- spatial models of other contemporary congregations: Olivetans, Laterans…
- spatial models of reference: Cistercians, Dominicans, Canons Regular, etc.
- relations with other reformed Benedictine congregations in Europe (France, Germany, etc.)
- the Cassinese congregation as a model for the architecture of the new Counter-Reformation congregations
- architecture and monastic life: liturgy and spirituality in relation to spaces

Paper proposals, consisting of a short abstract (250 words max.) and a short CV, should be sent as an e-mail attachment to coenobiumdicea.unipd.it by 31 August 2024.

Accepted proposals will be announced by 15 September 2024.
The proceedings of the conference will be published.
For further information : https://www.dicea.unipd.it/coenobium-architettura-congregazione-cassinese-2024