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E r ic P a la z z o
A HISTORY
OF LITURGICAL BOOKS
from the B eg in n in g
to the Thirteenth Century
T r a n s l a t e d b y M a d e l e i n e B e a u m o n t
A P U E B L O B O O K
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This book was initially published in French under the title i e Moyi’tt Age: Dcs
origincs au XWtone $i$c!e © 1993 by BEAUCHUSN'E BDITKUR.
A Pueblo Book published by The Liturgical Press
Design by Frank Kacmarcik, Obl.S.B. Co ver illustration: manuscript, Gospel
Book dedication page, H ildcsheim, ca. 10 15 , A PI,.
© 1998 by The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota. A ll rights
reserved. N'o part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping,
or any retrieval system, without the written permission o f The liturg icalPress, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321. Printed in the United States of America.
Library ot Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Palazzo, Eric.
IMoyen Age. Englishl
A history o f liturgical books from the beginning to the thirteenthcentury / Eric Palazzo ; translated by Madeleine Beaumont,
p. cm.
"A Pueblo book."
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.
ISBN 0-8146-6167-X (alk. paper)
t Catholic Church— Liturgy— Texts— History and criticism
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For Claudia
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Contents
List o f Bibliographical A bb reviation s xiiiPreface by Pierre-Marie Gy, O.P. xvi i
Preface to the En glish L an gu age Kdition xix
A cknow ledgm ents xxi
The Liturgical Year: H istory and D efinition xxiii
Introduction xxv
P A R T O N E : H I S T O R I O G R A P H Y O F
T H E R E S E A R C H O N L I T U R G I C A L B O O K S 1
I. T HE SCIEN CE OF THK LIT U R G Y 3
1. Precursors (Seventeenth to Nineteenth Cen turies) 3
2. L iturgical Rene wal in the Tw entieth Cen tury 4
3. Liturgica l Stu dies after Vatican II 5
II. S T U D IE S O N L I T U R G I C A L B O O K S 7
t. H istoric R ev iew of the Research 7
2. Research on Latin Liturgical Books of the Middle
A ges in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centurie s
A Rapid R eview o f the Research on Different Books
Theoreticians and N ew Orientations of Research 15
P A R T T W O : T H E B O O K S O F T H E M A S S 19
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The Calend ar 23
The Ordo Missae 24
M ass Formularies (Temporal, Sanctoral,
Com mon of Saints, Votive Masses) 24The "Ritual Ordiucs" 26
The Blessings 27
2. Ancient and Modern Nam es for the Sacramentar)' 27
References in Liturgical and Other Texts 28
3. History of the Sacramentarles o f the High M iddle A ges 35The Sacram entarles before the Sacramentarles:
A t the Dawn of Liturgical Books 36
The Liturgical Libelli 37
The Leonine Sacramentary 38
History o f the Book 39
Nature o f the Book 40Origin and Date 40
Descendants of the Book 41The Gelasian Sacramentarles 42
The Old Gelasian (after Vat. Regin. 316 ) 42
History o f the Book 44
Nature o f the Book and Date o f Com position 45
Content o f the Book 45Descendants and Historical Importance o f the Book 45
The Kighth-Century Gelasian or Frankish Gelasian 46
History o f the Book 46
Origin and Date o f the Archetype 47
Nature and Content of the Book 48
The Gregorian Sacramentarles 48
History SoNature and Origin of the Book 51The Gregorian o f the Hadriiwum Type 51
The Type 2 Gregorian (PnduMisc) 54
Th e Pre-Hadrianic Gregorian 54
Evolution o f the Main Types o f Sacramentarles between
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II. THE BOOKS OF CH AN T 63
1. History of Liturgical Chant in the I ligh M iddle Ages 63
2. The Ch ants of the Roman M ass 65The Chan ts o f die Proper 65
The Chants o f the Ordinary 66Enrichment of the Chant at M ass 67
Liturgical and Cod icological Preliminaries 68
3. The Antiphonal o f the M ass or Grad ual 69
History 70Nature and Content of the Book 70
Origin, Date of Com position, and Kvolution 71
Historical Importance of the Antiphonal of the M ass 72
4. The Gradual O utside the Gradual (or Antiphonal of the
Mass) 73
5. The Cantatorium 74
6. The Troper 75
7. Other Forms o f Books 78
8. Illustration o f the Chant Books o f the H igh Midd le Age s 79
III. T H E BOOKS OF REA D ING S 831. History of the Liturgical Readings for the M ass 83
2. The Lists of Pericopes before the Books of Readings 86
3. The Early Forms o f the Books of Read ings 87
4. The Lists of Pericopes or Capitularies 89
5. The Book of Go spels with the Capitulare F.vangelionwi:
the Evangeiiary 91
Content of the Cap itularies and Evange liaries 94
6. The Capituhre l.ectiomun and Epistolary 97
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P A R T T H R E E : T H E B O O K S O F TH K O F F IC E i n
! . HIST ORY A ND F U NCT ION OF T HE OF F ICE IN
T HE W EST 1 1 3
1 . Recalling Som e Historical Facts 1 1 3
O rigins of the Prayer o f the H ours 1 1 3
O rigins o f the Office in the West (Fourth to Sixth Cen tim es) 1 15
Th e Rom an O ffice in the M iddle A ges (Sixth lo Fifteenth
Centuries) 117
2. Rites, Spirituality, and Structure of the Office 11 9
The Rites an d Officiants 120
Structure and Spirituality of the flo u rs 12 2
Simplified Structure of the Content of the H o l u s of
the Rom an M ona stic Office (Benedictine Form ) 124
Definitions o f the Principal Elem ents o f the O ffice 125
II. CH AN T AT THE O FFICE 129
1. Th e Psalter 129
The M anuscripts 130
Decoration o f the Psalter 1 32
2. The An tiphona l of the O ffice 134
Content o f the An tiphon al 13 5The M anuscript Tradition 136
Historical Importance o f the A ntiph onal o f the Office 139
3. The Hym nal 14 1
History, Forms, and Functions of H ym ns 14 1
The H ym n Repertories 142
Th e M anu script Tradition 143
II I. PRA Y ER A T T HE O F F ICE: T HE CO LLEC T A K 14 5
N ature and Content of the Book 145
The M anuscript Tradition J47
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3. The H agiographic Read ings and Their Books 156
4. The Lection ary o f the Office 158
V. TH E BO O KS OF TH E O FF IC E OF P R IM E 16 1
1. The Office in C hap ter after Prime 162
2. Th e Ch apter Book 164
3. Th e M artyrology 165
4. Th e N ecrolog y and O bituary t66
V I. G E N E S IS AN I> D E V E L O P M E N T O F T H E B R E V IA R Y
P A R T F O U R : T H E H O O KS O F
S A C R A M E N T S A N D R IT E S 173
I. THE O R D i N E S R O M A N I 175
x. History of the Ordines Romani 176
2. Nature of the Ordines Romani 17 7
3. The Ordines Romani in the M anu scripts 17 7
4. H istory and Content o f the Co llections of
Ordines Romani and Other Ordines 179
5. Th e Rom an Collection or Collection A 182
6. Th e G allicanized Collection or Collection B 183
7. Th e G allican Co llections 184
II. TH E RIT U AL S 187
1. Definition and Function o f the M ediev al Ritual 188
2. The Ritual in the Libelti: Form s and Functions 189
3. The Co m posite Rituals 19 1
4. Th e M edieva l Designations o f the Ritual 192
III THE PO N TIFIC A L THE BOOK OF TH E BISHO P 195
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3- Th« Ro m ano -Gc rm anic Pontifical 201
N ature and Content of the RG P 201
Th e M anu script Tradition 203O rigin, D ate, and H istorical Circum stanccs of
the Crea tion of the RG P 204
4. The Rom an and N on-Rom an Pontificals 207
5. Illustration o f the Pontifical 209
IV. T HE CU ST O M A R IES 2 13
1. H istory o f the M edieval Cu stom aries 2 14
2. N ature and Conten t of the C ustom aries 2 1 5
y. Historical and Liturgical Interest o f the C usto m aries 2 18
V. T H E O R D IN A R IE S 221
1. H istory of the O rdinary and Attempt at Typ ology 222
2. Historical an d Liturgical Interest o f tine O rdin aries 226
V I. TH E P R O C E SSIO N A L S 229
Content and History o f the Processional 229
V II. TH E C E R E M O N IA L S 233
Conclusion 237
Selected B ibliogra ph y 241
Index of Persons 245
Index o f Places 249
Index o f Liturgical Pieces 253
index o f M anuscripts 255
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List of Bibliographical Abbreviations
A ndrieu , OR = M. Andrieu. Les "Ord ines romani” du haul Moyen Age. Spicilegium sacrum lovaniense ï i , 23, 24, 28,29. Louvain, 1931-
1961.
A ndrieu , Port/j/fart/ = M. A ndrieu , Le pontifical romain <tu Moyen Age.
Vol. 1 , Le pontifical romain du X IIe siècle. Vol. 2, Le pontifical romain
de la Curie romaine au XIIe siècle. Vol. 3, Le pontifical de Guillaume
Duraud. Vol. 4, Tables alphabétiques. Stud i e Testi 86 -88 ,99 . VaticanCity , 1938-1940, 1941 .
Baroffio, "Man oscritti lilu rg ici" = " l manoscritti liturg ici." Guida a mut
descrizione uniforme dei manoscritti e al loro cettsimenfo. Ed. V. Jem olo
and M. Morelli, 145-200. Rome, 1990.
Becker, Catabgie = C. Bccker. Catalogi Biblioihecarum Anliqui. Bonn,
1885.
Bischofr, Schatzverzcicfinisse = B. Bischoff. Mitlela llerliche Schatzverze-
ichnisse. Vol. 1, Von der Zcit Karts des Grossen bis zur M itle des 13 .
jahrlninderts. Munich, »967.
Brommer, Cap. Ep. = Capitula Episcopontm. Vol 1. M GH . Ed. P Brommer.
Hannover, 1984.
C C Sl. = C orpu s C hristianorum : Séries latina. Tum hout.
Ch avasse, "Ev an gé liaire" = A . C ha vasse. "Eva n géliairc, épistolier, an-
tiphonaire et sacramentaire: Les livres romains de la messe aux
VIIe et V l i r siècles." Ecclesia Orans 6 (1989) 177-225.
C N R S = Centre National d e Recherches Scientifiques [National Cen ter
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Minn., 1986-1987 |A.-G. Martimort, ed. L'Eglise en Prière. Vol. 1,
Principes de la lil tirgie. Vol. 2 , L'Eucharistie. Vol. 3, Les sacrements.
Vol. 4, La liturgie et le temps. Paris, 1983-1984].
CRME = Centre de Recherche sur le Manuscrit Enluminé [Center for
Research on Illuminated ManuscriptsJ.
Deshusses, Grégorien = J. Deshusses. I.e sacramentaire grégorien: Sea
principales fo rmes d'après ies plus anciens manuscrits. With bibliogra
ph y and historiograph y o f the research. Vol. i y \ j >sacramentaire, le
supplément d'Aniane. Vol. 2, Textes complémentaires pour lu messe.
Vol. 3 ,Textes complémentaires dmers. Spicilegium friburgense 16, 24,28. Fribourg, 1971 , 1979/19^2.
Ebner, M issale Romanutn = A . Ebner. Quellen und Forschungen zur
Geschichte und Kunstgeschichte des Missale Romanum hn Mittelaller:
Iter italicum. Freiburg, 1896.
Ekenberg, C ur canlaltir = A. Ekenberg. Cur canlatur? Die Funktionen
des liturgischen Gesanges nach den Autoren de r karolingerzeil. Stockholm, 1987.
Fiala and Irtenkauf, Liturgische Nomenklatur = V. Fiala and W. Irlenkauf.
"Versuch einer Liturgischen Nomenklatur." Z u r Kotabgiesierung
Mittelalterlicher und Neuerer Handschriften, Zeitschrift für Biblio
thekswesen un d Bibliographie, special issue (Frankfurt am Main,
1 9 6 3 ) 1 0 5 - 1 3 7 -Gamber, CLLA = K. Gamber. Calices liturgici latini antiipiiores. 2 vois.
Spicilegii friburgensis Subsidia i (Fribourg, 1963, 1964). Supple-
mentum, Ergänzungs- und Registerhand. Spicilegii friburgensis Sub-
sidia lA . Fribou rg, 1988.
Gy, "Collectaire" = P.-M. Gy. "Collectaire, rituel, processionnal."
Revue des Sciences philosophiques et Ihéologiques 44 (i960) 441-469 .rpt. in La liturgie dans l'histoire, 9 1-12 6 . Paris , 1990.
Hesbert, A M S » R.-J. Hesbert. Antiphonaie Missarum Sextuplex, accord
ing to the G rad ua l of M on/a and the An tiphona ries o f Rheinau,
Mont-Blandin, Compiègne, Corbie, and Senlis. Brussels, 1935.
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Huglo, Livres de chant = M. Huglo. Les livres de chant liturgique. Ty
pologie de s sources du M oyen A g e occidental, fast:. 52. Turnhout,
1988.
Jungm ann, M S = J.- A . Jungm ann. Missarum sollemnia: Explication géné
tique de la messe romaine, 3 Vols. Théologie 19 -2 1. Paris, 1950 -195 3
[Jungm ann, J. A. The Mass o f the Roman Rite: îts Origine und Devel
opment. Trans. K A. Brunner. 2 vols. Westminster, Md., 1951-1955].
Klauser, Capitulare evangelionun - Th. Klauser. Das römische Capitulare
evangeliorum. Vol. 1, Typen. LU urgiewissenschaftliche Q uellen und
Forschungen 28. Münster, 1935.
Leroquais, Bréviaires = V. Leroquais. Les bréviaires manuscrits des biblio
thèques publiques de France. 6 vois. Taris, 1934.
I .croq uais, Livres d'Heures = V. Leroquais. Les livres d'Heures manu
scrits de. la Bibliothèque national. 3 Vols. Paris, 1927. Supplément aux
livres d'heures manuscrits de la Bibliothèque national, acquisitions récentes et donation Smith-Lesouëf. Paris 1943.
U'roquais , Pontificaux = V. Leroquais. Les pontificaux manuscrits des
bibliothèques publiques de France. 4 vols. Paris, 1937.
Leroquais, Psautiers = V. Leroquais. Les psautiers manuscrits latins des
bibliothèques publiques de France. 3 vols. Mâeon, 1940-1941.
Lcroquais, Sacramenlaires - V. Leroquais. U>s sacramentaires et les mis
sels manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France. 3 vols, and allas.
Paris, 1924.
Liturgica Vaticana = Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: Liturgie und Andacht
int Mittelalter. Ed. J. M. Plotzek and U. Surmann. Issued by Ihe
archepiscopal m uséum of Co logne. Stuttgart, 1992.
LQ F * Liturgiewissenschaftliche Quellen und Forschungen. Münster.
Martimort, Lectures liturgiques = A .-G . M artimort. Les lectures litur
giques et leurs livres. Typologie des sources du M oyen A ge occi
dental, fasc. 64. Tumhout, 1992.
Martimort M arlène A G M artimort l a documentation liturgique de
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Martimort, Ordines = A.-G. M artimort. Les “Ordine*," les ordinaires et
les cérémonieux. Typologie des sources du M oyen A g e occidental,
fasc. 56. Tumhout, 1991.
M GH s M onumenta Cerm aniac Historica: Studien und Texte.H anover and other places.
M GI I, Ep. = Epistolarum tomus. 8 Vols.
MGH, Sc. = Scriptorum tomus. 32 Vols.
M G H , Po. = Poetarum lœtinorum medii aevi tomus. 6 Vols.
Pfaff, Medieval Latin Liturgy = R. W. Pfaff. M edieval Latin Liturgy: A Select Bibliography. Toronto Medieval Bibliographies 9. Toronto,
1982.
PL - J.-P. Migne, ed. Patrologiae cu rsus completus. Series Latina. Paris,
1844- 1891 .
Rasmussen, Pontificaux = N. K. Rasmussen. Les Pontificaux du haut
Moyen Age: Genèse du livre liturgique de l'évêque. SpiciHgiumsacrum lovaniense. Louvain, in press.
Salmon, Office divin - P. Salmon. L'office divin au M oyen Age: Histoire
de la formation du bréviaire du IX e au X V Ie siècle. Lcx o rand i 43.
Paris, 1967.
SC = Sources chrétiennes. Paris.
Tail, Liturgie o f the Hours = R, F. Taft. The Liturgy o f the Hours in Easl and West: The Origins o f the Divine Office and Us Mean ing fo r Today.
Collegeville, Minn., 1.986.
Thiel, l.iturgische Bûcher = E. J. Thiel. "Die liturgischen Bûcher des
Mittelalters." Borsenblatl fiir den Deutsche)} Buchhandel. Frankfurter
A usgabc, vol. 23 (October 17 ,19 6 7 ) 2379-2395.
Van Dijk, Origins - S.J.P. Van Dijk and J. H. Walker. The Origins o f the
Modern Roman Liturgy: The Liturgy o f the Papal Court and the Fran
ciscan Order in the Thirteenth Century. London, i960.
Vogel, Introduction = C. Vogel. M edieval Liturgy: A n Introduction to the
Sources. Trans, and rev. W. G. Storey and N. K. Rasmussen. Wash
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Preface
Kric Palazzo went from art history to (he study of medieval liturgi
cal sources, into which he now initiate» liturgisl-apprentices and me
die va l ist-a ppren tices. In a dd ition, he h as seen in m an y m ediev alists
both a stron g interest in the liturgy and the place it occ up ies in m e
dieval life, and the fear of a little-known domain and one apparently
difficult to explore. Hence the purpose of the present work.
Th is boo k is akin, even after a lapse of thirty ye ars, to Introduction
aux sources du culte chrétien du Moyen A ge by C yr ille V ogel, the last
edition of which was translated into Hnglish in 1986 by William G.
Storey and Niels K. Rasmussen. In his time, Vogel was a pioneer in
the collaboration betw een liturgists and m ed ievalists; since then, this
collaboration has grow n and o bliges us to adopt new perspectives.
There is also the fact that Vogel, ou r colleagu e in Strasbou rg, no w de ceased, had deliberately limited his study to certain liturgical books
and as a consequence left gaps that needed filling. Finally, Vogel was
interested principally in the transition between late antiquit)'' and the
H igh M iddle A ge s; this left the field op en for w ha t seem s to me to be
Palazzo's purpose: a presentation of liturgical sources centered on the
Carolingian and Ottoman periods—which are essential as regards
liturgical sources— but also com plemen ted by app rop riate attentionto the subsequ ent dev elopm ent o f me dieva l liturgy.
Since its topic is m ed ieval liturgical sources, Pala/.zo's bo ok also
takes its place next to the series "Typ ologie de s sources du M oyen
A g e occid ental," som e fascic le s o f w hic h have been published w hile
others are to be published un de r the ausp ices of the Institute o f M e
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specialized studies of the series. 1 think that it offers students the
basic m anu al they need for their w ork.
To me, this book seems fundamental in several ways. First it sup
plies serious overalL information on the liturgical books, both in thecategories the auth or has person ally studied (the un derstand ing of
w hich he advances in several cases) and in those published by other
researchers.
Second , Palaz zo seem s to practice naturally the essential giv e and
take w ith the history o f civilization , of wh ich M.-D. C hen u g av e a re
m arkable exa m ple and w hich, J. Le G o ff had the kind ness to say,
characterizes my work on the liturgy in history. Palazzo does this in
two w ay s: b y sho w ing an attentive respect for the religious qu ality
prop er to the liturgy— a respect I deem essential—a nd by ack no w l
ed gin g the place of the liturg y w ithin the larger fram ew ork of history
as w ell as the interactions in wh ich the liturgical practice is invo lved .
In addition, Palazzo exhibits a q ua lity for w hich m ost liturgists (1
am on g them), en v y him, that is, his competencc in matters o f paleograp hy and codicology. A s I w rite this, I rem em ber a remark the mas
ter paleo grap her B. Bischoff mad e to me one day, "I ha ve the highest
esteem for the liturgical science althou gh I m yse lf am not a liturgist.
F. Wormald, for his part, has the tw ofold com petence ." Such a tw ofold
competence is w ha t w c need.
Finally, this book is a v ery goo d e xam ple o f the prope r attention to
the w ay liturgical books w ere used in the celebration an d pastoralpractice of the M iddle A ges, which I had the opportunity of studying
in the course of the ye ars in m y con versations w ith M. H ug lo and N .
K. Rasm ussen: one must lake into account sim ultaneo usly the m eas
ure of oral usa ge in liturgical practice,1 the com plem entarity o f boo ks
in a com m on celebration (as rediscovered in the liturgy after Vatican
II), the m odest significance o f librfii composed for a specific occasion,
and the compact bcx>ks (breviaries, for instance). Palazzo excellently
applies himself to all this.
Pierre-M arie G y, O.P.
Raster 1993
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Preface to the English Language Edition
A lm ost throe years have elapsed sin ce th is book w a s published in
the original French and The Liturgical Press offered to make an Eng
lish translation, a proposal which makes me feel honored. First of all,
f w ish to exp ress m y m ost sincere thanks to this pub lishing hou se as
w ell as to the translator, M adele in e Beaum ont, fo r the w ork that has
been done.
Th is book contains the version o f 1993, without an y revisions. Indeed , at no time did the opp ortunity arise to review an y part of the
initial text, an u nd ertaking w hich w ou ld ha ve required a labor out of
proportion with the purpose of the translation. Therefore, 1 have l im
ited m ys elf to correcting the unfortuna te errors which had crept into
the text and which I had regrettably overlooked. I have also estab
lished a list, by no m eans exhau stive, o f bibliographical additions
containing those references wh ich h ave become available since 199 3and also those wh ich, though alread y ex isting at that date, had es
caped me.
Since its publication , this bo ok h as been the subject of rev iew s in
various in ternational jo urnals and in several languages; <imong the
review ers were em inent spec ialists of the liturgy an d its books. Some
o f these writers— to w hom I am d eep ly grateful— hav e gone even
dee per into the m atter and given their own personal op inions on
some question concerning the history of the liturgy or on a precise
point o f the history o f one or the other o f its books. Th e personal
character o f these rem arks, m y firm de cision not to rewrite entire
pa ssages, as w ell a s a certain form o f intellectual honesty, have led
me to refer the readers directly to the reviews themselves Thus I
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35 /36 (1993/^994) 256-258; A.-G . Martimort, /.tf/lmfim*£c,dt<$/rtstiijMt? (1994) 256-258; H. B. M eyer, '/xitschrift ftir katolisehe The-
ologie 116 (1994) 372-373; R. Pfaff, Ecclesiastical History 46 (1995) 356;
j . Pierce, Worship 68/5 (1994) 478-480.Finally, in a m ore person al way, 1 wish to thank all the colleagues,
students, and friends who thoughtfully—often on the occasion o f in
formal exchanges— told me that m y book had been of help to them at
som e point in their research.
Eric PalazzoOrleans, France
M ay 20,1996
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Acknowledgments
This book w as bom during m y stay in Gottingen at Ihc French Historical Mission in Ge rm any during the academic year 199 0-19 91.
Michel Parisse, then director of the M ission, had suggested that 1 take
advantage of my year in Germ any to prepare a manual of introduc
tion to the liturgical books of the Middle Ages in order to answer the
historians' grow ing dem and in this domain. The excellent working
conditions enjoyed by the mem bers of the French H istorical M ission
made it possible for me to gather and organize the needed docum entation. The sessions o f the introductory course to the liturgical
sources of the Middle Ages, for which I am responsible at the Supe
rior Institute of Liturgy, gave me the opportunity to test the chapters
of the book with the students. My connection with the liturgical sec
tion of the Institute of Research and History of Texts (part of CNRS)allow ed me to com plete the writing o f the book un der the best pos
sible conditions.In this enterprise, I received the help of many friends. Among them,
1 ha ve the pleasure of thanking—for their encouragement as w ell as
their critical reading of my text—Fr. Anselme Davril, Fr. Paul De
Clerck, my master, Fr. Pierre-Marie Gy, François Héber-Suffrin, Do
minique Iogna-Prat, Guy Lobrichon, and Michel Parisse. I am also
grateful to Mile. M onique Cadic for having agreed to publish this w ork at Beauchesne Publishing House.
Finally, nothing could h ave been done without C lau dia's attentive
reading, unflagging support, and affection day in day out.
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The Liturgical Year: History and Definition
Th e liturgical yea r as w e kno w it toda y is the result of a n um ber of
suc cessive transforma tions that tor the most part took place in the
course of the first centuries of Christianity.1 Discounting the variations
and changes in details that have occurred as time w en t on, one can a f
firm that by the ye ar 600, the structure o f the liturgical y ea r ha s been
establishe d, at least in its main features. Th e pe op le o f the M idd le
A ges w ere living according to a rhythm com bin in g seasonal activitiesand the Christianization of time, in the fram ew ork o f a liturgical cycle
com posed o f large periods.1
The liturgical calendar is divided into:
—the Temporal Cycle, that is, the feasts determined by the events
o f the life o f C hrist and the ferias (ordin ary day s);
— the Sanctoral C ycle, com prising the feasts of saints p lus the
comm on of saints (of m artyrs, virgins, and so on). For diecom m on of saints, no precise attribution is foreseen.
G E N E R A L S T RU C T U R E OF T H E L IT U R G I C A L Y E A R ’
Advent
—4 w eek s before Ch ristm as, punctuated by the 4 Su n da ys of
A dvent
1. See the fundamental work o f T. Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Ytwr (New York, 1986); R. Taft, "The I-iturgic.il Year: Studies, Prospects, Reflections," Worship (1981) 2-23.
2. On the notioa^ of liturgical year and liturgical cycle, see M. Met/.ger, "Année,ou bien cycle, liturgique?'’ /towi* des Sciences relig ieux 67 (1993) 85-96.
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— December 25: Nativity o f Christ— Octave of the Nativity
—Janu ary 6: Epiphany
Ordinary Time (1)
—6 w eeks punctuated b y 6 Sun da ys after Kpiphany (the feast of
the Annunciation is on March 25)
Paschal Cycle
—Septuagésima: 70 days before Easter, marked by Septuagésima
Sunday —Sexagésima: 60 days before Easter, marked by Sexagésima
Sunday
—Quinquagesima: 50 da ys before Easter, marked by Q uinquages-
ima Sunday
tent
— Ash Wednesday, Quadragesima: 40 d ay s before Baster
Paschal Time
— Holy Week:
— Palm Sun da y (entrance of Christ into Jerusalem)
— H oly Thursday, Good Friday, H oly Saturday, Easter Sund ay
(Resurrection)—Ascension: 40 da ys after Easter
— Pentecost: 50 d ays after Easter
Ordinary Time (2)
—25 to )2 week s after Pentecost, punctuated by the Sund ays afterPentecost
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Introduction
"In my opinion, this book stresses remarkably the importance forboth the historian and the liturgist of a history of the liturgy anchored
in history at large, or rather constituting a domain of this history, per
haps one o f the most secret, but also one of the most im portant." So
writes Jacques Le G off in his preface to a collection o f artic les by P.-
M. Gy.* H owever, the relationships between history and liturgy have
tor a long time been characterized by a profound misunderstanding
and even by a reciprocal ignorance on the part o f the practitioners of
Hie two disciplines. In our day, this attitude is yie ldin g to an ever
growing interdisciplinary closeness, hi order to understand this evo
lution in western Europe and especially France, one must go back to
the beginn ing o f this century.
The separation of Church and state in France in 1905 and the
dechristianization o f western society as a whole have left their unmistakable mark on academic traditions, especially among historians
and ecclesiastical circles. In the universities, the teaching of religious
history has been completely amputated of one of its essential com po
nents, the history of Christian w orship. Conversely, this disciplineflourished only in the restricted circles o f religious and clergy, often
w oefully ignorant o f the im portant stages o f the evolution of histori
cal sciences.The recent history of the Catholic Church, the Council of Vatican II in particular, has given birth to a new generation of litur-
gists, people w ho are historians and are also actively engaged in w or
ship.2 One of the foundations of Vatican II was the rediscovery of the
tradition o f the Church, and for that reason, it has given rise to innu
merable works on the history of the liturgy. Sensitized by the acute
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historical sense o f the great precursors, such as Fr. M arie-D om inique
C he nu ,3 the participan ts in the Co un cil ha ve m ade, in a ve ry short
period o f time, great strides in adv an cing our k n ow ledg e in that
field. To moke this possible, the investigation o f liturgical sources hasbeen singled out. Guided by such masters of the first half of the
twentieth century a s Bishop Duchesne,4 the historians of the liturgy
have rediscovered the importance of these sources (and especially
that of the liturgical books) for the reconstruction of the ancient litur
gies which would supply the basis for today's reform. Because this
reform ha s utilized the texts desc ribing liturgical p ractice, the task
has consisted in large m easure in researching the origin of the differ
ent books used in wo rship. For ev ery kind of book, people have
striven to disco ve r the archetypc, the original state o f the texts of
missal, gradual, lectionary, and so on. Aware of being heirs to the
Roman liturgy, the liturgists have endeavored to find the origins of
the practices and texts in use in Rome between the fourth and eighth
centuries. Endowed with a new historical sensibility, the researchersat the sam e time have exam ined m ore exactly and tempered the role
Rom e playe d in the past in the com pletion and d iffusion o f a model
liturgy, and they have uncovered forgotten liturgical traditions.
Fo llowing the exam ple of the scho lars at the end the nineteenth
century,5 the Vatican II liturgists and , before them , those w orkin g b e
tween the World W ars, have w ide ly exp lored the sources o f the history
o f the liturgy, that is, the liturgical bo oks, these "fres h do cum en ts/'acco rding to Fr. Ch en u 's felicitous expression.6 Their red iscove ry has
been accompanied by a new fascination with the liturgical manu
scripts w hich h ave transmitted the sacred texts. The gigantic w or k on
liturgical manuscripts undertaken by several scholars in this century
pro duced a concrete result: the com pletion o f catalogu es.7 In certain
cases, these catalogues have fostered the formulation of a general tv-
3. From the monumental corpus «I Nt.-D. Chenu 's work. 1 shall only mentionhere a book whose history was so turbulent, Uni* 1rcoU' de théologie: U‘ Sutiichoir (Paris, 1937; 2nd etl. 1985). It is a true pleading for the renewal in the study of theology and the history of the Church.
4. See the Part 1 of this manual.
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polog y of the liturgical books of the M iddle Ag es on wh ich modern
research still relies.*
A m on g historians o f I he litu rgy, som e have taken into account the
specificity o f these docum ents, espec ially from the view po int o f thecodicologic and p aleogra ph ic aspects of the m anuscripts. Other
scho lars hav e restricted Ihem selves to the stu d y o f the text (for in
stance by establishing its archetype), often facilitated by new discov
eries of m odem science, such as m icrofilm .
Th is period of great fru itfulness fo r the history of the liturgy, in
w hich w e are still liv in g today fo r the large part, has not yet led into
a real ope nin g to historical sciences and to the different m ovem entsthat have left their imprint on them since World War II. Notions as
inn ov ative for the historian as the "lon g d uratio n ,"5*social history, the
history of w orld view s and ideas, anthropo logy hav e m ade but small
inroads into the restricted circle of the specialists in the liturgy; they
hav e failed to app reciate the richness that their studies on the books
an d the practices of the Ch ristian cult co uld b ring to the historian o f
w o rld view s and the anthropolo gist.
Non etheless, it is w ell kn ow n that the in-depth stu dy of liturgical
book s ha s transform ed ou r view' of certain parts of the history o f the
M iddle Ages. For instance, this new approach has converge d w ith,
confirmed, and refined what we know about the Church's institu
tions and the ecclesiology in the M iddle A ge s.1” These book s are also
precious witnesses, in m any w ay s, o f the political an d social history o f an tiquity an d the M iddle A g e s." A p roo f of this is the interest that
historians and liturgists ha ve show n for the w ork s of E. Kantoro-
8. See in particular the work of V. Loroqunis, I j s »«¿ihhsctîîs liturgiques latins i!u haut Mouen Age à la Renaissance, Hit* opening lecture at the Ecole pratique desHautes Etudes (section of Religious Sciences) on November 30, 19 3 1, 16 pages;
Th. Ktauser, "Rqwrtorium ¡tiurgiann und Liturgischcr Spezialkatalog, Vorschliigezum Problem der liturgischen Handschriitcn," Zcntralblntt fü r BibUoth,-k ,̂iv<.e>i 53( 1936) (lex! reprinted in G&Minweltc Arbeitan 1 nr l.iturgiegcschichte, Kirclwttge- schkhie ¡nut christliclur Arrhiiviogie, lahrbuch für Antike und Christentum Hrgan-zungsband 3 (Münster, 1974] 82-93); K. Camber, CLLA.
9. See the basic article of K Braudel, "La longue (Jurée," Annales ESC (1958)125-153 (rpt. ill Etr/fa sur l'histoire (Paris, kj<kjJ 43-83).
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w ic z .12 S o m e tim e s, th e h is to rian o f the M id d le A g e s n e e d s to u n d e r
s tand l iturg ica l r ites in ord er to she d l ight on the w a y a g iven sôcia)
ca te g o ry o f pe rs on s i s con s t itu te d . Fo r e xa m pl e , the ri te s o f e n t ran ce
in to k n ig hth oo d , the du bb i n g in par t icu l a r , ha v e i m p or tan t li n k s w ithl iturg ica l r i tes an d the ir texts ( such as the ordines o f coron at i on ) .1 '
F o r a fe w y e a r s , th e h i s to r y o f th e li tu r g y h a s b e n e f i t e d fr o m th e
a b u n d a n t c o n t rib u t io n s o f a n th r o p o lo g y a n d th e o p e n in g o f n e w a v
e n u e s o f f e re d b y it s m e thods . The pr i n c i p le o f the con s t ruc t ion o f
a n a n t h r o p o l o g y o f C h r is tia n rite s a n d w o r sh i p — w h i c h in a n y c a s e is
n ot n e w — g i v e s h i stor ian s o f the li turg y a w i de r v is ta on the ob je c t o f
their s tudy.*5
Las t ly , le t u s reca l l the conn ect ion s , c lose a l tho ug h d i ff icu l t to p in
po int , that ex i s t betw een l iturg ica l source s , ar t h i s tory , and arch eo l
og y . T he i con og rap hi e i n te rpre ta ti on o f a pa i n t i n g o r o f the p l an o f a
chu rch n o l on g e r in e x i s te n ce i s o f te n e n han ce d w h e n the h i s tory o f
the l i turgy plays i ts part in i t . 16
12. E. K. Kantorowicz.. iuinds regiae: A Studu in Liturgical Acclamations and Me
dieval Ruler Worship (Berkeley-Los Angeles. 1946).13. See j. Le Go ff, "L e rituel symbolique de la vassalité," Simboii e simbologia 11W-
l'idio Medioevit (Spoleto, 1976) (>79-788 (rpt. in Pour un autre Mown Age: Tem)», tra-
îmjï rf ru/fuir en Occident, ¡8 essais (Paris, 1977) 349-420: J. Hori, "Ch eva lerie etliturgie: Remis** des armes el vocabulaire 'chevaleresque' dans les sources litur
giques du IXr au XIVe siècle," Le Moyen Age 84 {1978) 245-278, 400-442.
14. The bibliography on the anthropology o f the liturgy is too abundant lo bepresented here in ils entirety; let us sim ply refer readers to the work of F. Isom-bert, Rites et efficacité symbolique (Paris, 1979), and «»specially to that of J.-Y. I lame-line, "Eléments d'anthropologie, de sociologie historique et de musicologie du
culte chrétien/' Recherches de. Sciences religieuses 78 (1990) 297-424. See also Traité
d'iinthwfwbgie du sacré, vol. 1: Les origines et le problème de T"honto rcligktsus," «d.
j, Ries (Paris, 1992).15. See for example the .study ol J.-C. Schmitt, La raison di"S gtttes dans /' Occident
m&liévat (Paris, 1990), in particular chapters 3,8, and 9.16. In the domain of architecture, see the pioneering work o f C. I lertz. Recherches
sur les rapports entre architecture et liturgie à l ' é l u e carolingienne (Paris. 1963), andthe comprehensive article of S. de Blaauw, "Architecture and Liturgy in the Late
Antique and the Middle Ages: Traditions and Trends in Modem Scholarship/' Archix1 fur Liturgieu'issenschafi 33 (1991) 1-34. In the domain of the decoration of
manuscripts and in that of monumental art, let us mention, among numerous
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In an increasingly interdisciplinary context, the need for a history
and a typo logy of liturgical books is acutely felt. Th is book w as con
ceived to answ er this need. A prelim inary wo rd o f caution is neces
sary: readers will not find here a history o f the liturgy, ' 7 but rather ahistory of the liturgical books, though som e facts concerning the history
of the M ass, of the chant, and of the sacraments are mentioned. This
information is not meant of course to replace the classical books on
these questions.18
Fa r from being the first manual since the beginning of this century
to be devoted to liturgical books,'9 the present work takes its place
between the classical book o f Cyr ille Vogel3“ and the "abstracts" of the scries "Typologie des sources du M oycn A ge occiden tal" from
L ou va in /' It differs from those in its perspective and its concerns.
scnscluift 34 (1992) 102-120. On the relationship between liturgy and archeology,
see the recent studies o f J.-Ch. Picard, "C e que les textes nous apprennent sur leséquipements et le mobilier liturgique nécessaire pur le baptême dans le sud de la
i'.aule et l’Italie du Nord," Acte* du X F Congrès international d'Archéologie diréii- <71 w , Lyon. Vienne, Gre/u)ble, Gcn hv, et Aosta. n - x S Stjttemluv t 986 {Rome. 1989)2:1451-1454; V. Saxer, "L'utilisation pour la liturgie de l'espace urbain et suburbain, l'exemple de Rom e dans l'Antiquité et le haut Moyen Age," ibid., 9 17 -1 0 3 1.
17. See in particular, C P and Gottesdienst der Kirche: Handbuch der Liturgiewissen* schuft, 8 vols. (Regensburg, 1983- }. Sut» B. Neunheuser, "Handbücher derLiturgiewissenschaft, in den grossen europäischen Sprachen, 25 Jahre nach SC,
der Liturgiekonstitution des 2. Vatikanums," F a xlesin Qrans 6 {1989) 89-103. See
also the book—too little known—of l.-H. Dalmais, Initiation à (a liturgie (Paris,»958): (I.-H. Dalmais, Introduction io the Liturgy, trans. R. Cape! (Baltimore, 1961))-For an overall rev iew of the manuals of liturgy, set' B. Botte, "A propos deft
manuels de liturgie," Question? liturgiques et iwroissiales 33 (1952) 117 -12 4 . See alsothe very useful bibliography in Piatt, Mediciwl LUin Liturgy.
t8 .1 am thinking especially of Jungmatm, MS. a history of the Roman Mass.19. We shall mention P. Cabrol, /.<•>' livre* de lu liturgie latine (Paris, 1930); (P
Cabrol, The Books of the LUin Liturgy. trans. Benedictines of Stanbrook (St. Umis,
[ 1932DI; L. C. Sheppard, Ute Liturgical Books (New York, 1962); A. Hughes, Me- di<n\il Manuscripts for «Mass and Office: A Guide ¡0 Their Organization and Terminology (Toronto, 1982) (essentially focused on musicology). For additional references, see
Vogel, Introduction, t-29.20. The title of Vogel’s book in the French edition is Introduction aux sources de
l'histoire du culte chrétien au Moyen Age (Spoleto, t<)66), with a reprint prefaced bv B B (S l ) Th h b k l d i E li h d i l
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especially in the study of the crucial passage from oral practice to the written document; in a special attention to I he process that form ed
each of the liturgical books; by a fresh look at what the know ledge of
codices, paleography, and iconography bring to the study of manu*scripls; and also in an interest in the medieval terminology used to
designate the different books. Fina lly and ab ove all, the leading char
acteristic o f the book is an awareness, a s far-reaching as possible, of
the historical dimension of liturgical books, their significance for the
history of the Church, the history o f wo rldview s, and social history.
Th is synthesis o f over one millennium of western liturgical sources
aim s at being at the same time an introductory m anual to their study.One section is devoted to each type of book, each type specifically
des igned for a g iven form o f celebration (Mass, Office, sacraments,
and rituals) and destined for a clearly identified liturgical agent
(pope, bishop, deacon, monastic, and so on).
This w ork focuses on the sources of the tjftin liturgy, and therefore
on a fundamental aspect o f the religious life of (he m edieval West,
between the fourth and thirteenth centuries. With the Fourth LateranCouncil (1215), a new period in the history of liturgical books begins
which will last until the Tridentine reform . There are occasional allu
sions to books of particular rites (Ambrosian, Mozarabic, Celtic), andreaders will benefit from consulting the passages which Vogel devotes
to these. A historiographic sum m ary o f the discipline o f research on
liturgical books, from the scholars of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries dow n to ou r day, w ill serve as an introduction.
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Part One
Historiography of the Researchon Liturgical Books
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I. The Science of the Liturgy
i . P R E C U R S O R S ( S E V E N T E E N T HTO N I N E T E E N T H C E N T U R IE S )
Since paleo-C hristian times, liturgists h av e occ upied a central place
among the great figures in the history of Christianity. Often they are
at the sam e time officiants w ho se active p art in the celebrations giv es
life to the liturgists' reflections on the meaning of the celebration in
tine Chu rch ; they are also theo logians w ho liv e the ir faith th rough the
liturgy in w hich they participate. Theologian-Uturgists ha ve a connection w ith m ystag og y because they explain the m ysteries o f the very
celebration and lead others to contemplate them.’ From the Carolin-
gia n p eriod to about the fifteenth century, the Uturgists of the M iddle
A ges w orked for both a better understanding o f li turgical actio ns and
the creation of liturgical books and particular feasts, often by com
posing entirely new pra yers and song s.2
In the sixteenth century, w he n the proce ss o f liturgical codification w as for the most part com ple ted, the science o f the liturgy began to
appear, and then progressively developed, particularly in the seven
teenth century. The labo rs o f seve ral sch olars from that perio d becam e
the scientific found ations o f the m od em history of the liturgy. Whereas
the medieval liturgists favored the allegorizing interpretation of the
rituals,5 the liturgists of the sixteenth an d seventeenth centu ries we re
1. Sec the reflections of P.-M. Gy, "La tâche du liturgiste (Homélie prononcéepour le vingt-cinquième anniversaire de l'Institut supérieur de Liturgie)/’ (homilv given at the twenty-fifth anniversary' of the Institut supérieur do Liturgie], Li iilnrgw dans (Paris, 1991) 321-324.
2. See the list of medieval liturgists and their works published by Vogel, Ittlm-
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above all historians whose work helped their readers discover the
imp ortance of tradition in the C hu rch , the me an ing of rituals and
prayers, the origin o f the treasury o f pra yers, in a w ord , ail that con
tributes to a living kn ow led ge o f the liturg y through history'.The extent of the field covered by these pioneers of liturgical sci
ence is impressive. Several among them not only gathered an impor
tant documentation but also w rote com m entaries, som e of w hich are
still ind ispensable today.4 We m ust note that m an y am on g the writ
ings o f this period de al precisely w ith the liturgical b ooks, their h is
tory, their typo logy, and ab ov e all the stand ard edition o f the texts.
During most of the eighteenth century, this interest in the history of the liturgy, especially the study of its sources, continued to grow'.
