Special Collections & Rare Book Room

Waldo Library, #3016
Phone: 269-387-5221
Fax: 269-387-5077
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Cistercian and Monastic Studies Collection

Institute of Cistercian Studies Collection

One of our largest collections is the Cistercian manuscript and rare book collection known as the Institute of Cistercian Studies Collection (ICS), which contains medieval manuscripts, incunabula (books printed before 1501), and other books printed before 1800.

These materials have been placed on permanent loan here at Western Michigan University by a number of American Cistercian (O.C.) and Trappist (O.C.S.O.) monastic communities. Prominent among our holdings is the Obrecht Collection from the Abbey of Gethsemani. The Cistercians are a contemplative monastic order founded by reformist Benedictines in France, in 1098. The earliest manuscript in the ICS collection dates from before 1140.

Printed works in the collection cover every aspect of Cistercian history and include many early editions of the works of St. Bernard. The collection is also one of the best collections, in the United States, of editions of the Rule of St. Benedict.