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Most of the essays gathered in this volume are based on papers that were read at a conference held on the occasion of the international exhibition, The Secret of Silence. The Hidden World of the Carthusians of Roermond (27 March–21 June 2009), in the former charterhouse Our Lady of Bethlehem in Roermond (1376). The exhibition explored the history and spirituality of the Carthusians, highlighting the Order’s outstanding artworks now kept in private, national, and international collections. The current volume explores the history of the Carthusians and their cultural and spiritual heritage in the Low Countries. It presents Carthusian monasticism as a multidimensional phenomenon requiring a multidisciplinary approach that explains the broader historical dimension of the Carthusian Order in relation to its local manifestations, cultural forms, and the centrality of its spirituality. The book appears in the Miscellanea Neerlandica - Studia Cartusiana series at Peeters Publishers Leuven; see: http://www.cartusiana.org