I low ever, the political and cultura l turn taken by h istory at the end
o f the eighteenth century greatly slow ed do w n this trend. It w as not
before the m idd le o f the nineteenth century, with the birth o f the
"Liturg ical M ove m en t," that the history of the liturgy and the stud y
of its sources made a fresh start.5 This Liturgical Movement, which
view ed the li turgy as a socia l fact, granted a specia l pla ce to archeol
ogy in the widest possible sense of this word, in sum, all that more or
less conce rns historical sources in gene ral. Several o f the protagonists
and leaders of this movem ent w ere great historians o f the Chu rch,
some even were well acquainted with liturgical sources. As an ex
ample, let it suffice to cite the uncommon itinerary of Bishop L. M.
Duchesne (184 3-19 22 ), wh o for twenty-seven yea rs w as the directorof the Ecole Française de Rome, and whose scientific work strongly
contributed to the future orientations o f the liturgical science/’
2. L I T U R G I C A L R E N E W A L I N T H E T W E N T I E TH C E N T U R Y
Th e theological and liturgical ren ew al o f the first h alf of the twenti
eth century, who se fulfillment was Vatican II, had its roots in the L itur
gical M ovem ent o f the nineteenth century. In fact, the form er w as anextensive prolongation of the latter—whose first concrete result was a
better formation of clergy, monastics, and lay people. Here again his
tory played a prominent role, now shedding light on contemporary
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liturgical practices and fostering new orientations in pastoral minis
try, now justifying decisions favorable to a liturgical reform.7
The d ecad es o f the twentieth cen tury p receding V atican II were the
chronological fram ew ork in wh ich som e of the inspirers of the council,and so m e of its actors, we re formed. There are man y liturgists and theo
logians—sometimes theologian-Iilurgists—who distinguished them
selve s du ring this period o f great intellectual fecundity for the Church.8
It is enough to mention the nam es of  . Baum stark (18 72-19 48 ), who se
method of com parative an alysis of the Eastern and W estern liturgies
in the Church opened vast horizons to liturgists;9 ). A. Jtm gmann
(188 9 -197 5);" ’ and 13. Hotte (18 9 3- 19 8 0 )" to measure the am plitud eand diversity of the progress made in the course of this century.
3 . r .I T L K C lC A I . S T U m i- S A F T F R V A T IC A N II
By defining in the Constitution Sacrosançtum Conciliant on the holy
liturgy, promulgated December 4, 1963, the general principles, the
restoration, and the development of the liturgy, together with its "na
ture and im portance in the life o f the C hu rch ," the council pro vok ed arenewed enthusiasm for the historical science and the teaching of the
liturgy. In G erm an y especially, the historical science of the liturgy be
cam e the object o f adv an ced theoretical reflections aim ed at d efining
in dep th its ends, its interaction with othe r disciplines of the hum an
sciences, its theological postulate, its effect on pastoral ministry.14
7. See A. Haquin. "H istoire do In liturgie et Renouveau liturgique,” Li Maison- Dieu 181 (1990) 99*118 ; see also CP, 1:72-84.
8. For research on the bibliography and/o r career of such and such a liturgist,one should consult the helpful lists established by Rasmussen, "Some Bibliographies of Liturgists," Archivfiir Liturgieivissenachaft it (1969) ¿14-218; 15 (>973)
168-171; 20 (1978) 134-139: 25 <«983) 34—-14*9. A. Baumstark, Liturgie. comparée: Principes et méthodes pour l'étude historique des
liturgies chrétiennes, 3rd éd., rev. B. Botte {Chevetogne, 1953); {A. Baumstark, Com parative Liturgy, rev. B. Botto, ed. K L. Cross (Westminster, Mil., 1958)!. The bibliography of Baumstark is fourni in Epliïmeridcs liturgiaie (S3 (1949) 187-207.
10. Know n especially for his important work, Mfcsarum Sollenntia; see the obituary by P-M. Gy, “L'oeuvro liturgique do Joseph Andreas Jtmgmann/' Li liturgie dans l'histoire {Paris, 1990) 308-315.
11 . See especially by this author his book of memories. I f moiH.vment liturgique: Té i l t i (P i ) O hi lif d i tifi k h i
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Tod ay the history o f the liturgy is gen erally adm itted am on g his
torical sciences; neverthe less, it rem ains confined w ithin restricted ec
clesiastical circles, prim arily be cause it is insufficiently taught. H ence
the necessity of a real effort on the part o f lay peo ple w ho w an t to be
initiated or even to become spe cialists in this discipline.
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II. Studies on Liturgical Books
j . H IS T O R IC R E V IE W OH T H E R E S E A R C H
Se ve ral fam ou s nam es in litUrgical science hav e m arked the re
search on Ihe history of liturgical books. We must again go back to
the sixteenth, seventeen th, and eighteenth centuries to m eet those
w ho established the fo undations, and even som etim es m ore than the
foundations, of the historical investigation of liturgical books.*3
Who is the histo rian w h o has not one d a y in the course o f his or
her research encoun tered one o f the Benedictine scholars of the Con
gregation o f Saint-M aur? J. M abiilon ( 1 632- 1 70 7) and E. Martene
(16 54 -17 39 ) are in effect, the true forerunn ers, am ong other things, of
the m ode rn research on liturgical books. On the essential points, their
w orks arc still authoritative and rem ain the requisite basis for this or
that particular research. We are ind ebted to Ma biilon for the ind ispensable De liturgia galikana libri I r e s '4 and also, in collaboration
w ith M. Germ ain, the Museum itaficum sen colleclio veterum scriptorum
ex bibliothecis italicis eruti,1* in w hich several m ajor man uscripts of the
Hi git M iddle A ge s, such as the fam ou s M issal o f Bobbio, are edited
and presented. B esides the printed boo ks w e ow e to Mabiilon, w e not
infrequen tly find notes written in his ow n hand on the end p ag e o f a
m anu script, for he, like Mart&ne, spent a large pa rt o f his life con sulting the collections o f ancient m ona stic libraries.
13. A s far a s we know, to date there exists no overall historiographic study on
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The major w ork of M arlen e/6 a p up il and disciple of Mabillon in
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, is De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibu$.17 Th is w ork is
the result of thorough research on cu stomaries, ordina ries, rituals, and
other liturgical books preserved in several ancient holdings. Martène,gu ided and prom pted by M abillon, elaborates on each o f the subjects
treated in these docu m ents, exp lains the rituals, and desc ribes them
exa ctly as he finds them in the sources he uses.
Bent on retrieving the m ediev al tradition of earlier mon asticism for
the benefit o f their Congreg ation o f Saint-Maur, M abillon, M artène,
and others who followed their example58 had as their principal pur
pose the writin g of the history of Benedictine monachism, particu larly through liturgical rituals and practices. To this end, they regarde d the
liturgical m anu scripts of the prestigious pa st of the ord er as p riv i
leged sources lha l m ust be thorou ghly studied, in ad dition to these
investigations—historical in character and justified by reasons exter
nal to the stud y o f the sources them selves— there w as a new aw are
ness o f the criticism o f written sou rces per se. M abillon 's rem arks on
individual m edieval m anuscripts already dem onstrate a rigorous
process o f scientific ana lysis, rare at the time. Th e sam e is true o f the
descriptions of liturgical objects an d eve n o f architectural vestiges of
the Middle Ages found in Voyrt^t’ littéraire de de.ux religieux bénédictins
de h Congrégation de Snitii-Maur, w ritten by M artène and U. Durand."*
The m otives that prom pted the research o f M abillon and M artène
cau sed them to become acqu ainted w ith the oldest docum ents o f the
16. On the life, work, and personality of Marline, see J. Daoust, Doin Martène: Un gémit tie l'érudition bénédictine. Figures monastiques {Rouen, 1947).
17. Published for the first time in Rouen in 1700-1702, the four volumes of thesecond edition {Antwerp. 1736 -1738} are more frequently used; there has been ¿1reprint (Hildesheim, 1967-1969). On the genesis ol the work and the study of the
sources Martène used, see the remarkable work of A.-G. Martimort, hi documentation liturgique de dom Edmond Martène, Studi eTesti 279 (Vatican Citv, 1978), com pleted by his "Additions et correctiojus à la documentation liturgique de domEdmond M artène," Eccfesia Orans 3 (1986) 81-105. S®** <dso B. Darragon, Répertoire de* pièces ctichohgiifues dans le "De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus" de dom Martène. Biblio-theca "Ephemeridcs liturgicae," Subsidia 57 (Rome, 1991).
18. See the thorough article of R. McKitterick, “The Study of Frankish History
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m edieval past. Ho w ever, their pu rpo se w as not to edit and classify
ancient m anu scripts, in contrast to seve ral other learned liturgists,
their contem poraries, w ho se w ork w as focused on the search for the
original, and secondarily on the elaboration oí a typology of medievalliturgical documents.20 In a certain way, as will be seen in the follow
ing section, these objectives were also those o f the scholars o f the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The name of Jacques de Joign y de Pamèle { i 536 -1587)— Pamclius
being the better kno w n form — is intimately linked w ith the stud y of
leclionaries, antipho na ls, and sacram entaries.21 H e w as the first to
pub lish the G regorian Sacram entary, a task w hich A. Rocca and esp e
cially H. Menard (d. 1644) successfully continued.“
A contem porary o f M abillon, J. 'Ibm asi (d. 17 13 ) w a s one o f the p io
neers in the publication of western liturgical sources.25 He researched
the earliest m anu scripts, bul he did not neglect the present because,
aw are of the imperfections o f the liturgical books prom ulgated by P ius
V, he saw him self as a reform er. His Codices sacranienlorum nongentia amiis veimiiores (Rom e, 1680) places in the lim elight fou r m anu scripts
of prime importance for the study of sacramentaries, in particular the
Vat. Regin . 3 16 . A m ong other thin gs, w e are also in debted to Tomasi
for the pub lication of docu m ents ind ispen sable to the reconstitution
of the earliest forms of the lectionary of the Mass and the antiphonal
of the Office; here again, we find that he used manuscripts which
w ere to be the basis o f the w ork o f schola rs in the tw entieth century .24 A s regards the research on and the publicatio n of the sacram entary,
the nam e o f L. A . M uratori (d. 1750) m ust be taken into consideration.
His Liturgia roimna veins2* deals with Roman and Gallican documents.
ao. See the lisl in Vogel, hti>x>duclion, 17-20.
21 . See especially his work, Lilurgiii lutinùrum, 2 vols. (Cologne, 1571).
22. The work of Ménard, D/tv Gregorii papae Ubcr xtcraniettloritm nunc deittum corrector el locupletior editu* r* ttussali M&. S. Eligii bibUothccae Corbciensis (Paris,1642) |ms. »2051 of the l.atin collertton of the Bibliothèque nationale} was the edition of the ('ire^orian Sacramentar.' in use down to the twentieth century and theone found in PI. 78, cols. 25-263.
23. See K Sound, "Saint fiweph-Maric Tomasi," la Mai-nm-Dieu i b j (1986) 14 7-
151.
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Finally, lei us mention the wo rk o f F. A . Za ccaria (d. 1795) w ho se Bib-
liothcca rituniis26 is replete w ith stim ulating reflections, pa rticularly in
the dom ain o f the typo logy o f books.
2. R E S E A R C H O N LA T IN L IT U R G IC A L B O O K S
O F T H E M ID D L E A G E S IN T H F N I N E T E E N T H
A N D T W E N T IE T H C E N I U R I E S
T he sp ecialists in liturgical books o f the late nineteenth and twen ti
eth centuries follow ed , for the most part, the paths explored by their
predecessors. The three principal do m ains w here this research w as
most vigo rou sly pu rsued are: the publication o f the m ajor texts de al
ing w ith the histo ry o f the liturgy, m ost notab ly the quest for their ea r
liest form, the h istory o f the books, and their typology. O vera ll, these
three end eav ors ha ve g reatly benefited from the contribution of disci
plines that are necessary for liturgists, such a s paleograp hy, codicol-
ogy, and even the history of illumination. Indeed, the publication of a
text and the establishm ent o f its critical app aratu s, o r else the determination o f the typ olog y of a specific liturgical book necessarily re
quires the handling of the "fresh documents"—as the sorely missed
M.-D. C hen u17 delighted in calling them— that m edieval m anuscripts
are. Th is aw arene ss of the dem an ds o f serious scientific research has
not, how ever, transform ed ev ery liturgist into a specialist o f me dieval
paleo grap hy or the ancient art of bo okbinding,38 bu t it has indubitably
aw aken ed a m ore discernin g approach to the docum ent itself. A. VVilmart ( 18 7 6 -19 4 1),29 whose catalo gue o f the m anuscripts in
the Re ginen sis of the Vatican Libr ary is a m ode l,30 rem ains an exc ep
tion; a prom inent liturgist, he is also con sidered o ne of the best paleo
grap hers of this century as w ell as a conn oisseur o f all aspects of
26. Published in Rome between 1776 and 1781, it was reprinted (New York, 1963).
27. M.-D. Chenu, lhw école tie théologie: leSaulchoir, 1st ed {Paris, 1937; 2nd ed.,1985)124.
28. The use of microfilm has favored a certain distancing o f the lilurgists, along with other specialists o f ancient texts, from the manuscripts themselves; occasionally, this distancing has been at the root of gross errors in the establishment of the history of the text, precisely because of faulty codicologieal or paleographicevaluations
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m edieval m anuscripts. A large pa rt of his output (articles, books, and
catalogues) has decisively contributed to the progress of the research
on liturgical books, for either the typ olo gy or the h istory o f the texts.
V. l.eroquais ((875-19 4 6 ),*l w hose catalogues o f liturgical m anuscripts in the public libraries of France are consulted by all medieval
ists, w as a kindred sp irit o f Wilmart: neither one w a s a specialist in
one sing le liturgical book, but both k new them all. B esides, it is prob
ably no exaggeration to say that Leroquais is the undisputed master
of the typology of liturgical books. Between 1924 and 1946, fie succes
sive ly published the descriptions of sacramen tarles and m issals, bre
viaries, pontificals , psalters, and books o f H ours (this last on ly from
the m anu scripts o f the Bibiiotheque nationaie). The de scriptions con
tained in h is different catalogu es, which w e w ill ha ve occasion to
mention again, very rarely end without his making a judgment, sug
gesting an idea, or stating a new opinion on the type o f books to
w hich a given m anuscrip t belongs, as a conclusion to a paleographic ,
iconographic, and stylistic an alysis, even if ve ry brief. A lon g the samelines, it is worth m entioning that h is ope nin g lecture at the Division
of R eligiou s Sciences at the Ecole pratique d es H autes E tudes on
N ovem ber 1 3 ,1 9 3 1 , com m ands adm iration for being truly a little trea
tise* on liturgical typo logy. A ll, or almost all, the important qu estions
arc broached: definition of the liturgical books, their diversity, their
history, their role in the celebration, the ancien t terminology. Lastly, it
presen ts m ethodo logical orientations that are still valid today. Lero-qu ais joined a thorough kn ow ledg e o f constitutive elem ents of the
liturgy (orations, chants, and so on) and their history to his ceaseless
pro bin g of the "fresh do cum ent." H is personal notebooks, kept in the
Bibliothéque nationaie,33 contain treasures that make possible the
identification o f the liturgical u sages o f the boo ks o f Hours.
T his last point leads us to mention G. Beyssac (187 7- 196 5),” a litur-
gist w ho se pub lished w ork w as m inimal but w hose files of notes arean inestima bly rich mine for the historian o f liturgical texts. H avin g
spent h is life porin g o ver ancient m anu scripts an d printed b ooks, he
labored m ostly in the fields o f the history o f the con stitutive elements
3 1. See the eulogies given by F. Combalii/.ter, liphetneruies U lur gh w 19 (1946)
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o f the liturgy. Furtherm ore, w ith his gifts as a paleogra pher, he dec i
phered d ifficult texts and reconstructed the history o f man y offices,
w ithout, for aJl that, becom in g a specia list in m anuscrip ts.
In contrast to the liturgists w ho became pa leograp hers, fe w scholarsconversant with medieval documents became liturgists. Only one
person is an exception: I,. Delisle (1826-1910). A forerunner in the
stu d y o f m ed ieval manuscripts,-54 he co m pose d an e xcellent book, on
sacramcntarics which encompasses the definition of the type of these
m anu scripts as we ll as their history, w riting, and décoration.-'5
A Rapid R eview o f the Research on D if fe w ttl Books
In the dom ain of sacram entarles, several auth ors distingu ished
them selves; som e o f them focused their w ork on the history of the
book , the search for and the establishm ent of the earliest texts; others
stud ied the m anu script sourc es, their orig in, their date, even their il
lustrat ion. The pioneering w ork o f A. Ebner ( i S ó i - ^ S ) 56 is, along
w ith D elis le 's , the true poin t o f departure fo r m odern research on
sacramentarles. Ebner had undertaken to trace the history of the
m issal on the ba sis of the ancient sacramentarles preserved in the
rich collections o f Italian libraries. Th e valid po ints of his bo ok are,
even today, the stud y of each m anu script, an attempt at a syn thesis of
the history of the book, and his ideas on the illustration o f the sacra
m éntanos and , later on, the m issals. The catalog ue o f the sacram én
tanos kept in the French libraries, the first of the series written by Leroq uais, is to be placed next to Eb ner's w ork.*7 For the establish
m ent o f the texts o f the different fam ilies o f sacram entaries as w ell as
for the history o f the sacram en tary and the attribution o f the var iou s
pieces, one should consult the wo rk of A. Sluiber ( 19 12 -19 8 1) and
even more, those o f E. Bourqu e, J. Deshusses, lo wh om w e are in
debted for the best studies on the Grego rian Sacram entary ,^ and A .
Chavasse, whose competence in the field of the reconstitution of
34. On the life and work oí Leopold Delisle, who was the director of the Department of Manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale, see his "Souvenirs de jeunesse," published m the beginning of his book entitled Rfdii’rdjfs sur fu MrfliVii*tic Oniric* V (Paris, 1907) i:Xl-XXVU.
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liturgical boo ks h as spre ad into olh cr fie lds .59 We m ust also mention
K. G am ber (19 19 -19 8 9 ),40 w ho dev oted a largo part of his w ork to
sacramentaries. I lis Codices Lilurgici Latini Antufuiores are without
equal to this da y; they offer a n early com plete catalogue o f all the
m anuscript w itnesses o f the High M iddle A ge s through the eleventh
century, all type s of book s indiscrim inately listed, but w ith reflections
and proposals on typology.11
The bo oks of readings w ere studied princip ally by W. H. Frere
(18 63- 19 38 ),42 T. K lauser, a great historian o f the liturgy,43 and
C ha vasse. While Frere w as interested on ly in the history o f the differ
ent books of readings, Klau ser and C ha vasse have pondered the ear
liest w itnesse s in orde r lo reconstitute the lists o f pericop es used in
Rom e between the sixth an d eighth cen turies44 an d to follow their
evo lution do w n to their definitive form in the lectionaries du ring the
period from the ninth to eleventh centuries.
A s regards the books o f chant, the research w a s accom panie d by a
redisco very of G regorian Ch ant,45 by the Benedictine m onk s of Soles-m es in particular, am on g w hom are som e o f Ihe best specialists in
m edieval m usicology and w ho have been pub lishing the important
39. On thy life and career of A. Chavasse, see Rrvue des Sciences religieuses 58,Hommage à M. k» Pr Chavasse (1984) in particular pp. 3-5 ; fur his main works onthe subject of sacramentaries, see the bibliography.
40. Camber is the undisputed master of the German school o f research on liturgical bonks. The part devoted to the high Middle Ages in the catalogue of the exhibit, Liturgie im Risium Regensburg zwi den Anfängen Ms zur C.egetnixir! (Regensburg,1989), is the summation of nearly forty years of research doix* by (¡am ber on llteearliest witnesses of the liturgy from southwestern Germany. On thus catalogueand the w o rk - often the object o f controversy—o f this liturgist, see the note in P-M. Gy "Bulletin de liturgie." Keywf des Sciences religieuses et théologiques 74 (1990)1 14- 1 15 .
41. This work was published in two volumes in the Subsidia of the series Spici- legnitu Friimrgense (1963 and 196$) with one volume of supplements (1988).
42. See C. S. Philipps, W. H. I 'rere (London, 1947) particularly pp. 204-213.43. For the multifaceted work of this liturgist, see Arbeiten zur Utur-
giegeschichle. Kirchengeschichte und christlichen Archäologie, Jahrbuch liir Antike undChristentum, supp. 3 (Münster, 1974), where one finds his article on catalogues of litufgica) manuscripts, based on the works of Leroqiiais, DeJislc, and Hbner among
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Paleographic musicaie since 1889.^ The m ain historian of books of
liturgical chant is M. H uglo, wh ose competence covers m any disci
plines: the reconstitution o f the m elodies, the history o f ma nu scripts
(especially under their codicologica! aspoct), musical paleography (notation), and finally the genera l history o f the liturgy.47 For his part,
R.-J. Hesbert has established, also on the basis of the earliest m anu
script sources,4* the texts o f the antip ho na ls of the M ass an d Office.
A ll th ese w ritings have becom e indispensable in strum ents for any re
search on this type o f book.
The w ork M. An drieu (188 6-19 56 )^ devoted to the ordina* and then
to the pontifical takes its place am on g the most rem arkable stud ies
on liturgical books.50 His five v o lum es on the Ordine* Romani art? up
to da te on the ma nu script sources and the textual tradition o f each
ordo. The critical edition of the Romano-Germanic Pontifical of the
tenth century by C. V ogel and R. E lze continues A nd rieu 's onlines.*'
The link between the two preceding works is found in the work of N.
K. Rasmussen (d. 1987) on the pontificals of the High Middle Ages;54it is a study o f the ge ne sis of the b ish o p's liturgical book , in other
w ords, o f the old est form s o f the pontifical before the Ottoman com
pilation in the tenth century. A s an ed itor of texts and a historian o f
the liturgy, Rasmussen has chiefly contributed to the advancement of
research concerning the typolog y o f the bish op 's book.
We ow e our kn ow ledge o f other books o f the Latin liturgy to litur-
gists like J. D ubo is (d. 19 9 1), w ho se nam e is intim ately associated
46. Originally intended to justify the return to Gregorian chant, the Pahvtgrapfiic musicaie gradually became one of the major published works o f modern musicology, in particular for its contributions to the history o f the liturgy. See J. Kroger,"l.'&lition critique de I'Antiphonnle Missarum romain par les moinesdeSolesmes,”Eludes xrtyorienites 1 (1954) 15 1- 15 7 , «inti "The Critical Edition o f the Roman Gradual by the Monks of Solesmes," ¡ounial o f the Plainsong <w<i Meilianwt Music Society
10 (1987) 1-14.47. His contribution to the Louvain scries of fascicles on typology, devoted to
the books of chant, is the authoritative reference book in this field.4#. See Hesbert, CAO and /IMS.49. On the life and career of this great scholar, see Revue ties Sciences retigicuses
31, Melanges en 1'honneur de Mgr Michel Andrieu (Strasbourg, 1957) pp. v-ix; J.-M. Fabre and A.-G- Martimort, "M onseigneur Michel Andrieu/' Atouiles de ¡ LI-
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w ith research 011 the Rom an M artyrolo gy,53 as w ell as H. Barre O905--
1968) an d R. Grcg oire for their stu dies on m ed ieval hom il¡arios.54 F-‘or
the h istory o f the breviary, vve m ust mention P. Batiffol (i 8 6 i- i9 2 9 )55
and P. Salmon (1896-1982).** Other scholars will be named in the fol
low ing parts. But let us note here that all, or almost a ll, wo rke d in
different deg rees, depe nd ing on the periods and the schools they be
longed to, on m anu scripts in order to elaborate a typology, to w rite the
histo ry o f their docum ents, and to furnish a critical edition o f them.
Theoreticians and N ew Orientations o f ResearchOther scholars are important as "theoreticians" of liturgical science
and research on books. H ighly repu table historians o f the liturg y they
hav e labored un ceasingly to bring about a renewal in the method s o f
appro ach and reflection proper to the stu d y of books. Taking their
place betw een technicians and historians, A .-C . M artimort,57 P.-M.
Gy,5® Vogel (1919-1982),w and S. Van Dijk (1909-1971),60 to cite only a
few, h av e built brid ge s betw een liturgists and m edievalists— wh etherhistorians, historians o f art, or specialists in m anu scripts. Often, they
ha ve m ad e it possible for these last to ha ve an ea sier access to the
53. See the collection of articles recently published, Mnrturologci. d’Usuard ou marl i/rotoge romim (Abbeville?, 1990).
54. On Barré, see the article in Revue des Etude* ougusliniennes 15 (1969) 3-8.
555. See 1\ Cabrol, ed., Diclionnuired'Archcologie chrétietuu* el de liturgie (DACLj(Paris) vol. 9, pt. 2. cols. 1744-1749.
56. Salmon, Office divin; he is also the author of the five catalogues of the* liturgical manuscripts in the Vatican Library which replace the catalogue of 11.F.hrensberger; see the eulogy in Notitiac 10 (1982) 3H6-387.
57. See the introductions to his volum e of articles, Mm* amcordet woci: Pour Mgr/l.-G. Martimort t'i ¡ ’occasion e a s années d'enseignemenl ei des viugl «rtí de (aconstitution Sacro&mchm concilium (Paris, 1983). We ow e to this great scholar and
theologian, an active participant m the liturgical reform oí Vatican II, a recentbook on the ordines. the ordinaries, and the ceremonials, part of the series Typolo-gie des sources du Moven A ge occidental from Louvain, as well as a book on theliturgical readings and their books.
58. See the preface of Y. Congar in Rtluels: Melanges ojfert* mi P. Gy (Paris, 1990)9 - 1 1. G y has for many years been particularly interested in rituals, see Gy, "Col-lectaire '' and the section which is devoted to them in this book (Part 3 111)
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m anu script sou rces of the liturgy, their history, som etime s even their
ecclesiology and theology. The rcccnt collection o f articles w ritten by
G y 6’ illustrates this prod uctive ap proac h to liturgical sources regarde d
as elemen ts o f a "to ta l" history o f the liturgy. For his part, Vogel, whom w e h ave already mentioned in the general in troduction, re
m ains to this da y the author of the sole com pen dium accessible to all
medievalists on the subject of medieval liturgical books studied in
their historical and e cd esio log ical contexts.
A fter having published the m ajor texts necessary to the sh ady of
the liturgy, restored Iheir original state, and written their history, the
liturgists ha ve turn ed to a kind o f stu d y that greatly interests histori
ans in the wider sense. Two recent articles seem to me indicative of
this new orientation; both concern liturgical books, the first, directly,
the second , m ore peripherally.
Rasm ussen approaches in a new w ay the problem o f the typolog y
o f liturgical book s and its im plications for the different form s of ce le
bration du ring the H igh M iddle A ge s.62 Taking his point of departurefrom several m edieval m anuscripts, the autho r attem pts to find a sy s
tematic approa ch to these accord ing to a sim ple principle: the content
and material aspect of a manuscript reveal what its use was. Therefore,
there are as m any forms of célébration as there are types of docum ents.
For instance, sacram entaries w ere in use in m onasteries an d p arishes
as w ell as in ep iscop al ceremon ies: in each o f these cases, the external
form an d the content of the m anu scripts are different. This approachpermits us to establish the connection between the medieval liturgi
cal book and the setting for which it was intended, and thus to deter
mine the control it had on the liturgical practices of the monk, the
pa rish priest, and the bishop. W hat is sought here is a true reconstitu
tion o f the l iving framew ork of the liturgy o f the H igh M iddle Ag es,
a difficult undertaking for which the documentation is fragmentary.6*
Van Dijk, Origin*; see the eulogy in Archivttm f'rmciscanum hxtorianii 64 (1071)
W -S 97-61. hi liturgie dan* i’hbloin'. preface by J. \ j >CUrff (Paris, 1990).62. See N. K. Rasmussen. "QW'bration épiscopale et célébration presbytérale,
un essai de typologie." Signie riii wlfo chtesa altotnedin\ile occidentale, Settimane Ji
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Th an ks to the contribution o f va riou s sources (literary texts, liturgi
cal texts, archeological confirmations), V. Saxer has produced a stimu
lating stud y on the liturgical usa ges and fashions in Rom e in antiquity
and the H igh M iddle A ge s.64 Altho ug h he d oes not deal directly withliturgical book s, Sax er com bines his sourc es in such a w a y that they
shed a different light on his subject.
For a long time, liturgists stressed the importance, for the typology of
the books, o f labeling a ny m anuscript as precisely as p ossible; this ap
plies equa lly to the m edieva l and m ode rn names. With few exceptions,
this requirement received scant respect on the part of researchers.05
N ow ad ay s, w o p ay close attention to the term inology used in the
M iddle A ges to designate the books, a term inology often v ariable
and fluctuating. But a whole field is open to research in this direction.
The m edieva l library catalogues and the inventories o f church trea
suries p rove extrem ely rich, a w ealth co m pletely ignored up to now.
A prelim in ary inquiry on the term s used in m edie val catalo gues to
de signa te the liturgical HMli** ga ve us an inkling of how beneficial it w ou ld be to extend th is sort of study to all other liturgical hooks. In
order to really profit from these catalogues and inventories, one must
be attentive to the evolution of the meaning of each and every term
as w ell as to the mixing o f mean ing between the wo rd s that de sig
nate the book as an intellectual un it an d those w hich de scribe the
books in codicological terms.**7
A t the sam e tim e, the "c lassical" approaches (publication o f thebooks, elaboration of a typology) continue and seek to perfect their
methods. Increasing attention given to codicological, paleographic,
64. V. Saxer, "{.’utilisation par la Jiturgie de I'espace urbain et suburbain: L'ex*omple de Rome dans {'Antiquity el le haul M oyen Age ," tin 1 \e CongrH »1-ttrniilnntiil d ’Ar ch ivh gie chrftiennc, I.yon, Vienne, Grenoble, G en h v, el Anuta, 2 1- 2 8
seplrmbrc 1986 (Rome, 1989) 2:917-1031.65. Concerning the names given to ihc different liturgical books, Gy has
stressed lhat it was an insufficiently studied question, "Le vocabulaire liturgiquelatin du Moyen Age," I j i lexicographic itu latin tned imil et sts rapport* avee le*
recherche? acluelles $ur la civilisation du Moyen Age, Colloque international duCNRS [Centre national de recherche scientifique] (Paris. 1981) 295-301.
66 .!:. I’alaz/o, "L e role des HMli dans la pratique lituigique du haul Moyen
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an d artistic da ta, characterizes a go od nu m ber of the studies (espe
cially those on the catalogues o f m anuscripts) un dertaken b y litur-
g ists, specialists in cultic boo ks. To cite bu t one e xam ple, the
ordinaries are extremely useful to the archeologist—because the plano f a given bu ilding a nd its even tual repairs and restorations are de
scribed there— and to the topog rap he r of the cities and villag es o f the
M iddle A ge s— because the nam es of the streets and various places
are sometimes mentioned in these books.68
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Part Two
The Books of the Mass
S T R U C T U R E O F T H E C E L E B R A T I O N O F A M A S S
— Introit antipho n (cantor an d schola cantorum. antiphonal)
—Kyr i e
—Gloria in Excelsis (celebrant and schola caiiiorunt, sacramentarv and antiphonal)
— First oration :1 collect (celebrant, sacram entarv)
— Rea ding o f the epistle (subdeacon, epistolary o r lectionary)
—G rad ua l response and alleluia (cantor and schola cantonuu,
antiphonal and cantatorium
— Rea ding of the gosp el (deacon, evangeliary, book o f Gospels,o r lectionary)
— O ffertory antiphon (cantor, schola cantorum, antiphonal)
—Second oration: secret (secrefa or su per obtain) (celebrant,
sacramentary)
— Preface
—Sanctus (celebrant and schola canlorum, sacramentary and
antiphonal)
i. [In this book, the word "oration” refers to several sorts of prayers in the formof the Roman "collect" (front oral to ad colteclam, "prayer upon assembly"), which
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— Ca no n of the M ass (celebrant, sacramen tary)
—Our Father
— A gn us Dei (Cantor and schoin cantorum, antiphonal)
—Communion antiphon (cantor and schola cantorum, antiphonal)
— Third oration: p ostcom m union (celebrant, sacram entary)
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I. The Sacramentary, the Book of the Celebrant
D uring the High M iddle A ge s, the principal book for the celebra
tion of the M ass is the sacram entary.2 It con tains all the texts o f ora
tions and p ray ers n eede d by the celebrant, wh ether a p arish p riest, a
bishop, or the pope, for eve ry d ay of the liturgical year. This material
com prises an un chan ging part {the canon of the Mass) and a part that
varies from one d a y to the next (the form ula rie s o f the Tem poral and
Sanctoral Cycles, as w ell as votive Masses).
i . C O N T E N T O F T H E S A C R A M E N T A R Y
Besides the canon o f tine M ass an d orations gro up ed in form ularies
for each M ass, the sacram entaries ha ve often a calendar, an ordo inis-
sue, ordincs (rituals of baptism, funerals, penance, and so on), and
blessings, these last in general for monastic use.
The Canon o f Ihe MassThe canon o f the M ass (today called the "Eu ch aristic P ray er") is
m ade up o f all the pr ay ers wh ich the priest sa ys at each cucharistic
celebration; it goe s from the dia log ue prece ding Ihe preface to the
O ur Father.3 For its main part, the cano n had in all likelihood been
de velop ed b y ihe fourth century since St. Am brose, bishop o f Milan
(374-397 ), alread y q uotes som e p assa ge s from it.'1 From the pontifi
cate o f G reg ory the Great {590-604) on, one is on firm er groun d for
reconstructing its text. By then, it had already received various
2. For the history of the Eucharist, see Jungmann, M S; CP, 2; anti especially H. B.Meyer, F.uduitistw: CeschicMe, Theologie. Pashmil, Gottesdienst der Kirche: Hnnd-buch der l.iturgiewissenschaft 4 (Rtigeiisburg. 1989). See the critical review of this
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complements, of which the most important is the Sa net us, borrow ed
from the Hast—Jerusalem, perhaps—about the first third of the fifth
century.5 The variable pray ers o f the canon are also believed to have
been written in the fifth and sixth centuries. Am on g these «ire theCommunicantes6 and the Hmtc igitur,7 In which the references to saints
differ from one manuscript to the other, as do those in the Nobis
quoque and the Libera nos. Th e study o f these references directly con
cerns that o f the sacram entary and enables researchers to determine
in certain cases the origin of the manuscript and the place where it
w as used, ft is therefore necessary to take into account the additionsand corrections made to the original text. From the Carolingian pe
riod on, the text of the canon is usually placed in the beginning of the
manuscripts, after the calendar, or else, in the missals of the second
half of the M idd le Ages, it is inserted in the body o f the book in the
vic in ity o f the feast o f Easter.
i fere fo llows the overall structure of the canon o f the Mass:
—dialogue of introduction (Per omnia secuia secuhnnn. Dominus vo- biscum) follow ed by the common preface Vere digmim and the
singing o f the Sanctus;
— pray er o f intercession (Te igitur)?
—prayer for the living (Memento);
—prayer of intercession with the saints [Communicantes, in which
the Virgin, the twelve apostles, and the twelve Roman martyrs
are alw ays mentioned);— pray er for the acceptance of the offering (Hanc igitur and Quant
oblationem);9
—story of the institution of the Eucharist (Qui pridie.w Unde et
memores);** anamnesis;
5. See P.-M. Gy, "L e Sanctuc romain et les anaphores orientales," Mélange*
liturgiques offerts au R. P. >tom Bernant Botte (Louvain, 1972} 167-174; B. D. Spinks,The Sancfus in the Eucharistie Prayer (Nft*vv York, 1991).
6. lî. ttotte, "Communicantes/’ Questions liturgiques et paroissiales 38 (1957) 119 -12 3 .7. V. t.. Kennedy, "The Prc-Orcgorian Hattc igitur." Epltemerides Uturgicae 50
(1936) 349-358, and The Saiul* of the Canon of the Mas* (Rome, 1938); J. Dubois and
l.-L. Lemaitre, Source* et méthodes de ¡ ’hagiographie médiétmle (Paris, 1993) 59-101.
8 L Kizenhôfer ' l e ignur und Ccmmunicantes ” Sacris Brudiri S (1956) 14 75
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— prayer for sanctification (Supra quae/ 1 Suppiices);
— pray er for fellow ship with the saints (Memento of the dead , Nobis
quoque):
—concluding prayers (Per quern haec omnia. Pater nosier,') Libera nos).
The Calen da r14
A great number o f sacramentaries o f the High M iddle A ges have a
calendar, usually placed in the beginning of the manuscript.'5 Men
tioned in it are the universal feasts and the commemorations of the
saints de ar to a given comm unity— this being a clue to the place where
the manuscript wa s w ritten or the place for which it was destined—
com mem orations which do not necessar ily entail a M ass in the Sanc-
toral. It is important to ascertain that the calendar is part of the
original manuscript and is not an addition (verification of the codico-
logical and paleographic unity of the manuscript). Afterwards, one
must exam ine whether the calendar and the Sanctoral of the sacra-
mentary agree, for it frequently happens that they do not completely coincide. P. Jounel has righ tly draw n attention to the fact that the cal
endars inserted in sacramentaries of the High M iddle A ges are some
times only sum maries of the m arlyrologies.16 Prudence is therefore in
12. B. Bagatti, "L'origine gerosolimitana della prcghiera S»;wii quae del Canone
Romano." BeO 21 (1979) 101-108.
13. J. A. Jungmann, "D as Paler twsler im Kommunionritus/' 7 .cil$chrift fiir Kalholische theologic 58 (1934) 552-5 71.14. Concerning the visual organization and composition o f calendars (ides, cal
ends, nones), see Hughes, Mass Office, pp. 275-279, and Dubois and Lomaitre,
Sori imrt mfthodcs. p. 48. n. 5, pp. 85-S6 and 135- 16 0 . The calends alw ays fall on
the first day of the month whose name they bear (Kalendis iunii - June 1); thenones fall of the fifth day o f the month (or the seventh in March, M ay, July, andOctober). Between the calends and the nones, the days are counted backwards:
Pritiif nonas iunii = June 4; lerlio nonas ¡tout = June 3, tV tumu$ iunii = June 2. Theides fall on the thirteenth day oi the month (on the fifteenth in March, May, July,and October). Between the nones and the ides, the day s are counted backwards:
Pruiie iduf iunii - June 12, f// id. inn. = June 11 , W/f id. iun. - June 6. Between theides <md the calends, the days are also counted backwards: PrUie kalendif jitiii =
Ju ne 30, /// kal. ini. - June 29, XVIII lull, in i = June 14.15. Calen dars began to be integrated into liturgical documents as early as the
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order when it comes to using the calendar to determ ine the place o f
orig in of a manuscript, even though the calendar often lends to re
constructing Ihc history o f the m an usc ript thanks especially to the
addition o f obituaries (listings o f dead persons, cither contem porary with the manuscript or of a later period).
The O r d o M i s s a e
It is in the Carolingian and particularly the Ottoman periods that
the ordo missae developed in an important way; it contains all the
prayers said b y the priest during M ass, in general before the Eucharis-lic Prayer, in order to prepare h imself to consecrate the bread and the
wine. These prayers, variable in number according to the different
m anuscripts, are set in the beginning o f the sacramentary, after the
canon , or else at the end {and som etimes as additions). Rather than
develop ing a true theology of the Eucharist,*7 these prayers d w ell on
the repentance for sins in the priest's personal prayer, so that he may
be purified before celebrating the eucharistic mystery. Besides its interest for the theology of prayer, the study o f the ordo missae often un
covers the liturgical geography proper to a specific sacramentary,
demonstrating liturgical exchanges between important monasteries,
as happened in the course o f the ninth and tenth centuries.,s
The Mass Formularies (Temporal, Sanctoral,C.ommon of Saints, Votive Masses) 19
Each M ass formulary, corresponding to one day o f the year, com
prises at least three orations (sometimes more when it is an important
feast for which peop le want to "preserve" all the pray ers related to
17. See P.-M. Gy, "L a doctrine eucharistique dan s la liturgie romaine du haul
Moyen Age," La liturgi? dan* I'hialoire (Paris, 1991) 187-204, and especially 189-190.t8. On this topic, see 13. Luykx, "D er L’rsprung dor gleichbleibenden Teile der
Hciligeft Messe," { ffurgiV imrf Mondtitim 2 9(19 61) 7 2 - 11 9 , which wnw ins thebasic article on the onto «i/asijc. Many studies on particular points have since then
completed and enriched I.tiyckx's conclusions. See especially J. O. Bragan<p, "O'Ordo Missae' di* Reichenau," Didntkalia 1 (1971) 137-162; B. Barolito anil F. Dt*l-
I’Oro, " 1/ 'Ordo missae' del vescovo Warmondo d'lvre s," S/uif/ Mt'tlitnwli 16/2
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it3°), to which is added a proper preface replacing the comm on préf
ace of the canon o f the Mass. The collect, the first thing the celebrant
sa ys in the course of the ceremony, concludes the rite of entrance; after
an address to God, it announces the theme of the day.*' The secret2*(also tijJJed secrela or super oblntn) is placed at Ihe end of the procession
with the offerings. Terse in form, it asks G od to accept and sanctify
Ihe offerings just brought to the altar.2* The preface, whether proper
or common, as Ihe introduction to the canon of Ihe Mass, is the rich
est piece from the literary point of v iew and the enunciation of the
liturgical theology of a feast; it is often the place when.» a position on
20. The specialists disagree on Hie meaning lo be given to the fact that Ihe num
ber of orations in a given formulary varies in the sacramentaries of the HighMiddle Ages. In the case of series of uütic ("others") appended to the formulary, we are seeing in all likelihood the desire to preserve Ihe treasury o f Ihe Church'sprayers by w riting them down, without im plying that Hie pries! should choose
among Ihe numerous orations set dow n in Ihe book. The number of orations before the Sujk'r obiaia (one, two, or three) is of much greater importance because it
leads us bark to the origins o f the Roman liturgy {fourth lo sixth centuries) and tothe distinctions between the papal liturgy (one oration) and the priestly liturgy
(two or three orations), a distinction which became meaningless when the Romanliturgical texts were adapted for Gallic use. See A . Massimo Martelli, "1 formularidella messa con due o Ire orazioni prima della segrela ne» sacramentari romani,"Stadia Patnvina 19 (1972) 539-579.
21. Ihe wort! collecta, rarely found in the sacramentaries of the High Middle
Ages, designated the place where people gathered before departing for the Romanstational liturgy; then the meaning was extended and applied to the oration pro
nounced at the time when the whole assembly is gathered. See K. Camber “Oralto ad colfectam: Hin Beitrag zur römischen Stationsliturgie," Ephmerides Uturgiaw 82
(1968) 45-47: V. Saxer, "1 .’utilisation par la liturgie de l'espace urbain et suburbain:1.'exem ple de Rom e dans l'Antiquité et le haut Moyen A ge ," A c te tin it ' Congrès
international ¿ ’Archéologie chrétienne, Lyon, Vienne, Grenoble, Gcmi’îv, et Aosta. 21-28 septembre 1986, 2 vols. (Rome, 1989) 2:9 17 -1031, especially 952-958. In the oldest
sacramentaries w e still have (seventh to ninth centuries), the names of stations inthe rubrics of ihe form ulary (ad sanctum lauwnlii/m. ad ¡v?nctam maruvn mnjorcm.
and so on) recall the topography of the Roman liturgy. As these references are worthless outside of Rome, they were progressively eliminated from the manuscripts o f most of the western churches. Concerning the organization of the litur
gical stations elsewhere than in Rome, see P. Saint-Roch, "I/utilisation liturgiquede l'espace urbain et suburbain: l.'exemple de quatre villes de France," Actes du
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a d ogm atic or d octrinal54 question is m ade e xp ress ly clear. In certain
cases, such as the feasts o f saints, the proface takes on the tone o f a
hagiographic panegyric. During Kent, it becomes a real catechesis,
penitential in character. The postcommunion (jws/ cottmtuniom’tii or ad complcudum) w hich concludes the celebration, is less a p ray er of
thanksgiving than a request for the fruitfulness in the believer's lives
o f the Com m union and the eucharistic action in general.
