Monasteries contributed to every aspect of life during the middle ages, from the structures monks built, to land management, craft production to the intellectual and spiritual life of the medieval world. There were more than 300 orders or congregations in existence during the middle ages, yet scholarship considers only a small number of them (notably Cistercians and Cluniacs), and privileges selected sites, such as Mont Saint-Michel, San Francesco in Assisi or Christ Church in Canterbury. This volume considers the history and architecture of other congregations that are essential to a more complete understanding of monasticism in the European middle ages: Augustinians, lesser known Benedictines, Carthusians, Celestines, Clarissans, and Tironensians in France, as well as the Camaldolese and Vallombrosans in Italy.