Glastonbury come centro di potere nel Somerset fra X e XII secolo
Glastonbury as a centre of power in the Somerset area, from the X to the XII century

Summary/Abstract: After a period of cultural decline between the IX and the beginning of the X century, the following period was as a culminating point in Anglo-Saxon history, resulting in an unprecedented intense academic, artistic and monumental activity. The immediate cause of this revival was the reform involving the English monasteries, known as the Benedictine Reform brought in Glastonbury by its abbot Dunstan. It was a true renaissance: he expanded and remodelled the abbey and presided over an expansion of lands to support the building programme, perhaps a recovery of lands previously lost. Glastonbury was the wealthiest in England in the second half of the 11th century, even though the Conquest had disrupted its economic, and its spiritual, life. The 12th century brought both successes and misfortunes to the Abbey and its settlement: on the one hand there was the architectural flowering and the literary one, brought respectively by Henry de Blois and William of Malmesbury, on the other hand the Great Fire destroyed the complex in 1184.

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