Th is lypical form ulary, va lid for the Temporal as w ell as the Sane-
toral and the Co m m on of Saints (undeterm ined form ularies adapted
to local circumstances) can be augmented, in particular during Lent,,
by an oration ov er the people (super populum), a sort o f final blessing,
penitential in character.*5 Th e form ularies fo r the vo tive M asses fol
low the sam e pattern as those of other M asses. The m ultiplication of
votive M asses from the C arolingian perio d on is the consequence o f
the developm ent o f the practice of private M asses and of ihe new
m ona stic spirituality, strong ly penitential, that arises at the beginn ing
of the ninth century.26
The '‘Ritual Ordines"27
In the High M iddle Ag es, the sacramen taries contained ve ry few
liturgical texts u sed in the perform ance o f ritual acts, w hich today w e
call sacram ents and sacramentals. It is on ly from the second h alf of
the ninth cenliirv (hat complete texts of ordines (rubrics and orations)
for the different sacram ents beg in to be a regular p art of the sac ramentaries. These ordines concerned a small number of rites, not re
served for bishops, which the priests could perform in their parishes
w ith the help o f th eir sacram entaries: penance, baptism al scrutin ies
24. See L. Moeller, Corpus Praefationuni, CCSL 159 {Tumhout, 1981), and the reviewof this work by A. Nocent, "L'cdition critique des profaces latines dans le 'Corpus
Christianorum,"' ftawe bénCítktine 9-1 (1984) 245-256.25. J, A, Jungmann, "Oratfo super yopuiion und altchristJiche Büssersegnung,"
Ephemerutes litúrgica? 52 (1938) 77-96.26. See the basic study by A. Angcnendt, "Mis*? speaalis: Zugleich ein Beitrag
/.ur F.ntstehung der Privalmessen," Friihmittclaltcrliche Stinlicn 17 {1983) 153- 221.See also C. Vogel, " 1-a multiplication dcs messes solitaires au Moyen Agí:: Hssaide stalistiqui*," ¡/cs Sciences reliftteuses 55 {198 1) 206-213, and "La vie quoti-
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and baptism, anointing of the sick, funerals. In the manuscripts, the
texts for baptism and penance are placed at the point when they are
list'd in the liturgical year.
77/r Blessings
Blessings are short pieces proclaimed in connection w ith the ritual
acts that occur in the cou rse o f M asses or other liturgical celebrations
(consecration o f a church, ordination to the priesthoo d, and so on).
There are comp lete series o f them in the monastic sacram entaries
(blessings of all the pa rts of the m onastery) or in the ma nu scripts
used by bishops (episcopal ben edictionals w ere often joined to pon
tificals)28 in orde r to en able the bisho ps to bless the perso ns, places,
and objects they had just consecrated. D uring the High M iddle Ages,
the benedictionals w ere dissem inated particularly in Germ anic coun
tries, and e ven m ore pa rticula rly in mona steries.29 In the m anu
scripts, these series o f pieces are usu ally placed at the en d o f the
book.
2 . A N C I E N T A N D M O D E R N N A M E S
FOR T H E S A C R A M E N T A R Y
In the contem porary typ olog y o f liturgical book s, the sacram entary
no long er exists as such bec ause it is p art o f the m issal. D uring the
High Middle Ages, the progressive transition from sacramentary to
m issal, espec ially from the eleventh c entu ry on,30 in no w a y causedthe total disapp eara nc e o f the form er in fav o r o f the latter. The terms
used by people o f the M iddle A ges to designa te either boo k reflect in
large m easure this typological evolution o f the celebrant's book.
From the paleo-Christian period until the end of the Middle Ages,
the term s or nam es w hich are perm anen tly encountered are Liber
¿¡acrantentorum, sacramentarium (sacramentorium), ntissaie. O f course,
the term inology v aries w ith the period and esp ecially w ith the type
o f docu m ents in w hich the book is m entioned; this is w ha t w e are
abo ut to ve rify through an exploration, rapid and not exh au stive, of
diverse medieval texts.
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References in Liturgical and Other Texts A s n pre lim in ary, gen eral rem ark , few are the liturg ical texts o f th e
I l igh M iddle A g es that contain informat ion on the nam es of books.
O nly the titles and the rubrics, in particular the practical reg ulation s
given in the onlines, occ asional ly su p p ly this type o f reference. A s re
ga rd s the sacrame ntary , w e n ote first of al l the t it le give n to the G re
gor ian Sacram entary at the end of the e ighth ce ntu ry :11 In nomine Domini ¡tic sacramentorum de circula anni exposito a mincto Gregorio papa Romano editunt. Ex authenlico libro bibliolhecae cubiculi scriptum ["In the
nam e o f the Lord . Th is sacram entary arrange d according to the year ly
cycle w as pu bl ished b y P op e St . Grego r\ ’. Th is copy w as w r it ten in a
room of the library from the authentic bo ok "! .*2 A ga in in the G reg o
rian, the preface o f the Su pp lem en t33 ad ds , Hucusque praecedens sacra- mentorinn libellus [ "Here end s the preceding sacram en tary" ! .34
Lik ew ise in the O ld G elasian Sacram entary ,35 the end o f the book is
clearly indicated: ExpJirif liber Mcranientorwn. Deo Gratias [ "H e r e e n d s
the Sacramen tary. Th an ks be to G o d "] .36 In three different p laces of ms. Paris, B. N., lat . 9433 (Sacramentary of Echternach, end of ninth
century),37 the scribe has written the following references respectively
at the beginning a nd end o f a part o f the sacram entary , Indpif sacra-
mentormn liber [ "H ere beg ins Ihe sacram en tary "! ( canon o f the M ass
and the Temporal) , Explicit secundus sacramentorum liber [ "H e r e e n d s
the second book of the sacra m en tary" ! (Sanctoral and C om m on of
Saints), In honore sanclae Trinitatis incipit sacramentorum liber terI ins ("Inhon or o f the H oly Trinity , here begins the third bo ok o f the sacram en
tar y" ] (vo t ive M asse s and onimcs) . Th ese references identi fy not only
the type o f the boo k but also un derl ine w hat i ts contents are. In the
twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, inscriptions were placed
on or ins ide the b inding o f a few m anu scr ipts from the H igh M iddle
A g e s ; som e o f these in scrip tion s d o not correspo n d to the actual con
tents of the sac ram en tary. This is tine ca se for the sa cra m en tary from
31. For the history o f this bttok, see the section on the Gregorian below.
32. Deshusses, Crcty'rim, 1 $ 5 .
33. For the supplement to the Gregorian Sacramentary, see pp. 52-54.
34 Deshusses Grt^oneM 1:351
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R he im s (P aris, B. N ., lat. 229 4,-'B ninth cen tury, w h ich <tn insc ription o f
the twe lfth o r thirteenth centu ry (fol . 12 ) d es ign ate s as a collectar,39
probably because it does effectively contain collects.-*0 In most ordines
o f the H igh M iddle A ge s, w here ihc occasion presents itsel f, the sacram entary is also cal led fiber sncrnm entorum {or a variant o f this). A s an
exa m ple am on g m any, let us s ing le oul the blessing o f sacrc d objects
<it the t im e o f the dc dical ion o f a church excerpted f rom the Kom ano-
G erm an ic Pontif ical of the tenth century, in w hich a large n um ber of
o lder ordines are collected: benedicat ea pontifex sicut in sacramentario
conlinetur ["let the bishop bless these objects in the manner pre
scribed in the sac ram en tary "].41 It is clear that du rin g the H igh
Middle Ages, the l i turgical texts designate the sacramentary by I Jber
sacrameulonnu, a des ignat ion wh ich grad u a l ly wi l l d i sap pe ar wi th the
d isuse o f the sacram entarv in favo r o f the m issal, called mis.wle41
The references found in va riou s texts o f the H igh M idd le Ag es or
even late antiquity confirm the testimony found in the l iturgical books
conce rning the nam e of the sacram entary . A t the en d o f the f if th cen tury o r beg innin g o f the sixth, G en n ad ius o f M arsei lles ( fl. 470) , in a
description of the w ork s com posed by the priest M usa eu s (d. ca. 460),
w rites, C.omposuit t'tuim nacnnnentorunt egregiunt el non p urvu m volumen
[ "H e also w rote a rem arkable sacram entary , and not a s l im vo lum e"] ;43
in the sam e text, the au tho r attributes to Pau l inu s, bisho p o f Nola
(409-431 ) , the com posit ion o f a sacram entary and hym nal (fecit $acra-
menlorutn et hymtuiriuitt).*4 A little later, in the ninth century—a key per iod for the history of the sacram entary— A gn el lus o f Ravenna
(805-C.846) states that Bishop Maximianus (sixth century) had written
a m issal w ith the M asses for the entire yea rly cyc le and all the feasts
o f sa ints , as w el l as for ord inary d ay s and Lent.45 U nfortunate ly , w e
38. See l.eroquais, .Wmiiifu/iiircs, 1:69-71.
>9. For this type of book, set* Part 3, on the Office, III.40. The same sort of thing happened to St. Gall, Stiftsbibl. cod. *48: in the fif
teenth century, someone wrote on the cover CoUixtariuw veiustum-1». Vbgel ami Flze, PRG 1:87; see also 1:173, 2:12-55 - »48.155; all these or-
times are also found in the volumes of Andrieu, OR.4 2 .1« the pontificals, the I w o terms coexist; see Andricu, Pont/firal 1:221 and
275, where the word sacramentam is maintained; 2:549, 354, 365,400,440, 467,
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d o n ot k n ow w he the r i n th i s cas e the book is «1 s ac ram e n tary o r a
m is s a l, tw o bo ok s w i th d i ff e re n t con ten ts. I l ow e v e r , a l on g w i th the
w r it in g s o f A lc u in (7 35 -8 0 4 ) , w e p o sse ss re fe re n ce s c o n te m p o ra ry
w ith A g n e llu s ' te s tim o n y ; th ey le a v e n o d o u b t th at it w a s a sacra-m e n ta r y a n d n o t a m issa l.46 In a le tter sen t lo the m o n k s o f S t . V aast
in A r r a s , in w lii ch h e d e s c r ib e s a s e r ie s o f v o t i v e M a s s e s h e h im s e lf
c o m p o s e d , A l c u i n s t ip u l a te s t h at t h e y a r e e x c e r p t e d f ro m h i s o w n
m i s s a l (mi&as (¡noque alienas de nostro tuli missalc | ' i a ls o t o o k s o m e
m as s e s f rom o u r ow n m i s s ar ' } ) .47 In fac t, w e k n ow tod ay tha t A l cu i n
h a d w r it te n a re m o d e l e d s a c r a m e n t a r y w it h m i x e d co n t en t s ( G r e g o
r ia n a n d G e l a s i o n ) . 1* T h e c a t a l o g u e o f th e li b r a r y o f th e A b b e y o f S t.
R iquier (8 3 1 ) a t tes ts to th i s: M issa l is greg orian as ei gelasian us moderni*
tcmporibu* ab A icuino ordinatus / [ " O n e G r e g o r ia n a n d G e l a s ia n M is s al
a r r a n g e d b y A lc u i n f o r o u r m o d e m t im e s " ].49 M o r e o v e r , in a n o t h e r
le tter, A lcu in es tab l ishe s c lea r ly the d i s t inct ion betw een th e ! ¡bell i m is-
»arum, s m a ll b o o k s o f w h ic h c e r ta in o n e s a r e " e m b r y o s " o f (o r at
te m pts a t) m i s sa l s , an d the s acram e n tar l e s , w hi ch a re m u ch m ore
e xte n s i v e .5® A t the s am e pe r i od , the le t te r o f P o pe H adr i an 1
( 7 7 2 -7 9 5 ) , a c c o m p a n y in g th e s a c ra m e n t a ry , c a l le d G r e g o r i a n , h e w a s
s e n d in g to C h a r le m a g n e ( r eig n e d 8 6 8 - 8 1 4 ) , s p e c i fie s , de sacramentarlo
vero [" f ro m the au then tic sa cr am en tar y" ] .55 A l it t le later , in the ninth
century , W ala fr id Strab o (0 .808-849) con f irm s the at t ribut ion o f the
b o o k to G r e g o r y a n d in s is ts h e (G r e g o r y ) w r o t e a b o o k c a lle d s a c r a
mentary as is indicated L>y its title.52
rifum pertittet, omnia ibi sbm dubio {"He published mass formularies for the whole
yearly cycle and all the sain ts ' feasts; there are also the form ularies fo r w eekdays
and the time of Lent; without any doubt, everything that pertains to the rites of the Church is included here"].
46. See especially 11, itavbe and J. Deshusses, "A la recherche du missel d'Al-
cuin," Ephcmeridt's liturgicae 82 5-44.47. Ep. 296, in MGH, fc;»., 4:455.
48. Concerning these two families of sacramentaries, s w pp. 42-55.49. Becker, Gtla/o£t, n. 11.
50. De ordiwtioni' ct dispositioncm mi«$ali$ liM li »eseio cur demendusli: numquid non hnbes mulatto ordinatos Utxtios xtcntlortos abumkinter? Halvs quotfue cl tvleris consuelu-
dinte suffieienter sacrammaria majont ["I don 't know w hy you are inquiring about the
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In o th e r te x t s o f t h e H ig h M id d l e A g e s , su c h a s e p is c o p a l c a p i tu l a r
ie s an d m on as t ic cus tom ar i e s , am on g othe rs, the re a re a l s o a ll us i on s
w h ic h d e m o n stra te that the sa c ra m e n ta ry w a s m o st o ften ca lle d liber
sacramentorutn, a n d s o m e tim e s m i d d l e . G i v e n th e p e r io d u n d e r c o n s ide ra t i on , the t e rm n e v e r m e an s a t rue m i ss a l com pl e te w ith
the s u n g pa r t s an d the re ad i n g s o f the M as s in ad d i t ion to the ora
t ion s . T h i s is am p l y con f irm e d by the e x i s te n ce o f ¡¡b e lli m is s a n m —
pro bab l y ca lle d tuhiHilid — du r i n g the n i n th an d ten th ce n tur i e s an d
st il l m ore b y the re ferences , fo un d in cap i tu lar ies for ins tance , to the
a n t ip h o n a l o r e v a n g e l ia r y ( or e v e n le c tio n a r y ) p l a c e d s i d e b y s id e
w ith the missi le . In the ep iscop al cap i tu lar ies , w h ich are col lect ions of ru l in gs a p p ly in g to the d io cese ,55 thea ’ a re s om e t im e s l is ts o f the
l it u rg ic a l b o o k s e v e r y p r ie s t w a s s u p p o s e d to p o s s e s s; o n e e n c o u n
ters the terms l iber sa cranienlorunt** sacramentarium,** bu t m os t o ften
missale.**1 On the con trary, the term " li twr sacram entorum " p r e d o m i
n ate s in the m on as t ic cu s tom ar i e s o f the H i g h M i dd l e A g e s . T h is
w o rd d e s ig n a te s w ith o u t a n y a m b ig u ity — the litu rg ica l a n d textu al
c o n t e xt l e a v e n o d o u b t o n t h is p o in t — th e s a c ra m e n t a ry , u b i q u i to u s
in the* H igh M idd le A ge s , that i s, the boo k o f the ce lebrant , con ta in
ing al l the orations for the l iturgical year.57 It is interesting to note
that ev en in the m on ast ic cu s tom aries , the t rans i t ion f rom the sacra
m e n tary to the m i ss a l i s pe rce pti b le . I n de e d , in the cus tom ar i e s o f the
e leven th to th ir teenth cen tur ies , an d ev en m ore in those o f the th ir
teenth and fourteenth cen tur ies , the term missaie, w h i c h b y th e n d e s
ign ates rea l m issa l s, takes ov er the term l iber sacram enloruin w h i c h , a s
a s e pa ra te book , prac t ica l l y d i s ap p e a rs from the typ o l og y .58
¡iinirdi'drtm/ur. . ["I have written a book which is called a sacramentar)', as is
most clearly indicated by ils litio") (PL 11 4 , col. 946).53. Urommer, G»/>. P.p.
54. Capitulary of Waitcaud oí Liège, ca. 8 12 -8 14 . ibid.. 47-48.
55. Cap itular)' o f Haito o f Basel, ca. 6i 3, ibid., 2 1 1 and 223.56. Capitulary of Gherbald o f Liège, ca. 809, ibid., 39; Capitulary 0/ Rutger of
Trier, between 915 and 939, ibid., 63; Capitulary o f Gautier of Orléans, ca. 869-879,ibid., 189; Capitulary of I lildegar of Meaux. dated 868, ibid., 198; Capitulary of
Ralph of Bourges, between 853 and 866, ibid., 237.S f l h f d f h Ubi T iU i i
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Final ly , the m ed ieval l ibrary catalogu es59 and inven tories of church
treasuries*’0 also reflect this evo lution o f the b oo k o f the celebran t from
the sacra m en tary to the m issal. In both cases, it u su ally h ea ds the list
o f l iturgical book s. Som etime s, esp ecial ly in the inven tories of churchtreasuries, w he re the m ost precious b ooks are kept, informa tion is
g iven on the richness o f the b ind ing (gold w ork, ivory) or the su m p
tuo us gold ca lligrap hy .6' In gen eral, the cata log ue s of the eighth an d
ninth cen turies prefer to use liber s/tcramentorum (or just sffcw w uto-
m w ).62 Som etim es, they sp ecify the type o f sacram en tary (Grego rian,
G elasian, or the com bination o f the two) and in v er y rare eases, spea k
about the contents of the manuscripts (sacramentary with a lectionary pa rt,6-*o r w ith b les sin g s pro p er to the bisho p).64 D etails on the co n
tents o f the sacram entary w ere , for these per iods , in no w a y neces
sary , s ince— sav e som e rare except ions— eve rybo dy knew that th is
book contained on ly orat ions , and eventual ly , b less ing s and ordines.
S ide by s ide w ith num erous m entions o f liber sacromentoriim in the
catalogu es of the eighth and ninth centuries, one f ind s som e niissalin,
w h ich co u ld d es ign ate e ither i ibrll i m issaruw or the f irst beg inning s of
m issa ls (with juxtaposed parts?) more de velop ed than the libellif** In
a go od num ber o f cases, the precise contents are specif ied (missal xvith
lectionary; m issal with lectionary an d antiphonal). Th e l ibrary cata
logu es from Ihe tenth and eleventh centu ries— the period of grad ua l
passag e from sacram entary to m issal— sh ow a d ist inct predom inance
o f missithi o v e r liber sacntmentomm, w hich d i sappe ars a lm ost corn-
59. Concerning these documents, see A. Derolez, Les catalogues de bibliathtyuefi, Typologie des sources du Moyen Age occidental 31 (Turnhout, 1979).
60. Sec BisvcUofl, SduitewrcciYhnfesi*.61. Tor instance, in the inventory of the Abbey of Priim (1003): missalem 1 cum
astro rf gemmis ["one missal adorned with gold and precious stones"] (Bischoff,Schatzverzeichnisse, no. 74). See also in the same book, rio.7 (second quarter of the
twelfth century), liber Micramcntorum 1 ebure et argcnto onuttu* ("one sacramentary adorned with ivory and silver"], and nos. 5, 26, 56,127.
62. See Becker, Catalogi, nos. 4. 5, 6, 7, and 16.63. Ibid., no. 16 (Cologne, ninth century).64. Ufcntw ¿ncmmrofonmr in quo continentur ivt.rdicHmux ixciwtie et bcnedicUotie*
sacrorttm ordimim et cetera omnia quae ad ipsunt mimaieriuni episcopt pertinent |"A Sacramentary in which are contained the blessings (for the consecration) of a
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pletely. A sign of the internal evolution of the book is that from now
on, the contents are i temized w ith exactn ess in the m ajority o f cases
(missal that contains, or with, the su n g picce s and the reading s, missal
with ep istles, go sp els, an d g rad u ais, and so on).66 A fter the eleven thcentury, the u se o f the term mtssale becom es gen eral ,67 eve n though
no w and then, one notes a liber sacnunentorutn, probably referring to
sacram entaries o f the eighth and ninth cen turies preserv ed in l ibraries
but no longer in use for the actual liturgical celebrations.68
In contradistinction to the l ibrary ca talog ue s, the reference s to sac
ram en taries in the inv en tories o f church treasu ries d o not reflect the
evo lut ion o i the boo k througho ut the centuries. A s e arly as the ninthcentury, on e frequen tly and reg ularly encou nters the term niissaie (with
out its bein g accom panied by liber sacrameniorum) in the first place in a
l ist enu m erat ing the gra d ua l , ant ipho nal , eva n gel iary , an d epistolary ,
am on g others.69 Th is lead s us to su pp ose that the "m issa ls" in qu es
t ion are rath er sacram entaries (except in case s w he re the contents are
described w ith exactitude) . Indeed, from the t im e wh en the com plete
missals become the rule, their mention in the inventories of treasuries
is no lon ger acco m pan ied by that o f othe r l iturgical books, w hich are
now incorporated into the missal . This uncertainty is st i l l noticeable
in the tenth and eleventh centuries in the earliest references in Kng-
l ish and G erm an, w here the sacram entary is ca l led "M as s bo ok ."70
66. Sec Becker, Catalog, nos. 32, 36, 37, 42, 44, 48, 5«, 51, 52, 58, 66, 69. 72, 74. 75.These specifications are important for the understanding of the history and formation of the missal. See section IV of this part.
67. See, for instance, nos. 87,91, i<»6,120, 122, 128, 132 in Becker's listing.68. The library catalogues of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are full of ref
erences like liber fiacmincntorunt and ntisaale, which no doubt refer to ancientmanuscripts no longer in use.
69. See Bischoff, SchalzverzeiehnKss. nos. 1 .5 , 6 ,1 2 ,1 3 ,1 4 ,1 5 , 19 ,2t, 22, 26, 34,36,40,44,47,49,50, 58,60,63,68,70,73,74,78,89,95,97,103, 106,110, and *27.These references are important because they help scholars get a better knowledgeof the history of the missal. See section IV of this part; see also the rare mentionsof itber $acr(imenlo>w», m nos. 7,108. anti 111 in Bischoff.
70. Moi'tachoe ("Mass book"! appears in the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of thetenth century. See H. Gneuss, "Liturgical books in Anglo-Saxon England and l'hoir
(
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W e m u s l co m p le te th is o v e r v ie w w ith an a llu s io n io th e te rm in o l
o g y u s e d b y r e se a r c h e rs o f th e m o d e r n p e r io d to d e s ig n a t e t h e sa cra *
m e n tary . F i r st o í a l l, w e m u s t po i n t out that s cho l a r s o f the s ix te e n th
an d f o l low i n g ce n tur i e s had a l re a d y e s tab li she d a c l e a r d is tin c t ionb e t w e e n m is s a l a n d s a c r a m e n t a ry . T h is is n o t e w o r t h y b e c a u s e c o n f u
s ion s ti ll a ffects certa in con tem po rary au thors . For ins tance , abou t
P ar i s , A rs e n a l , m s . 6 1 0 ( R c i che n au , e n d o f te n th ce n tury) , M ab i Uon ,
p u z z le d b y it s u n u s u a l co n t e n ts , w o n d e r s w h e t h e r th is "m a n u s c r ip t
. . . i s a pa rt o f the sacra m en tary or a m is s a l . . in fact , it i s a libel-
¡u s m issae, a c o m p l e t e ly d i ff e re n t d o c u m e n t w it h i ts o w n c h a r a c t e r / 2
A ll e d ito rs o f the sa c ra m e n ta ry b e tw e e n the six te e n th an d the e ig h t
e e n th ce n tur i e s h av e ch os e n to m e n t ion in the t it le s o f the i r w ork s
l iber sacramentorum , codex sacramentorum, o r tria sacram entaría, a dec i
s i on de m on s t ra t in g the ir h is tor ic se n s e an d the i r f am i li a r it y w ith
m an u s cr ip t s .7* O n l y M arténc*, w h o in an y e v e n t w a s n ot an e d i tor o f
the s acram e n tary , se e m s to h av e m ad e s om e m i stak e s “-1 in h i s D e an-
tiquis Ecciesiae ri i ibu s. But ov e ra l l , he s e e m s to cor re c t ly de s i g n ate
m a n u s c ri p ts t h at a r e k n o w n fo r ce r ta in to b e e it h e r s a c r a m é n t a n o s o r
m issa ls .75
7 1. Note in M abillon's own hand on the flyleaf o f the manuscript, February 1,1707.
7 2. See N. K. Rasmussen and I:. Palazzo, "Messe?» privées, livre liturgique et ar-chiUx’ture: A pro pos du ms. Paris, Arsenal 610 i»t de l'ég lise abbatiale de Re-¡ehi'naii-Mittob'ell," Kirwir tit's Sciences philosophiques et Ihéolùgiyues 72 ( 1988) 77-^7.
73. Pamclius in 1571, Rocca in 1593, Ménard in 1642, Tom^si in 1680, Mabillon
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3 . H I S T O R Y O F T H E S A C R A M F .N T A K I IsS
O F T H E H IG H M ID D L E A G K S
Roman Libelli
5 6 «) - V i * «
7 0 -
8 o -
9 0 - - 9 0
6 0 0 -
J O — 0 8
2 0
~ » 5
3 0 -
- 2 5
4 0 -” 3 6
~ 4 -
6 5 0 - - 4 9
6 0 - - 5 7
7 0 -- 7 *
8 0 -
9 0 -- 8 7
7 < x > - “ O X
1 0 -
2 0 -- * 5
3 < * - - v
4 0 - - 4 1
7 5 o -
6 0 —
7 0 -“ 7 *
8 0 -
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8 o o -- 9 J
1 0 -
2 0 -
j o -
4 0 -
8 5 0 -
G « $ o r y J
B o m f a c e T
H o n t it tu f .
Theodor«
V l t a l u n
St. Gregory f* %̂
Gallican Libelh
(Pre-Gelasian)
Gregorian <i(Lateran)
G ary 's feasts i
Gregorian"(Type II)(Vatican)
f. + Onto Missae—S t George y ' ] St. Peter's chains
feigiu»! f " di + Mary's teas» 2St. Gregory, St. Leo Agnus bei
<îtvgorv II
ÎG r e g o r y 1)1
e. + Thursdays in Lent
ll.-idn.in k I Indmmvim
\Corrected Hadr.
S a l z b u r g------
Cambrai ifu
Trent
Suppl. Aniane
GallicanizedGdasian
RggiP-3lfr
Frankish Getasian(Gelasian of the 8th c.)
' , y Gotlopp
Padua D .#
Sk’?Hf?ii7of Sacramcntary Families <after A. Dtwril)
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General BibliographyH. Bourque. HUule sur les sacrainentaires romains. 3 vols. Rome-Qucbec, 1949-
1958.
A. Chavasse. "Evangêliaire, épistolier, antiphonaire cl sacramentairc: Lx?slivres romains de la messe aux VU' et VIIIe siècles," Ecdesia Orans 6
O989) 177-225.
!.. Delisle. "Mémoires sur d'anciens ^acr<imentaires." Mémoires,de ïAcadémie
des Inscriptions et Bdles-ldtres 32 {1886) 57-423.
J. Deshusses. "Les sacramentaires: Etat actuel de la recherche." Arch iv fiir
L/iHrjfi««sseiischii/l 24 (1982) 19-46.
J. Deshusses and B. Darragon. Concordances et tableaux pour Vcludc de* grands
tacramenlaires. 6 vois. Fribourg, 1982-1983,
K. Camber. Sakramcntartypeyt. Beuron, 1958.
V. Croquais. U s sacramentaires et les missels manuscrits des bibliothèques pub
liques de France. 3 vols, ami atlas. Paris. 1924.
The Srtt'Ttfmmiiflrii's before the Sacramenfuries: A t the Dawn o f Liturgical Books
Liturgical b ooks w ere not born overnight. In the ea rly d ay s o f C hris
tianity, before the pro gressive codification o f texts occurred, im pro vi
sation w a s the rule.7** Seve ral factors contributed to this, each on e in
its own measure.77 In the first place, we must mention that orthodoxy
w as defined through liturgical texts, especially orations. Very early,
church leaders felt the need to check the contents of the pray ers "im p rov ised " b y the priests, particularly in North Africa during the fourth
an d fifth centuries.78 In the second place, it w as not long before the ec
clesiastical authorities (most notably Augustine, bishop of Hippo
I396-430I), foun d fault w ith the qu ality of the cle rg y's im prov isations;
as a result, a selection o f pieces draw n from the "treas u ry " o f prayers
w as assem ble d in order to preserve the best ones as regards both
76. Set? C Hanson, “The Liberty of the Bishop to Improvise Prayer in the Eucharist," Vigitiae Christiana? 15 (1969) 173-176; L. Bouyer, "L'improvisation liturgique dam I'Kglise ancienne," Lt Maison-Dieu 1 11 (1972) 7-19.
77. P. Do Clerck, "Improvisation et livres liturgiques: leçons d'une histoire,"C té* t lit i 60 {197$) 109 126
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qu ality and orthodoxy.79 Th e a dvent o f liturgical books cannot be
und erstood w ithout taking into account the cultural m utation effected
in th e West by the em ergence of th e book in general. The passage
from the volume», the scroll, to the codex, the book as w e k no w it, is indeed one o f the major cultural pheno m ena o f the first m illennium ; it
had a considerable impact on the conditions of the oral culture then
prevalent, esp ecially in the liturgical dom ain.®0 Here, the book o ffers
an important advantage over oral transmission, by fixing in a tangible
and du rable m anner through its texts the m em ory of a culture, of a
w ay o f worship, o f the liturgy. Finally, the advent o f the liturgical
book dem onstrates an increasing codification o f usages between the
fifth and sixth centuries; it is part of a w hole trend o f that period : the
selling do w n in w riting of traditions and kn ow ledge in m any areas
other than the liturgy, law for instance. In the stu d y o f the liturgical
m anuscripts o f the High M iddle Ag es, one must alw ay s remem ber
that they attest to on ly a m inuscule part of the antique oral treasury
from w hich the most beau tiful p ieces have been chosen (in general at
tributed to prestigious authors) an d assem bled into a stable corpus.
The Liturgical LibelliSl
1'he liturgical JibeUus is the intermediary link in the evolution from
the period of improvisation to the liturgical book properly so called.
The Ubelli are small boo ks, pam ph lets w ith on ly a few pa ges, contain
ing som e liturgical texts: form ularies for one o r several M asses, a selection o f var iou s orations, the nee ded texts for a specific action (rituals,
ordines), In m any cases, the first liturgical b ooks are n othing but the
gathering of several Ubelli form erly indepen dent from one another,
w hich m ust be organized into a book w ith a m ore hom ogeneous
content. Thu s, libelli p lay an essential part in the elaboration of the
79. A. Botiley, Fmw Fnwfoni ¡0 Formula: the Evolution o f the Euchahslic Prayer from Ora/ Improvisation to Written Texts, SfadiVs in (.Juislirtn Antiquity 21 (Washington,D.C, 1981).
80- See the unpublished doctoral thesis of Th. Elich, U context? oral dc la liturgia
mciliemlc et I? role dtt text? tvrit, 3 vols. (Paris: Paris lV-Sorbonne and instihit catluv-lique do Paris, 1988); summary in 1. Pierce, “Using Liturgical Texts in the Middle
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different medieval liturgical books; they are die ancestors of the sacra-
mentary, Ihe books of chant, the pontifical, am on g others. Furthermore,
throughout the whole M iddle Ag es, the libelii were used to diffuse the
text of a ne w office or M ass formulary. Th ey w ill be found also inbooks o f the "secon d gen eration" such as the missal. We must em
ph asize that the typo logy o f the ¡¡belli shed s n ew light on the differ
ent forms of Christian w orsh ip because there are as m any types of
libelii as forms of celebration.82
The Leonine Sacramentaiy
A p r i l :Scclion VUI: (the beginning is m issing) som e forty M asses for
m artyrs ( 1 - 168 ) .
M a y :
Section IX: Ascen sion (7 formularies, 169 -186).
Section X: Vigil of Pentecost (6 formularies, 187-214).
Section XI: Pentecost (3 formu laries, 215 -2 25 ).Section XII: Jun e fast (1 formulary, 22 6-2 31).
J u n e :
Section XIII: St. John the Baptist (5 formularies, 232-256).
Section XIV: Sts. John and Paul (8 formularies, 257-279).
Sections XV and XV I: Sts. P eter and Paul (28 form ularies, 280-379).
J u l y :Section XV II: The Sev en M artyrs (9 formu laries, 380-412).
Section XVIll: Orationes el preces diurnae {45 form ularies, 413-6 70 ).
A u g u s t :
Section XIX: St. Stephen (9 formularies, 671-703).
Section XX: Sts. Sixtus, Felicissim us, and A ga pitu s (8 form ularies,
704-738).Section XXI: St. Lawrence (14 formularies, 739-789).
Section XXII: Sis. Hippolytus and Pontianus (1 formulary, 790-799).
Scction XXIII: Sts. Adauctus and Felix (6 formularies and one
Preface of the Apo stles, 800-823).
S e p t e m b e r :
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Section X XV I: Dedication o f the Basilica o f St. M ichael (5 form ula
ries, 844-859).
Section XXVII: September fast and various Masses (15 formularies,
860-941).Section XXVIII: Ordination of bishops, deacons, and priests
(942-954).
Section XXIX: Episcopal anniversaries and various Masses (25
form ularies , 95 5-110 2).
Section XXX: Consecration of virgin s (110 3 -110 4 ).
Section XXXI: Velalio nuptialis ( 1 1 0 5 - 1 1 1 0 ) .
O c t o b e r :
Section XXXII: Masses ad diversa (for va riou s intentions, 137).
Scction XXXIII: M asses for the dea d (5 formularies, 1 13 8 -11 6 3 ).
Section XXXIV: St. Sy lves ter (2 pieces plu s one o ration for Pope
Simpl ic ius, 1 16 1 - 1 16 3 ) .
N o v b m b ju k :
Scction XXXV: The Fou r Crow ned M artyrs (2 formularies, 116 4 -117 0 ).
Section XXXVI: St. Cecil ia (5 formularies, 1171-1187).
Section XXXV II: Sts. Clem ent and Felicity (7 formularies, 11 8 8 -1 2 13 ).
Section XXXVIII : Sts. Chrysogonu s and Gregory (12 14 -12 18 ),
Section XXXIX: St. A nd rew (4 form ularies, 1219 -12 3 8 ).
D e c e m b e r :
Section X L: Ch ristm as (9 formu laries, 123 9 -127 2).Section XL.I: St. John the E van gelist (2 form ularies, 12 73 -12 8 3) .
Section XLII: H oly Innocents (2 form ularies, 128 4-12 9 3).
Section XLII 1: December fast (5 formularies) and blessing of the
baptismal water ( 129 4-13 31) .
History o f the Hook
Pub lished for the first time in 17 3 5 by G . Blanchini, it w as imm ediately attributed to Pope Leo I (440-461); this first edition was entitled
C.odex sacrainentormn vetus Romanae ecclesiae a sancto Leone papa / confer.-
tus ["Old Sacramentary o f the Roman Church Com posed by Pope St.
l.eo I" |. In 1749, J. Assem an i rectified the errone ous title b y ca lling his
edition SrtiTrtMtenfrtrwm veronense jSacram entary o f Verona] because
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codicological analy sis of this man uscript, m ade by I.. C. M ohlberg lor
his edition, clearly sh ow ed that a large portion o f the beg inning of
the text is m issing and that all visib le traces o f the collection o f libelti,
the origin o f the book, h ave d isapp ear ed.83
Nature o f the Book
Erroneously attributed to Pope Leo the Great,84 this book is not an
official one but a collection o f Rom an HMii, kept in the Lateran arc hives
and later on adapted from papal to presbyterial use. The 1331 pieces
(orations and prefaces) that com prise it are not org an ized to be used
directly in the liturgical celebration. The plan of the book, if one cansp ea k o f plan for such a com posite collection, follow s the civil calendar
w ithout takin g li turgic al time into account. Each month (see the table
above) is div ided into sections w hich often include several form ula
ries for the sam e feast. Tine boo k h as the earm ark o f a careless com pi
lation o f ¡¡belli; seve ral authors have detected tw o pha ses in this w ork
o f compilation: (i) the gath ering o f the form ularies into collections; (2)
the combination of these collections into a book. The m ed ieva l usersof this wo rk ha ve v isibly found it ill-suited to actual w orship. The
Verona m anuscript has m argin al notes—w ritten d urin g the tenth and
eleventh centuries— that ma ke it possible to put together new formu
laries out of pieces d raw n from several disjointed formu laries.8̂
Origin and Date
A ll authors agree on the Rom an and pap al origin o f the book. Thelim ited Sanctoral {on ly twen ty-two saints ha ve a feast, each w ith se v
eral form ularies) is exclusively Rom an an d g ive s a p articular place to
Sts. Peter and Paul, as well as to St. Lawrence. According to Cha-
vasse 's 86 research, the book w as com posed at the time o f Pope John
83.1.. C. Mohlberg, cd., Sairamentartutii Verotiensr (Rome, 1955); sec also A. Stuiber,
I.¡belli Mcrameniorum n»iuini (Bonn, 1950), and the facsimile. Sacramentariwn leoni- anntn. in I rod F. Sauer (Graz, i960).84. Concerning the liturgical work of St. Leo, see the numerous contributions of
A. I wing and the article summarizing them by J. Pinell i Pons, " ‘Ifcologia « liturgianegli scritti S. Leono Magno," Ecr/rsi/? Oratts 8 (1991) 137 -181.
85. The system of lowercase letters in red was worked out at the time; whenread in order, they compose a "real" formulary; see the examples used by
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Ill (56 1-574)*" from tw o docum ents dating from the fifth an d sixth
centuries. C ha va sse dem onstrated eq ua lly w ell that the joining of
those tw o initial collections®* occurred abo ut 54 5-5 55 , at the lime of
Pope V igilius (5 37-5 55), wh o, m oreover, is believed to be the authorof certain formu laries. By com paring different sources (liber pontifi-
a il is, accounts of con tem po rary historians, liturgical texts, an d so on),
Chavassc has determined, with strong probability, the historical cir
cum stances that led P op e Vigilius to com pose form ularies for Su nd ay
Masses especially (Section XVIII). He reused certain pieces composed
by on e of his prestigious p redecessors, Pop e G elasius (492-496),89
and w orked principally du ring the siege of Rom e by Ihc Ostrogoths,
un der the leade rship o f Witiges, from Ju ly 5 37 lo March 538.90 Other
researchers have show n that Fo rm ulary 13 (pieces 932 -937) o f Section
X X V ff (Septem ber fast and various M asses) often allude s directly to
the famine, variou s gr av e situations, the blockad e of the port of
Rome, the consequences of the Goths taking the city.91
Descendants o f llte Book
The fact that there is on ly one m anu script o f the Leon ine Sacra
ment ary pro ves that this type o f sacram entary d id n ot hav e an y d i
rect descendants. This remark does not come as a surprise since the
Leon ine Sacram en tary w as not a useful boo k for Ihc actual celebra
tion of the liturgy an d since it w as to be ra pidly replaced by w orks
carefully and thoug htfully organized, the G elasian an d the Grego rian. H ow ever, this d oe s not detract from the historical and liturgical
interest of the Leonine Sacramentary, first, because of the light it
sh ed s on the history o f the city o f Rom e, and second , becau se it is the
only material witness we have of the passage from liturgical improvi
sation lo codification through b ooks.
87. Fteven saints oui o f twenty-two had lived in an area outside the walls of Rome, when1 John 111 resided for some years.88. lhat is Section XVIII (45 formularies), aratioucs ef prcces dtvcr$ac, ¿md the
block of Sections XXVII to XXXIV (varia filttrgtca l"various liturgical services")).89. B. Capeilc. "Retouches gélasiennes dans Je sacramentaire l6onien." Ran«*
¿VHiWrVfi»e61 {>951)3- 14; Célasc* Jrf, lettres contre les lupt?rcni&. Oix-huit »its,sesdu ¿acramcntain.’ .Verni'«, «il. Ci. Pomarês, SC 65 (1959)-
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Nevertheless, we can detcct an indirect lineage of the Leonine since
the greater part oí its contents w as found ag ain— differently arran ged —
in other type s of sacram éntanos w ho se beg innings are perceptible
about the period John Il l 's com pilation w as written do w n but whosecompletion was to be realized only in the seventh century.93 Lastly,
let us observe that certain "pro po sition s" for formu laries, noted in
the Verona manuscript on the basis of marginal notations, were re
peated in other m anuscripts of the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Vie Celasian Sacramentarle*
The Old Gelasian (after Vat. Regin. 316)
15ook 1: The Temporali-3 Vig il o f the Nativity, i - j6 (3 formularies).
4-5 The Nativity, 17-29.
6-8 St. Steph en, St. John , H oly Innocents, 30-47.
9- 10 Octave of the Nativity, 48-56.1 1 - 1 2 V ig il o f th e Epip hany, Epiphany, 57-68.
13-17 Septuag ésim a, Sexagésim a, Quinq uagesima, 69-88.
18 First week in !x»nt, 104-133.
19 Fast o f the first month (March), 134 -13 9 .
20-24 Ordination of priests and deacons, 146-162.
25 Second week in Lent, 163-192.
26 Third w eek in Lent, 193-22 4.27 Fourth w eek in I.ent, 225 -253 .
28 Fifth week in I.ent, 254-282.
29-36 Pre-baptismal scrutinies, 283-328.
37 Palm Sunday, Passion of the Lord, 329-333; Monday,
Tuesday, and W ednesday o f H oly Week, 334-348.
3S-40 Holy Thursday, 349-394.
4 t Good Friday, Passion of the Lord, 395-418.
4 2-4 5 Ho ly Saturd ay , Easte r V ig il, 4 19-4 62 .
46 Easter Su nd ay, 463-467.
47-52 Week m albis (in white], 468-498.
53 Octave of Easter, 499-503.
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54 A nnolinc Easier,93 504-509.
55 Easter in parishes, 5 10 -5 14 .
56 Orations for Eastertide, 516 -54 0.
57-62 6 Sunday« after Easter, 5 4 1-5 7 1 .63-65 Ascension and Sun day after Ascension, 57 2-5 9 1.
66-79 Vigil o f Pentecost; occasional rites of baptism , 592-636.
80 -81 Pentecost Sund ay, 63 7-6 51.
82 An nou ncem ent of the fasts o f the fourth, seve nth , and tenth
months, 652-653.
83 Hast o f the fourth month, 654 -675 .
84 Sund ay, O ctave o f Pentecost, 676-682.
85 -8 7 Reconciliation of heretics, 683-688.
88 G allican rile o f the ded ication o f a church, 689-702.
89 -93 5 M asses for the dedication of a church, 703-729.
94 Dedication o f a baptistery, 730 -736.
95-9 6 O rdination of candidates to m inor orders, 737-7 56.
97-9# Ordination M asses o f a deacon, o f a priest, 757-765.99 Con secration o f a bishop, 766-77 3.
t o o M ass for the ann iversary o f the ordination of a bishop,
774-778.
10 1- 10 2 M ass for the ann iversary of the ordination of a bishop, of a
priest, 779-786.
10 3- 10 4 Consecration o f a virgin, 787-792.
10 5- 10 6 3 M asses for the anniversary of the consecration o f a virgin,793-803.
B o o k 2 : O r/ W u v e s e t p r c c c s d f n a t a u t i i s s a n c t o r u m
1 An nou ncem ent o f the feast o f a saint, 804-805.
2-5 9 Feasts o f the saints from January' 14 to Septem ber 29 ,806-103 6.
