Modern hospitality: medieval foundations

This paper reports on continuing doctoral research and specifically focuses on the development and regulation of hospitality in the Western European monasteries, from the beginning of the Middle Ages through to the Renaissance. It builds on previous research, into the Greco-Roman worlds, which had identified five key dimensions of hospitality. The establishment and development of the western monastic hospitality tradition is explored together with the changing significance of the monasteries in Western European development, and the adsorption of the principles of monastic hospitality into the secular world. Through the translation, modernisation and secularisation of monastic hospitality this paper demonstrates its relevance for the hospitality and tourism industries of today. A set of principals of hospitality provision and management have been derived which are instantly recognisable to modern hospitality managers, despite their mediaeval origins.