In The Monk and the Book, Megan Hale Williams argues that Saint Jerome was the first to represent biblical study as a mode of asceticism appropriate for an inhabitant of a Christian monastery, thus pioneering the enduring linkage of monastic identities and institutions with scholarship. Revisiting Jerome with the analytical tools of recent cultural history - including the work of Bourdieu, Foucault, and Roger Chartier-Williams proposes new interpretations that remove obstacles to understanding the life and legacy of the saint.