60 Fast o f the seventh month, 103 7- 105 2.
6 1- 7 1 Feasts of the saints from October 7 to December 2 1,10 53 -10 9 0 .
72-79 Co mmo n o f M a rtyrs, 10 9 1 - 1 1 19 .
80-84 5 M asses and orations for Ad ven t, 1 12 0 -1 15 6 .
85 Fast of the tenth month, 11 5 7 - 11 7 7 .
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Book 3: Ojmt/cwes fcT PRICES c u m c a NONE PF.R DOMINICK DIF.bu s
1 - 1 6 16 form ularies for Su ndays, 1 17 8 - 12 14 .
17 Can on o f the M ass, 124 2-12 6 0; postcomm union and A blessings, 1261-1287. f
18-23 6 dai ly M asses , 128 8 -1312 .
2 4-5 1 V arious M asses an d orations, 13 13 - 14 4 2 .
52 M ass and blessing for w edd ings. 14 43 -1455 .
53 M ass for birthda ys, 1456-146 0.
54 M ass for a barren w om an, 146 1-147 0.
55Blessing of a w idow, 14 7 1 .
56-90 Various M asses and oratio ns, 1472-16 06 .
91 Office for funerals. 1607-1627.
9 2 - 10 5 M a sse s fo r the d ea d, 16 2 8-16 9 5.
106 M a ss for the salva tio n o f the liv in g, 16 96 -17 00 .
107 Ordo for the reconciliation o f a sinner, 17 0 1-1 7 0 4 .
History o f the Book
Th is type o f sacramentary a pp ears to be the first true liturgical bookorganized as such, together with evangeliaries (see III, 5, o f this part). Its
attribution to Pop e G eiasiu s (492-496), author o f certain pieces in the
Leon ine, goes back to the hea ding of the Liber Pontificaiis dedicated to
the pope : fecit Micramentorum praeftUiones et orationes canto scrntone l"he
composed a sacram entary with carefully w orded prefaces and o ra
tions"). Since then, w e h ave learned that orations com posed by G eia
sius have been preserved in sacramentaries but that he is not the
auth or o f the typ e that bears h is name.** Published for the first time
in 1680 by Cardin al Tom asi, the O ld Ge lasian h as since then been the
object of num erous translations, ¿ill o f them from the un ique witness
of this type, the Regin. 316 of the Vatican Library (245 folios plus two
sections no w inserted in Paris, B. N ., lat. 719 3; fols. 41-5 6 ). This m an u
script w as w ritten in the eighth century in the scriptorium o f Ch elles.95
94. In his important work, S{ikrame»tarhf}H-n, C am be r though t ho could attribute
the Gelasian to Maximianus o f R avenna; this h ypothesis, along with m any others
proposed by the Germ an scholar, has not withstood criticism. See in particular
the review o f Cam ber's. w ork b v B. Bolte. Heime d'Hisloire ecctcsMatique 55 (i960)5 1 6 - 5 1 7 .
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Nature o f the Book and Date o f Composition
The G elasian is a liturgical bo ok in Ihc full sense of the term and it
ap pe ars to be Rom an through and through. Its title, liber sacra-
mentorum romanae ecclesiae ordinis an ni d rc u li ["Mere beg ins the sacramentar)' o f the Rom an Ch urch ordered according to the ye arly cycle"],
and its Sanctoral con firm this origin. (There are vigils for the feasts of
Sts. G erva sc and Frotase, John and Paul, Cecilia; octavos for the feasts
of Sts. L aw rence an d And rew.) We are in presence of a sacram entary
of the presbyterial typ e because it contains everyth ing n eeded b y a
priest in charge o f a "titula r" church [one o f the older churches of
Rome] or a pa rish church and on ly that m aterial. C ha va sse sup po ses
that the archetype of this book could have been written for the church
o f St. Peter in Ch ains in Rom e. In all likelihood it w as w ritten in the
m idd le of the seventh century, beca use it features m odifications intro*
duce d by Gregory7 the G reat (590-604) in the canon o f the M ass (no
tably the insertion of the pra ye r Hanc igitur), but does not yet contain
either the Masses for the Thursdays in Lent added by Gregory 11(7 15 -7 3 1) or the A gn us Dei mad e official by Sergius I (687-701).
Content of the Book
T he 1704 pieces o f the Old G elasia n are dividen! into three distinct
books (or sections). The first book co m prises the celebrations of the
Temporal from the Nativity to Pentecost. The second is devoted to
the Sanctoral and one C om m on o f Saints, as w ell as to the Adve nt
Masses. The third comprises the Masses for ordinary Sundays, the
cano n of the M ass, and a series o f vo tive Ma sses. The typical form u
lary o f this sacram entary is m ade up o f tw o collects, on e secret, a
prop er preface, a postcomm un ion, and o ne oration ad poptdutn (or
super yopulum, "o v e r the peo ple"); the two collects in the beginn ing
of the formu lar)' arc traces o f the presbyterial u sag e in the O ld G ela
sian because the second one serves as a conclusion to the general intercessions, that is, a con clusion before the canon.1*
Descendants and Historical Importance of the Book
The G elasian Sacramentary appears a s the earliest agent o f the romani-
/ation of the Frankish liturgy before the reform of Pepin the Short (7 51—
768) It w as in use in the presbyterial chu rches o f Rom e in the seventh
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eighth century through the interme diary o f pilgrims returning from a
visit to the Eternal City. Once received beyond the A lps, it w as galli-
cani/.ed b y the insertion o f five se ctions which are Frankish in origin;
these are attested in the w riting s docum enting the liturgy in G au l before the introduction o f the Rom an books. These five sections form
com pact blocks easy to detect within the structure o f the Old G elasian.
They concern the ritual for ordinations (derived from a com plete Ro-
mano -Gallican ritual for ordinations), the ritual for the consecration o f
virgins (same origin as the preceding), the ritual for the dedication o f a
church (essentially focused on the dedication of the altar, in contradis
tinction to the Roman usage), the ritual for the blessing of the lustral
water, and the ritual for funerals. The descendants o f this book can be
prop erly evaluated only i f one takes its "succ esso r" into account.
The Eighth-Century Gelnsian or Frankish Gelasian
History o f the Book
For a long time historians o f the liturgy con tused the O ld G elasiansand the Eighth-Century Gelasians (also called Frankish), which the
M idd le A ge s did not distinguish, as can be seen b y en tries in library
catalogues. Modern scholars have distinguished the two types of
G elasian s, an d w e ow e to the English liturgist E. Bishop the ex pre s
sion "Ro m an Sacramen tary of King Pepin" to designate the Eighth-
C en tury Gelasians. There exist a dozen m anuscript w itnesses, all of
Fran kish orig in, reflecting in different d eg ree s the archetyp e nowlost. However, this archetype can be recovered through its most faith
ful witness, the book called the Cellone Sacramentary (Paris, 15. N.f
lat. 12048), written about 790-800, perh ap s in M eaux.97 The othe r
Eighth-C entury G elasian s arc the result of a system atic revision o f
the Gellone Sacramentary. Their history is well known today, thanks
espec ially to the w ork of Ch ava sse.9®
97. A. Dumas and J. Deshusses, eds., fiber sacmmentorunt Gdfaiwn&s, CCS1.159-159A (1981)- Two other important witnesses of the Eighth-Century Gelasian<m> St. Gail, StiftsbibL, cod. 348 {c<v 795-796; L. C. Mohlberg, ed., Dasfrfitikischc
'Saotnacr.tariunt Gekttiannni in altwmmsdur QtMrUeferung, 2nd ed. |Munster, 1939!),and Paris, B. N., lat. 816. from Angouleme (P. Saint-Roch, ¡A far sacram'ntarum F.»1-
golfemensb. CCSL 159c [1987I).
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Origin and Dole o f the Archrtype
Th e m onastic connections of the Kighth-Century G elasians are be
yond doubt. M any rites for the m onastic s' exclusive use are fo und in
them; St. B ened ict is ca lled patronua in the form ulary for his least da y M ass on Ju ly ti (the da te of the transfer of his relics to Fleury, toda y
St.-Benoît-sur-l.oire) and his nam e ap pe ars in the pra ye rs o f the canon
of the M ass together with sa ints o f the Frankish w orld (Hilary, Martin).
Several clues p rove the Frankish or igin o f the archetype: the Sanctoral,
overall identical with that of the Old Gelasian, makes room for Galli
can saints (M ass of St. Prix, bisho p o f Clerm ont, d. 674); there arc
m entions of specifically Ga llican custom s, such as the Rogation D ays
(sections 131-136), established by St. Mamert, bishop of Vienne (or
Clermont) in 470, and extended to the whole of Gaul by the Council
o f O rléans in 5 1 1 . It is probable that the com pilation w as undertaken
by m onk s at the prom pting of K ing Pepin. Op inions con verg e to lo
calize the execution o f this project in the mo nastery o f Flav ign y (in
Burgundy), founded in 742 in memory' of St. Prix, whose relics weretransferred to Fla vig n y in 760. Pepin the Short w ou ld ha ve w anted to
exem plify the ambitious movem ent of liturgical unification in lus king
dom by the com position of a sacram entary intended for use through
out its territory. The nu m ber of copies that ha ve su rv ive d pro ves the
rap id success o f this book, with local ad aptation s, and its suitability
for serv ing the kin g's unification p rogram . H ow ever, the success w as
short-lived because this new sacramentary, probably completed about760-770, w as almost imm ediately supp lanted by the Gregorian Sacra-
m entarv wh ich Charlem agn e— w ith the sam e intention as that of his
father—obtained directly from Rome (see p. 30). Nevertheless, it re
m ains true that the E ighth-Cen tury G elasia n is the first m ajor attempt
at liturgical unification undertaken by royal authority. The Gelasian
failed to gain authority for two reasons: first Pepin's enterprise, con
trary to C ha rlem agn e's, w as not accom pan ied by a po licy of liturgical
unification vigorous enough to impose the book; second, even though
the contents of this sacram en tary reveal the serious w ork of a team of
competent liturgists,9* the Gelasian lacked the prestige of a famed
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author like P ope G reg ory for the sacram entary that bears his name.
I lowover, the Kighth-Century G elasian w ill hav e im portant descen
dan ts since it w ill be used in the first dec ad es o f the ninth century to
remedy the deficiencies of the Gregorian (see pp. 52-54).
Nature and Content o f the Book
The structure of the Kighth-Century Gelasian reveals a meticulous
and w ell-thought-out w ork on the part of the liturgist-m onks. Th ey
used the two typ es of Roman sacram entaries which w ere in circula
tion in Ga u l since the first half of the eighth century: the Old G ela
sian and the Type 2 Greg orian (Paditewae, see p. 54), that is, a papalsacram entary m odified for presbyterial use. The Eighth-Ce ntury
G elasian is the result o f the fusion of these tw o typ es w ith the ad di
tion o f G allican sources. Th e an aly sis o f the contents (in p articular
w hen w ork ing w ith the G ello ne Sacram entary, perhaps executed for
the cathedral of Cam brai at the tim e of Bishop H ildoa rd an d later on
used iii G ellone— St.-Guilhem -le-Désert—a s ea rly as 80410°) b etrays a
basic fram e that is Type 2 Greg orian and a structure o f form ulariespro per to the O ld G elasian (two collects, one secret, one p roper préf
acé, one postcomm union, and on e oration super populum in Lent). The
G allican sources are visible in the episcopal blessings, the v otive
M asses placed after the Co m m on o f Saints, and the Ga llican prefaces
absent from the Ro m an books. The Gellone Sacram entary comp rises
3,024 pieces divided into two parts: part 1 (sections 1-328), the sacra
m entary pro pe rly so called in w hich the Tem poral and Sanctoral are
arranged into one series, according to the Gregorian type (the canon
o f the M ass is placed at Easter), instead of three books; part z, rituals
and ''pontifical/' episcopal blessings, orations for monastic use, the
ordo of baptism, the "pontifical" (picces for the exclusive use of the
bishop), and the summary of the Hieronymian Martyrology.
What w e have here is a ve ry rich book that m arks the onset o f the
"era of the com plote liturgical b ooks."
The Gregorian Sacramentaries
Content (Hadrianum and Pnduensc types); Temporal and Sanctoral
comb ined. Th e parts comm on to the tw o boo ks are in bold type.
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Ordo of the Roman Mass.
Blessing o f a bishop.
O rdinations of the priest and deacon.
Form ularies from the V igil of the N ativity to the octave of theLord (January i).
Orations for Sundays.
Epiphany, fo l low ed by the Sun day s af ter Epiphany.
Feasts of the saints from January 14 to March 25.
Septuagés ima, Sexagés ima, and Quincuagés ima.
Daily Masses from Ash Wednesday to Wednesday in Holy Week.
Form ularies from i lo ly Th ursday to the Su nd ay fo l low ing the
octave of Easter.
Feasts o f sa ints from A pri l 14 to M ay 13 .
Su n d ay s after tine octa ve o f Easter.
A scen sio n , fo llo w ed by the Su n d a y after A scension .
Form ularies from the Vigil o f Pentecost to the first Su n d ay a fter
Pentecost.Feasts of the saints from Jun e 1 to Septem ber 16.
Form ularies for the five Su n da ys after Pentecost.
Form ularies for the six Su n da ys after the octave o f the A postles
|Sts. Peter and Paul[.
Form ularies for the five S u n da ys after the feast o f St. Law rence.
W eek o f th e Em b er D ays o f Septem ber.
Feasts of the saints from Septem ber 2 7 to N ove m ber 30.Form ularies for the nine Su nd ays after the H oly A n ge l ISt. M ichaell.
First and second Sundays of Advent.
Third and fourth Su nd ays o f Ad vent .
O rations for Ad vent.
Various M asses.
M ass o f the ordination of a po pe an d a priest.
Blessing for a w edd ing.
O rations for I the forg iven ess o il sins.
D aily orations.
Com m on of Saints .
D aily M asses, votive Masses.
Morning and e ening orations
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Orations for the funeral of a bishop and other deceased persons.
Oration for the ordination o f a pope.
History
The peo ple of the M iddle Ag es w ere aw are o f the distinction be
tween the G elasian an d Greg orian types of sacram entaries, as the ti
tles given to those bo oks in library cata logu es attest. The attribution
o f a sacram entary to Pope G reg ory rested on a sou n der tradition than
that concerning Gelasius. A letter from Kgberl of York, about 735-
7 36 /01 attributes the authorsh ip of the sacram en tary and the anti-
pho nal then in use in the British Isles to Pop e G rego ry. R espon dingto C harlem agn e’s request for a sacramentary (sec pp. 51-5 4 ), Pope
H adrian assures him that he is sen din g a co py of the book compo sed
by his predecessor Gregory. The title of the book that was going to be
disseminated opens with an attestation of authenticity, hi nomine Do
mini. Hie sacramenlorum de circula anni expostto a auncto Gregorio papa
mrnano editum. Ex aulhenfico libro bibliolhecae cubia tli scriptum ["In the
nam e of the Lord. This sacram entary arrang ed according to the ye arly cycle w as published b y Pope St. Gregory. This copy w as w rit
ten in a room of the library from the authentic book"]. Since 1571, the
date of the first edition of the Greg orian by Pam elius, a good num ber
of scholars hav e believed that they could retrieve the ve ry text w rit
ten by Gregory, but most often through documents that did not favor
the search fo r the archetyp e.10* D ecisive p rogress w a s m ade in the
twentieth centu ry by historians of the liturgy w ho approach ed theproblem from a d ifferent an gle than that o f their celebrated prede ces
sors. H. A. Wilson (19 15) , then H. Lietzman n ( 19 2 1), and espec ially J.
D eshu sses (i9 7.i),n> ha ve attemp ted to reconstitute the text C ha rle
magne received from the pope, rather than the work of Gregory, be*
cause w e k now toda y that eve n if that pop e played an im portant role
in the liturgical ren ovation un dertak en in Rom e betw een the sixth
and the seventh centuries, he did not necessarily compose an actual
sacram entary but p rincipally orations w hich all agree are his w o rk .1"4
i d - frttiifHta»«' ceitholica. I‘L 89. cots. 441-442.k »2. First Pamelius, then A. Rocca in 1593. H. Méu.ird in 164?., I.. A. Muratori in
1748, al! ha ve u sed m anuscripts from the ninth and tenth centuries already e xten
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This approach has proven to he more productive than that adopted
by historians of the liturgy up to these recent decades; their vision
w as clo uded by questio ns o f authorship and archetype, less fruit fu l
than attention to the history o f texts.
Nature m rf Origin o f the Book
I'he Gre go rian Sacra men tary is a b ook intended for the exclusive
use o f the pope. It is pe rfectly o rgan ized accord ing to the liturgical
year (it com pris es 83 form ularies for the Tem poral and 79 for the
Sanctoral, which total nearly 565 pieces). It was probably written in
the first half of the seventh century under the pontificate of HonoriusI (625-638V05 In the second half of the seventh century this papal
sacramentary developed in three distinct directions, each one leading
to a different type of Gregorian Sacramentary.
77«? Gregorian o f the I lad rian um Tyjw'06 (see the stemma, p. 35)
This title designates the text sent by Pope Hadrian to Charlemagne
between 784 and 7 9 1; the greatest part of the m anu scripts that hav e
su rv ive d de rive from this text. The best am on g these is Cam brai,
B. M., ms. 164, written abou t 8 11 - 8 12 upon orders from Bishop
H ildo ard ; it is believe d to be a direct co p y o f the book rec eived by
C harlem ag n e.10? Its contents are v e ry c lose to those o f the book com
posed in the first half o f the seventh century u nd er P ope Honorius.
The fusion of the Temporal and Sanctoral into one liturgical year
Internationa] CoHoquios (Paris, tyR6) 637-644 (with references to and discussion
o f the important work of 1 1 . Ashw orth). The sam e author wa s kind enough to
share with m e—for wh ich I thank him very much—an unpublished study,
"Qu elques rem arques sur les oraisons de saint Grégo ire," 1 3 typewritten p ages
which 1 hope will be published. The ivories o f Camb ridge and F rankfurt am M ain
(second h alf of the ninth century) represent Gre go ry a s celebrant and liturgist,
and visua lly confirm the fact that the tw o m ain books of the time, that is, thesacramentary and the antiphonal, were attributed to Gregory (F. M. Knop, "Der
l.iturgiker a ls l.iturge: 7 m den lîlfenbeintafeln mit Htorstellungen der Messfeier in
Cam bridge und Frankfurt/ ' Ecclesia Ora»s 7 (1990) 23-42.
105, See principally C ha va sse 's important contributions, ' 'L'organisation
générale des sacramentaires dits grégo riens/' Revue des Scit'iict's religieuses 56
(1982) 179-200 and 253 -273; also Revue des S<'imces religieuses 57 {1963) 50-56; "L e
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distin gu ishes it from the O ld Ge lasian. Throug ho ut the book, the for*
m ularies present the follow ing structure: one collect, one super obiata,
and one ad cotnplemium, with ve ry rare pro per prefaces, The term
used to des igna te the different orations (super oblata, ad complemlum)
as well as the absence of a second collect are the fundamental differ
ences between the Old Gelasian (presbyterial type used in Roman
parishes) and the Gregorian, very spare (festive type in use at the
p ap al court). The G rego rian o f the Hadrianutn type had been used in
the papal liturgy during the whole of the High Middle Ages so that it
had been stead ily aug m ented by the addition s to the liturgical yea r
m ade by the popes, notably Serg ius 1 (687-701) and G regory U
(7 15 -7 3 1), to wh om w e ow e the introduction of the M asses for the
Th ursd ays in Lent (see the stemm a).
In the context of the liturgical unification of the Em pire im ple
m ented by C harlem agne— Ihus renew ing his father 's undertaking—
this sacramentary arrived at the court of Aachen to be preserved
there as the "st an d ard " o f the text attributed to Pop e G rego ry, andcopies of w hich w ere to be dissem inated throughout the w ho le Em
pire.10* However, this sacramentary soon proved unsuited to the Em
pe ro r's unification policy. The court liturgists pro m ptly understood
that they w ere dea ling with a festive sacram entary intended to be
used on certain feasts only and clearly ill-adapted to the daily liturgi
cal needs of a parish. Whereupon Charlemagne complained to Pope
Hadrian who answered that he chose from the Lateran library whatseeme d to him the authentic sacram en tary of St. Greg ory. It is ea sy to
realize how em barrassed the Pope w as if one rem em bers that there
w as no uniform ity in the Roman liturgical practice at that time when
there w as no m andatory use of an y one sacramen tary, w ha teve r its
authority. Nevertheless, wishing to satisfy the request of the Frankish
sovereign, Hadrian simply picked out from the papal library the
book that app eared to him end ow ed w ith the literary an d religious
authority desired by Ch arlem agn e. But after crossing the A lps, this
sacramentary acquired a new status: from ancient collection it be
came an official book although it had not been written for that pur
pose. Recognizing the obvious unsuitability of the book, the liturgists
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decided to correct the text (especially the rather mediocre Latin), then
to augment it with a supplement so that it could serve for the daily
liturg y The result is what is called the supplem ented Hadrianum. In
the past, it w as attributed to A lcuin, a m asterful Caro ling ian liturgistto wh om w c ow e the composit ion of m any votive M asses and even a
sacram en tary'"9 (see pp. 54-55)- H ow ever, nearly all h istorians agree
that it w as Benedict of An iane (C.750--821), the princ ipal reformer of
monastic life at the Council of Inden-Aachen in 836*817, w ho w a s the
m astermind of the supp lem en t to the Ha dria nu m“ 0 A t first appe nd ed
to the pure Gregorian, later on reorganized and incorporated into the
liturgical year, the supplement opens with a preface (called Hua&que
from the first w ord of the text) exp laining the w or k accom plished
and the very character of the supplem ent. This preface disapp eared,
a logical step, when the contents of the supplement were distributed
throughout the Hadrianum, from the year 850 on. Th e supplem ent it
se lf contains two parts: (1) many formularies, arranged according to
the liturgical year, that w ere m issing from the Hadriauum (Sundaysafter Christmas, after Epiphany, after Easter, after Ascension, after
Pentecost, C om m on of Saints, certain v otive M asses; var iou s bless
ings, consecrations, and ord inations for the use o f monastics; the ordo
o f baptism ; the who le o f ordinary Su nd ays, and so on); (2) 221 proper
prefaces, a series of blessings g iven b y the bishop, and the ritual for
the ordinations to minor orders. The principal sources consulted for
this w o rk of revision are the Old G elasian Sacramentary, the type IIG rego rian (for use by priests, see p. 54), and the Eighth-Century
G elasian wh ich in a certain w ay took its reveng e o ve r the Greg orian
109. J. Pesh usse s, "i-cs anciens sacramentaires de Tours," Rrt'uc bénédictin? 89
( 1979) 28 1-30 2; J. Desh usses and H. Barré, "A la recherche d u misset d ’AIcuin,"
Ephemerutes liiurgicae 82 {1968) 3-44; J. Deshusses, "L es m esses d 'Alc u in/ ' Archtv
ftir {.iturguitnsMtrschaJi 14 (»972) 7-41.n o . See J. Deshusses, "I.e supplément au sacramentaire grégorien: Alcuin ou
¿¿inl Benoît d'Aniane?" Archiv für Utur$itnvi$<*.'ii$chûft 9 (1965) 4 8 -7 1. Recently, J.
Décréaux, Le sucumentaire Ae Mumoulier (Aulun lybis) dans l'histoire Acs sacr/tutm- tain's carolingien* du /X- tiède. 2 vols . (Vatican City, 1985), thought he w as on solid
gro un d in attributing to I lelisachar (d. 836), the chan cellor o f the Em pire uniter
Lou is the Pious (reigned 814-84 0), the second part of the supp lem ent and the
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(see pp . 46-48). Other sources a lso contributed to enrich ing the con
tents of the book: Alcu in's vo tive M asses, variou s Gallican doc u
ments, som e Visigothic pieces {such as nos. 14 0 0 -14 14 of the ritual tor
the liturgy of the dead).The descend ants of the Hadrianum are n um erous since this book
w a s the point o f departure for the evolu tio n from sacram enta ry to
m od em m issal.,n A s ea rly as the m iddle of the ninth century, it w as
the sacram entary used in a large p art o f the West, and the constant
additions and rem odelings it received an sw ered the needs of the
local liturgies. The im pre ssive num ber of its m anu scripts attests to
the success of the Hadrianum."2
The Type 2 Gregorian (Paduense)
W'e know this sacram enta ry th rough one single m anuscript copied
in the m iddle o f the ninth century, perha ps in northern Italy (Pad ua,
Bib!. C ap ., cod . D.47). Its contents su gg est a revision o f the G rego rian
executed betwee n 659 and 68 1 in order to ad ap t the papal sacrame n
tary to presbyterial u se .'1-1 Its direct de scen dants are practically n on
existent, but w e h ave seen in w ha t man ner the me dieval comp ilers
used it to compose the Eighth-Century Gelasian and, later on, the
supplement to the Hadrianunt.
Tin• Prc-Hadriiinic Gregorian
Deshu sses has pro ved the existence of a pre-H adrianic Grego rian
side b y side w ith the Hadrianum; it w as com posed about 685 on the
foundation o f the prim itive Grego rian and reached Ga ul at the end o f
the eighth or be ginn ing o f the ninth century, alon g w ith the iindria-
n m n . " 4 Its contents reveal the state of the Hadriamtnt before the pon
tificate of Sergius I, and the only witness to this text is the manuscript
of Trent, Museo Nazionale (Castel del Uuon Consiglio), probably
w ritten about 825 for the bishop o f Sal/burg , A rno, w ho w a s a clo sefriend of Alcuin. Like the Paduenst’, this man uscript did not have any
in . On this topic, see P. Bruytiants, Is* ora/sons du missel rontain, a vols. (Lou vain, 1952), and the well-documented article of A. Dumas. "I.is sources du nou veau missd romain," Notitiae {1971) 37ft.
112 See Camber CLLA 325-367
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direct desce nd ants except in lou rs in the beginn ing of the ninth cen
tury w hen A icuin used it to com pose a sacram entary (called A lcu in's
M issal) to be used in his abbe y o f St.-M artin. It ha s been p ossib le to
reconstruct A lcu in's w ork thanks to tw o Sacram entarles o f Tours dating back to the ninth cen tury ” 5 and the Sacram entary o f Trent.116 In
spite of all this, many obscure areas remain concerning the exact
character of this sacram entary and the typ e (ecclesial) to wh ich it be-
longs. Th is difficulty is du e to the uncertain reconstitution o f Alcu in's
sacram entary, given the ma ny contam inations un dergone by the
manuscripts utilized for tliis reconstitution.
Evolution o f the Main Types o f Sacramentarles
$ $ o ami lo oo; The Composite Sacramentarles
Th e great success of the G regorian o f the supplem ented / ladrianum
type is not the final stage in the evolution of this sacramentary dur
ing the M iddle Ag es. For the historian o f the sacram en tary the tenth
and eleventh centuries mark both the progressive disappearance of
this book in fav or o f the m issal (see IV in this part) and the clea rly a f
firm ed w ill to prese rve it in the face of potential rivals in the dom ain
o f liturgical preem inence, such as the pontifical.
From the second h alf o f the ninth centu ry on , the fusion o f the
Hadrianum w ith its supp lem ent entailed rearrangem ents wh ose result
w as Ihe gradual additio n o f pic ces to this type, m ost of w hich were
present in the Eighth-Century Gelasian but had not been kept at thetime w hen the supp lem ent w as put together. The expression coined
by historians to designate the manuscripts having been thus modi
fied shows well the textual remodeling that took place: they speak of
"gelasian ized G reg oria ns ." In the course o f the tenth cen tu ry the
Gelasian proportion in the structure of the manuscript became so
preva lent that the G rego rian vestiges are som etime s difficult to detect
in a precise w ay. Th is process led to the creation o f a true Ge lasianbased on the Gregorian o f the supplem ented Hadrianum type. For in
stance, the structure of a fair nu m ber of fo rm ularies follow s that of
the O ld G elasian, w he reas others remain faithful to that of the G reg o
rian. These book s are som etim es called "com po site sacram entarles,"
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an app ropriate expression to design ate this new kind o f sacram en
ta ry. These did not have any descend ants to speak o f because as early
as the year tooo, they were quickly supplanted by the new books
produced at that time, opening the way to a fresh period in the history o f the l iturgy and its boo ks.” 7
The main w itness to the com posite sacram entarles is ind isputably
the Sacramentary of Fulda (Gottingen, UniversitiitsbibL, cod. theol.
2 31) , com posed in the scriptorium o f Fulda about 9 75.n * It is the first
of a series oí sacram entados copied and decorated in Fulda for ex
port, and it is a true liturgical "monument" to the glory of the Car-
olingian pasl and its sacramentarles. The overabundance of prayers
pro ves lhat peop le w an ted sim p ly to gather together into an org a
nized w ho le all the great C arolingian crea lions in this dom ain. C e r
tain formu laries h av e an extra vag an t num ber of orations, much too
large for normal liturgical use: what we have here is a liturgical an
thology focused on the Carolingian period. Th is exceptional un der
taking, the on ly one o f its kind, can be exp lained by the liturgicalrivalry between the pontifical com posed in M ain/ ab out 960-961 on
the orders of Otto I (936-973) with a view to unifying the Kmpire and
the sacram entary as such, which had also served this sam e plan of
unification in C ha rlem ag n e's time. Feeling the sacram entary w as
threatened by the pontifical and supported by the Ottonian rulers,
the mo nks of Fulda so m ehow w anted to remind their society o f the
religious and political authority of a book already in decline. I low-ever, it was a false rivalry between the two liturgical books since their
characters w ere rad ically different and excluded an y competition.
4. I L L U S T R A T IO N O F S A C R A M E N T A L E S
D U R I N G T H E H IG H M I D D L E A G E S
In the research on the illustration of liturgical books, sac ra m en ta les
alw ay s occup ied a sp ecial place. The reasons for this pa rticular treatm ent are to be sou gh t in the im portance o f the sacram entary for the
typology of liturgical manuscripts and in the fact that it was one of
the earliest books to be adorned, at first by a simply ornamental dec
117. In addition to some works on particular points of the manuscripts, a com
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oration and later on by iconographie cycles. Besides the m an y m ono
grap hs, w e ow e to Germ an scholars the best syntheses published on
this topic.1"’’ In France, I.eroqu ais' catalog ue s, though alread y dated,
remain a mine o f inform ation for art historians, and their introductions are still ve ry precious as a sum m ary of each type of book un der
study, includ ing the sacram entary.120
Th e first illustrated sacram éntanos ap peared du ring the Carolingian
period. In spite of an un paralleled deco rative richness, they did not
yet have a fixed iconography. In deed, in the beginning, liturgical books
w ere not meant to receive any narrative il lustration. Ixît us recall that
in the eighth and ninth centuries, the m anuscripts w hich painters abun
dan tly decorated w ere m ostly non-liturgical. The Bible w as treated
w ith partic ula r care in th is respect in confo rm ity w ith the paleo-Chris-
tian tra dition.121 The illustration of the Bible (the G os pels in particu
lar) p laye d a major role in the establishment o f icono graph ie cycles
which w ere later on integrated into the .sacramentarles.1“
A m on g the m any sacram entarie s o f the eighth and ninth centu riesthat hav e been preserved to ou r day, a rather sm all nu m ber are illus
trated in an icono graphie or m erely ornam ental m aimer. O nly som e
have the monogram VD (V 'ere Uignum) of the com m on preface and the
T o f the Tc igilu r in the canon o f the M ass adorn ed w ith interlacings
an d var iou s vegetab le motifs. ‘lï\e G ellon e Sacram entar)' (Paris, 13. N.,
lat. 12048) is an exception w ith its anthropom orphic and zoom orphic
letters an d the representation o f the crucifixion inserted in the canono f the M ass .131 It is on ly from the second ha lf of the ninth century on,
and especially in the tenth century, that the textual stability progres
sive ly acquired b y the sacram entarles is accom panied b y a trend of
system atization in the m ann er of illustrating them. Those sacram en
tarles of the ninth century which are the most richly dcco ratcd present
119 . Th ere is groat profit to be derive d from consu lting the ancient but fundamental studies of A . Springer, "D er Bilderschm uck in Sacramentar»»« des friihcn
Millelalter," Abhm uilungen P/iilologi?ch-Hi$torischen Classe der Kijnigt. SUcfisiadien
Ge>ell$chaJ) (ter Wfcsenschaften (I-eipzig, 1&89) 339-37H, and Ebner, M ístale Romanunt,
429-453 , to w hich one must add O. Pacht, Buchmulerei uV> M ille la lter (Munich,
1984) 32-44, and Litúrgica Vaticana, 32-34.120. I.eroquais, StfrrdwitviitfMVS. i:XXXU-XL!.
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a diversified iconography without fixed rules. The Sacramentary of
Marmoutier (Aulun, B. M.f ms. 19 bis), w ritten in Tours about 850,
m ixes christoiogical themes w ith litúrgica] scenes (Abb ot R agan aldus
blessing the m onks, the conferring o f minor ord ers).1^ The incom plete (or fragm entary) Sacram cn lary o f Ch arles the Bald, perhaps
w ritten in M et/ about 869, o f w hich on ly a part o f the canon o f the
M ass rem ains (Paris, B. N., Int. 11 4 1) ,125 presents a pa rticularly d ev el
oped iconogra ph y (illustration of the Sanctus w ith an imag e of the
hea ven ly hierarchy) which w ill not become the rule in all subsequen t
sacram enta ries. M uch to the contrary, in the tenth an d eleventh cen
turies, the painters will be content with interlacings or vegeta ble m o
tifs for the com m on pre face and the representation of Ch rist crucified
before the Tc igilur; a certain number of these representations become
a strong the ological126 statement. Lastly, let us cite the Sacram entary
of Drogo (Paris, B. N., lat. 9428), written in Metz in the middle of the
ninth century; its ornamental decoration and christoiogical, hagio
grap hie, an d liturgical c ycles lodg ed in the initials m ake it on e of thegem s of m edieval il lum ination.127 Often, the im ages of these ma nu
scripts grea tly influenced the illustration not only of the sacramen-
taries of the tenth an d e leventh cen turies,128 but also those o f m any
other liturgical books.
The icon og raph y of sacram entarles can be classified into four m ain
thematic categories: (1 ) the illustration o f the calen da r w ith the sign s
of the Zodiac an d ev en tua lly the w ork s of the months, (2-3) the cycleof the New Testament and hagiographie representations for the great
feasts of the Temporal and the Sanctoral, and (4) the scenes with litur
gical sign ifican ce for the ritual pa rt o f the sacramentary. In som e rare
cases— in general, ro ya l or im perial com m issions— one finds illustra
tions deve lopin g themes o f political theology. One goo d ex am ple of
124. See R. E. Reynolds, "The Raganaldus Sacramentary and lis Litúrgico-Canonical Significance," S/«;n/.vni 46 (1971) 432-442.
125 . See the facsim ile of this manuscript (G raz, 1974) with «in introduction by F.Miitherich.
126. See the exhaustive stud y by R. Sunlrnp, comp lete with a g ood repertory of
the works under study, “Teigitur: Initialed u nd Kan onb ilder in mittelalterikhen
SakrameritarhnnHschriften," Text und Bild {Wiesbaden. J980) 278-382.
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this is the W armund Sacra m entary (ivre a, Bibl. capit., cod. 86), m ade
for the bish op o í Ivrea (969—ío i 1); in sev eral plac es it glo rifies (he
person of Otto III (reigned 983-1002) through images stressing the di
vine orig in o f the em p eror's pow er.1*9 In the m anuscrip t, one o f thepictures o f the coronation of Otto represents tw o a m pu llae for the
anointing— w he reas the text of the ordo m entions on ly one— thus ex
pressing the theology o f the rex and $acerdo$ (king and priest) by
closely associating the anointing of baptism with the anointing ot* the
coronation. The two am pu llae, also sho w n in the representations of
the baptism o f Ch rist and that o f Con stantine in the sam e m anuscript
signify that the sovereign (Otto) is invested with a twofold power,priestly and royal. The explanation for these representations is found
in the de sire of the O ttoman e m pe ror to restore the connection w ith
the C aro lingian tradition and to establish him self as the legitimate
heir of the Roman Emperor.
H ow w ere the different im ages of a cycle organized? W hat w as the
placement of iconographic representations within the textual struc
ture? Is there a direct relation between the text and the illuminations?
A m on g the m any th em es form in g the ic onographic cycle, som e are
transmitted toge ther (this is the case in particu lar for the scenes o f
the N ew Testament, ha vin g in gene ral originated in the illustration o f
Bibles); others com e from isolated im ages (most often those of ivo ry
and gold work); still others are entirely new creations to fit a particu
lar text, such as those illustrating a ritual (bap tism , anointing of thesick, and so on). One o f the major functions of Ihe decoration of
sacramen tarles w as to underscore the ve ry structure of the liturgical
year through the successio n o f the M ass fo rm ularie s, to accent the
structure o f the ritual by setting off the texts of the ordines. The deco
ration, ornamen tal or figurative, visu ally em pha sizes the salient
points of the liturgical year, ab ove all the most important feasts o f the
Temporal and Sanctoral; in addition, it is tailored to the needs andcircum stances o f the place w he re the m anuscript w as to be used.
Through an original treatment o f the subject, the decora tion can even
129, R. Deshrrvw , "Otto III <md the Warmund Sarramentarv: A studv in Politi
cal Th eology," Zcitscltrifi fi ir Kunstgeschichte (19 71 ) 1-20 . In the sam e vein, see the
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propose a theological interpretation oí the feast, as, for instance, the
paintings accom panying the form ularies o f the M ass o f A ll Saints in
the Pulda Sacram entarles, w ho se iconography is very inn ovative and
rich. In the sam e m anu scripts, there are other them es not be long ingto the classical icono grap hie cycle, such as, for exa m ple, the represen
tation of Popes G reg ory and G elasiu s in Ihe process of w riting their
respective sacramentarles;1 *" this illustration at the beginning of the
book show s that the monk-com pilers were fully aw are o f producing
a liturgically composite sacramentary.
The relationsh ips betw een the orations and the iconog raph ie repre
sentations are tenuous. The content o f the orations and of the non-narrative texts lend themselves poorly to illustration. Consequently,
side b y sid e w ith the strictly liturgical text, the different im ages o í the
christological cycle offer a na rrative and linear read ing of the story of
C hrist in parallel w ith the texts of the pray ers. This sam e "v isu aliz a
tion " of the gospe l narratives w ill reappear in the evan geliaries (see
III, 5, of this part). The hagiographie story is not linear, but the con
nection betw een the im ages and the texts is as elu sive as tor the im
age s from the life o f Christ. On ly the scenes w ith a liturgical character
(description o f actions) have som e relation w ith the text— the text of
the rubrics in the ordo, not that of the pra yer s— that they accompany.
T his absence of direct correlation betw een text and illustration in
sacrame ntarles partly explains w h y all the paintings are done within
frame s wh ich are set in the ov erall layout, som etim es occup ying afull page, sometimes inserted within the text, sometimes placed in
side ornamented initials. The liberation of the image from the text
and its subsequent autonom y are a phenom enon w hich develope d in
conjunction w ith Ihe diffusion o f the codex du ring antiquity, an d is
not p eculiar lo religious bo ok s.131
Apart from th e decorativ e aspect, one m ay w onder w hether such
illustrations, joined to the text which the celebrant must speak, playedany role in the act of p ray ing itself. It is fitting to be pru de nt on this
point because w e kn ow nothing of the eventual stim ulating effect
130. Authors' portraits are encountered more commonly in the psalters wilh thefigure of King David or in the evangeliaries with representations of the tour evan
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produced on the theological discourse by these images. During the
celebration itself, they pro bab ly serv ed on ly as visual landm arks, a
sort of instantaneous rem inder— the very' nature of im ages is to
quic kly su gge st— o f the the me o f Ihe liturgy of the day.1*2 Non etheless, it is possible that cerlain illustrations m ay ha ve been the occa
sion for the creation of a theo logical discou rse through im ages, but
this rema ins exceptional in liturgical m anu scripts. Wo m ust not forget
that these illuminations contributed to the beaut)' of the sacred books
(including the sacram entary) and that they w ere sub ject to aesthetic
criteria in order to w orth ily honor the w ord of G od . M any m edieval
texts insist on Ihe m aterial valu e o f the liturgical boo ks beca use sinceSt. Jerom e, peoples deem ed that nothing w as too beau tiful wh en it
cam e to the pra ise of Go d. With this attitude, it is not surp risin g that
the liturgical book s arc by far the most num erou s am on g the books
thal have received sumptuous bindings with gold work, ivory work,
and precious stones.1’ * Th e fam ous binding o f the Drogo Sacram en
tary has scenes describing, among other things, the celebration of the
Euch arist in M etz in the ninth centu ry after the introduction o f the
ordiue* romani1*4 into G au l; it is the m ost striking ex am ple o f the ef
fort m ade by clerics o f the M iddle A ge s to adorn in a fitting m anner
the book of w orsh ip p ar excellence, the sacram entary.
13 2. Sw; f.-C. Bonne, "Ritu el d e la couleur: Fonctionnement et usa ge d es imagos
da ns te sacramentam* de Saint-Htienne d e Lim oges/' Imagee l signification, Rencon
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II. The Books of Chant
i , H 1S T O K Y O F L I T U R G I C A L C H A N TIN T HE HIG H M IDDLE A G ES
Th e h istory of liturgical chant in antiqu ity and the: I iigh M iddle
A ges interests not only m usicolo gists but also liturgists and histo ri
ans. N um erou s studies b y m usicologists espec ially m ake it possible
to reconstruct the histo ry of the liturgico-m usical fo rm s o f the High
M iddle A ge s through the different fam ilies of liturgical chant. N o w a
d ay s there is a better app reciation of the imp ortance o f oral transmission in the practices o f antiquity and the High M iddle A g e s because
for all those centuries the transm ission o f pieces an d their me lodies
relied entirely on oral memory.*35 in the seventh century, Isidore of
Seville (c.560-636) wrote about this, "if people do not retain the
soun ds in their mem ories, the sou nd s perish because they cannot be
written."*36 And yet, the eighth and ninth centurie s sa w the rise of the
cod ification o f liturg ical chan t in the West, thanks to the creation o f anotation system and the multiplication of books wh ose pu rpo se w as
to he lp cantors me m orize the repertories o f m elodies (see pp. 68-69).
