Cistercian tiles

Byland Abbey, the altar end of the abbey church.

Jamie St. Clair Collings (Centre for Medieval Studies, U of Toronto) presented a paper in Kalamazoo 2026 on "Tiles and the Role of Geometricity in Later 12th- and 13th-c. Cistercian Spiritual Practice." These examples of Cistercian craftsmanship have often been neglected because they are difficult to find. Most abbeys (whether ruins or vibrant communities) don't have these floors in their churches. The tile designs show simple geometrical forms in the tradition of grisaille windows and the geometrically decorated manuscripts we consider to be classically Cistercian. The strictness was used to avoid curiositas. Abbeys had their own quarries and kilns. Collings stated that is was remarkable that the first regulation of tiles by the General Chapter took place as late as 1218.

A reconstruction in the Fountains' abbey muniments room (though they would not have been located there originally)

​Compare the Cistercian examples to these highly decorative tiles at Westminster Abbey.

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