The Abbaye de Cluny was, from its foundation in 910 to its destruction after the French Revolution, a centre of Christianity. Through themes such as the forming of the Cluniac estate, the constitution of the monastic borough, the acts of the abbot-saints of Cluny, and the construction of the Maior Ecclesia and the elaboration of its decoration, the author brings back to life a monument whose spiritual and artistic influence spread throughout the medieval West.

This fourth title in the “Sensitinéraires” series, art books for the blind and partially sighted, allows the Abbaye de Cluny as it was in the days of its glory to be explored by touch. The reconstitutions, reproduced in the form of embossed images, are based on the best available knowledge—from the work of Kenneth John Conant (in the first half of the 20th century) to the virtual reconstructions of the Maior Ecclesia.

The holder of a doctorate in medieval history, former curator of the Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie Ochier in Cluny, and current director and chief curator of the Musée Rolin in Autun, Brigitte Maurice-Chabard is a specialist in artistic creation under Jean de Bourbon and Cluniac sculpture.