During antiquity, the first forms of chant were very close to the way
the readings w ere proclaim ed in churches. Cantillation, a w ay o f read
ing verging on melody, and responsorial chant, the alternation of a
eantillated psa lm with a short respon se by the assem bly, are at the ori
gin o f liturgical chant pro pe rly so ca lled .137 I^ater on, the chants of the
liturgy— M ass an d O ffice— fall into two categories found throughout
135. See Hlich, CoHfr'.th'oru/. 1:44-125; Pierce, "Using Liturgical Texts" (summary on IUich).
136. N isi etum (lb homine monoria teiu'antur, s oni pereunt, quia scribi non po»$unt.
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the Western churche s: antip ho ns and respo nso ries.1'8 Su ng at differ
ent moments of the celebrations (see the table of the structure of the
celebration o f a M ass, pp. 19-20 ), the picces we re ge ne rally per
formed from memory by the soloist and the sc/10/iî cwi/onfw.From the eighth century on, especially under the reign of Pepin the
Short (751-768), Roman liturgical usages reached Gaul, first through
individual initiatives, mostly those of pilgrims, later on through the
official action of the state. A s a result o f its transfer from Rom e to
Gaul,1'9 the repertory of liturgical chant used in Rome for several
centuries w as sub m itted to m odifications. It w a s also at that tim e that
the repertories proper to different rites became individualized and
w ere sun g to their ow n particular m elo dies.140 A l that time, G rego
rian chant w as taught by cantors in a large part of Gau l on the basis
of a classification of the antiphons in a special book, the tonarv, in
w hich the antiphons are arranged under the eight to nes o f the G rego
rian chant.141 The Ca rolingian period w as also m arked b y the ap pe ar
ance and de velopm ent of neumatic notation, a true m em ory aid forthe cantors, but not yet in any way a true musical notation in the
strict sense. The neumes (from the Latin hi’iwm'4*) are graphic signs
w ritten above the w ord s of liturgic al texts (antip hons, responsories,
and so on), a catnpo aperto ["in an op en field"], that is to say, without
stave s; these sign s helped can tors remem ber the m elod y approp riate
for a given text.'43 Regarding liturgical chant, ihe neumatic notation
that developed in the ninth century was in some way a support of
138. C oncern ing the history and technical characteristics of antiphon s and re-
sponso ries, see Ifu jţlo, ibid., 25-27,139. See H. Hueck, "Die Hinfiihrung des Gregoriairischen Gesanges im Pranken-
reich," Ronnsche Quart<il$chrift 49 (1954) 1 7 2- 18 7 ; Ph. Bernard, "S ur un aspect con
troversé de to réforme carolingienne, 'vieux-ro m ain' et ‘gré go rien ."' Eccksia
Omrts 7(19 90 ) 163-18 9.140 . See, for exa m ple , the repertory o f the Beneven to liturgy, M. I lug lo, "t.'an*
cien chant bénéventain," ftr /ts if O h m s 2 (198s) 265-293.
141. See M. Huglo, Les toiwin*: Inventaire, analyse, civnţiartiiaon* (Paris, 1971)-
t ;-> in the Middle Ages , the word tteunui had a broader m eaning than the one w e
are used to—a grou p o f notes sun g on one syllable: it could design ate a melody, a
melisma, a responsorv o f the choir, amo ng other possible m eanings. See A.-M.
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the oral tradition; at the sam e time, by pro ducing a chant bo ok, it
gav e concrete exp ression to the effort at codification-through -writing
of liturgical practices, an effort characteristic o f the Caro lingian pe
riod. The chant m anu scripts w ere not yet system atically prov ided
w ith neum es; only in the tenth century, w ould the neum es occupy all
the spaces between the lines o f text.144 Since the en d of the nineteenth
century, w ith the publication of the Paleographic musicale of Solesmes,
m usicologists have stressed the importance o f a sound kn ow ledge of
the different traditions of neuinatic notation, a knowledge necessary
from the historical and liturgical viewpoints and equally needed for
the reconstitution of ancient melodies.
a . T H K C H A N T S O F T H E R O M A N M A S S 1«
In the celebration of a Mass, the orations and canon belonged to the
celebrant using h is sacram en tary; the read ings w ere reserved for the
deacon and sub deacon eq uippe d w ith their ow n books (see III, 5-6, in
this part); finally, the lyrical component of the Mass was the province
of the soloists and the schoia cantorum. In the cou rse o f a eucharistiecelebration (see the table o f the structure o f the celebration o f a M ass,
pp . 19 -20 ), cantors had their severa l p arts to play in perfect synch rony
w ith the other actors in the celebratio n. A m ong the chants at M ass, it
is necessary to distingu ish those w hich ch ang e from d ay to da y (the
chants of the prop er o f the M ass) and those which a re invariable,
w hatever the feast (the chants o f the ordin ary o f the M ass) .
The Chants o f the Proper
The five chants of the pro per va ry throughout the ye ar and are,
w ith very fe w exceptio ns, bib lical, and m ost often, psalm ic . They are
designa ted by the generic term o f antiphon (atrtiphona).1*6 The introït
antiphon, usua lly sun g w ith one or several psalm verses, accom pa
nied the entrance procession into the church at the beginning of the
celebra tion.'47 The o ffertory and com m union chants also accom panied
144. During llu? High Middle Ages, one ntso often fituls chant pieces with
neumes in non-liturgical m anuscripts; frequen tly this is because of .ulditions. See
L>. Hscudier, "D es no tations mu sicales da ns tes m anu scrits non liturgiqu es an
térieurs au X ir siècle," Bibliothèque de I'Ftviet int Chtirles 129 ( 1971) 27-48.
1 (5 S w especially A Hkenberg Cur cantatur? Die Funktion de< liturgiehcn
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processions, the first o ne d urin g the presentation o f the gifts, before
the consecration o f the bread and w ine, the second, du ring com m un
ion. Ih is last, the final sun g piece of the M ass, which im m ediately
follow ed the A gn u s Dei and the breaking o f the bread, has a structure close to that of the introit.’ 4“ The offerto ry chant co uld last as
long as w as nece ssary du ring the preparation o f the bread and w ine;
this is why the antiphon is followed by a large number of verses.144
The gradual, placed after the reading of the epistle, is the oldest of
the chants o f the prop er of the M ass. M ade o f a g rad ua l antiphon (re
sponse) and its verse , it used to be sun g by the soloist at the ambo,
standing not quite at the top—a place reserved for the gospel—buton a low er step, the grndit*, hence the term "gradual" to desigilate
this chan t.,5° The gr adu al w as imm ediately follow ed by the alleluia,
sun g before the gosp el an d still ha vin g one psalm verse attached to
it. The alleluia was introduced into the Roman Mass about the sev
enth century as a p relud e to the reading o f the gosp el; it announ ced
the com ing glory of C hrist the S av ior and accom pan ied the entrance
procession of the holy bo ok .1 ’ 1
Tfte Chants o f the Ordinary
The Kyrie eleison, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei are the three
main chants of the ordinary, to which one can add the Gloria and the
C re d o ,'52 sun g on certain occasions du ring the High M iddle Ag es.
The first three are g rou ps of acclamations.
The Kyrie, at first pu rely christological, comes directly after the in-troit and has taken tlte form o f a threefold supplication add ressed lo
the Father, a threefold supp lication add ressed to the Son, and ag ain a
threefold supplication addressed to the Father.'53 In all likelihood, it
148. See Jungman n, MS. 3:325-3 35; bkenberg, Cur cantatur, 105-109.
149. Jung inan n, M S, 2:298-304; F.kenberg, C ur eantatur. 8*5-89.
150. R. ). Hesbert, "Le graduel: Chant responsorial," Epltemeride* liturgica? 95(1981) 316-350 ; Jungmann, MS, 2:188-211; F.kenberg, Cur amtalur, 61-68.
15 1. A .-C. Martimort, "Origine et signification d e rA llelu ia de la m esse ro
maine," Meus concorde! twet: Pour Mgr A.-C. Martimort < 11'occasion e srs quarante an
nées rfVwivtgrrfnM?«! et des- vingt ans de la ftwisirtMlk?» Saow iiw lm u ùuit'i/umr (Paris,
1983) 95-122; Ekenberg, Cur cantatur. 68-75.
152 . Concerning the Greek versions o f these chants encountered in the m anu
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w as intro duced into the Roman M ass befo re 529.1J4 A s for the Glo ria
(Luke 2:13-14), immediately following the Kvrie, it was originally re
stricted to the pontifical Christmas iiturgv. Because it is a hymn of
praise, it w as not sun g du ring times of penance or preparation, such as A dvent, Lent, the feast of the H oly Innocents.155 The Sanctus, strongly
focused on the Trinitarian faith, imm ediate ly follow s the preface intro
du cing the canon of the Mass, and w a s sun g by the priest;'56 it w as not
part of the primitive eucharistic liturgy but w as introduced into the
M ass about the fifth or sixth cen tury as an ad dress to C hrist.137 The
biblical text (threefold Sane Ins from Isaiah 6:3) w a s com bined with the
exclamation "Hosanna. . . " a reminiscence from Matthew's Gospel(21:9). Hie A gn us IX*i, sung at the moment of the breaking o f the bread,
is a threefold christological supplication and was adopted by the Roman
liturgy only about 700. Fundamentally, it is praise directed to Christ.158
The Credo, du ring the celebration o f M ass, app eare d first in the East in
the sixth century; in the West, it soon took the form of an expression of
faith said before Com m union. From the end o f the eighth century, it
w as sun g after the gospel readin g, but just occasio nally; it became an
integral part o f the l.atin M ass onlv in 1014.*59The G loria, Sanctus, and Cre do w ere included in the sacram entary
but were solem nly sun g by cantors. On ly the Kyrie w as a lw ay s in
clud ed in the antiph ona l (also called the gradu al). From the tenth
century on, these chants w ere frequently regroup ed into the books in
tended fo r the cantors and the schola cantorum; they had musical notation acco rding to se ve ral repertories, along w ith othe r chan ts that
came to enrich the I,atin Mass.
Enrichment o f the. Chant at Mass
A m ong the prin cipal creations o f the H ig h M id dle A ges in matter
of liturgical chant, one must mention the tropes, proses (or sequences),
154. Chavasse, "A Rom e," 25-44.
155. J. Magne, "Ctirmtna Christo, 3: Lc Gloria iti excel*!*." Epherucritiez liiitr^icae »no(1986) 368-390; Hkonbarg, Cur eautatur. 54-61 .
156. C oncern ing the history of the Sanctus, see I, the section on the sacramentary,
in this part, as well as G. Iversen, ed., Tro/vs tie ¡'ordinaire tie !a messe: Tropes du Sanctus. Corpus froporum 7 (Stockholm, 1990) 17-24; Ekenberg, Cur euntatur, 89-93.
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an d pm sules. A spe cifically mon astic phenom enon, the tropes arc
text-b ased o r m elo dy-b ased ,0° chant*», extra-bib lical in orig in, that are
interpolated into the texts o r m elodies o f certain liturgical chants o f
the pro per or ordina ry o f the M ass in order to offer an exegelical interpretation of these chants.If” Owing to their theological richness,
the tropes ha ve in recent ye ar s been studied by liturgists, historians,
ph ilologists, m usicologists, art historians, w ho ha ve called attention
to their historical interest.16,1 Certain grea t m onastic centers, C lun y
principally, were opposed to this kind of composition since their spir
ituality did not correspond to the prevalent liturgical sensibility of
the time.163 The sequence is a melody*based trope of the alleluia; the
prosu le is inserted at the end of the con cludin g respo nso ries of each
noctum,6i in the office 0/ Matins. Finally, in ali these pieces o f the
High M iddle A ge s, the literary and poetic aspects are of prim e im
portance. The most beautiful Latin versification harmoniously allies
vvilh the richness of the li turgical m elo dies, respecting both metrical
and musical rules; one does not melodize just any texl or textualizciTcxlierung) just any melody.
Liturgical and Codteological Preliminaries
In I he beginn ing, the sole function of the boo ks of chant w as sim
ply to transmit the liturgical texts because the melodies were part of
the oral repertory. From the Caro lingian p eriod on, the liturgical
repertory for the M ass and Office w as established and w as dissem i
nated principally by means of the book, at first without notation.
160. Th e text-based tropes wo re entirely ne w com positions , trot mid melody,
grafted onto a pre-existing liturgical text. whereas, in the melody-based tropes,
the text w as gen erated by tin-* liturg ical melody.
i6 t. Se e, for instance, the interpretations of Am alariu s o f M et/ (0.750-780) for
the tropes o f the K yrie in R. Johnson. "Am alair e de Metz ot les tropes d u Kyric
eleison," Classic# e! iwduwvalia: Francisco Kfoll sepiuagcmiria dedkata (GvUlendal,»973)510-540.
16a- The team of the Corjnn Troparttm of Stockholm U niversity h as already p ub
lished seven volu m es of the great edition of the tropes o f the High M iddle Ages.
The p roceedings o f several conferences ha ve also been pu blished. See the recent
tn tritdizhvic dei iropi iilurgici, alti dci convcgnt uii Iropi hturgici. Paris <15 -19 Octo
ber 7985), Perugia (2- 5 Septem ber j 987), ed. K. \len»*sro (SpoleHv 1990).
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H ow ever, the book, eve n in its final form o f codex w as not the only
channel. In order to set dow n in w ritin g new m usical com positions,
the rohtlus (sec pp. 78-79) and the tibelfus, both older than the book
properly so called, played an important role. Like the sacramontary and missal, the early books of chant’*5 were often made up of the col
lections o f several (¡belli (see the t ropers, II, 6, of this part). From the
ninth cen tury on, and throughout the w ho le o f the M idd le A ge s, the
iibelhts w a s also used to circulate a ne w o ffice, or a new' M ass, no
tably as far as chant w a s conce rned .166
On the cod icologic plane, the m anu scripts o f chant of the High
M iddle Ag es show two peculiarities that distingu ish them from other
liturgical books. Their format is sm aller than ave rag e; this is partly
explained by the way they were used at that time: in general, only
the solo ist condu cting the sdio/n w a s in po ssession o f the book, as a
m em ory aid. The book of chant is often ob long with na rrow pages
bec ause the soloist had to be able to hold it with one han d, contrary
to the celebrant, whose book rested on the altar, and the deacon, whoread the gospel from the book placed on the ambo. Only in the thir
teenth century, w ou ld the large choir lecterns allo w the achola to fol
low the chant in the big antiphonals (60 to 70 centimeters long)
w ritten in especia lly la rge characters.167
3 . T H E A N T I P H O N A L O F T H E M A S S O R G R A D U A L ' 68
The m asculine noun antiphonariun, or the neuter noun antiphonale derive from antiphoiui ["antiphon," "sung piece"]. With the an-
tiphonal's appearance in the eighth century, either word designated
the antiphonal o f tin? Office, the antiph onal o f the M ass, or else the
m anu scripts that contain both rep ertories. The ancient library cata
logues as well as the inventories of the treasuries kept in cathedrals
dem onstrate that the people of the M iddle Ag es used antiphowirius to
mean indistinctly an y typ e of antip hon al.1** In the second ha lf o f the
165. See Palazzo, "Role d es Hbelli."
16b. See Huglo, Lvre s lit' chant, 64-75.
167. See Huglo, ibid., 75-78, and D. Escudier, "Les manii&crits muskMux du
Move» Agt* (du IX'' ,iu XII1' sit’d«}: Kssai di* tvpologie," Ctxlicologica 3 (1980) 34-35 .
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eighth century, the pieces of’ the Office on the one hand and those of
the Mass on the other were progre&sivelv separated into two different
books: the O ffice antiphonal and the M ass antiphonal. Th e latter is
m ore com m on ly called gr adu al (a term rather frequent in lho secondpa rt o f the M iddle A ges), after the chant o f the prope r of Ihe M ass in
troducing the alleluia.
History
Throu ghout the M iddle A ge s, peop le attributed to St. Greg ory (590-
604), besides the saeram cntary, the com po sition o f the chants of the
M ass. In his life o f G rego ry. John the Deacon (825-880) w rites at theend of the eighth century that the pope com posed an antiphonal for
the Roman schola awtorum.170 M od em criticism easily exp lain s this at
tribution within the perspective of the Carolingian reform, which even
in the liturgical dom ain, needed an argument d ra w n from authority
in order to impose a document.171 Be that as it may, the prologue Gre
gorius praesul ("Bishop G reg ory"), w hich is found in the earliest gr ad
uate an d w as pro bably co m posed about 800, attests to the m edievalbelief in G reg o ry's authorship. A s for the mod ern editors of the M ass
antiphonal, they for the most part sho w ed n o hesitation abo ut w rit
ing the pope's name in the title.'72 We are indebted to Hesbert for the
critical edition o f the six oldest m anu scripts (from the eighth and
ninth centuries)175 o f the M ass antiphon al; it is a w ork indispen sable
to all research in the history o f the book an d the pieces it contains.*"4
Nature and Content o f the Book
The grad ua l com prises the chants o f the pro per o f the M ass and sec
on da rily (at least du ring the H igh M iddle Ages) those of Ihe ordinary.
It presents the Tem poral a nd the San ctoral com bined (except after
See Becker, Gilahgt, and Bischofi, Scluitzi'erzekfini$$c; sec also thy distinction made
by A m olan us betw een the different chant books, J. M. H anssens, ed.. A in ahni quwof/t o fvm fifttrgiar ifi/wM. vol. 1 : L ilvr d r ordine <wiiphoittirii, Sludi e 118
(Vatican City, 1948) "Prologue 17 ,” p. 363.
»70. Wi.i Grcgorii 2.6. (PL 75, col. yo).
171. See the recent update by M. Huglo, "L'antiphonaire: archetype ou reper
toire orifiinel? " Grcgoirefe Gnnul. 661-669.
172. See, for instance, |. M. Tomasi, ontitMtm ¡1 S. Gregorio Optra
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Easter and Pentecost) into one homogeneous liturgical year where
Easter falls on A pril 3. It begins w ith the first Su n da y o f Ad ven t
{whereas the sacramentarles and evangeliaries open with the vigil of
the Nativity) and ends w ith the feast o f Saint And rew on N ovem ber30. it contains more than 560 pieces, of w hich 70 are introit antiphons,
118 are gradual responsories, 100 alleluia verses, 18 t T a c t s (chants re
placin g the alleluia on certain p enitential da ys), 107 offertories, and
150 com m union antiphons.
Origin, Date o f Composition, and Evolution
Learned w ork s have clearly show n that the "G reg oria n " gradualha s its roots in the Ro m an liturgy as celebrated in the ba silicas.1"5
However, the manuscript tradition has transmitted to us a liturgical
and musical revision undertaken about 780 in the Frankish realm, on
the basis of a Rom an model o f the secon d h alf of the eighth century.
It is therefore difficult to go further back in the search for the original
repertory (a notion to be preferred to that of archetype)176 and for the
oldest forms o f the M ass antiphonal. The studies of C ha vasse havenonetheless shown that on the whole, the repertory of the Mass
chants took shap e at the same tim e as the repertories of the book s of
read ings and the sacram entaries, that is, in Rom e betw een the fifth
and seven th c en turies.177
From the Carolingian period o n, the evo lution o f the M ass anti-
phon al w as determined by tw o facts: elements that were originally
movable became fixed and texts increased in number. Among the
different chants of the proper, som e (like the alleluia ve rse s and the
gradu ate) w ere, m ore often than others, either fixed o r subject to va ri
ation in the course o f centuries. M an y chan ges also occurred in the
Sanctoral, especially through the creation of Masses for patron saints
17 5. See in particular A. C'havasse, "L e s p lus onciens types du lcelionnaire et de1 'antiphonaire do la m esse," R o w bi-iiMictiiie 62 ( 19 52 ) 3—9.1; "I ¿\ formation de
VAntiphomilc wissririim," BuUelm ttu ContiIt* i/rs Eludes de SainhSulpice 32 <1961)29- 41 ; “Qtntatorium et Anliphona!e mtssnrum: Quel<|ues proced es d e confection, di*
mancho* aprte» lo P entecóte, grad ué is du sa nctora l," Fxclesia Onuis {1984) 15-55;
and Ch avasso, "Hvang éliaire," especially 2 30-237.
176 See M I lu^lo "L 'éd ilion critique di» I'antiphonairo gré go rien " Sír/jjiúrjMm
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an d the formation o f a Com m on o f Saints, w he reas the Temporal re
mained rather stable. Let us note also that from the eleventh century
on, five chants of the ordinary were inserted into the Gradual; for
merly, they were most often written in the sacramentarv, because of their place and role in the celebration, or less often in books like the
tropcr when they were ornamented with tropes (see II, 6, of this part).
Historical Importance o f the Antiphonal o f tin* Mass
Like the sacramentary, the antiphon als (of the M ass and o f the O f
fice) w ere de stined to becom e the official book se rv ing the politics of
liturgical unification undertaken by the Carolingian rulers. We haveseen that the adoption of the gradual in Gaul went hand in hand with
the kn ow ledge an d diffusion of Gregorian chant, then used in Rome,
by bishops and monastics in their liturgies.'78 But in contradistinction
to the O ffice antipho nal, the gr ad ual w a s not rem ode led cither in its
texts or in its repertory. H ug lo has rem arked that the divisio n o f the
repertory of the antiphon al into tw o grou ps (lands o f G erm an ic lan
gu age s in the east and lands o f Rom ance lan guages in the west), whichevo lved in separate w a y s from the midd le o f the ninth century, very
probably results from the division of the Carolingian Empire in 843 at
the Treaty o f Verd un .179
I us end b y looking at one o f the m anuscripts o f the ninth century,
the Antiphonal o f Com piegne (Paris, 15. NJ., lat. 17436), whose origin is
still debated by specialists; written about 860-880, it was in use at St.
Cornelius of Compiegne, imperial chapel of Charles the Bald (reigned
840-877).,So G y h as aptly d em onstrated that it w a s p erha ps an exact
copy of the antiphonal in use at Charlemagne's court in Aachen at the
beg inning o f the ninth century, a d ocum ent wh ich has been lost to
us.'81 This manuscript is m ade up ot two parts (gradu al in fols. iv -30v ,
antiphonal in fols. 31V-k»7v)#probably originally distinct. Both parts
178. See the testim ony o f Paul the Deacon (c .jao-c .&x i), Ct’sJii ephcoporun j Me/-
h'ttsium. NIGH, Sc. 2:268.
179. Sec Huglo. Uvrt's Jr chant, 84.180. See especially J. Froger, "L e lieu d e destination el d c proven ance du G>m-
pi’Hitit’/ isis ," I.-if w m concordat, 353; Meshcri, AM S, nos. 17 -19 .
181 P -M Gy "I e Corpus Anliphonalium Officii et les antiphonairescar-
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arc adorn ed w ith a frontispiece-prologue, richly decorated, ascribing
ihc composition of the books to St. Gregory. Written with great care in
gold letters and embellished w ith ornate initials, this sum ptuous manu
script, used at the imperial court, acquires for this reason a particularimportance fo r historians of liturgy because it is the sole w itness to
the official character o f the antiphon al.1®2
4- T H E G R A D U A L O U T S ID E T H E G R A D U A L (OR
A N T IP H O N A L OF THK M A SS)
So m e rare med ieval m anu scripts juxtapo se into a perfect codico-
logical and paleog raph ic unity the sacram entary p rop erly so called
and the grad ua l, or a table o f the incipits in the g ra d u al.,8j Th ese are
the first sketches of m issals w ith juxta po sed parts, such as those
w hic h w ere developed from the ele venth to thirteenth centurie s and
contain the Mass readings in a third section. The fact that both books,
sacramen tary and grad ual, w ere believed to he the work o f Pope
G reg ory is withou t dou bt at the root o f the juxtaposition of the twobook s, for as far us the celebration is concerned, nothing w as changed
in the usual practices of the High Middle Ages: the celebrant with his
"m issa l" (in fact a sacram entary with the gra du al ap pen ded to it)
pronou nced on ly the orations, w hile the cantors and ch oir executed
the sung parts contained in the gradual. On the contrary, the fact that
in the sacram entary, the incipits o f the su ng p ieces are ad de d in the
m argin by the collect o f each formulary, or else are inserted at the be ginn ing o f the form ularies, eve n som etim es with notation, attests to
an interm ediary stage in the elaboration o f the m issal (see IV of this
part) and in the changes in eucharistic practice.
O ne encounters a gra du al table [of incipits] in one o f the sacram cn-
taries of St. Amand (Paris, B. N., lat. 2291; fols. 9-15), written about
182. Con cerning the other pertinent m anu scripts of the High M iddle A ges , see
Vogel introduction, 350 -^62 (w ith a list of the principal m anuscripts of the non-
Roman liturgies); Camber, CLLA, 50^ -518. Ga m ber’s typology for the gradual, as
lor other docum ents, is du biou s in n certain n um ber of cases. I low ever, a detailed
discus sion of the valid ity o f his classification w ould be far beyo nd the scope of
this manual.
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^75” ^7^ >84 ‘‘ ftd «Iso in Paris, 15. N ., lat. 12050 (fols. 3 - 1 6v), com ing
from the scriptorium of C orb ie (shortly after 85 3).185 Exam ples o f the
incipits of sun g pieces in the m argins of the M ass form ularies are
found, for instance, in Paris, B. N., new acq. lat. 1589 (Tours, secondhalf of ninth century);186 Paris, B. N., lat. 9432 (Amiens?, ninth or tenth
century);'*7 and Rheims, B. M., 213 (St. Amand, about 869).'^
Rarer still are the lectionaries (with epistles arid gospels) combined
with a grad ual.189 This kind o f com posite book com ple tely d isap
peared after the twelfth century.
5 . r i l l i C A X T A T O R 1 U M
"A fter the reading o f the epistle by the subd eacon , the cantor as
cend s the am bo w ith his cantotorium and say s the rcsp on sory .",9° T his
text, taken from an ordo, giv es the definition an d purp ose o f the can-
tatorium: it w a s the soloist's book, containing o n ly the chan ts interca
lated between the readings at the beginning of Ihe Mass (gradual
responsory and alleluia), with sometimes the verses of the offertory.Practically absent from the ancient nom enclature of liturgical books,
the cantatoriuni had, in the Middle Ages a function more honorific
than real in the celebration. On this topic, A m alar ius w rites, ''The
cantor, [at the amboj, without being obliged to read his text, holds in
his hands (the canlator i i im w hose cover is decorated w ith ivory 1
plaques";191 thus the purely honorific character of the book is empha
sized. So m e do cum ents attesting this liturgical boo k are still extant;the old est is the Catttaiorium of M onz a (Monza, Tesoro della basilica
S. Giova nn i, cod. C 1 X), m ade about 800, probably in north ern Italy .192
184. See J. Deshusses, "Ch ronolog ie des gran ds snoramentaires dc Saint-Aim m d,"
Rcvuc bettedictine $7 (1977) 230-237.
185. The grad ual table w as perha ps add ed !o the main m anuscript in the tenth
century; see Hesbert, A M S, nos 21-22.186. See Deshusses, "Sacrairtentatres d e Tou rs."
187. Leroquais, Smrantrniaires. 1:38-43.
188. See D eshusses, "Ch rono logie ties sacramentaires."189. t.iki* St. Omer, B. M.. ms. 252 (lenth-elevcnth centuries); see I luglo, Livres
lie chant, 122.190. /’osiijiww (tulxluiconua) tegeril, cantor cunt eanlatorto ancendit et dicit
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A text from A m alariu s o f M etz (C.780-C.850) suggests that from the
eighth and ninth centuries on, the lists of chant books for the Latin
liturgies were on the whole patterned on the model of the Roman us
ages of the eighth century.*9* In Rome they used an antiphonal without the intercalary chants of the first part o f the M ass (grad ua l
rcsponsory and alleluia), which were written in the cuntalorium. Con
sequently, wh en Ihe Rom an liturgy w as introduced into G au l, the
Mass antiphonal became the official book of the Romano-Frankish
liturgy, completed by the cantatorium, in im itation o f the Rom an prac
tices. Later on, the cantatorium disappeared rather quickly from the
typ olog y o f chant books; it w as first absorbed b y the antiphonal and
afte rw ard , in the. second part of the M idd le Ag es , by the m issal.
6. THE TROPKR
Th e collections of tropes w ith notation for the chants of the proper
an d /o r the ord inary ha ve for several ye ars been the subject of numer
ou s stud ies thanks to the assidu ou s w ork o f the team o f the Corpus
Troporum of the University of Stockholm. We owe to this team the
pub lication of several volu m es and four books of articles dealing
w ith particular aspects o f the trope genre.194 In these publicatio ns, the
most significant m anuscripts o f the High M iddle A ge s occup y an im
portant pla ce .195 Th e oldest tropers w e kn ow go back on ly to the
tenth century/96 but without doubt, the tropes existed already in the
eighth century.19" O riginally, they w ere written in the em pty spa ces(m argins, blank sheets) of other liturgical m anu scripts, princip ally
and logically in the antiphonals of the Mass and Office.
193. Hanssens, ¡.iber antiphonarii, "Prologue t1e online antipho/Mrii," 363; on this
point, see the translation and comments of Hugh», Livres de tfiatu, 97-98.
194. Sev en v olum es hav e already been published , in particular tropes of the
proper o f the Mass (cycle of Ch ristm as and cycle o f Faster), tropes of the Ag nus
Dei, tropes o f the Sanctus.195. For an overall v iew o f these m anuscripts, see H. H usm ann. fntpvn- and Se-
ijtu’tiduuidschrifien. International Inventory of Musical Sources 5 (Munich, 1964).
196. A s fo r the m anuscrip ts St. G all, Stiftsbibl., 381 and 484 (perhap s dating back
to 965), and Verona, Bibl. Capit., cod. XC (Mon za, m id-tenth century), see C. Zive*
longhi and G. Adami, f cfiilid M urc ia della Caiedrale <1i Verona (Verona. 1987) 86-67.
197. It scorns certain toda y that the tropes appeare d in the cou rse of the ninth
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At the root o f the tropers, w e encounter anew , as H uglo dem on
strated, tibeUi which a llowed for the circulation o f the pieces and the
m aking of collections; these were the point of dep arture for the crea
tion of a book ho m ogen eou s in its contents and materia] fo rm .“58
Trop ers reveal w ith particular clarity the process o f the form ation of «1
Liturgical boo k in general because in a large num ber of m anu scripts,
the different liturgical sections w hich they com prise (tropes of the
Sanctus, tropes of the Gloria, and so on) begin with a new fascicle, an
ob viou s sign o f the com pilation o f liheiii. These manuscripts attest to
the intermediary stage between the UbeUus and the final book. In thelatter, ev er y trace of the gro up ing of the original libelli has been
erased: the text has been made a single whole on the codieological
level. Tropers fell in disuse before being o fficially supp ressed by the
C ou nc il of Trent; this elim ination na turally entailed their disa p p ea r
ance. The m anu scripts wh ich surv ive d date for the m ost part from
between the tenth and twelfth-thirteenth centuries. They were pro
duced in m any pa rts of Europe;1" how ever, the greatest concentration of places of com position w a s in northern Italy, the southw estern
part of France, and the Alpine region (today's Switzerland and Aus
tria). Another characteristic trait of the history of the tropers is that
since tropes w ere an essen tially m onastic phen om enon , the m ajority
o f m anuscripts w e possess w ere written in the scriptoria of abb eys,
am on g w hich St. G all and St. M artial o f Lim oges are the principal,
and in cathedral centers such as that of Winchester in England.200
There is no set pattern to the contents of the troper eve n though
certain tropes, like the celebrated d ialog ue Quem qaeritis of Haster
Sun day, are found in the m ajority of m anuscripts, fh is remarkable
variety results from several factors. O ne o f the m ost im portant is the
specialization, often extreme, o f the productions o f the different places
w here the pie ccs w ere com posed. The contents o f the m anuscrip tsoften reflect the typ e o f pieces that w ere favo rites in one center or
198. M. Huglo, "I,es liMU de tropes et les prem iers trop.ures-prosaires," Pax el
tkipicntia: Studies in Text and Music o f Liturgical Trop*** and Sequences in Metuory of
Cordon Anderson (Stockholm, »986) 13-22.
Th i f h l f i i f d f h i diff i h h
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another. The composition of a troper was subject to no strict rule. The
book m ay contain either a great nu m ber of tropes (for the prope r and
the ordinary of the Mass) or pieces intended lo be used exclusively,
or alm ost exclu sively, with introit or offertory an tiphons. I hings become still more complicated when a sequentiary, or even in certain
cases a canlatorium*01 is ap pen ded to the tropcr. A curs ive review of
the lists o f sources used by the Corpus Troporum sh ow s that this kind
o f com posite book w as not rare between the tenth and twelfth cen
turies. O ther exam ples, such as P aris, B. N., lat. 1 1 1 8 (Gascony, tenth-
eleventh centuries), a troper-sequentiarv from St. Martial of Limoges,
even include a tonary {Paris, B. N., lat. 1118; fols. 104-114).202
The great variety in the contents of the tropers is no obstacle to the
uniformity of their presentation on the page. In general, visual pre
em inence is given to the neum alic notation. The neu m es seem to
"cr u sh " the written texts which em plo y ve ry sm all letters an d form
an extremely narrow ribbon. In the case of the long melismas on the
final a of the Alleluia, for instance, the neumes occupy practically the w hole page, w hereas on ly tw o or three alle lu ia s are w rit ten out. O b
viously, the tropers w ere utilitarian books used in the actual w orship
services. With no pretense of lux ury as a rule, they w ere sim ply litur
gical bo oks filling the practical need o f regu lar use.
Hinally, two principal groups of tropers must be distinguished:
mon astic and cathedral. M ost man uscripts belon g to the first group,
w ithin w hic h several categorie s are defined according to the repertories (either spe cialized or gen eral) and the codicolog ical aspect o f the
m anuscripts. The tropers of the cathedral typ e are m uch rarer and
contain a repertory pro per to the liturgical use o f cathed rals (festive
calendar, tropes for the ord inary o f the Mass). T hey a lso present cer
tain particularities absent from m onastic tropers, such a s the Ltuuies
regiae ("p raise s of the kin g" l (see Paris, Bibl. de 1'Arsenal, ms. 11(19;
Autun, 1 0 0 5 / 1 0 0 6 - 1 0 2 4 ) ,which suggest that the m anuscript w as
written for a specia l occasion (visit o f the sovereign to the cathedral,
as w as perh aps the case in Autun).
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7. OTHER FORMS OF BOOKS
Besides the many possible combinations of chant books,20* there
exist odd kinds that cannot bo classified in an y cate go ry; such is the
ease o f the KxttlM s c r o l l s . T h e u se o f a scroJJ, a mtuhts, for a liturgical text was not restricted to the Easter Exultet and was certainly a
current practice before books, under the form of codices, became com
mon in the West.206 In ge ne ral, in the M id dle A ges , the text o f the E.v-
ultet, the de aco n 's chan t at the tim e the Ea ster cand le is lit during the
Kaster V igil, w as included in the sacram entary am on g the H oly Week
texts. In southern Italy, probably from the second half of the tenth
century on, the custom arose of making scrolls of the text of the K.rii/-
M with musical notation alternating with paintings illustrating the
m ain p assag es o f the tons cerei ("praise o f the ca n dle "! (sec p. 81).
D uring E aster night, the deacon, ho lding his liturgical rotttlus, as
cende d the am bo, san g o f the resurrection of Ch rist, sym bolized by
the lighted candle, and unro lled the scroll at the sam e time so that
the gathered faithful could see one by one the images illustrating thechant. The ExulM scroll— w ho se production w as concentrated in the
Benevenlo region in the eleventh and twelfth centuries—is the sole
representant o f its kind an d se em s to be a pe cu liar liturgical book. In
dee d, it w as clearly intended for the assem bly o f the faithful, wh o
sa w the pain tings right side u p a s it w as un rolled,*57 w he reas the text
w ith notes w a s w ritten in the other directio n so that the deacon
204. See Huglo, Livres de chunt, passim.205. See H ug lo, ibid., 63-64, and Liturgica Vaiicamt, 37-40.
21)6. See the exam ple« cited by R. E. Re yno lds, "Tin* Liturg y o f C lerical O rdina
tion in Early Medieval Art," Gtxtti 22 (1383) 27-38, especially p. 31. For instance,
Po pe Za ch arias (74 1-75 2) sent to St. Boniface (680-754) a scroll w ith the canon of
the Mass: wii* m/lctti luia demeitler incUnati. in rotulo dnto pra edido iu l rcligioso
preabitero luo. per h a t signa tmcUte crttas ijuanlc fieri deb&uil ittfiximits ("Kindly y ie ld ing to your desire, w e have m arked the sign o f the cross at the appropria te
places wh ere it m ust be m ade, m the the scroll given by the above-men tioned Lul,
your religio us p riest"! (.VJG'H, £/>., 3:372) . The fa m ous roltihis of Ravenna (Lugano,
A rch ivio dei Princip e Pin (no number) , from the seventh or eighth century, con
tains orations for A dv en t; see S. Benz, Der R&tutu* twi foKvrwuj. itach seiner Herkunft
unri seiner Jiedcutung fu r die Lilurgicgeschidtie kritisd i un tm ucht 1 QF 45 (1967) For
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m ight read it / 08 Th e tw ofold function of Ihis book is d ea r: liturgical
and catechetical since it wa s d irectly destined for a liturgical action in
w hic h the assem bly takes an all- im portant part. Pastoral concern and
liturgical decorum meet here to wo rthily celebrate the highest point
of the liturgical year, the resurrection of the Lord.
8 . ILLUSTRATION OF THE CHAX'T BOOKS
OF THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES1"“
In contradistinction to the sacramentary and evangeliary, the books
o f liturgical chant were nev er truly decorated w ith am ple icono-graph ic cycles h ighlighting through im ages the structure o f the litur
gical year. Th is is pro bably d ue to the seconda ry p lace they occu py in
the hierarchy of liturgical books. Tine sacramentary, containing the sa
cred prayers (especially the canon of the Mass), and the evangeliary,
l he ho ly book pa r excellence from w hich the w ord of G od is pro
claim ed, occupy the first tw o places in the ecclesiological system of
liturgical books in the I ligh M iddle A ge s. In view o f their em inent positions, the sacramentary—placed on the altar and used by the priest
for the Eucharistic Prayer—and the evangeliary—processionally car
ried for the readin gs— are essential elements o f the liturgical decorum
of the eucharistic celebration. This is w h y Iheir material aspect (callig
raphy, bind ing, m od e o f illustration, all unsystemati/.ed) w ere treated
with specia l care. B y contrast, the chanl m anuscripts, begin nin g with
the M ass antiphonal, are practical books, p layin g on ly a secon dary
role on the liturgical stage. T he gen era l aspect, an d in particular the
ornamentation of these books, reflect their lower status. Among the
m any precious bind ings described an d a na lyzed by F. Steenbock, only
six belo ng to chant bo ok s210 and in m ost cases w ere n ot or igin ally in
tended for these but are bind ings o f antique ivo ries reused as covers.
For exam ple, the Troper of Au tun (Paris. BibL de 1'Arsenal, ms. 1169;beginn ing of eleventh century) inherited as its co ve r an iv or y o f the
fifth century representing an a llego ry of secular m usic;2“ the Cantato-
riwit of M onza (Mon za, Tesoro della basilica S. G iova nn i, cod . CIX;
208. In lact, the deacon knew bv heart this chanl. sung but once a vear, andprobably had no need for his scroll Hero again we see the fundamental role
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eighth-ninth cen turies) is protected by two con sular dip tychs dating
from the b eginn ing o f the sixth century.*** Thus, the app eara nc e o f
the cantatoriuin fully correspon ds to the description sup plied by Ordo
ronuinus I from the eighth century, confirm ed by A m alariu s’ comm entem pliasteing its honorific function (sec p. 74). A few rare mentions
(such as antiphonamim / cum tabulis tburneis ("one antiphonal with
ivory covers"]) found in the inventories of church treasuries confirm
the witness of the manuscripts.25' Other ivories, today separated
from their m anuscripts, m ay ha ve served as co vers for chant books.
T his is the probab le hypoth esis that one can form ulate for the tw o fa-
m ous pieces from Frankfurt am M ain (Liebighau s, cod. Barth. 181)
and C am bridg e (Kitzwilliam M useum ) dated to the second h alf of the
ninth century; both are oblong in shape and represent clerics, espe
cially cantors, engaged in a liturgical celebration.*’4 Overall in the
M iddle A ges, one encounters in various m anu scripts or on the
ivo ries o f b indings215 scenes o f liturgical singing, but in these scenes,
the book s used by sing ers are not ne cessarily clearly show n. By in vokin g the new practice in tine d om ain o f liturgic al chant w hich came
abou t in the second ha lf o f the M iddle A ge s and the use of a lectern
for the large cho ir bo oks, T. Elich has given a con vinc ing exp lanation
of the appearance in breviaries and psalters of the thirteenth century
of the representation of cantors at the lectern.•*l6
W hen one exam ines the contents of the chant books, one sees that
althoug h the am ple iconograp hic cycles arc lacking (with few exce ptions), a large num ber of m anu scripts w ere decorated w ith m any
212. See ibid., no. 7 and fig 9.213. A first sampling of the inventories of church treasuries was made possible
by the Uischoff, Scholzvcm'icltnisac, which offers only a partial overview, nonetheless significant, of the conditions in the West. A similar but exhaustive work oughtto be undertaken on the subject of library catalogues and treasury inventories of
countries other than Germany.214. On the meaning of these ivory plaques anti tlu* hypothesis identifying the
central figure of the liturgical scenes on the plaques as St. Gregory, see Knop,"T.itugiker als Liturge."
215. A s on one of the small plaques on the back cover of the Drogon Sacramen-tary (Paris, B. N., lat. 9428, mid-ninth century), showing a Communion scene. Tothe left, the members of the stftola ore singing with hands open and extended, and
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ornam ented initials, from the sim ple colored letter to the richest co m
positions intermingling zoomorphic and vegetable motifs. In a fair
nu m ber of m anu scripts, the painted initials lack artistry; but there are
exceptional w orks such as the A ntiphon al of Co m ptegn e (Paris, B. N.,lat. 17436; see pp. 7 2-7 3). Th e official character of this m anuscript ex
plains the care lavished on its ca lligra ph y and ornamentation. The
latter exhibits initials w ith foliated b an ds o f color and go ld, as w ell as
frontispieces written in go ld letters on a pu rp le bac kground fo r the ti
tles of tht* two pa rts of the m anu script.*1" Througho ut the M iddle
A ges, the richness and sum ptuousness o f the in it ia l letters increase .
A s ¿1 conclu sio n to this section, let u s tarry on som e chant m anu
scripts decorated in an excep tional m anner. T he illustration o f the Ex-
uitet scrolls of southern Italy d urin g the eleventh and twelfth
centuries rank am on g the most beautiful creations of m edieval illu
m ination.2,8 Intended for the assem bly o f the faithful gathered on
Easter night (see p. 78), the illustrations, literal in character, are in
serted betw een the passa ge s o f the text. A t the beginn ing o f thescroll, the deacon is represented a t the am bo, with the Raster candle
in on e hand an d the scroll in the other; he is facing the assem bly,
each m em ber of w hich is holding a lighted can dle. Th is scene is fol
low ed by a variable nu m ber of others entirely focused on the glory of
Christ (Majcslas Domini, an gelic choir adoring the Lord). Occasion
ally, this cyc le is interrupted by liturgical scenes (blessing o f the ba p
tismal font because baptism follow s the lighting of the candle du ringthe Easier Vigil) or anecdotal scenes (beekeeping because of the
pra ise o f bees in the text o f the Exultct).
O nly fo ur tropers, out of all the m anu scripts that hav e been pre
serv ed ,2’9 present iconog rap hic cycles m ostly borrow ed from other
217. See F. Mulhcrich and VV. Koehler. Karol in^ische .VIinialitren. vol. 5 (Berlin, 1(182)
1 2 7 - 1 3 1 .218. G. Cavalloand C Bertelli, Rotolidi "F.xidte! " del!'Italia meridionale (ftsri, 1973).219. Paris, B. N., lat. 9448 (Prum, c.990-995): J. Marquardt-Cherry, Illustration of
Troper Texts. The Pititiled Miniatures in the Prion Troper-Cradual (Los Angeles, 1986);"Ascension Sundays in Tropers: The Innovative Scenes in the Priim and Canterbury Tropers and Their Relationship to the Accom panying Texts-/' Essays: in Medinwl Studies. Proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association 6 (1989) 68-78; and "Otto
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l iturgical m anu scripts like the sacram entary and the evan geliary. C er
tain subjects, esp ec ially the hag iograp hic ones, are not necessarily
found in other typ es o f books; in this case, the im ages are directly in
spired by the text of the tropes. Hxcept for that of Prum (Paris, B. N.,
lat. 9448), the illustrated tropers were written for cathedral use or else
adap ted for it. The liturgical p urp ose o f these man uscripts, meant for
episcopal celebrations, certainly explains the high quality of their
execution.
