The review concerns a collection of studies based on papers delivered and discussed at a conference held on 4-6 October 2012 in Mainz. It was organized within the framework of the research project "Monasteries in the Full Middle Ages. A laboratory for innovation in European lifestyles and models of order" (Klöster im Hochmittelalter. Innovatioslabore europäischer Lebensentwürfe und Ordnungsmodelle), in which researchers from the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, from the research centers in Heidelberg and Dresden are participating.