Lastly, let us mention the sup erb figures person ifying the eight
tones of Gre go rian chant; their linear and ve ry colorful style is typical
of southw estern Fran ce in the tenth and eleventh centuries.“ 0 Th ey w ere placed in the part o f Paris , B. N ., lat. 1 13 8 (fols . 10 4 - 114 ) ,221
w hich deals w ith tones and represent m usic ians and jugglers carry
ing va riou s m usical instruments.3“
for the publication of the thesis 0/ E. Tevioldale, The Gufim Trofwr, University of North Carolina al Chapel Hill, 1990). Paris Bib!, tk* I'Arsenal, ms. u (>9 (Aulun,1105/1006-1024): Palazzo, "Confrontation du repertoire."
220 This style is characteristic of the decoration o f another troper originating in
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HI. The Books of Readings
i . H I S T O R Y O F T H E L I T U K C i C A L R E A D I N G S F O R 1HI: MASS
A m ong the three essentia l actions o f the liturgy, prayer, chant, andreading , this last occup ies a p redom inant p lace becau se of its w ell-es
tablished role in the cultic practices of the early C hristians. The re ad
ing o f the Scripture go es back to the ve ry beginn ing o f Christian
w orship, thus settin g the Liturgy o f the Word at the heart o f the w hole
actio liturgica ("liturgical action"].“ 3 From the earliest time of Ch ris
tianity, the Bible was read during the different assemblies of the faith
ful. The p rinciple then w as to read the sacred text in its entirety (lectio
continua) so that the whole of Scripture could be food for meditation.
However, according to general opinion, texts (or biblical passages)
w ere chosen rather early (as early as the second century?) to be read
durin g the eucha ristic celeb ration224 o f a specific feast beca use they
w ere particularly fitting. The yearly recurrence o f the im portant
even ts of Christian h istory rap idly led to a choice of readings w hosethem es correspo nd ed to the m eaning o f the feasts o r the liturgical
time (prin cipally Easter, Asce nsion , Pentecost, Ch ristm as). It quick ly
became customary to read a given pericope225 on a precise day, but
prior to the fifth and sixth centuries, there were no strict rules in this
area. Dominated by liturgical improvisation,226 the first centuries left
223. This is not the place to discuss the complex origins of the l.iturgv of the Word in the West and the Host; sec the well-docunu»nh»d survey of Vogel, Introduction, 291-304 (with bibliography); CP, 2:59-68; A.-G. Martimorl, lectures liturgiques e.t leurs tivn% Typologie des sources du Moven Ago occidental, fasc. 64(Turnhout, 1992) 15-20.
224. The same is true of the Liturgy ol the Hours, although to a lesser degree;see Part 3 in this book and Taft Utur%y of the Hours: Martimorl Lectures liturgiquev
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a great deal of freedom to ihc bisho p (or the leade r of the comm unity)
as to the choice of M ass readings.
Although the passage from G reek to Latin occurred progressively
d u rin g the first four C hristian centuries, most authorities select them iddle o f the third cen tury as the time wh en Latin b egan lo replace
Greek in the liturgy. This was the period during which people began
to com pose liturgical p iec esin Latin and m ade translations of the
G ree k versions of the Bible.227 In v iew o f this, it is be lieved that the
read ings w ere translated earlier than other liturgical texts.
N o do cum ent before the sixth centu ry attesting to the existence of
a system of readings has reached us. But there is no doubt that such a
system existed o w ing to the influence of the Jew ish custom of read
ing the Law and the Prophets in the synagogues.228 The testimony of
authors like Tertullian (0.160-0.225), Ambrose of Milan (374-397), and
A ugustine o f H ip po (396-430) support th is hypothesis .229 The old est
attestation to the existence o f a boo k of read ings is found in Genna-
d ius (fl. 470), acco rding to wh ich M usa eus o f M arse illes (d. c.460)com posed , at the request o f his bishop Ven erius (d. 452), ex sanclis
scriptitris krtiones totius antii fes tis nptas diebus; respot ¡soria ctiam psithno-
rum capitula lemporibus el leclionibus congruenthi ["(a bo ok containing)
the read ings from sacred Scripture approp riate to the feast d ay s for
the w ho le year, and also rcspon sories and even lists o f psalm s app ro
priate to (liturgical) times and (the contents of) the readings").230 In
addition, several documents, that is, the writings of St. Cyprian (d.258) and the Apostolic Tradition (composed about 215), mention a
catego ry o f clerics en tnisted w ith the readings du ring the assemb lies
and therefore attest to the existenc e of liturgical re adings.251 For the
ecdesiology of the liturgy, the emergence of the function of reader is
important because for the duration o f the H igh M iddle Ag es, two
types o f readers w ill ha ve their respective bo oks for their part in the
227. See Vogel, Introduction, 293-297; there is a good treatment of all the questions connected with Latin as a liturgical language in C. Mohnnann and B. Botte,"\ e latin iituigique," Vordimirede to w & c. Etudes liturgiqucs 2 (Louvain. 1953)29-48,
228. See Vogel, Introduction, 37^-379.229. See the texts quoted by Vogel, ibid.. 301-302.
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celebration o f the M oss, the deacon an d the sub dca con (see III, 6 -7 , of
this pari). The tw o oldest "lection aries" that hav e been preserve d are
the man uscripts at W olfenbiittel (H erz og -A ug ust Bibl., cod. Weiss. 76;
beginning of sixth century, Gaul) and at Fulda (Mess. Landesbibl.cod. Bon if. 1; about 645, C ap ua ).*'2
A s to the num ber o f readings at M ass, it is necessary to distinguish
the Roman rite from the other Latin rites of the West.253 The usage
common to the Gallican, Milanese, Visigothic, and other rites was to
ha ve three rea din gs in the course o f the eucharistie celebration (Old
Testament, epistle, and gospel), with perieopes which varied from
rite to rite. In contrast, the Roman rite had only two readings (theepistle and gospel).254 From the seventh and eighth centuries on, the
custom o f having two readings w as w idely adopted in Gau l when
the Rom an rite ma de its w a y beyond the Alps.
Since the important surge in learning in the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries, liturgists have sh ow n interest in the liturgical read
ings and their organ ization into lists and system s. Before the second
h alf o f the nineteenth century, great scholars like P am elius, Tom asi,
M artène published lists o f perieopes rather than occ up ying them
selv es w ith their or igins an d h istory.235 The w orks o f E. R anke236 and
S. BeisseP3" in the nineteenth century and then of W. H. Frere,238 T.
Klaus er,239 an d A . C hacasse240 in the twen tieth have m ade possible
232. See Vogel, introduction, 320-321 «mil 335-336.233. See A.-G. Martimort, "A propos (hi nombre* des lecture ¿1 la messe," Revue
des Sciences religieuses 58 (1984), Hommage à M. le Pr Chavasse, 42-51; Martimort,Lectures liturgiques. 6-18. Without taking into account the "reading" of the psalms,under the form of verses attached to the gradual and alleluia, see Martimort, "Fonction de la psalmodie dans la liturgie de la Parole/' Liturgie und Diehtung: F.i/t inter- disziphmres Kompendium, vol. 2 (St. Ottilien, 1983) 837-856,
234. See A. Chavasse, “ Le calendrier dominical romain au VI1’ siècle," Recherches
ties Sciences religieuses 41 (1953) 96-122.235. For a historiography of these studies», sw* Klauser, Qipititlarc evattgcliorum. XXU-XXVI.
236. E. Kamke, üns Kirchliche Pericopensijstem aus den iiltesten Urkutulen dcr romis- then Liturgie {Berlin, 1847).
237. S. Beissel, Enhtehimg der Perikop'n des riimisclti'ti Messbuehes (Preifourg-im-Ureisgau, 1907).
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the reconstitution o f the history of the different syste m s of read ings
and the ascertainm ent of their "a rch ety pe s."241
2 . T H E L I S T S O F P E R I C O P F - S B F.FO RH T H E B O O K S O F
R E A D I N G S
The liturgical ye ar w as gra du ally established in the course o f the
first centuries o f Christianity an d had becom e ve ry stable2*3 by the
seve nth century. Th is evolution fostered, in Rom e especially, the d e
velo pm ent o f system s o f M ass readings which becam e fixed at the
sam e time, as dem onstrated by the lists o f pericopes in m edieval
manuscripts/'’5 For the preceding period, liturgisls avail themselves
first of all o f the references to book s and of the lists o f readings, v er y
brief references which yield only scant information on the contents of
the readings. Although indirect, other testimonies furnish more de
tails and certain o f them a llow us to determ ine the contents o f a list
and to deduce w hat the system o f readings w as. This has been m as
terfully dem onstrated by C h av asse in his research on the city o f Rome, whence, once more, comes the most weighty documenta
t io n .C h a v a s s e 1’s conclusions are as fol low s: under different forms,
the lists o f M ass re ad ings existed before the app eara nc e of the first
sacramen taries even though no docum ent before the end o f the sixth
century p ro ve s this. By goin g back in time from the first attestations
in the seventh century, it is possible to picture what the lists of the
fifth an d sixth centuries w ere like. For exam ple, the hom ilies in evan- gelin ("on the gospel"! which Gregory the Great delivered in the
years 590-592 and published in 593, are the first writte n testimonies
of a list o f readings organ ized acco rding to a sys tem .245 Eve ry ho m ily
is preceded by a pe ricope w hich is then comm ented upon , and the
241. Hen», the notion of archetype is not identical with fhe notion of liturgical
book in the strict sense, iho sacramentary for instance. What is sought is the recovery o f the lists of pericopt's as they were composed and circulated; see Marti-mort. Lectures liturgiques, first part.
¿42. See T. J. Talley, The Origins of the Liturgical Year (New York, 1986).243. See Vogel, Introduction, 304-1114.244. Chavasse, "Fvangéliaire," 177-179. For the documentation concerning the
Gallican iberian Ambrosian and other rites see Martimort lectures liturgiques
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list pertains to the cvcle of readings in use at that time in the church
o f Rom e. Despite the pa rticular historical circum stances at the time
this Iisti4° originated, we have here an intermediary link between the
ancient lists, before Gregory, and the extensive revision undertakenin the seventh century.247 Th e con tinuity or, on the contrary, the d i
vergences observed b y C havasse between th is list and th ose of the
seventh century supp ort the idea that a pro gressive rearrangem ent of
the readings took place; from time to time, attempts at a more thor
ough reorganization had consequ ences of greater import for the es
tablishm ent of a true system than m ere rearrangem ents. Th e m arks of
the antiquity o f G reg or y's list are seen in the structure of Ad ven t(with six Sund ays) an d Kastertide, and also in the length o f certain
pericopes. Other features ap pe ar alread y as elem ents w hich w ill re
m ain stable throughout the w hole M iddle Ag es and even beyond:
nineteen pericopes out of the total are already those which will re
main assigned to certain feasts of the Temporal and Sanetoral.
In another sort of docum ent, historians d erive precious inform a
tion from the detailed lists of the liturgical objects and books given asend ow m ents to churches n ew ly found ed. For instance, in a chart of
471, relating to the foundation of a rural church in the vicinity of
Tivoli, liturgical book s are m entioned a fter objects such as chalices
and patens.248 In this list, one encounters biblical books (Gospels,
epistles, Psalter) accom pan ied by a comes. A s w ill be seen shortly, in
the High M iddle A ge s, this term often designated a list o f readings of
variable length that c ould serve fo r a good portion o f the liturgical
year. Such m entions are rare in the first Christian centurie s but are
significant clues suggesting that quite early there was a distribution
of pericopes over the liturgical year.
3 . T H E E A R L Y F O R M S O F T H E B O O K S O F K U A U I N G S
A s early as the fifth and six th centuries, the princip al fo rm s o f thebooks of readings m ade their appearance; w e must therefore abandon
the idea that they would have succeeded one another in a progressive
manner. Before the ninth century, the most common usage was to
246. Chavasse , "n va n ^lia ire ." 17g, thinks that the forty homilies commentedb h h l f h i b f hi i
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w r ite m a rg in a l n otes in the b o o k s o f G o s p e l s a n d e v e n the w h o le
Bib le .24̂ T h eo do r K iau ser ha s rec o rd ed /50 f rom am on g the extant
m an u s cr ip t s an te dat i n g the ye ar Koo/2̂ tw e n ty- fi v e s am pl e s w ith
m arg ina l n o tat io n s/52 fourteen l is t s o f p er ico p es /5* three evnn-
gel iar ies ,254 and two sacramentaries with pericopes .255 These nota
t ion s w e re v ar i o u s s ig n s ( for i n s tan ce , c ros s e s p lace d in the m arg in
ju st b e fo re th e p e r ico p c ) in o rd e r to a ss is t the re a d e r in lo ca tin g the
g o s p e l p a s s a g e p r o p e r to a g i v e n fe a st . N o p a r t ic u l a r s ig n m a r k e d th e
e n d o f the pas s ag e . A s e a r l y a s the n i n th ce n tury , the g re a t s ucce s s o f
the l is ts o f p er icop es (capilulare) an d the e v a n g e l ia r i e s d i d n ot e n ta il
th e ra d i c a l d i s a p p e a r a n c e o f th e m a r g in a l n o te s, w h i c h w o u l d c o n
t inue to be used on occas ion in Bibles unti l the fourteenth century.256
It w as a l so in the e ighth century , and esp ec ia l ly in the n inth , that a
m u l ti tu d e o f g r a p h i c s i g n s ( sim ila r to p u n c tu a t io n ) a r o s e a n d d e v e l
op ed in order to fac i li ta te the read ing , in pa rt icular d u r in g the l iturg y ;
the se s ig n s con t in u e d the a tte m pts o f S t . J e rom e , am on g othe rs , in
that do m ain . 257 In the sam e sp i r it as I s idore o f Se v i l le , A lcu in g av eh i s re a d e r s a d v i c e o n th e p r o p e r w a y o f re a d i n g a t ex t, b y t a k in g in to
249. See Martimort, l.i'cturc* liturgiques 22-26; Kiauser, Capituiare cvangeliorum;
also, for an overall view of the graphic systems invented for the use of the gospelbooks in the .Middle Ages, see j. W zin, "I.e$ div isions du texte dans les Hvangiles
¡usqu'<i l'apparition de I'imprimerie," Gnifta c iwfwpiiMiHOMt’ del latino w l Medioe w .International Seminar, Rome, 27-29 September 1984 (Romo, 1988) 53-68.
250. Kiauser, Capitular? mongeliorum, XXX-XXXV.25 1. ()n the corpus of the oldest sources dealing w ith the books of readings,
without any distinction among rites, see Kiauser, Capituiare evangeUorim. XXX- XXXV; Camber, C i l A , vol. i, nos. 240-247, 360-376,401- 407, 540-549. On the nu
merous manuscripts attesting to the Gallican rite— in fact the lectionaries of theMerovingian period (like the famous l.uxeuil Lectionary, Paris, B. N., lat. 9427;
see P. Salmon. Le lectionnaire de Luxeuil, Collectanea biblica latina 9 {Rome, 1953)—sec the summary in the article by Salmon, "L e texte hiblique des lectionnaires
mirovingiens," La Bibiia nrH'ulto Medicevo, 26 npriic-2 7992, Settimane distudio del C'cntro italiano di studi sull'aito Mcdioevo 10 (Spoleto, 1963) 49» -517.
252. The distribution o f these twenty-five manuscripts by centuries is the fol
lowing: sixth: 2; seventh: 11; eighth: 10; about the year 800: 2.253. With the following distribution: sixth: 2; seventh: 3 ; eighth: 5; about the
year Six): 4.254 One manuscript from the seventh century and two from the eighth
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account the oratorical punctuation and the div isions of the text ac
cording to the meaning: Quisquc legat hitjus sacra to in corpora libri lector
in ecclesin verba superua Dei, distinguens census, lilulos, coin, comwata
voce dicat, ut uccentus ore sonare aciat. Auribus ecciesuie reaonet vox vinuSa longe, omnia ut auditor laudet nb ore Deum ("Let any reader who reads
the exalted words o f God from the sacred b ody o f the book make
clear distinctions between meanings, titles, periods, and com m as so
lhat he may enunciate the accents with his mouth. May his pleasant
voic e carry far, so that everyone may hear and praise C od through
the read er 's m ou th ")/ 58 These words o f advice from the Carolingian
master bore fruit because the graphic and material presentation of the manuscripts improved in order to facilitate reading and compre
hension. One proof o f this is the preface o f Paris, B. N., lat. 9452 (fol.
126-126V, ninth century, St. Am and), w hich contains the lectionary
com piled by Alcuin himself (see pp. 9 8 -9 9 ).^
T H E L I S T S O F P I.-K IC O P ES O R C A P I T U L A R I E SFirst of all, it is necessary to distinguish three types of lists of peri-
cop es or capitularies: the lists of epistles (entitled capilula lectionum,
either with readings from the Old Testament or without these), the
origin o f the epistolary; the lists of gospel readings (capitularia evange-
lioritm), the origin o f the evangeliary ; and the lists uniting the two,
the origin o f the lectionary. In all three cases, the entries indicate for
each feast the day and the month; the liturgical day w ith, eventually,the Roman station (that is, the Roman stational church); the biblical
book with, for the Gospels, the number of the Eusebian section;260 tine
incipit and the explicit ("here ends"] of the pericope joined by usque
the.se questions, see M. Banniard, Viva tnki': Communication ecriteet coittnmrtication
tmtk’ du IV ' rti/ IX ' i’mOccident h i in (Paris, 1992).
2^8. Cetrm. 69, lines 18 5- 188 , MGH, Po., vol. 1: Aevi Kitrolint, 292; he gives similaradvice to scribes; see Carnt. 94, lines 1-2, MGH, Po.. vol. 1; (this is. quoted by
Gilles, "Ponctuatmn dans m anuscrits," 1 21 ).
259. Camber, CU.A. vol. 2, no. 1040.260. See Martimort, Lecluns liiurgujucs. zb(f. The division into pericope» of the
four Gospels in use during the I ligh M iddle Ag es w as the one established by Eu
sebius of Caesarea (260-340): 355 sections for Matthew, 233 for Mark, 342 for Luke,
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("up to"]. For example, on the feast of the Nativity, one reads: hi na
tale Domini ail sanctum Mariam maiorem. $cd. {secumlunij Luc. cap. fli.
Exiit edictum a Caesare Augualo usq. lusque} pax hominibus bonne volun
tatis ["On the Nativity of the Lord at St. Mary Major, according toLuke 2 :1-14. those d ay s a decree went out from Ca esar Au gu stus'
up to 'peace amo ng those wh om he fav ors '"). An other exam ple, the
feast of St. Stephen: ht natale sci Slepftani. Scd. Matth. cap. C C X L Dica
bal fesus lurbis ludaeorutn usq. benedictus qui veuit in nomine Domini
["On the day of the birth into heaven of St. Stephen, according to
M att 23:34-39. 'Jesu s said to the cro w ds of the Je w s' up to 'Blessed is
the one w ho com es in the nam e o f the Lo rd "'|.
The generic term capitulare ap pe ars in the eighth century in certain
ordines romani: legitur lectio una sicut in capitulare commémorai ["one
reading is read a s is indicated in the cap itulary"| (Ordo romamts XXIV,
onto of the offices from A sh W ednesda y to H oly Sa turd ay);261 o r else,
Et imle legantitr lectiones duae qua* in capiltilare commémorai [ "A nd at
this point two readings are read as is indicated in the capitulary"|(Ordo romamts XV, capitulare ecclesiaslici ordini$).ibz Th is lerm p erhaps
designates, as early as the fifth century, any type of list of pericopes
intended for the liturgical read ings. Th e term comes (or liber comil is) is
used with a meaning equivalent to that of capitulare but is n ever ap
plied to a list o f go spe l pe ricopes. Th us cowcs som etimes rep laces the
term capitulare lectionum and, in certain cases, can designate the lec-
tionarv (epistles and gospels) (sec 111, 7, of this part).O ne can und erstand the h istory of the cap itularies on ly by clearly
distingu ishing the texts on the one hand and the m anu scripts w hich
are their material veh icle on the other. For m ost of the cases w e shall
examine, w e p ossess only "late " m anuscripts in com parison w ith the
da te of the com position o f their contents. We have a lrea d y seen the
sam e problem in the history of the sacramen tary and antiphonal. For
the book s o f reading s, the problem is ag gra va ted by the fact that neither the evan ge liary nor epistolary w ere ev er preceded, an d therefore
prepared, by libelli, indep end ent at first, then gathe red into collec
tions, a sort of rudim entary book. This difference is explained by the
simple fact that for the books of readings, the texts used already ex
isted since they w ere biblical texts wh ereas fo r the sacram entaries
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the different feasts of the liturgical year. Reasons both practical and
ccclesiologic.il led to the com position of b ooks o f read ings, com piled
from marginal notes in Bibles and from capitular lists which some
how played for the eva n ge liary the sam e role as the libelli for thesacramentarv and the chant books.
A n additio nal piece o f in form atio n w ill help to understand the his
tory o f the evangeliary , the epistolary, and the lectionary. A s the wo rks
of Klauser263 and Chavasse26* have shown well, the gradual organi
zation o f liturgical time, in particular of the Tem poral, and to a lesser
de gree that of the local setting when* the liturgy w a s enacted (espe
cially in Rome) have in a large measure determined the history and
the w riting do w n o f the lists of read ings (the* atpitularia), which are
tine ancestors of the evangeliary, the epistolary, and the lectionary.265
From the viewp oint o f both time and space, w e find once m ore the
Rom an liturgy to be the point of dep arture for the history of the
books used lor Christian worship in the West.
Th us, in a general m anner, the choice of read ings and the orga niza tion o f the calend ar a re most often the best clues to the identity o f a
list of readings. Moreover, let us add that in the High Middle Ages,
since each church h ad its ow n Sanctoral and M asses for various cir
cum stances, the stu d y o f these two gr ou ps o f celebrations allow s us
lo discern the in dividu ality o f a give n ch urch 's system o f readings; in
most cases, at least in Gaul in the eighth century, churches had adapted
one o f the Rom an sy stem s o f the sixth and seventh ce ntu ries.266
5 - T H E B O O K O F G O S P E L S W I T H T H E C / I P / T U L A K H
E V A N G E U O R U M ; T H E E V A N G E L IA R Y 3*7
The capitninre a m igeiiorm n ascribes one pericope excerpted from
one of the Gospels to most days of the liturgical year. In general, these
lists are w ritten at the beg inning or, more often, at the en d o f the
manuscripts containing the complete text of the four Gospels. Thuseq uipp ed, the boo k of G osp els could be used directly at the euch aris
tie liturgy for the proclam ation o f the w ord o f G od by the deacon, for
263. Klnuspr, Capitularr etwngeliorum.
264. Among Chavosse's many contributions lo the history of the books of read
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w hom this reading w as reserved. The evan geliary w as the result of
the transformation o f the capitulare evangelionon—up to then added to
the boo k of G os p els— into a book. Its structure follo w ed that o f the
capitulary, and this time the complété pcricope.s were written. Thesecharacteristics m ade the ev an ge liary an exc lusive ly liturgical book in
which the thread o f the narrative w a s broken, w hereas the books of
G ospe ls, even w ith the addition o f the capitulare or marginal nota
tions, w ere not pu rely liturgical because the stories o f Matthew,
M ark, Luke, and John w ere not used in their entirety for divine w or
ship. Two principal reasons explain this pro gressive p assag e from
book of Go spels with capitulare to evan geliary. First, an ob viou s prac
tical consideration led the scribes to facilitate the reader's task: it is
m uch sim pler to follow the liturgical yea r by turning pag es on w hich
the pericop es succeed o ne another in ord er than to manipulate, even
w ith a certain dexterity, a book o f G osp els for w hic h the contin ual
con sulting o f the capitulare is necessary to find the appropriate peri-
cop e.2*8 Secon d, the ecc lesiology of the liturgy w a s d eterm inative: ittended more and more to attribute a specific book to each person
having an official role in the celebration of the Mass.209
K lause r's census, although not exhau stive, is representative and al
lowed him to establish a typological classification of the books of
readings. On this basis, one can m ake a fruitful com parison, through
out the Middle Age s, between the books o f G ospels w ith capitulare
evan$eliorum on the one hand and the evan gcliaries and lectionaricson the other:
Books of G ospe ls Eva nge liarics and
w ith capitulare lectionarics
8th cen tury 2 1
9th cen tury 140 14
26ft. Martimort, ibid., 28, has a theory to explain the high number of gospelbooks with capitulare ewngelioruin in comparison lo the number of evangeliariesduring the Middle Ages: in fact, one >hould specify the High Middle Ages be*emii-e the reverence shown to ihe Gospel in the célébration led people to prefer abook containing the complete < lospels lo one comprising only the pericojws readat Mas*. Martimorl's argument does not appear to me solidly supported for an
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Books of G osp els Ev ang eliaries and
w ith capitulare lectionaries
(cont'd) (cant'd)
iolh century 96 >0
11t h century toi 72
12th century 63 91
13th century 13 65
14th century 6 45
15th century 8 53
Th ese figu res clearly reveal the predom inance of the book s of
G ospels with capitularc during the High Middle Ages. Then in the
twelfth century, one notes the reversa l o f the tenden cy: the first book
becom es less frequent. Furthermore, the second becom es rare r from
the thirteenth cen tury on b ecause o f the rap id ascent o f the missal,
w hich com bin es all the books necessary fo r the celebration o f the
Mass, up to then distinct.In several type s of m ediev al docum ents (library catalogu es, inve n
tories of church treasuries, mon astic custom arics, and so on), the
terms used to designate the book s o f readin gs do not va ry much as a
rule and do not seem to reflect either their typolog ical va rie ty or their
evolution through the centuries. The title does not have the same
sym bolic im portance as for the sacram en tary and the antiphon.il, for
w hic h the authority of th eir presum ed author (G regory the Great, forinstance) im pose d their contents in the w ho le, or alm ost w ho le, West.
Beca use biblical texts do not need an y literary or religious authority,
the evangeliary never bore any official title, and the formula indpit
capitular? evangeliorum*70 at the beg inning of the cap itularies is strictly
practical in character. Besides, until very late in the Middle Ages, the
expression liber cvan%eliorum can designate any book used for read
ings, whatever its kind. In spite of this lack of lexical accuracy, one encounters with the passage of time, especially from the eleventh century
on, such terms as evaitgefiunt, lectiomirium, epistolarium, emngcliorum,
w hose exact m eaning often rem ains rather blurred because the sort of
270. Occasionally, one encounters the following terms, much r.iror than capitu-
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docu m ents in wh ich these terms ap pe ar (library catalogu es, inven to
ries of church treasuries, customaries, and ordinaries) does not favor
the typological accuracy that historians w ou ld w ish to find. U nfortu
nately for them, literary texts do not shed more light on this field.H ow ever, it seem s that in the second half of the M iddle A ge s, the di
versif ication of the books o f readings is accom panied by a certain in
crease in the vo cab ula ry that designa tes them. Let u s no te that the
w ord evangehorum is very rare and is nol in use before the twelfth
century, w hich pro ves that the peop le o f the M iddle A ge s distin
guished b etween the liber evangel iomm cum capitularia and the eiwt-
geliarium, the eva ngeliary .271 Th e bo oks o f read ings, e spec ially the
boo ks of G osp els richly adorned and decorated, are often described
by the expressions texlus aureus, liber aureus, or else comes (liber comi-
lis), deriving from comma, that is, "section o f a pe ricope " a nd not
"com pa nio n," a s has too often been b elieved.*7*
Content o f the Capitularies and EvangeliariesThanks to the work of Klauser,*7i which refined that, a trifle older,
of Frcre, the organization of the gospel pericopes used in Rome in the
seventh and eighth centuries and later in a large p art of the West
from the second half of eighth, is well known to liturgists. Klauscr
distinguishe s four great typ es of gospel books: (1) Ty pe P i (about 645
in Rome), representing the oldest system of readings; this type was
established on the basis of the capihdare transcribed in a m anu scriptgoin g back to about the yea r 700 (Wurzburg, Un iversitatsbibl., cod.
M.p.th.f. 62; fols. iov—i 6 v);a7* (2) Type Lambda (about 74o)J?* and (3)
Ty pe Sigm a (about 755),276 both Rom an in origin a n d later varieties of
271. Andrieu, Pontifical, 1 ¡255: Tunc tluicomm progrediens de allari, sacra wsie m-itusius prccedtmtibu* cereosiatis cum ceresh et mctnsti, fHtrtal canngelioriin» uS4}ui’ at1
atnbonem qui canstitutustxt in medio comvntus ["Then tlu* deacon, leaving the altar, wearing the sacred vestment, preceded by candle-bearers with candles and incense, carries the evange liary to the ambo which is placed in the middle of the assem bly"]. With the exception of a few studies, lexical research is lacking in thedom ain of liturgical books; the books of readings are a case in point.
272. See Vogel, Inlnxlurlion. 318 -3 19 and 392, for the different terms used in theMiddle Ages to designate the books of readings.
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the first type, they differ from Tvpe Pi in the Sanctoral and in the
Tem poral because o f the presence of pericopes for the T h ur sda ys in
Lent, introduced a t the time of G rego ry II (7 15 -7 3 1 Jr*77 {4) typ e Delta
(about 750), which is the Romano-Frankish adaptation of the 645list.3?* In this last case, as for the Frankish Eighth-Century Gelasian
Sacramentary, it w as n ecessary to adapt the Roman g ospe l readings
of the liturgical year to the needs of the Frankish churches.279 Com
pared to the three purely Roman types, the Sanctoral of Type Delta is
swollen by local Gallican feasts corresponding to the contents of the
Eighth-Ce ntury G elasian Sacramentary.
The origin a nd m anner of comp osition of Tv pe Pi from 645 are not yet entirely clear; its very com plex com position can on ly be the end
product of a protracted period during which liturgical time was being
constituted. E ach pericop e is indicated by the num ber it carries in the
F.usebian num eration, as w ell as by its incipit and exp licit, and pre
ceded by the da y o f the year. C ha vasse has shed light on several
points which explain the list of 6 ^ . 28t' Th is Roman281 "evan ge liarv"
proposes a classification of feasts and their gospel pericopes on the
basis of the liturgical year, com bining the Temp oral an d the Sanctoral.
The liturgical year, follow ing the Julian calendar, is the und isputed
temporal frame of reference for the system of readings. In this, there is
a striking correspondence between the organization o f the ev an geliary
o f 645 and that of the sac ram en tales, espe cially those of the G reg o
rian type. For these books, as in a lesser measure for the antiphonal,277. Sec Martimort, Livns titurgiques, 52-53 , on the oldest m anuscripts of these
two types.27$. Klauser, Capitulare nwigciiortfm. 1 ) 1 - 172 .27«». The oldest source of type delta is Besan^on, B. M., ms. 184 (end of eighth
century, in all likelihood composed in Murbach); the readings from the epistlesand the gospel pericopes are together (fols. 57-73), thus terming a regular little
lectionary (see pp. 99- 100}; on the manuscript and its publication, see Martimort,Led 11 res ¡¡¡urgiques. 32ft.; A. Wihnart, "Le comes de Murbach," Revue (vticdictine 300 9 »3) 25-69.
284). See especially Chavasse, "P lus anctens types"; "L 'évangcliatrc ronwin de645, un recueil: Sa composition (fa«;ons et materiaux)," Rente Ivnedtclinc 92 (1982)33-75; "Aménagements liturgiques"; “Aprés Grcgoire le Grand." I have nut hadthe opportunity to consult the two unpublished studies of Chavasse [since pub
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the intent of the Rom an liturgists w as on e of the m ain factors that
produced the system o f readings of Type Pi; this intent w as to struc
ture a liturgical year more and more filled with a formulary, chants,
and readings proper to each day. C ha vassc has also show n that w hereas the tem poral fram e w as all-im portant, the local setting o f the
celebration o f the feasts play ed no part in the establishm ent of this
list. The stational churches are mentioned, but these references do not
affect either the date or the succession of the form ularies. The sixty-
eight feasts of the Sanctoral of Type Pi would be incorporated into
Types Sigm a and La m bd a, with a few add ition s, and into the Ro-
mano-Frankish Type Delta, which also has the feasts of local saintsand end s up h av ing a Sanctoral identical w ith that o f the Eighth-C en
tury Gelasian Sacramentary. The Rom ano-Frankish "E va n ge liary" of
750, in add ition to the epistolary o f the sam e typ e (see pp. 97-98), w ill
be the auth oritative one in the majority of Western churches during
the w ho le o f the M iddle A ges, even though the Sanctoral presents
specific local variations. The character o f an ev an ge liary is determined
above all by its Sanctoral, which must be studied first in order to de
tect particularities p rop er to a sp ecific church, clas sify m anu scripts,
discern the influence o f one church upon another, and so o n /*2
On the codicological plane, the book s o f G osp els w ith capitular? and
the evangeliaries (see the comparative list, pp. 92-93) do not present
a typological variety as rich as other books, the sacramentaries for in
stance. A s a rule, they are comp lete copies, often decorated w ith particular care both on the ins ide and the bindin g be cause of their u se in
church worship and their place of destination (monastery, cathedral,
parish, an d so on)28- Festive sam ples are rare, for instance the libetlus
of Fulda (a quire of 10 folios) (Aschaffenburg, Hofbibl., ms. 2) from
the en d of the tenth cen tury w hich contains on ly a series of pericopes
for certain big feasts: Christmas, Circum cision, Ep iphany, Purification,
Easter V igil, Easter Sun day, an d s om e feasts of the local Sanctoral,
282. The study of the feasts of saints in the evangeliaries of the Middle Ages isstill a domain under-exploited by liturgists and historians. There exists, however,a number of editions of gospel lists or particular evangeliaries, chiefly from theCacolingian penod; see, tor instance. R. Amiel, "Un capitnhrc cimigeliorum car-
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like St. Martin. Its carefully executed decoration and its restricted
contents prove that this iihellus evangeliorum was reserved for festive
use ,2*4 w hich is an exception in the M idd le Ages. Th is small de gree of
typological variety noted for the books of readings in general is explained by the un iformity of customs, except for som e feasts of the
Sanctoral; thus, the bishop or the priest w ere sp ared the need o f se
curing a special copy when they traveled to celebrate the liturgy in a
different dioc esc or parish.
6. THE CAPITULARF. I .ECTIONUM A N D E P I S T O L A R Y
W heth er com bin ed w ith the pericopes from the Old Testament ornot, the lists of the ep istles ascribed to each da y of the liturgical ye ar
w ere fo rm ed roughly at the sam e tim e as the system s o f gospel read
ings. The capitula indicate here also the liturgical use o f the pericope s,
Ihc biblical book, the incipit and explicit. In the sam e w ay as the
gosp el capitularies, the lists of epistles w ere pro gressive ly m ade into
books, thus b ecom ing epistolaries prop erly so callcd. The eleventh
century a pp ears here also as the hing e28' betw een the two. Acco rdingto the w o rk o f the sp ec ialists/ 86 the Ro m an model o f the capitular? lec-
tionum, at the root of the epistolary when it was made into a book,
w ould have been organized at the end o f the six th century and, in its
m edieval form , w ou ld g o back to the seventh century, its ov erall plan
corresponds rather well to that of the ancient Cclasian Sacramentary,
although the Temporal and Sanctoral are combined. Its structure is as
follows: readings for the yearly liturgical cycle, readings for the cele
brations independent of the cycle, and lastly, without precise day, a
list of the forty-tw o readings from P au l's letters in their ord er in the
biblical text. Overall, its mode of composition is identical to that of
the evangeliary although its details are more difficult to make out.
284. Palazzo, ¿¡iUYrtWf/ito/res lit- Fulda.
285. Set’ the lists of manuscripts established by Klauser, Oipitulatv ttvattgvliorum. LXXl-XC. For the aipitularia ieclMuni 1. the distribution by century is the following:eighth: 1; ninth: 1; tenth: i; eleventh and twelfth: 1; thirteenth: 8}; fourteenth: 53:fifteenth: 40. For the epistolaries: ninth: 5; tenth: 6; eleventh: 10; twelfth: 26; thirteenth: 27; fourteenth: 20; fifteenth: 32. Concerning the oldest three immusrript-
f h li f i l F ld l d bibl d B ii ( iddl f h i h
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A gain the tem poral fram e of the liturgical year is preem in ent, with
Temporal and Sanctoral combined. As for the evangeliary, the system
of re adin gs in the epistolary w as established on the basis of distinct
chronological sequences (Lent, Faster, Advent, Christmas) adjusted toform a linear and coherent liturgical cycle.2*7 The only witness to the
Roman epistolary is the m anuscript o f W ü rtzb u rg,^ wh ose im por
tance for the evan ge liary w e hav e seen (see pp. 94-95).
Especially w hen it w as exported from Rom e to G au l, wh ere other
system s of read ings— represented in particular by the l.ectionary o f
Lu xeuil (Paris, B. N., lat. 9 4 2 7 )^ — w ere in use. the Rom an epistolar)'
w as subm itted to rem odeling and adaptations. A s in the sacram entary and evangeliary', the chan ges affected principa lly the Sanctoral in ord er
to bring it into accordance with the Eighth-Century Gelasian Sacra
mentar)7.21)0 Tine pr incip al m anusc ript w itnesses are the Epistolary o f
Corbie (St. Petersburg, PubJichnaya Bibl., cod. lat. Q.v.l, no. 16; about
770-780),391 in w hich the pericopes are giv en in full; the liber comitis of
the eighth or the ninth centuries from northern Italy (Paris, B. N., lat.
9451),292 where all the readings from the epistles are combined with
those from the G osp els, and som etime s with those from the Old Testa
ment (in fact this is a true lectionary, see p. ioo)r9> the comes of M ur-
ba ch 2<M(Besnn^on, B. M., ms. 184), from the en d of the eighth century,
in which the readings from the epistles are combined with those from
the G osp els (fols. 57-7 3). Por Rom ano-Prankish G au l, let us m ention
also the "A lcu in l.ectionary": in reality this is an epistolary containing242 rea dings from the O ld Testament, the epistles, an d the Acts o f the
287. Kor more details on the very complex mode of composition of the Romanepistolar)', see G. Morin, "l.c plus anden comes ou lectionnaire de I'liglise romaim*,"Revue Ivn&lictiiie 27 (1910) 41-74, and especially A. Chavasse, "L'^pistolier romaindu codex de Wiirt/bourg: Son organisation/' Rgvuc SnWdictine 62 (1981) 280-331.
288. Universitatsbibl., Cod. M.p.lh.l. 62, beginning of eighth century (fols.2v—1 0v). See Martimort, Lectures litur^iifuefi, 31-32.289. See Salmon, Uetionnaire de Luxeuil. The liturgiiw» of northern Italy, southern
Italy, and even those* of the Spanish churches also possessed a lectionary whichremained rather stable throughout the centuries despite the spreading of Roman
usages. See Martimort. Lectures liturgiquet, 47-51.290. For details of the rearrangements, see Chavasse, "lívangélia ire," 250-255.
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A postle s, arranged according to the litúrgica! year (Paris, B. N ., lat.
9452; third quarter of ninth century, written in St. Amand and coming
from Ch artres cathedral).*** Us orig inality is due to its sup plem ent of
sixty-five pericopes preceded by a p reface probably p enned by We-lisach ar (d. 836), the chan cellor of Lou is the Piou s (reigned 813-8 40 ),
and attributing this comes to Aleuin. Th is supp lem ent, perh ap s partly
the w ork of Alcuin (as is suggested by the add ition o f both the vigil
and least o f A ll Saints, as well as the vig il and feast o f St. M arlin) is
add ed to a local Rom an ep istolary com po sed about 670-680, w hose
contents are identical to those o f the Sacram entary o f Pa du a {Paduense.
about 660-670, see I of this part, the section on sacramentarles), but which has adapted the readings to the local G ali ic an feasts.
Besides the m anu scripts cited ab ove, there exists a large num ber of
other w itnesses from the ninth and tenth centuries, cither complete
or fragmentary, mere lists or epistolarios properly so called, about
which in fo rm ation w ill be fo und elsew here.“9* All are m ore or less
representative of the Roman ep istolary w ith som e variants and d o
not bring sup plem en tary elem ents to the unde rstanding of the history o f the ep istolary a s it has fust been d escribed.
7 . THK l .KCTlOXAKII iS
Before the lectionary properly so called t<x>k precedence over the
ev an ge liarv and ep istolary (chiefly from the eleventh and twelfth
centuries on), lists of read ings from both the ep istles and G os pe ls
w ere ad ded to Bib les or books o f G ospels . The tw o old est capitula ries
o f this type ho w ev er are sm all books inserted into artificial collec
tions of the late M iddle A ge s. First, w e ha ve the sixteen sheets (fols.
1- 16 ) of the codex kept in W ürzburg (Un iversitatsbibl., M .p.th.f. 62;
eighth cen tury),297 mentioned ab ove, w here e pistles and g osp els form
two distinct lists. In the second document (Besan^on, B. M., ms. 184;
fols. 5 7- 75 , end o f eighth or be ginn ing o f ninth century, M urbach),*9®the list of epistles and gosp els form a hom ogen eous w ho le for every
295. Ibid., >6; A. Wilnwt, "Le leetionnaire d'Alcuin," Ephemeruirs liturgiaw 51(1937)136-197.
296. St**? MiirHnmrt, /¿’¿(»tvs ¡iturgiques, 3.1-36, who points out exceptions, suchi l d l f h l h (S G ll S if bibl d
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d a y o f the year. The function, o f these sm all books is not ea sy to d e
lineate. Personally, I dou bt that they were m em ory aid s intended to
be consulted before the celebration in o rder to kno w the readings of
the day.2* 1 Rather, perh ap s these iibelti w ere a m eans fo r tine transm is
sion of the lists of pericopes, as was the case for other types of libclli.
Th e absence of com plete m anuscript w itnesses as important as the
two m anuscripts just cited do es not in any w a y m ean that leclionaries
containing all the M ass readings (Old Testament, A cts of the Ap ostles,
even Revelation, epistles, and Gospels) were not produced before the
end of the eighth century. Texts from the fifth and sixth cen turies (see
pp . 87-8 8) attest to the existence o f com plete lectionaries at that period. A fair num ber o f palimp sest fragments dating from between the
sixth an d eighth centuries corroborates textual atte statio ns.^ T he list
established by Klauser for the full lectionaries (Voll-U’ktiomr) shows a
concentration between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries of the
m anuscripts used in R om e or in Romano-Frankish churches, with the
following d istribution by century: eleventh—eighteen; twelfth— eigh
teen; thirteenth— fourteen; fourteenth— eighteen; fifteenth— twenty.*01The two oldest complete lectionaries are Paris, B. N., lat. 9451 (end of
eighth century, northern Italy,302 see above), and Chartres, B. M., ms. 24
(destroyed in 1944), copied in Tours in the first half of the ninth cen
t u r y .l , { » t us also add that in the medieval l ibrary catalogues and in
ventories o f church treasuries, the com plete lectionaries are often
listed in grea ter detail than other liturgical books, it is not rare to read
references like lectiomrium cum evangeliis, lectbnurium cum epistoine or
to see in the sam e catalogue o r inventor)' the ev an ge liary and episto
lary clearly distingu ished from the lectionary. M ed ieval librarians ob
v io usly knew the diffe rent types o f books o f readings and le ft us
precise indications on the contents of the lectionaries.*04
Let us end this section on the boo ks o f M ass read ings by spec ifying
that their typology extends much farther than the main configurations w e h ave exam ined here: it w ill be necessary to en gag e in more
detailed stud ies {m odes o f com position, history) wh ich at this point
299. Ibid., 31; this hypothesis does not rest on any historical foundation.
300. Ibid., 37-39, vvht’ic a non-exhaustive list is given.Kl C it l ' li ti CXtV
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are not available to historians of liturgical books. Among atypical
documents, let us mention the evangeliaries with collects, necessary
for the final part o f the third noc tum o f monastic vig ils (see Part 3, on
the Office). The read ings joined o r combined w ith a sacram entarv oran antiph ona l are part o f the first m issals in Ihc strict sen se and de
serv e, on that account, to be presented in the section dealin g with
them (IV of this part).
ft . ILLUSTRATION OF THE BOOKS OH KHADINGS
A m ong the m asterpieces o f m edieval il lum inatio n, the books for
the M ass readings, particularly the book of gospel readings, occupy an impo rtant place because o f both the decoration o f the inside o f
the book and the careful execution o f the bind ing. The privileged
status of sacred Scripture in the liturgy e xp lains in large pari w h y
these books were sum ptuou s in eve ry period, despite Jerom e's cau
tion agains t o ve rly luxu rious C hristian b ooks. Let u s recall that in
the M iddle A ges, the book o f G osp els w as carried in procession
through the church to the altar, then to the ambo, where Ihe deacon
read from it .* 5 Som etim es, m ediev al texts (library catalogue s, inven
tories o f church treasuries, custom aries, and s o on) w ere content
w ith sim p ly design ating the books o f readings by fiber fliovws, lexfiis
aureus a n ti tabufis ebun wa et getnw is, l ibr i HI auro t’l gemm is on u ili
["golden book ," "golde n text with ivo ry cov er and p recious stones,"
"three book s adorned w ith go ld and preciou s stones"],*06 term s emph asizing the lavishn ess of their inside ap pea rance (gold letters on a
pu rple backgroun d for instance) and their precious co w l's often
richly ornam ented w ith gem s, ivory, and gold. The greatest num ber
of the masterpieces of the m ediev al art of bin din g, at least d urin g
305. See the many references in the ortiim's nmumi, Andrieu, OR: and also in the
monastic customaries and, later on, flu1 ordinaries. See also Jungmann, MS, 2:216-219 . on symbolic meaning of those processions.
306. Hxamples of this are round in Ihe catalogue of the books o f the Abbey of St. Riquier (S51): lexltts evtm$elU IV awvis lillcris srripttis Solus I ["one copy of thetext of the four Cospels entirely written in gold letters"!, Beckcr, G uatogi, 28; alsothe list oi the books o f the Mainz cathedral (thirteenth century): mm.1 libri, <\tti pro omatu super altarc fwielwilttr, lit sunt cvangetiontm. tpisiolitre s w h'cHon/trii, benedic-
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the High M iddle A ges, w as done for the gospels and other books of
readings.*07 Ep iscopa l cap itularies o f the ninth century direct priests
to use liturgical books worthy of their function in worship services
for the greatest glory o f the word o f Go d.From antiquity on and du ring m ost of the M iddle A ge s, the Bible
w as the object o f a rich decoratio n and gave rise lo iconographie:
cycles of great amplitude.*08 From the end of antiquity, the icono
grap hie traditions of the B ible pro gressive ly m ade their w ay into the
different liturgical books. During the Carolingian period, the still un
stable structure of these bo oks is one o f the cau ses for the lack of
w ell-established iconographie cycles for each o f the books. O nly thesacramentary received at that time a new kind of illustration, differ
ent from that of the Bible (see 1 of this part, the section on saeramen-
taries). From the High Middle Ages until the twelfth century/ the
illustration o f the boo ks o f reading s w as influenced by the paleo-
Ch ristian traditions, with w hich a few nove l features were m ixed.
The books of Gosp els, with or without capitulure, then the evan-
geliaries are the two main books that were illustrated/09 the paintings
o f the form er sup p lyin g the latter w ith the major part of their icono
graph ie subjects. The C arolingian books of G ospe ls often h ave for
their sole decoration fo ur full-page paintings (portraits of the ev an ge
lists, each at the beginning of his Gospel) and arches above the tables
o f Ca no ns; more rarely, paintings inspired by paleo-Ch ristian subjects,
such a s the fountain o f life and Ihc adoration o f the L am b .'10 In theEvangeliary of Godescalc (781-783; Paris, B. Nr., new acq. lat. 1203),
307. The catalogue compiled by Steenbock, Kirchlichc Prachleinband, is quite re vealing in this rcspcct; on the liturgical and symbolic function o f the decorationon precious bindings, sec pp. 51-56.
}o8. Concerning the illustration of the Bible in tin* Middle Ages, sec Cahn, BiNr nmane.
30g. Seo the ground-breaking work of S. Ueissel, Ceschichte dir F.iHmgeiienbiicher in dcr rrsMr HtUfe des MUlelnitcrs (Freiburg-im-Breisgau. 190*6). For a recent update, see E. Palazzo, "L'illustration de l'évangéliaire au haut Moyen Age," La Mai- <on-üieu 176(5988) 67-80.
310. As is seen in the Gospel Book of St. Médard of Soissons, Paris, B. N., lat. 8850
(first half of ninth century); K Heber-Suffrin, " l.a Jérusalem céleste dos Evangilesde St. Mëdard de Soissons, problèmes de perspective et d'iconographie à l'époque
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nam ed for the scribe w ho signed the colophon and w ritten for C h ar
lemagne in the court scriptorium , the p aintings o f the eva ngelists as
w ell as those o f the Majestaa Dom ini and the fountain of life arc all
gro up ed together in the beg inning o f the manuscript because theGospel by Gospel arrangement was no longer possible. They are di
rectly inspired by the iconography of a book of Gospels from antiq
uity/11 and would be reproduced shortly afterward, sometimes in
larger programs, in Carolingian books of Gospels. The text of the
E va ng eliary o f G ode scalc is written in gold and silver letters on a p ur
ple background, which is fitting in view' of the destination of the
codex. In the dedicatory verse written at the end of the manuscript
Go descalc h imself exp lains the reasons for this sum ptuou sness: pur
ple sym bolizes the he aven ly kingdom wh ich is opened by the red
blood of C hrist and gold, the splendo r w ith which the wo rds of G od
brilliantly shine.-'32 This sort of praise is not restricted to the evan
geliary; it is found also in psalters, like that of Dagulf (about 795) kept
in Vienna (Österreich. NationalbibL, cod. 186 1). ih e decoration of theGo descalc m anuscript sho w s that at least du ring a g ood part of the
M iddle A ge s, the illustration o f the ev an ge liary w as not bound b y a
specific and clearly defined program, but came directly from that of
the boo k o f Gospels.
The Ottonian period marked a change in the illustration of the books
of M ass readings, in particular the evan geliary. H ie en d o f the tenth
and beginn ing of the eleventh centuries sa w important typologicaltransformations in the domain of liturgical books, notably those used
for the readings. From then on, evan geliaries w ere m ass-produced ;
and in certain scriptoria, like that of Reichenau, which worked for the
Ottonian court, they w ere endow ed with iconographic cycles adopted
from the Carolingian sacramentarles. O nly tw o d esign s from a frag*
ment of a Carolingian ev an ge liary (D usseldorf, Universitätsbibi. cod.
B. 11 3 : Rheims[?], third qua rter of ninth century)-'1* su gg est that asearly as the ninth century, there existed evangeliaries adorned with
iconographic cycles pre figurin g those o f the Ottonian m anuscripts from
the perspec tive of both the am plitud e of the cycle and the treatment of
3 1 1 . S w F. Mütherich. ' ‘Manuscrito enhiminés autour d 'Hilde gard e," /lc/fs «1«
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the images. Th e vast m ajority of the program s in the Ottoman eva n
ge liaries am based on a Ch ristological cycle wh ich originated in bibli
cal illustration d ra w n from the sacram entarles or, more rarely, from
the book s of Go spe ls.JM The pericopes accom panied by a painting, either full-p age or in the initial letter, are in gen era l those o f the big
feasts o f the liturgical year, as in the sacram entarles. The icono
gra ph ie treatment is sim ilar ove rall to that of the paintings d evoted
lo the sam e subjects in the contem porary bo oks of G osp els from Re*
ichenau. H ow ever, som e evang eliaries contain p aintings foreign to
the gospe l cyc les; let us cite the de dica tory m iniature representing
H en ry II (reigned 100 2-1024 ) and lois w ife K un igun de on folio 2ro f
the eva n ge liary offered by the em pero r to the new bishopric of Bam
berg, which he had founded (Munich, Bayer. Staatsbibl., elm. 4452).
Rcccnt research has satisfactorily dem onstrated the political im port
of this im age since it w as the em peror w ho h ad com m issioned the
manuscript.>15 Another novel aspect of the Ottoman evangeliaries is
the im portant part giv en to im ages illustrating gosp el parables.-'16 Inthis regard , they are ve ry c lose to the iconogra phie tradition o f the
Byzantine books o f reading s, thoro ughly studied by K. W eitzmann.*17
The illustration o f the book s of readings used in the Rom anesqu e
period , first of all ev an geliaries, continued the Ottonian traditions,
w hich expla in s w h y the most beautiful evan geliaries o f th is period
originated in Germany. The innovations touch upon limited points
and never result in a distinctive iconography. Even the character of the decov is identical to that of the C aro ling ian and, later, Ottonian
periods (full-page illustrations, purely decorative or historiated ini
tials, ornam ental em bellishments). T his style de no tes a taste for the
archaic and seems to be a last surge of the iconographie tradition of
314. See the basic article o f A. Weiss, “ Die spiitantiko U'ktionar-Ulustr.iHon ini
Skriploriuin dcr Kok'hemm," Die AbU'i Reicht’tiuu (Sigmaringen, 1974) 311-362.315. P. K. Kk’in, "Die Apokalypse Ottos III and das Perikopenbuch Heinrichs
II," Aachenrr Kunslbltitter 56-57 (1988-1989) 5-52316. As in Munich, Bayer. StaaLsbibl., elm. ¿3338 (Uuidiunau, first half of
eleventh century); see A. Korteweg, "Das Hvangelistar Clm. 23338 und seine Stel-lung iiuu*rh.ilb der Reichenauer Schiilhandschriften," Studien zur mittehllerHchen Kuntt 800-1250: Festschrift für Florentim Miilherich zut» 70. Cerburlstog, ed. K. Bit*r-
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Ihe liturgicii! b ooks from the High M idd le Age s. To account for this
state o f affairs, one must rem em ber the increa sing attention the artists
gave, from the twelfth century on, to the new categories of books in
the liturgical domain, such as the missal and pontifical, and to manuscripts containing excgetioal com m entaries. After the tw elfth century,
ev.ingetiaries and lectionaries w ou ld bccom e less and less num erous.
A fair num ber o f these Rom anesque evangeliaries are o f the fe stive
type and comprise only the readings for the big feasts of the year.
The manuscript of the Municipal Library of I.aon (ms. 550; Alsace,
end of twe lfth ccntury) h as on ly twenty-three sheets; the text of its
twenty-three pericopes all begin with a purely ornamental or hislori-ated initial. This manuscript has portraits of the evangelists, figures
of saints, and scenes from the life of Ch rist (presentation in the Temple
<md flagellation).**8 1-et u s also mention tw o true m asterpiec es of Ro
m anesque illum ination: the E va ng eliary o f Prüm (Paris, B. N., lat.
17325), whose date , 1 1 1 0 - 1 1 2 0 , w as recently determined b y C. Nor-
dent'alk; its iconographie cyc le de pend s m ost of all on local traditions-'19
interspersed with a few innovations having no direct connection with
the text but referring to the history of the Abb ey o f P r ü m ;^ and the
E va nge liary of St. Frentrud e (Munich, Bayer. Staatsbibl., d m . 15903)
executed in the first ha lf o f the eleventh ce ntu ry in Salzburg , w here
the Ottoman tradition w as also strong ly im plan ted.*"
Co m pared to the eva ng eliaries, the epistolaries never received any
important decoration during the Middle Ages. This fact, peculiar to the West, contrasts w ith the ic onographie traditio n o f the Byzantine ep is
tolaries and books o f the A cts o f the Apo stles, wh ose richness is often
com parable to that of the Greek book s of G osp els and evan geliaries.*22
318. On this manuscript, sec G. Camus, I a mémoire de» siècles, 2.000 rws d'éents
en Alsace (Strasbourg, 1988) 209-210.319. {¿specially in Ihe Tropor of Prüm (Paris, B. N., lat. 9448), from the end of
thy tenth century, and another evangeliary written in the same abbey in theeleventh century (Manchester, John Rylands Library, ms. 7}; see C Nordcnfalk,"A German Romanesque Ix'clionary in Pans: Date and Origin," The RurlingUnt
Ma$<\z:ne 130 (1988) 4-9,3 18 .320. What is meant here is the painting of the washing of the feet, in which Ihe
sandals shown near Peter are an allusion tu the relic the abbey possessed.h l
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IV. Genesis and Development of the Missal
'['hanks to the w ork o f som e great scho lars of the twentieth century,
w e have gained a fairly good kn ow ledge o f the general condit io ns in
w hic h the genesis and develo pm ent o f the m issal took pla ce. The p io
neering s tud ies o f A . Kbner,53> A . B au m stark/ ^1 A . W ilmart,3*5 A .
D old,3* and V. Lero qu ais,137 and m ore recently those o f O. N uss-
baum*2* and A. H au sslingw lead to conclusions wh ich hav e been
confirm ed and m ade m ore precise by an alyses of particular points inthe m edieval m anuscripts.
It is com m on ly accepted toda y that the rise of the m issal cannot be
exp lained solely b y practical reasons such as the desire to m ake all
texts (orations, read ings, eve n rituals, blessing s, and so on) available
in one book. A certain evolution o f the ecclesiology o f the liturgy oc
curred after the Caro lingian period , on e consequen ce o f w hich w as
the concentration of the liturgical action in the celeb rant's han ds, a lthough the other actors in the cciebration w ere not eliminated. Beg in
ning with the eleventh century, the celebrant was under obligation to
recite, at least in a low vo ice, the sung parts o f the M ass, even though
they w ere executed by the choir, and the va riou s readings, even
though they w ere proclaim ed by the deacon and su bde acon .3>°
The m anu scripts wh ich h ave been preserved attest to this ev olu
tion an d m ake it possible to establish a typ olog y of the m edieval
323. Mi$$aie Romanum (1896).324. Missale Romanum: Si’ine Ettixeickhntg ihrc wkhligstett Urkunden und ProbJeme
(Eindhovon-Nijmegen. 1929) especially 132-143.325. "Le s anciens missels dc !a France," Ephemerides lit urgióte 46 (1932) 245-267.
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m issal.1*1 Let u s se e the principal representative eases and their im
portance for the history of the Mass books.
A w ord o í caution: the different types w hic h w ill be described donot succeed one another acco rding to chrono logical order. On the
contrary, one observes as early as the ninth century the frequent co
existence of the different form s o f the missal in the I ligh M iddle
A ges- It is im possib le to speak o f a linear evolutio n that w ould lead
from a "rudimentary" form of missal to an elaborate book. Nonethe
less, the eleventh century m arked a d ecisive lum in the history o f the
missal: at that time, the sacramentarles and the iibeUi ntissarum y ielded to com plcle m anuscripts w hich specia lists call "p len ary
m issals"— an o bv ious pleona sm .33* A s a consequence, from the first
half of twelfth cen tury on, there w ere few er sacram entarles than
missals, and their numbers would diminish further in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries.5**
In the ninth century, m argin al notes app eare d, a s w ell as the first
forms of the missal with juxtapo sed parts and libclli miwirinit. In order
to illustrate the first case, let u s cite Rheims, B. M ., ms. 2 13 (St. Am an d,
abou t 869);3:m a sacram en tary from Tours da ting from the second ha lf
of the ninth century (Paris, B. N., new acq. lat. 1589); and a sacramen
tary, probably from Amiens, going back to the ninth or tenth century
(Paris, B. N ., lat. 9432). ” s In these three docum ents, cop yists have
transcribed in the margin of each Mass formulary the incipits of thechants of the gradual. The insertion of indications for the readings
corresponding to each M ass form ulary in the m argins o f sacram én
tanos w as not a practical solution because o f the length o f the peri-
copcs, w he reas the sim ple m ention o f the inripit of the chants w as
sufficient to bring to m em ory the piece to be sung.
The p rim itive form s of m issals w ith juxtap osed parts (the parts fol
low one another) had a certain success during the High Middle Agesand even later in the eleven th and twelfth centuries, a time of full
531. For the manuscripts, see tho nearly exhaustive list of Gamber, CLÍ.A 527-547, as well as the many fragments published by this author.
332. Concerning the medieval terminology of the missal and the ambiguity that
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de velopm ent tor m issals in w hich Ihe different pa rts are combined.
In a first phase, only the sacramentary and the Mass antiphonal are
ju xtaposed, as in Paris , B. N ., lat. 229 1; fo ls. 9 - 15 (Sacram entary o f St.
A m and, about 8 7 5 - 8 7 6 ) — in th is docum ent, the oratio ns o f votive
Masses (fols. 177V-188V-) are accompanied by the readings from the
epistles and G ospe ls. The sam e is true o f the sacram entary-grad ual of
Corbie (Pa ris, B. lat. 12050 ; shortly after 853), w he re the gra du al
table occupies folios 3 -t 6 v ,3?7 In a later ph ase, in the eleventh a nd
twelfth centuries, the Mass Icctionary would be added to the sacra-
m entary-grad ual, thus form ing a true missal with juxtapo sed parts.Th e code x Grossly in B asel, an Alsatian m issal from the end o f the
eleventh century, is a go od sam ple of this: the antiphon al is on folios
1-51, the sacramentary on folios 56-150, and the leclionary on folios
150V—35 3y, the w ho le thing being follow ed by a series o f onlines writ
ten on folios 354.v-380v.tt8 Th is typ e o f missal w ou ld not long su rv ive
the arrival of the liturgical books called the "second generation"
(missal in which parts arc consolidated, pontifical, breviary, and soon). Typological evolution, together with the need to produce a book
finally unified, favored the creation of a missal in which each piece is
set in its right place, feast by feast.
Lastly, let us recall the essential role the ¡¡belli missarunt played in
the internal and external developm ent o f the m issal.” 9 Before reach
ing a com plete an d d efinitive form , the m issal also w ent also through
prelim inary stages wh ich can be con sidered emb ryonic form s: theseare the libdli missarum. C om po sed in general of four or five fascicles,
they contain ail the texts o f one or seve ral feasts. The structure o f the
form ularies is the follow ing: the orations (draw n from the sacram en
tary); the readings (normally found in the lectionary and the cvan-
geliary) ; and the incipits of the su ng piece s (contained in the M ass
antiphonal), sometimes with musical notation. As all the elements
}■}<>. De.shu.sses, "Chronologie des sacMinentaires."337. See I lesbert, AMS, XXIff.338. Ihe study of this manuscript, accompanied by its critic.it edition, is due to
be published in the near future in the series Spicilegium iriburgfnse by A. Hànggiand G. Nidner; sec E. Pala/20, "L'iUustr.ilion du codex Cinîssly: Missel b.ilois duXI*’ siècle " Hi t i d l' t n (>990) 15 22
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necessary to the eucharistic celebration were gathered into one book,
the priest wa s able from then on to celebrate by h imself if he so de
sired. The I (belli mkaatrum, com ing especially from monasteries, som e
times served for quite specific liturgical actions, like private Masscs;wthey also could have been the m eans o f diffusing a new M ass.*1* In
monasteries, the profusion o f votive Masses, often private, is explainedprincipally by a liturgical use which favored personal devotion over
the collcctive and ecciesial celebration.*** Aided by a modest I ilk'll us
missarum, the priest-monk said h is Mass all by h imself either for his
ow n salvation or for that of sinners, whether alive o r dead , or for the
poor or for the gift of ram or for the deceased brethren.*43 Thanks to
these libelli used for private Masses one glim pses a wh ole phase in
the evolution o f the status of both the monastic and monastic spiritu
ality in medieval society.
340. See A. Haussling, Miwr/isfowHVHf und Eucharistiefeier, LQF 58 {1973); N. K.
Rasmussen and I*. Palazzo, "Messes privées, livre liturgique et architecture: A
propos du ms. Paris, Arsenal 610, et de l'église abbatiale de Roichenau-Mittelzell,"/tome des Sciences philosophiques et théologiques 72 (1988) 77-87.
34 1. This latter case is attested bv the first fascicle of Rouen, B. M., ms. A 566
(275}, which contains votive Masses for the Virgin and All Sainls (ninth century).In a later phase, this libellas was used in the eleventh century for the compositionof a more complete missal whose contents were exactly those of theCarolingiandocument; see E. Palazzo, "Un librllus missae du scriplornim de Saint-Amand pour
Saint-Denis: Son intérêt pour la typologie des manuscrits liturgiques," Repue béné
dictine 99 (1989) 286-292.342. See C. Vogel, "Deux conséquences de l'eschatologie grégorienne, la multi
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Part Thre e
The Books of the Office
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1. History and Function of the Office in the West
i . RKCAI . I . INC SOME HISTORICAL. FACTS
The h istory of the Office, tod ay m ore often called the Liturgy o f the
Hours, has for a long lime awakened the researchers' interest. Recently,
excellent su rve ys h av e been pu blished; as a consequence, I shall limit
m yself here to recalling the main pha ses o f the deve lopm ent o f the
P raye r of the H ours in the West, w ithou t neglecting the imp ortant
part the East took in the elaboration of this liturgy. I shall try to introduce read ers to the general structure of the Divine Office by high light
ing the different ritual acts that com po se it (psalm ody , chant, prayer,
reading, and so on) but without d ealing w ith the particularities prope r
to either the many Western traditions (Iberian, Ambrosian, and so on)
or the Eastern traditions d urin g the M iddle Ag es. Before approaching
the history of the different boo ks o f the Office, w e shall present some
o f the processes at w or k in the celebration o f the H ours an d giv e precise definitions of the principal terms belonging to the vocabulary in
use. As in the other parts of this manual, the Roman rite will receive
most of the attention because, ve ry early, its usa ges in the O ffice cam e
to dominate almost every region in the West.1
Origins o f the Prayer o f the Hours
U ncea sing p ray er on a da ily basis, such is the spiritual go al of the
Liturgy o f the Hours, a goal suggested by the New Testament. Tine New
«. Conc erning the reasons for this choice, see the Introduction. For an overallhistory of the Office, one must consult- above all Taft, Liturgy of She Hours. Thisbook is a rich mine because of its historical and scientific approach; it treats of all
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Testament texts concern ing p ray er are num erous and can be classified
under the following categories: (i) references to Jesus (and others)
being at prayer, (2) exhortations or invitations to prayer, (3) instruc
tions on the man ner of pra ying , (4) texts of hym ns an d pra yers.J Fromits beginnings, Ch ristian pra yer inherited custom s from ancient Ju
daism , such as regular prayer, stron gly dom estic in character and said
at least twice a d ay at fixed hou rs in the morning and ev en ing .5 This
contribution of Jud aism is on ly one factor in the origin of the I.iturgy
o f the Hours, which is also rooted in the message of Christ, transmit
ted to us in the New Testament. The hymn of praise to the Father and
Ch rist must be renew ed d ay after da y m orning and e vening, and
even during the night. Going back to the first century, the D i d a d i e ,
Antiochene4 in orig in, exhorts Christians to p ray three tim es a day,
w hic h suggests alread y a regular and d a ily schedule of prayer. M ore
over, this text attests to the use of the Our Father (ch. 8.1-3).
For the first three centu ries, the docu m ents do not allow us to as
certain whether the Prayer of the f fours was structured according toone single schem e an d timetable.5 H ow ever, a certain nu m ber of tes
tim onies com ing from prestigious authors dem onstrate the progres
sive stabilization o f the va riou s elements o f the D ivine Office. In
Eg yp t, in the beg inning of the third century, Clemen t o f Alexan dria
(c .i50 -c .2i5 ) Insists on the fixed tim es of (he d ay devo ted to prayer:
at the third, sixth, and ninth hours; it is also from him that for the
first time, w e h ear of turning to the east when pra yin g.6 In the firsthalf of the third century, Origen (0.185-0.254) repeats Clement and in
troduces the practice of regularly sa yin g certain psalm s for a pa rticu
lar Ho ur, for instance. Psalm 14») for the even ing pray er. Tertullian
(c.i6o~c.225) is the first to describe the pattern of daily prayer, a pat
tern which will become the rule by the end of the fourth century.7 In
the m iddle of the third century, St. Cyp rian (d. 258), bishop o f Carth*
2. St’« Tati, Liturgy o f llur ! lours, 4-5; C li 4:157-162.3. On the ft'wish loundation of the Christian Liturgy of the i lours, see Tail,
Liturgy o f the ¡faura, 5-11; A.-C, Martimort, "L'histoire de l'office et son interpretation," Semnmriuui 1 (1972) 65-85, and chiefly 67-iKj.
4. J.-P. Audet, Lrt Dùiitchè: Instruction d a iipotrcs (Paris, 1958) ^19; W. Rordorf and
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age, confirms for the church of North Africa Tertullian's testimony on
the structure o f prayer .8 Finally, the Apostolic Tradition * the liturgical
docum ent (w hich is also a collection o f canons) of greatest impor
tance from the third century and one of the earliest, says in chapter35, wh ich concerns m orning pray er at home, "Th e faithful, as soon as
they have awakened anil gotten up, and before they turn to their
w ork , shall pray to G od and then hurry to their w o rk ."
The documentation from the third century shows that what would
become the com plete series of the H ours in the fourth century w as on
its w a y; this series w ill then be: wh en rising , at the third, sixth, and
ninth hours, in the evening, and during the night. The contents of
these prayers were probably centered on sacred Scripture, catechesis,
an d hym ns. It is also at this period that the de ep m eaning o f da ily
prayer was underlined, notably the remembrance of the life and death
o f Jesu s, sym bolized by the rising and setting of the sun . The evenin g
lamp, w hich alread y had an eschatological connotation, w as Christ,
the light of the world. However, let us remember that this was not yet li turgy properly so called but, m ore sim ply, regula r hours at which
Ch ristians w ere exh orted to pray, either collectively o r in private.
Origins of the Office in the West (fourth to Sixth Centuries)
From the fourth cen tury on , but esp ecially in the fifth, the peace o f
the Ch urch an d the constant spread o f Ch ristianity am on g va rious
peoples, favored the development of a more intense liturgical life with carefully organized prayer m eetin gs, that is, the Office, hi the
West, tw o distinct fo rm s o f p rayer in com m on arose: lhat o f the
urban Ch ristian com m un ity (cathedral or parish Office) and lhat of
the mo nastic com m un ity (monastic O ffice).10
Due to a lack o f an y official liturgical docum ent, the cathedral Office
is kn ow n to us only through the testimonies the Ch urch Fathers ha ve
left us in their hom ilies, hag iogra ph ie stories, and also the decisions
8. P. Salmon, "Los origines de la prière des Heures d'après le témoignage deTerhillien et d e soint Cyprien ," Mélange* offerts il Mademoiselle Christine Mohr/uanti
(Utrecht, 1963) 202-210.9. Concerning the date and the disputed character o f this document, see espe
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m ade by councils/ espec ially at the time of Cae sariu s, A rchbisho p of
A rles (502-542}, in the begin nin g o f the sixth century. The Of/ice es
sentially comprised a morning praise and an evening chant which
develop the symbolism of, respectively, the rising sun and, in theeve nin g, the light of the wo rld, Christ. Already, the choice of psalm s
w as determ ined by the hour of d ay ; and the Office com prised prayers,
hymns, responsories, and so on, according to a plan more and more
clearly defined. Su nd ay vigils, featuring p salm ody — of a particular
amplitude at taster—were added to the cathedral Office.
The m onastic O ffice is better kn ow n b ecause o f the m any traditions
that arose in the period extending from the fourth to sixth centuries
and through several fixed schemes for daily prayer, the cursus, result
ing from the need and obligation for the monk to practice the fans
continua ("continual praise"].
In the nu m erous m onastic cursus w hich w ere established at this
tim e in the West and the East, are sev era l com m on points on the
m ann er o f celebrating the Office: the structure o f the H ours, w hichacquires a quasi-definitive form (see pp. 124-125); the development
of p salm od y; the increasing use of antiphon s, inv itatory o r responso-
rial p salms, variou s sorts of readings, hym ns. M ost monastic cursus
had their origin in the practical application o f the ru les laid do w n b y
the reformers of monastic life, without the Church officially stepping
in to mandate this type of celebration. In the first place, let us cite the
Ru le of St. Benedict (first half of the sixth century) w h os e role is mostimportant for the developm ent of the Office, Ro m an as w ell as m ona s
tic, in the West. But we must also mention the Rule of St. Augustine
(end of the fourth century); the Gallican cursus, w ith the Rules of Au-
relian o f A rles and the m onastery of Lerins (fifth cen tury) ; the Ru le of
the M aster (sixth century), Italian in origin, w hose chap ters 33 to 43
are devo ted to the Office; the Rule of St. Co lum ban (about 615) , w ho se
ch ap ter 7 is at the source o f the Irish m on astic crjrsws; an d lastly the
Iberian tradition, resting mainly on the Rule for Monks by Isidore of
Se v ille (betwe en 590 and 600) and the rules w ritten by St. Fructuosus
o f Brag a (d. abo ut 665).15
u On all these rules and what they contain that is relevant to the* history of
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The Roman Office in the Middle Ages (Sixth to Fifteenth Centuries)
Prepared by the different m onastic traditions enu m erated above,
the Rom an Office acqu ired, from the sixth cen tury on, the form it
kept until the twentieth century, a form based on two cursus having am onastic structure: the Rom an O ffice an d the Benedictine Office. Be
fore St. Benedict, Rome possessed, perhaps as early as the fourth cen
tury, a monastic cwrsi/s (coexisting with the cathedral Office), that of
the monasteries which served the great urban basilicas and the sanc
tuaries of the martyrs.1-* In the sixth century, Benedict utilized the
Rom an m ona stic Office to establish the cursus found in his Rule. Syn
thesizing wh at w as alread y in use in Rom e on the one hand an d hisown views concerning the Office on the other, Benedict was the cre
ator of the Benedictine Office as it is known to us from documents of
the eighth and ninth centuries. Today, all authors agree that the Bene
dictine Office de rives from the Rom an m onastic O ffice, even though
in the course o f the centuries and esp ecially durin g the H igh M iddle
A ges, the ele m ents o f the Prayer o f the H ours, as defined by Bene
dict, have enriched and e ven "corre cted " the structure of the Rom an
m ona stic office, thus sub stantially lightening the liturgical scheme.
1low eve r, in R om e itself, the Benedictine Office ne ver sup planted the
local usag e, w he reas it met with en orm ous success in m ost Western
monasteries.15
From the time o f Benedict to tine en d o f the M idd le A ge s, an d eve n
until Pius X and then Vatican II, the structure o f the Rom an O ffice didnot undergo any fundam ental chan ges, but only partial modifications
in the allotme nt o f psalm s, the add ition o f pro per offices to the Sanc-
tora! at the exp ense o f the Tem poral, the rise an d then m ultiplication
o f vo tive offices, the Office o f the D ead , and the office of the chap ter
after Prim e.u In the eighth century, the first efforts of the Caroling ian
rulers, particularly Pepin the Short, and certain dign itaries o f the
Church, favored the establishment of the Roman cwrsi<s beyond the A lps; this resulted in the coexistence o f tw o paralle l cursus, the Roman
and the Benedictine. Twice, at the time of C hro de gan g, bishop o f Metz
(742-766), wh o w as a great adm irer o f the Rom an liturgy,15 then at
t2. Sec Tail, Liturgy of ihe Hnurs. 13 1- 13 4; CP, 4:249-250.
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the Co unc il o f Aach en in 8 16 -8 17 , w hich ratified sev eral of the initia
tives of Pepin the Short and Charlem agn e, the Rom an O ffice benefited
from the reform of the clergy—under the form of the institution of
Canons—so that it easily gained full acceptance in the cathedralchapters. Kxcept for the Iberian peninsula, the Roman rite was solidly
implanted in the West from the Carolingian period on. But only at
the end of the eleventh century, under the pontificate of Gregory VII
(107 3-108 5), w ould it be impo sed by the Roman Cu ria.
D uring the w ho le o f the M iddle A ges, both rwrsus (Roman and
Benedictine) w ere in use, often w ith adap tations du e to the insertion
of new liturgical compositions, sung pieces in particular; there werealso instances o f a m ixed curstts of the Rom an an d Benedictine Offices.
Indeed, the im portant differences b etween the tw o c«rs«s occasion
ally obliged m onk s to bring the tw o into agreement. On e of the im
portant differences concerns the number of responsories at the night
office (tw elve in the Benedictine O ffice, nine in the Rom an) wh ich
com m un ities had to increase or dim inish as the* case m ight be, thus
setting do w n their ow n lists of respon sories; today, these lists are
most useful in determining what the liturgical usages were.
In the second h alf o f the M iddle A ges , the history o f the Office is
characterized b y a g row ing inflation; this caused un easiness in cer
tain communities where it was felt that the length of each hour had be
come e xcessive in relation to the other dem an ds of the m onk s' lives.
In addition, the reform of the Roman liturgy by the Curia in the thirteenth century contributed to establish the Rom an O ffice as the model
for the wh ole Ch urch through the com position o f new books (the bre
v iary in particular).16 Only in the second half o f the thirteenth centu ry
w as the O ff ice o f the Roman C u ria— revised by the M aster G enerai o f
the Franciscan order, Haymo of Faversham (d. 1244)—to really take
over, than ks to the action o f the Friars Minor, w ho had ado pted it for
their order.17 Afterward, it was not before the fifteenth ccntury andthe R eformation that m any succ essive rearrangem ents took place in
the Roman breviary, which had become the office book par excellence.
Finally, let us recall that one of the strikin g facts in the history o f
the Office in the M iddle A ge s is the prog ressive develop m ent, start
ing in the m iddle o f the eighth century, o f the priva te recitation o f the
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Office. In the Rule o f Benedict (ch. 50) and that of C hro de ga ng (ch. 4),
it is proscribed that anyon e not present in church for the celebration
of the Hours in common, must recite them in private. This practice
became comm on am on g the clergy about the tenth century and became even more prevalent in the thirteenth century with the Mendi
cant Orders adopting il because of their pastoral activities, which
w ere often itinerant.
The innumerable books of Hours in the fifteenth century', either
m odestly decorated or richly illustrated, dem onstrate a definite en
thusiasm on the part o f the wealthier classes for the Office, recited
priv ately or perh aps m ore often in a collective setting such as con fraternities; the accent w as placed pa rticularly on the offices of the Vir
gin an d the dead as w ell as on the penitential psalm s. Ih e brilliance
of the colors and the freshness of the pages which characterize Ihe
m ost beautiful exam ples that hav e endu red to our time reveal that
the liturgical book had become at the dawn of modern times and in
the hands of lay people an objccl denoting social prestige.1*
2. R IT E S , S P I R I T U A L I T Y , A N D S T R U C T U R E O F T H E O F F IC E
Like the Eucharist, the L iturgy o f the Hours co m prises several ritual
acts belonging to the categories o f prayer, singing , and reading. One
of the original traits o f the I>ivine Office is the connection, often closer
than that o f the euch aristic celebration, betw een the different p arts of
the rite. Hence the nece ssity of a goo d syn chron ization between theofficiants, more necessary than elsewhere if the ritual performance is
to be w orthily conducted. A certain num ber of persons p lay their own
d ea rly defined roles along with an assem bly, com posed o f monastics
or canons, w ho se p art is as essential a s those entrusted to individu als.
The mo nastic custom aries and o rdinaries su pp ly the richest do cu
mentation on the w ay the Office w as conducted in the M iddle A ges,
w hether in m onasteries or cathedrals.D epe nd ing on the time o f day, the celebration o f the O ffice is m ore
or less elaborate and its contents more or less substantial. This var iab il
ity from o ne H our to the othe r expla ins w h y it is difficult to describe
in too detailed a fashion the gen eral structure o f the Office, even
w ithout takin g into account the fact that m ost orders and monastic
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com m unities had their ow n particular usages. Finally, cach H our is
imb ued w ith its specific spiritual m eaning so that the choice of pieces
and the w ay of rendering them v ar y from H our to Hour.
W hat fo llow s is sim p ly a presentation o f the principal ritual characteristics o f the Office (the invar iab le elements), its actors, its struc
ture (Roman and lîenedictine), and lastly the essential aspects of the
spirituality of the 1 lours.*9
The Rites unit Officiants
The syn ax is (the gathered assem bly) is presided o ve r by the bishop
(or a canon) in the cathe dral O ffice and by the abbot or ab bess in the
m onastic Office. The p res id er's part is prin cipa lly the recitation o f the
prayers and the reading of the Gospel, when this is called for. In cer
tain circum stances, as in the O ffice o f the cha pter after Prime, the
abbot addresses m atters concerning the life o f the monastery, for ex
am ple, the assignm ent o f penances for faults (cufpae) committed by
the monks. A s a rule, an y m onk in the com m un ity can be the reader
at the Office. Then there is the w hole o f the com m unity, gen era lly di
vided into tw o choirs for the requirem ents o f the psalm ody, under
the guidan ce o f on e o r two soloists.
In all liturgical fam ilies, the L iturgy o f the Hours is prayer, and prin
cipa lly praye r with Ihe psalm s, or psalm od y (from the Latin psatmus).20
A lread y in the ancient m onastic rule s, psalm ody p lays a preeminent
role in the m on k's prayer.*‘ In the M idd le A ge s, the recitation of psalms held an essential place in the Office and took on more and
more com plex forms.-“ By ado pting the principie o f lectio continua
19. Por a mor? thorough documentation on all these topics, see Taft, Liturgy of
the Hour*-, CP, 4; Salmon, Office divin.
20. See fail, Liturgy o f the Hours; CP, 4:190- ¿06; A.-G. Martimort, Mirabile lundis
omhnmt, mélanges liturgiques, éludes historiques, hi reforme conciliaire, portraits dc liturgistc*, Bibliotluua "Ephemerides liturgicae," subsidia 60 (Rome, 1991) 15-29("La prière des psaumes dans la liturgie des Heures") and 75-97 ("Fonction de lapsalmodie dans la liturgie de la Parole").
2 1. Seo the unpublished thesis of Th. F.lich, I*' contexte oral de la liturgie médiémle
et le rôle dit texte écrit. 3 vols. (Paris: Paris IV-Sorbonne ami Institut catholique deParis, 1988) 1.15-234; A. l)e Vogue. '‘Psalmodier n'est pas prier,” F.ccle$ta Oru»ts 6
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prescribed in B enedict's R ule or by ch oosing p salm s according to the
ava ilab le time, one ends up w ith several forms of psalmod y. Here are
the principal ones: direct p salm od y in w hich one or sev eral soloists
sing the psalm in directum (straight through, w ithou t an tiphons or retrains! on one m elody an d w ithou t interruption; responsorinl ps al
mody, in which one or several soloists execute the psalm verses, but
at the end of each verse, the community takes up a brief responsory,
a sort of refrain rang ing from the sim ple w ord "a llelu ia" to part of a
psalm verse or a w ho le verse;23 alternating psalmo dy, in wh ich two
choirs alternate the sing ing o f the w ho le psalm w ithou t interruption,
verse by verse o r strophe by strophe. The chanting o f the psalm s at the
Office is enrichcd by antiphons (a kind of refrain generally sung at
the beginning and end o f the psalm , or even between strophes; hym ns;
tropes, alw a ys executed by the soloist or soloists and the choir.24
The re ad ings at the O ffice (also called lessons, from lecliottes) are of
three kinds: biblical, patristic, and ha giog rap hic.15 Th e biblical rea d
ing (Old and N ew Testaments) is the oldest and m ost im portant; as agen eral rule, the pr<x:!amation o f the Go sp el is the abbo t's or ab bess's
privilege. The num ber and choice of readings va ry from one tradition
to the next and according to the Hours. The wading of the Church
Fathers (hom ilies, sermon s) and Ihe hagiograp hic w ritin gs (legends
about the saints, passions of Ihe martyrs) also app eared ve ry ea rly in
the history of the Office, in Africa and the East, and greatly devel
oped during the Middle Ages. Like the sung pieces, the readings ateach Office can be divided into several chapters, passages (lessons) of
variable length and number, according to the H ours.26
Finally, the celebration of the Hours, like that of the Mass, makes
room for the recitation of prayers of intercession and thanksgiving. In
23. Hus ot psalm ody became the most frequent throughout the Latin
C.'hurch as early as the sixth century.24. See Huglo, Lrvres J e chant, 19-29, and also the definitions given below.25. On the history of the readings during the Office, see CP, 4:220-227; Marti-
inort, Lv/»res lititrgiqurt, 69-72; P.-M. Gy, "l-a Bible dans la liturgie au Moven Ago." Le Moi/cn Age d h fiibtc. od. P. Rich«? and G. Lorichon (Paris. 1984) 537-552,especially 541-552; and more generally, G. I^orichoti, "Gli us» della Bibbin," Lo
Sfwrt'o h'Hcrtirifltiel Medioevo. vol 1: // Medioevo hiin o. pt. 1: La produz hne del hwii»
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the earliest m onastic rules, the custom o i con cludin g certain Offices
w ith prayers o f in tercession {especially Lauds and Vespers) is w ell at
tested.27 In most traditions, it becamc customary to introduce the
recitation o f the Pater (Our Father) at least three times a day at the be
gin nin g or end o f tine celebration. Suc h recitation could be acco m pa
nied b y that of an oration reserved to priests, a collect; this w a s said
also, without the Ou r Father, at certain H ours, alw ay s as a conclusion
to the Office. The collect said at M ass is also often used as the pray er
said by the presid cr at the Office. In rare occasions, a blessing w as
foreseen, as Bene dict's Rule prescribes at the en d o f Com pline.
Structure and Spirituality o f Ihe Hours
For a long time, liturgists ha ve been aw are of the specificity o f each
Hour, of its ow n character, o f its spirituality, and they have established
a hierarchy of the H ours.18 T he m ore or less sub stantial contents of
each office is in large part exp lained b y this hierarchy w hich w as
strongly affirm ed du ring the M iddle Ages. A ll tradit io ns begin the first H our w ith an introductio n, the in vita-
lory, a sort o f solemn exh ortation to d ivine praise. Th is office is m ade
up o f several psa lm s with an tiphons, v ariable from one rite to another
an d ac cord ing to the liturgical time.29 Th e m orning and eve nin g
praises, correspon ding to the natural rhythms o f d aily life, gav e rise
to the offices o f Lau d s (offichmt matutinale ("morning office")) and
Vespers.*0 C hristians begin and end the day b y p raisin g C o d . Thechoice of rea ding s (if there are any) an d in pa rticular of psalm s is de
termined b y the themes o f setting and rising, references to the death
and resurrection of C h rist. '1
Between La ud s and Vespers, the Ihree interm ediary H ours o f Teree,
Sex t, an d None-12 take place. Punctuating the monastic da y b y p rayer,
these three Ho urs alternate w ith the dem and s of w ork and comm u
nity life, as w ell as the eucharistic celebration. 'I'hey are the dee pest
expression of the unceasing prayer of Christians; their structure, the
sam e for the three I lours, remained unch anged du ring the M iddle
27. See CP. 4:227-229.28 See Taft Lifffrgy o fthe Hours 141 163
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A ges. C om pline is the last office o f the day, preceding the night rest.”
Its elem ents, notably its penitential aspect, arc pa rticularly chosen b e
cause o f the approa ching night and the spiritual preparation it requires.
The night office com prises V igils (first office of the da y to com e
and not the last of Ihe preceding d ay), w ho se com position varies, ac
cording to the day, from one nocturn to three (on Sunday). The essen
tial go al o f V igils is the fostering of w atch fulne ss an d the stim ulation
o f the expectation of the Lord, w ho w ill com e ba ck at dayb reak.*4 The
Kaster Vigil, then secondarily various prayer meetings at night arc
prob ably at the root of the prog ressive evolution of the night office(hence its nam e o f V igils, som etimes c alled M atins), first for the big
feasts of the Temporal and later on for the celebrations of certain
feasts of saints, especially at their burial places.35 The night office in
variab ly opens w ith a verse repeated three times and a hym n; the
length of each nocturn is variable, and the third on Sunday is the
most developed.
T he last H our to be established in the cursus, Prim e (office of thefirst hou r of day) p robab ly goe s back to the fifth century and w as
perhaps instituted by John Cassian (c.360-435). It is celebrated in the
choir as are the other I lours, but it is ve ry short and ha s long been
perceived as duplicating the morning office. In the eighth century (as
attested by the Rule of C hro dcg an g destined for the cathedral of
Metz) and perha ps earlier, it w as follow ed by a sort of "su pp lem en t,"
the office in chapter.36 Th e office of P rim e in chap ter is seen as half-liturgical, half-adm inistrative since it wa s d urin g this assem bly that
m atters concern ing the life of the monastery' w ere ad dresse d. *7 The
office of Prime in chapter was not eliminated from the Roman Office
until Vatican IL38
33. Ibid., 271-2 72 .34. Ibid., 266--270.35. On the disputed origins—no doubt multiform—of Vigils, as well as their
connections with Lauds ami Prime, sec Taft, l iturgy o f the Hours, 191-213.36. See J, Froger, origin?* tie prime, Bibliotheca Ephemerides liturgicae 19
(Rome, 1946). Sue also the update on the state of these questions and the corrections proposed by Taft. Liturgy o f the Hours, 207-208.
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Simplified Structure of the Content o f the I bu rs o f the Roman Monastic
Office (Benedictine Form) (after Taft, Liturgy of the 1lours, pp. j ¿4-138)
V i g i l s :Opening verse, said three times
Psalms 3 and 94
H y m n
—First nocturn:
6 psalms with refrain
Versicle
Blessing by the abbot or abbess
3 lessons and responsories in winter; 1 in summ er; 4 on Sunday s
—Second nocturn:6 psalms with alleluia
Brief biblical reading to be recited by heart
Versiclc
Litany —Third nocturn (on Sunday):
3 canticles with alleluia
Versicle
Blessing by the abbot4 lessons (NewTTestament) and responsories
Te Deum
GospelTe tiecei Inns {"it is fitting to praise yo u"]
Blessing
L a u d s :
Psalm 66Psalm 50 with refrain
2 variable psalms
Canticle
Psalms 146 to 150Reading from the epistles (Revelation on Sunday)
Responsory
I l
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In t e r m e d i a t e H o u r s (P r i m e , T e r c e , S e x t , a n d N o n e ):
Opening verse
Hymn
3 variable psalms, with or without refrainReading (brief lesson)
Vcrsicle
Litany
Dismissal (prayer)
V e s p e r s :
O pening verse
4 variable psalm sReading
Responsory
Hymn
Versicle
Canticle from the GospelLitany
Our Father
Dismissal
C o m p i . i n ’ f :
Opening verse
Psalm s 4, 90, and 13 3 , without retrainHymn
Reading {brief lesson)
Versicle
Litany Blessing
Dismissal
Definitions o f the Principal Elements of the Office
— Antiphon: from the Latin antiphona (abbreviated Ant, or A. in the
manuscripts) designates a chanted piece, brief as a rule. Its function is
to frame the singing of each psalm and to indicate what psalm tone is
to be used Originally it was composed of one or two Scripture verses
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The function o f the antiphon is musical, lyrical, and spiritual since it
highlights the meaning of the psalm . On the liturgical plane, by con
necting the psalm s one with the other, it insures the cohesion of an
office in the same way it unites the community that sings it throughantiphonal psalmody.
— Psalms: see the next section.— Rcspwisory: from the Latin responsorium (generally abbreviated #
in m anuscripts), designates what fo llows a reading whether at Mass
or during the Office. Originally, the responsory derived from the
psalm ody since it w as a psalm reduced to one or two verses, and it is
characterized by the repetition of a limited number of psalm verses.Later on, when the reading w as excerpted from other books o f the
Old Testament, the responsory also w as taken from the sam e text. In
the Midd le Ages , a given liturgical time, a given feast, had a common
treasury of responsories from which each church drew to organize its
ow n series. The study o f responsories is one of the means o f deter
mining the liturgical use o f a manuscript.— Versicle: from the Latin versus (abbreviated f in the manuscripts),
designates a shorl sentence draw n from the Psalms or other parts of
Scripture. There are versides of introduction ("O Cod, come to my
aid"), of conclusion ("Let us bless the Lord"'), of transition, leading
from the recitation of psalms to listening to the word of God or else
from the reading to the oration.
— Hymn: from the Latin hi/mnu$, designates lyrical chant in metricor rhythmic verses meant to enrich the spiritual power of the Office.
It expresses in poetical terms the m ystery of the da y w hile being at
the same time a solemn profession of faith. It is placed either in the
beg inning of the office or after the reading; in the latter case, it fosters
reflection on G od 's wo rd. Some hym ns were composed by great fig
ures o f Latin Christianity, such as St. Hilary o f Poitiers and St. A m
brose. They were collected into hymnals to facilitate their diffusion.— Lesson: from the Latin lectio, designates any reading done during
the Office. A brie f reading from Scripture is called capitulum ["chap
ter"! to Latin (see Martimort, Lcctures titurgiques, 74-76). A reading
from the Fathers of the Church is called a homily or senuon (gathered
in the homiliary) while the hagiograph ic readings are termed legends
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— Biblical canticle: designates a rhythmed poem coming in general
from books of the Old Testament other than the Psalter. Some areadap ted from Gospel passages, for exam ple, Luke 1:46-55. The num
ber and distribution o f the biblical canticles are characteristic oí thedifferent liturgical traditions.
— Trope: sec Part 2, II, 6, the section dealing with the chant booksused at Mass.
—Collect. blessing, and Many: see Part 2 , 1, the section on sacram entarles.
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II. Chant at the Office
». THE PSALTER The o ldest liturgical book is the Psalter, w hich w a s p roba bly com
po sed betwee n the tenth and third centuries B .C.E. Th is collection of
lyrical poem s, num bering 150,39 w as written in H ebrew and later on
translated into Latin from the Greek version of the Septuagint. Par
ticularly su itable for spiritual m editation, this biblical book w as used
very early in the liturgy, separated from the rest o f the Bib le and en
trusted to the can tor directin g the m on ks ' choir.40 The use o f thePsalter at the Office was mandated early on in the different rules, no
tably B enedict's.41 The anc ient m ona stic rules a llow us to discern the
multiple functions of the Psalter, used notably to teach reading.42 In
the beginning, each cursus of the L iturgy o f the Ho urs had its ow n
particular distribution o f the psalm s.43 C lea rly form ulated for the first
time in Benedict's Rule but in all likelihood already in use in the
Roman Office, the lectio continua o f the Psalter dom inated the Office
in the Middle A ge s according to tw o w eek ly arrangements: the Roman
cursus an d the Benedictine ct/rsws.44 Th e p rincip al difference between
39. On the problem o f num bering the psalm s, sec Le psau tier oecuménique, <1
liturgical text (Paris, 1987) 8.
40. On thi? history o f the psalm s and the psalter in general, see CP, 4:190-20}
(with a bibliography); Gy, "Bible dans la liturgie," 537-552, especially 544-550;
Leroquais, Psautiers; and Liturgica Vatican#, 52-54.
41. See lilich, Contexte oral: \f. Lohfink, "Psalinengebet und Psalterredaktion/’ A rch iv fii r U iu rgia vis senschafi 34 <1992) 1-22.
42. See P. Riche, "L e psautier, livre de lecture élémentaire d'ap rès les vie s des
saints mérovingiens," Etudes mérovingiennes: Actes îles fournées d e Poitiers. 1^-3 mai
952 (P i 1953) 253 256
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the tw o cursas is the num ber of respon sories at V igils on feast d ay s,
nine for the Roman, twelve for the Benedictine.
The ManuscriptsI he psalters w hich have been preserved present a grea t va riety en
abling us to reconstruct the history of this liturgical book. In the fifth
and sixth centuries, and indeed throughout the Middle Ages, the
psalter used at the Office never stopped evolving and being
perfected.45 At that time, som e w riters, like Jero m e (c.347-420) and
Cassiodorus (490--C.585), set forth rules for the intelligible reading of
the sacred texts, including the Psalter. Most important among theserules w as the method o f coin et commata ["colons and co m m as"], based
on the distinctions to be m ade within one sentence, an d strong ly com
mended by Cassiodorus for a sound recitation of the Psalter. This s y s
tem consists in do ts placed at different heights between w ord s and
sentences.411 The oldest sources of the liturgical psalter that have come
d ow n to us sho w that the text w as copied per coto el cowmnta.47 Since
the psalm s are the pieces around which the other elements of the O f
fice are org anized , it w as natural for the Psalter, as a book, to becom e
the nu cleus to which other collections w ere attached . This pr<x:edure
qu ickly ga ve rise to several types of composite psalters. Furthermore,
from the H igh M iddle A ges on, the biblical Psalter and the liturgical
psalter m ust be distinguished . W hereas the form er keep s its biblical
structure with its div ision into five books (pss. 1 to 40, 41 to 7 1, 72 to88 ,89 to 10 5 ,10 6 to £50} and does not ha ve any additional items, the
liturgical psalter specifies the seven sub division s correspo nd ing to the
d ay s o f the w eek (following either the Rom an or m onastic arrange
ment); this is the psnltcriwti per ferias or psalleriuw feríale, b'rom the Car-
olingian p eriod on, other series of pieces came to sw ell the contentó of
the liturgical psalter: inventories, hymns, antiphons, orations, brief
lesson s, thus estab lishing a true typo log y o f this book.48 In the liturgical psalter properly so called, each psalm is assigned to its place in the
45. Con cern ing thin evo lutio n, sec* Lmikjimís, Psauliera, XL lV ff.; Salm on, Office iíiiñn, 46-50.
46. Sve A.-V. C ilios, "L a punctuation dan s les m anuscrits lihirgique-i au M ove«
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Office; the book a lw ay s e nd s w ith a series of canticles, wh ich reflect
the different traditions, alon g w ith the Te Deu m , the Gloria Patri, and
a litany. Among the main types, let us cite the collectar-psalter, in
which each psalm is fo llo w ed by a collect (called psalm ic), and thehym nal-psalter, which besides the psalm s contains all the hym ns for
the entire week. In rare instances, the psalter is com bined with the an-
tiphonal (antiphons and responsories}.'49 A list— not exh austive— of
the olde st liturgical p salters has been com piled b y K . Cam ber,50 fea
turing among others two manuscripts from northern France. The first
one, Paris, B. N., lat. 13 15 9 (for St. Riquicr, end o f seventh century)
contains the Gallican psalter, canticles, Carolingian litanies, psalmiccollects.5* The second , Am iens, B. M., m s. 18 (C orbie, beginning of
ninth century) con tains the Gallican psalter, canticles, directions for
liturgical practice, litanies.52 The convenience of this com posite liturgi
cal book is ob vious: d urin g the celebration of the Office, each p artici
pant w as pro vid ed with the basic book for the celebration of the
Liturgy o f the Hours, enlarged by a va riable num ber o f pieces (hvinns,
canticles, litanies, and so on) w hich he or she could oxccu te or sim ply follow in the book. Th is first gro up ing of different elem ents of the O f
fice w ou ld b e completed in the eleventh cen tury w ith the adven t o f
the breviary. Tine active participation—sometimes only partial—of the
whole assem bly greatly contributed to the creation o f this typo of
com posite book, w ho se contents w ere by definition intended for d if
ferent categories o f users.
in the second h alf o f the M iddle A ge s, from the twelfth centu ry on,
one w itnesses an eve r-grow ing specialization o f the various types of
liturgical psalters.55 Th us b ooks we re com piled wh ich contained a ll the
pieces nece ssary for the night offices (the nocturnal), for the mo rning
49. Six; Hu glo , l.wrrs t k chant, 1 1 6 -1 17. To designate the psalter in the early li
bra ry catalogu es and inventories o f church treasuries, the pe op le ol the M iddle
A ges used term s enabling his toria ns to recogniz e the various com posite psalters
[pMitteriuu cum uuinaria, ft&iltcnum ghhtotum. duo p xtllcria in o’ltw cum gnuiali el yw-
tMrio. «ind so on |"d p salter with h ym na l." "a p salter w ith gloss es ," "tw o p salters
for choir w ith gradu al and hym nal"]); see the num erous references in Becker, Cain-
h g i , and Bischoff, Schalzverzeichnisse.
C b CLLA 6 8
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Hours (the matutinal), for the day Hours (the diurnal).54 The ancient
catalogues of m ediev al libraries offer references correspon ding to
these books (noclurmlis liber, diurnale, matutinal?, or liber matutinalis)
as early as the eleventh century.35 However, these psalter-basedbook s are not the origin o f the breviary, which rather evo lve d from
the collcctar, as w ill be seen below.
In the sam e sp irit and in a w ay parallel to the m ultiplication o f Ihe
form s taken by the liturgical psalter and certain bo oks specific to ce r
tain Hou rs, one w itnesses du ring the M iddle A ge s the appearance of
responsorials (resjfonsoriale) which are collections of the responsories
gen erally contained in the antiphona ls. Am on g responsories, one candistingu ish those intended for Ihe night office and those, shorter, fol
lowing the readings.56 There were also vesperals (vesperalc), contain
ing everything necessary for the celebration of Vespers, in particular
those of the big feasts and Su n d ay s, and b ook s o f invitatories, that is,
collections of invitato ries w ith their different m elodies.57
Decoration o f the Psalter
The history of the illustration o f the Psalter du ring the antiquity
an d Ihe M iddle A ge s is pro bab ly one of the m ost beautiful chapters
of the history of art in the West.5* In the East as well as in the West,
the illustrated psalters offer full-page paintings, som etime s also his-
toriated or purely decorative initials and marginal illustrations.
The full-page paintings grant a place o f honor to the sup pose d au thor o f the Psalter, D av id, w hos e figu re is often placed at the begin
ning of the book, facing the incipit of the text, or inserted in the large
initial B of the first psalm (Brti/j/s t’iV ["H appy are those"]).59 St. Jerom e
54. C on cern ing thp?*' dif/erenl typ es o f books, st*; Fiala and irtonkauf, Utifrgk-
dte Somenklalur, 120; Bnroffio, "M anoscritti lilurg ici," 16 0- 16 5; J. Dubois and J.-L.l.uinaUro, Sources ci méthodes de l'hagiographie médiézvtle {Pa ris. 1993) #9-<)8.
55. S(H* Barker, CAtofagr. and Bischoff, Scfuitzuerztichnisse. O n the principal man u
scripts attesting to the«» books, sec Leroq uais, Psautiers.
56. See F iala and Irtenkauf, Uturgischc Nomenklahtr, J23; Baroffto, "Vl.inoscritli
liturgici," 163.
57. St’e Baro/fio, "M.moscrilli lilurgici," 163-26.1. O11 tJw? manuscript witnesses
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is represented in his cap acity a s translator in the Psalter of Charles
the Bald {P aris, B. N\, lat. 1 152 ; fol. 4, second h a lf o f ninth century)/**
The great origin ality of illustration in the Psalter in the M iddle
A ges resides in the literal translation into im ages o f the psalm texts.In certain cases, the im age d evelop s a true exegesis o f tile psalm s.61
The Psalter of Stuttgart (VVurtembcrgische Lan dsbibliothek, cod. Bib!,
fol. 23), com posed at Saint-Germ ain-d es-Pre s in the first half o f the
ninth century,64 and the Psalter of Ulrech l (U niversiteilsbib l., cod . 32)
originating in Wautvillers (near Reims), also from the first half of the
ninth century,6-' are the tw o best exam ples o f this sort of illustration
from the High Middle Ages. Studies, especially those centered on thePsalter of Utrecht, ha ve sh ow n that m ost scenes ha d their source in
antiquity. In the second ha Jf o f the M iddle A ge s, the psalters with
glosses would give a fresh impetus to the literal and exegetic illustra
tion of the Psalter, as, for instance, Paris, B. N\, lat. 8846 (Canterbury,
last qua rter of twe lfth century, and Catalon ia, fourteenth century).64
In still other initials, scenes from Ihe Old and N ew Testaments are
represented, associating pa ssage s from the Psalter with e vents in the
life o f Christ.
V. 1.eroquais has felicitously distinguished five principa l system s of
illustration of the Psalter during the Middle Ages:6-" (i) illustration of
ev ery psalm w ith, in gene ral, one im age per psalm ; (2) illustration
based o f the div ision o f the Psalter into three gro up s o f fifty, w ith
psalters o f the 1Ugh M iddle Ages , one finds cycles, w ith a small n um ber of im
ag es, illustrating the life o f David.
60. J. H ubert, j. Porcher, VV. F. Volbaoh, l.'Kmpirc carolingien {Paris, 196$) fig. 13G.
6 1. Se e tlu> important article of F. Miitherich, "D ie versch ieden en Bedeutungss*
chichten in der Fruhmittelalterlichen Psalterillustration," /'nihniit ter laI ter I kite Sh<-
ilien 6 (1972) ¿32-244.
62. Der S tullga rier liiiderpMlter (Stuttgart, 1968).63. See H. T. De Wald, The llluatntlii» is o f the Utrecht Psalters (Princeton, 1932),
and S. Dufrenne, Lcs illustrations du ¡w itt ier ,1'Utrcchl: P ro ble m s tie sources et de I'npport cnrolingicn (Strasbourg, 1978).
64. On this psalter with glossws, which pn sent.s in three colum ns a threefold ve r
sion of the text (Hebrew, Roman, and Gallican), and its illustrations, see F. Avril
and P. Stimemann, M auuscrils enlu win es ti'origine msu la ir e (V iI1' XXf s tick ), Biblio-
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on ly the first psalm o f each grou p b eing illustrated (pss. i, 5 1, and
t o t ); (3) the sam e principle app lied w hen the Psalter is d ivide d into
five books as in the Bible (pss. i , 4 1,7 2 ,8 9 ,10 6 ) ; (4) il lustration of the
first psa lm of each feria, w hen the psalter is a liturgical one w ith itsseven divisions; (5) illustration com bining system s 2 and 4. During
Ihe M iddle A ge s, certain regions of the West dev elop ed their ow n
particular iconography. Thus, a few A ng lo-Saxon psalters o f the High
M idd le A ge s art* cha racterized by a m ode o f illustration p rop er to the
insular tradition, featuring sym bo lic im ages correspon ding to the
w a y Irish and Knglish spir itualit ie s o f the eighth and ninth centu ries
perceived the Psalter. Tine dominant theme is the battle between goodand evil, especially the combat betw een D avid-C hrist and S atan.66
Lastly, let us cite psa lters that arc sm all, som etimes m inuscule in
size and w ere perh ap s used as am ulets. The majority o f these were
com m issioned b y h igh ly placed civil or ecclesiastical person ages and
attest to practices of private devotion which flourished in the second
ha lf o f the M iddle A ge s.67 Th e illustration o f this kind of psalter w as
ordinarily limited to ornamental dccoration with, at times, the portrait
of D avid . Aristocratic p salters of the twe lfth to fourteenth centuries—
the Psalter o f Ingebo rg for instance— are the heirs o f the Ca rolingian
pra yer books used b y lay peop le and are the forerunners of the richly
illustrated books o f Ho urs of the end o f the M iddle Ag es, wh ich w ere
prod uced for the devo tional n eeds o f well-to-do m em bers o f society.
2 . T H E A N T I P H O X A L O F T H E O F F IC E
The m onum ental publication o f the six volum es o f the Corpus Anti-
phonaiium Officii (CAO ) by R. J. Hesbert has entirely renew ed o ur
kn ow ledg e of the history of the antiphon al o f Ihe Office in the M iddle
66. On all the**» points, see the inn ova tive wo rk o f K. M. O pen shaw , "T h e Sym bolic Illustrations of the Psalter: An Insular Tradition," A rt e Medieval? 6 (1992)
4 1-6 0 , and "Th e Battle betw een Christ and Satan in the Tiberius Psalter," fourn al
o f ihe Warburg <v id Ccurtauld Institutes 52 (1989) 1-1-33.
67. A goo d e xam ple of this sort of sm all illustrated psalter is the manuscript
kept in St. Peter’s A bbey in Salzburg (Stifsbibl. St. Peter, cod. A 10), 4 cm. high,
proba bly w ritten in a scriptorium o f northern Franco in the third quarter o f the
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A ges, a field singularly neglected in the research o f m edieval liturgical
sources.68 Hesbert undertook to explore the history of the Divine Of*
fice o f the Latin Ch urch ; to this end, he had to stud y the history of
one o f tine principal office books, the antiphon al, av ailin g him self of the impressive manuscript tradition.
A s is the fa te o f any w ork of th is m agnitude, H esbert's CAO re
ceived both p raise and criticism ; som e o f the latter ad dr ess basic
questions concerning his method/ som e bear on certain o f his conclu
sions,69 To exculpa te H esbert, one m ust sa y that the task w as particu
larly d ifficu lt given the great com plexity o f the repertories of the
Oificc in the Middle Ages.
Content o f the Antiphonal
There are two princip al categories of Office anlipho nals: the secular
(the Roman Office) and the monastic (Office inherited from Benedict's
Rule). The difference re sides in the num ber o f pieces at the night of
fice (Vigils), the Little Hours {Prime, Terce, Sext, and None), and Ves
pers: for the secular, nine antiphons and no ctum responsories at V igils,
on e brief responsory at the Little H ours, and five psalm s at Vespers;
for the monastic, twelve antiphons at Vigils, no brief responsory at
the Little Hou rs, and four p salm s at Vespers.
O ne of H esbert's most important conclusions w as the definitive
p roo f that the mo nastic tradition o f the O ffice der ive s entirely from
that o f the secu lar clergy.
68. Rerttm kcclesiastiatrum Documenta, Series maior, forties VII, V iil, IX, X, XJ, X//: vol. i: m anuscrip ts 0/ the Rom an cursus, vol. 2: m anuscripts of the m onastic cur-
<u$, vol. 3: im ’itatoria i't iintiphonae: F.dilio critica, vol. 4: Resjxtsoria, uyt s ms , f npnm et
writ/: Cdilh critica; vol. 5: Fou les earunujue prima ordinatio (list of 800 manuscripts;
classification of their responsories at V igils for Ad vent); vol 6: Secuiula e! lerlia or- dinaliones (second classification, based on the ver sk ie* of the Adv en t respon-
sories; third classification, based on textual variants) (Rome, 1963-1979).
69. F or a critical discussion o f H esbert's conclusions and o f the objections they
have sometimes met with, see the reports mentioned by Huglo, "L'anliphonaire,
archétype ou répertoire origine l?" Grégoire te Grand: Chanliliy, Centre culturel Les
Fontaine*. 1 5 - 19 septembre tgS z: Actes, CNRS: International Colloquies (Paris, 1986)
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A s early as I he ninth century, the office antiphonal70 contain ed all
the sun g pieces grou ped into formu laries (antiphons an d respon-
sories)/1 classified according to the Hours and in the order of the
liturgical year.7* The Tem poral and Sanctoral are ge nera lly com bined;the Co m m on o f Saints is found at the end o f the book, w he re one m ay
also encounter a section in which the pieces are arranged according
to the eight tones of Gregorian chant. For the antiphons and respon-
sories, the (almost) general rule w as to w rite only the ope ning w ord s
(the incipit) of each piece, since the monastics knew by heart the major
part, if not the whole, of the repertory.75 Along the same lines, it was
on ly in the tenth and eleventh centuries that the scribes almo st system
atically added to the texts a neumatic notation.74 Tine earliest sources
w e possess o f the Office antiphonal transm it a repertory w ithout no
tation, for exam ple, P aris, B. N ., lat. 17436 (second h alf of ninth cen
tury, see pp. 137 -13 8 ).
In the m anuscripts, the different pieces and H ours o f the d a y are
ge ne rally indicated in abbrev iated forms: A . or Ant. for Antiphona; R. o r Rt’sp. for Responsorium; Ps. for Psalmua; V. or Vs. for Vt’rsws; Cant.
fo r Canticum; Ad Vesp. for Ad vesperas; Inv. fo r hivitatorium; hi I (fl, Hi)
nocl. for /« primo (secundo, lerlio) nocturno; Mat. h u d. fo r A d matutinas
(laudes); Ad Iwr. fo r A d horas; A d f, A d HI, A d VI, A d JX for A d primani.
A d tertiam, A d sextain. A d nonant; In ev. for the canticle from the Gosp el
(Magnificat, Benedictus); A d comp!, for A d compleiorium.
The Manuscript Tradition
From the centuries prior to the yea r 1000, w e p osse ss on ly a limited
num ber of Office antiphon als, all in v ario us degrees o f incompleteness.
Therefore, it is not easy to reconstruct the history o f this liturgical
70. Not lo be confused w ith tin* M ass antiph onal, also called grad u.il; sec Pari2, II, the section on Ihe chant book s fo r the Mass.
7 1. Concerning antiphons and responsories, see pp. 12 5-12 6. as w ell as CP, 4:217 -219 , and H uglo, Livres (k chant, 25-27.
72. For a b rief presentation o f the contents of the Office antiphonal, see Hu glo,
Livre* de rfumt, 8 1-8 2. S ee also the notices of Fiala and Irtenkauf, Uturgifiche Nomcnklatur. 12 1- 12 2 ; Barofilo. "Mnnoscritti liturgid." 163 -164 ; and Thiel, " l itu r-
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book, in order to remedy this lack, we first have rccoursc to other
form s the antiphonal took durin g the High M iddle A g e s (tables of in-
cipits, com posite antipho na is, and so on) and then to the complete
antiph onais o f the eleventh and twelfth centuries, at a time the anti-phonal had not yet been incorporated into the breviary.75
Before the yea r i o o o , the list o f antiphon ais in the strict sense com
prises only six manuscripts:76
— Luc ca, Bibl. C ap ., cod. 490, perh aps prod uce d in Lucca itself as
ea rly as the eighth cen tury: it is a fragm ent, containing only
pieces for A dv en t;77
— Paris, B. N., lat. 174 36, the An tiphon al of C om piègn c, dating
from the second half of the ninth century: it juxtaposes both the
office repertory (fol. 2iv) and the Mass repertory (fols. IV-30V);78
— A lbi, B. M ., ms. 44, from the first h alf o f the tenth century (un
published);
— Antipho nal of M ont-Renaud, dating from the tenth century (Cor
bie?), Noyon;“9—St. Gall, StiftsbibL, cod. 390/391, from the tenth or eleventh cen
tury, St. Ca ll, An tiphon al o f Ha rtker o f St. C all;8“
— Berlin, StaatsbibL, m s. M us. 40047, go ing back to abo ut the ye ar
1000, Qued linburg .81
These m anu scripts present an alread y dev eloped structure that
su gge sts the existence o f first "attem pts" at com piling an tiphonais
before the ninth century.82 For instance, in the codex of Compiègne,the liturgical year is d ivid ed into tw o parts: from A d ve nt to Pentecost,
w ith all the offices o f the Tempora l and Sanctoral, and from Pentecost
75. ()n all of the manuscript witnesses, see Wesbert, CAO.
76. Se e Gy, "Carpus Arttiphonaiiutn Officii," 150 , and "l/a nt iplu m aire d<? l'office,"
Bulletin du Comité i/ts F.ttidi's 32 ( 1961) 21-28 .
77. See Cam ber, C L L A , no. 130 2; Froger, "Les fragm ents de Luc qu es (fin du VIII1' siè cle )," Etudes grégoriennes 18( 1979) M$ “ 1 53-
78. See Froger, "L e lieu de destination cl d e provenan ce du Comimtdùni'ii*," Ut
mens coucordet ixx i: Festschrift F . C ardin ? 2mot 75. Celmristag (St. Oltilien, 1980)
338-.*53-79. See lu' manuscrit du MonbReitaud. Paléographie musicale 16 (Solesmcs,
198e); Gamber, Ct.tA, no. 1307.
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lo Ad vent, with, in succession, the Sanctoral, the various comm ons,and finally the responsories and anliphons for the Temporal. The invi-
tatory antiphons, the canticles Benedictas and Magnificat, the Sunday
antiphons draw n from the Go spels, and the short responsories aregiven in an appendix.8-' As we shall see shortly, these manuscripts
demonstrate to what degree the Cnrolingian reform had advanced,
not only for the VIass but also for the Liturgy o f the Hours. The im
portance of these six m anuscripts is great for the study of the reper
tory o f the Office since they were used in various degrees by Hesbertin his monumental publication (CAO). Thus the author wa s able to
address, more or less successfully d epending on the cases, the three
basic principles for the critical edition of any liturgical book: its gen
eral organization, the composition of its formularies, and the textual
analysis o f each individual piece. On the basis of this work , it ishenceforth possible to place within the liturgical tradition o f the an*
tiphonal any m anuscript of the Office by classifyin g it under one of
the groups defined by Hesbert; these group s result from the stu dy of the order of responsories, the choice of versicles, and the varian ts in
the pieces.
Besides these completely structured antiphonals, there existed
other forms o f this book in the eighth and ninth centuries. Let us cite
in particular the antiphonal table (with incipits) incorporated into
other liturgical books, such as the collectar used by the présider at
the choral Office.8’ Let us recall also the manuscripts— forerunners of the breviary*“5— in which the antiphonal w as juxtaposed to other
parts of the Office; the manuscript tradition suggests that this juxta
position, occurring from the eleventh century on, originated in Al
sace, in Sw itzerland (St. Gall),86 and perhaps also at M onte C assin o*7
♦•veil of l iMli with parts of the Office, before tlu* Caiolingian reform; on this topic,s w tlu* hypotheses of Salmon, Office divin, zSff-, and Moller, "Research on tht* An-
tiphonar: Problems and Perspective," Journal of ihe Plaitttong and Mediaeval MusicSociety lo (1987) 1- 14 ; on all these points, see Camber. CLLA, 495-500.
83. On the central role of the organization o f the pieces of the Office in the for
mation of a liturgical book, thp antiphonal. see Salmon, Office divin, 37-.13.
84. See the section on the collector (111 below).
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Historical Importance of the Anliphona! o f the Office
Kxperts agree today that the Office antiphonal w as progressively
formed from an original repertory and nol from an archetype whose
composition was ascribed to Gregory the Great.** However, as wasthe case for the Mass antiphonal {the gradual), the attribution to Gre
gory was not without foundation. In his Vita sancti Cregorii <Life o f St.
Gregory), John the Deacon {825-S80) declares him to be the author of
the Roman antiphonal in connection with the creation of the schohi
cantoruni'** Th is statement w as sufficient for the Carolingian tradition
to perpetuate this idea, strengthened by the liturgical reform develop
ing in the eighth and ninth centuries at the instigation first of Pepin
the Short and especially Charlemagne afterward.90 Without denying
that Gregory the Great might have been the author of certain pieces,
it is impossible to hold that he compiled a whole antiphonal any
more than he com posed a com plete sacra mentary.91 One can reason
ably suppose that in the eighth and ninth centuries, and perhaps
even before, the Office antiphonal acquired successive components,Roman in origin and combined m ore or less felicitously with Gallican
repertories. In contrast to the Gregorian Sacramentarv and the Mass
antiphonal (the gradual), the Office antiphonal never attained, at
least under Charlemagne, the status of an official liturgical book. In
all likelihood, this was largely du e to the impossibility of unifyingthe whole empire through the liturgy on the basis of the Office reper
tory, given its extreme diversity, w hereas the Mass books, with theirgreater uniformity, offer a basis much more appropriate to unifica
tion. Huglo has justly noted that the divergences in the arrangement
of antiphons and responsories, despite a fairly homogeneous global
structure, give a strong specific character to the antiphonals (or the
repertories), thus demonstrating the differences between churches;
this sho w s that the driv ing force in these com pilations w as attachment to local practices rather than a desire for unity.92 In 817, the
Council of Aachen imposed a choice between the Benedictine Rule
(tw elve responsories at the night office) and the canonical Office,
88. See the slate of Ihe question and I he details given by Huglo, "Antiphonaire,
archétype " and also by Huglo "t 'édition critique de l'antiphonaire grégorien /'
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(Rom an o r secular, with nine re sponsories), necessitating for the lat
ter pro gre ssive a dap tations in the course o f the ninth century.
H ow ever, after Ch arlem agn e's death in 814, the O ffice antiphonal
w a s lo cally subjected to rew orkin g at the hands o f fam ed liturgistsand theologians of the em pire wh o, h aving ob served the impossibility
of constituting one single repertory, composed their own antiphonals,
all based on the elements Rome had contributed.93
First of all, H elisachar (d. 836), Ihe chanc ellor of L ou is the Pious
(reigned 8 13-84 0) and then from 822 on the abbot of St. Riquier,*4
took upon h imself to m od ify Ihe verses w ho se corresponden ce with
the responsories did not favor, in his opinion, the spiritual under
stan din g o f the texts. This un derta king is at the root of the split be
tween the eastern grou p, w hich m aintained the prim itive verses, and
the western group, where the marks of Helisachar's changes are the
m ost ob viou s. A fterw ard , Am alariu s (C.780-C.850), concerned about
the im portan t va rian ts in the ord er o f the pieces, the respon sories in
particular, proposed an arrangement for his church (the diocese of Trier) on the basis o f the Metz An tiphonal, which w as imbu ed with
Roman influences. Th e hybrid character of Am alariu s' antiphon al re
sulted from the lack of a fixed tradition in Rome, which Amalarius
recognized, not without sadness:95 Ex utrisque (romanis et mettensibus)
col legi eo quae recta tnihi videbanhtr, et rutionnbili curaui congruere, atque
ea redada in itmuu corpus posui sub it no textu in Hue antiphonarii nostri
["1 ha ve collected from the tw o traditions (that of Rom e an d that of Metz) w ha t seemed to me right and in agreem ent with a reasonable
cu rsus; then, written into one w hole w ith one sing le text, 1 placed
them at the end of our an tiphon al"] (Pi. 105, col. 1314). This anti-
93. 1lug lo, "L e s reman iemen ts de l'antiphon aire au IXe siècle: I U'Usachar, Agob*
ard, Am alaire," Attt del XV/// Conv egno d i stu di sul tenta C id lo cristtano e PotHiea im- w ria le carolin$ia. Todi, 9 - 1 2 ottobre 1977 ( lix l i , 1979)8 9-120; Hugto, Livres de chant,
85-94, wherv the author underline;» the consequences of the reworking of the Car
olingien liturgists' antiphonal, which lasted well into the fourteenth century.
94. On the disputed attribution of the supp lem ent to the Gregorian sacramentary
to Helisachar, see Part 2 , 1, 3, the section on the history o f the sacram entary ; on He
lisach ar's w ork and his contribution to H u * C\m>linj;ian liturgy, see I hig lo, "Trois
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phonal remained without descendants. Finally, in Lyons, where the
Greg orian antiphona l had been introduced by Leidrad (d. 813 ),96
Florus (d. c.860) and Ag ob ard (769-840) corro ded the antiphonal by
substituting responsories drawn from Scripture for non-biblical re-sponsories. By affirming as a principle that only biblical readings
should be used in the liturgy, Agobard, whose corrections met with
great success, preven ted the subsequen t creation o f non-biblical
pieces, such as tropes, in the region o f Lyo ns and in the religious
com m un ities influenced by his antiphon al.97
A fter th is perio d o f rem odeling, each m onastery or group o f m onas
teries elaborated its own rwrsitf with its own variants; however, one
cannot spe ak o f antipho nals p roperly so called.98
3 . T H P H Y M N A L
History, Forms, and Functions o f Hymns
A s early as the six th centu ry, the ancient m onastic rules, in particu
lar those of Benedict and Caesarius of Arles, mention the liturgicalrole of hymns and suggest that there existed repertories proper to the
different 1T ou rs." Th e fact that the singing of h ym ns is rooted in the
m onastic rules is the more impo rtant since until the end o f the ele v
enth century, hymns were exclusively used by monasteries before
being adopted by com m unities o f canons an d a ny cleric celebrating
the D ivine O ffice.100 A d d in g an extra d im ension to the poetic charac
ter o f the /itus perpetua at the Office, hymns introduce a lyrical element into the liturgy that fosters the mystery-oriented and spiritual
96. Sec MGI I, Tj;. 4, Aevi Karolini, pt. 2, p. 542.
97. See P.-M. G y 's rem arks, "L es tropes clans I'histoire de la liturj'io et do la
theologie," Research on Thi/vs (Stockholm, 1983) 7 -1 6 , especially 8-9.
98. On this evolution o f the adaptation o f the reworked antiphon al amon g the
Clun iacs. Cistercians, Carth usians, and the mendicant orders (Franciscans andDo minicans), see I lu^lo, Uvre> tic chant, 89-94.
99. On the hym ns as literary and poetical com positions, see CP, 4:7 .13 -2 16 ;]. Szci-
verffy. Die Amuilat 1ter fateinischen Hf/nineitdichtung: Eiu Handbuch. vol. 1: D v /ufivms-
chen Hi/wiicn hb zum Ende des 11. fahrhunderte. vol. 2: DiV hteinischen Ht/mncn tvru
r.itdc til's ti. fahrhumh'rt* Ws zum Ausgfln$ des MittelaUers (Berlin, 1984); J. Szo verffy,
fjitin tJyrri»s Typolo gie des so urces du M oven A ge occiden tal fasc 55 (Tumhout
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reflection pro per to prayer.*01 Connection w ith the psalm s, p erv asive
reference lo the ho ur of day, as w ell as om nipresent Trinitarian p raise
characterize the profound essence of the hymns.
The Hymn Repertories
Th e question o f the orig ins of a liturgical hym nal, and therefore of
an appropriate book, has been debated all through this century in
ord er to arrive at trustworthy elements o f a solution."*2
Although it is not possible to go back to the Benedictin e hym nal,
w e have from the period preceding the m id dle o f the eighth century ,
fragmen ts of repertories, from wh ich w e m ust exclud e the Am brosian
hymns, which were not circulated in book form in the Middle Ages.103
A t the end o f the eighth and begin nin g o f the ninth centuries, the first
Frankish monastic hymnal was completed, soon to be supplanted by
the "official" h ym nal o f Benedict o f An iane; this hym nal, perh aps the
w o rk o f A lc uin at Tours, show s the in fluence o f Am brose. Several
outstanding h ym ns w ere comp osed d uring the Caro lingian period 104and enriched die repertory which became more and more carefully
related to the H ou rs and the d ay s o f the liturgical year. Som e hym ns
w ere even an opportunity fo r their authors to state th eir positions in
contemporary theological debates.105 From the Carolingian period to
ou r ow n day, the repertories of the hym na l do not cease to increase
since each new feast or office entails the creation o f pro pe r hym n s.106
to i. See J. Fontaine, N aissance de la poésie dans {'O ccid ent chré ti en: Esquisse d 'u n e
histoire de la poésie latine chrétienne du llf* au V lr siècle (Paris, 1981); J. Perret. "Aux
origines de l'hym nod ie latine: ¡/app ort de la civilisation ro m aine," I m Maison-Dieu
173 ( 1988)4 1 -6 0 .
t02. On this topic, sec P,-M. Gy , "L e trésor d es hy m nes ," La M aison-Dieu 17 3(1988) 19-40, especially 23-29.
103. On the imp ortance and influence in the M iddle A ges o f hym ns composed
b y St. Amb rose, see Hym nes/Ambroise de M ilan , <?d. J. Fonla ine , text established ,
translated, and annotated by J.-L Chariot el al. (Paris, 1992).
104. See Gy. "T rteo rd es hym nes," 25-29.
105. This hvpothesis w as recently advanced for the hymn Veni creator spiritus ,
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The Manuscript Tradition
Th e oldest hym nals know n to us appe ared und er the form of com
posite books. M any .ire hym nal-psalters or are tw inned w ith other
pieces o f the O ffice (collects, canticles, read ings) .107 In the non -liturgi-cal psalters, the hymn part is generally List in the manuscript. In litur
gical psalters, the hymns are placed witliin the Hours and feasts;10*
the oldest w itness es g o b ack to the eighth century, like Vat. R cgin. lat.
n (m iddle of eighth century) written in northern France, perha ps in
the region of Paris.109
In the ninth century, the first independent hymnals made their ap
pe aran ce .'50 A few mentions in library catalogues confirm the existence
of this book: Ubrum i/tmiorum optimum I "an excellent book of hym ns"]
(St. G all, second half of ninth cen tury );111 Hinnwrum iilwlli, voiutnitia
I rid ["three vo lum es o f sm all book s of hym ns"] (Cremon a, in 984);1,2
Ymnaria duo in choro semper Iwlvndn ("two hymn als which must alw ays
be available in choir"| (Monte Cassino, in 1023).,n The mentions o f the
hym nal as an autonom ous book also gro w m ore num erous in m onasticcustom aries from the tenth and e leventh centuries. M ost often, these
manuscripts record the repertory of a particular a tradition in which
the pieces are arranged according to the liturgical year but without
musical notation. Let us also keep in mind the great diversity of
hym nals, confirm ed by the m anu scripts, that endured throughou t the
M iddle Age s because there w as not one single repertory imposed in
the be ginn ing o ve r all the liturgical traditions o f the West. From onem anuscript to the next, it is not ran* to be faced w ith an Am bro sian, a
G allican , or an y other repertory. T his div er sity Ls reinforced b y the
extrem e va riety of the m elodies existing for the sam e h ym n .,M
107. S e e t h e n o n - e x h a x is H v e l i s t o f t h e m a n u s c r i p t w i t n e s s e s i n C a m b e r , C LLA , 602- 605. F o r «1b r i e f p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t h e h y m n a l , s e e a l s o F i a l a a n d I r l e n k a u f , L it u r - gteche iV d n t a ik kt u r. M y , B a r o f l i o , " M a n o s c r i t t i l i t u r g i c i , " 163; B . S t i i b l e i n , " H y n v
n a r , " D ie M u s i? : in Ge$ch ich te to u i C c ^ i' iiuw rt , a llge me inc Ea zy ld op a d ur d c r M u stk , e d .
F . B l u m e , v o l . 6( K a s s e l , 1957) c o l s . 986- 987.
108. F o r t h e h y m n a l - p s a l t e r s , s e e t h e l i s t o f s o u r c e s i n C h a m b e r , C X M , n o s . 1601-
1624, p p . 576- 587-
109. S e e i b i d . , n o . 1617, p . 583.
n o . S e c t h e r e m a r k s o f l U i g l o , l.ix»v * <le ilu u n . 108- 110.
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The h ym nal as such did not su rv iv e the fusion of all the different
books of the Office into the breviary, a process occu rring in the
eleventh century for the m ost prim itive forms, but espe cially from
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries on.
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ÏIÏ. Prayer at the Office: The Collectar
Nature and Content o f the Book
"It is the celebran t's book at the Office, containing the read ings
and collects. To day o nly a few exist in one o r the oilier religiou s
order, to the point that many a liturgist does not even know the
w o rd "collectar." The function o f th is book w as parallel to that o f the
sacram entary: it pro vide d the celebrant w ith the texts that w ere his
to proc laim ; readin gs o r chants not pertaining pro pe rly to the cele
brant were found in other bo ok s." Su ch is the definition given b y G y
in his study on the collectar and its connection with the ritual and
the processional .” 5
From a n in-depth ana lysis of the oldest m anu script sources, G y in
the first place, then Salmon, have demonstrated that the collector
play ed a central role, along with the psalter, in the process o f the formation of one single book for the Office, the other books having pro
gressively gathered around this twofold nucleus in order to constitute
the brev iary.” 6 Before the ap pea rancc of the collectar, the sacram en
tary w as used at the O ffice for the recitation of the orations; in gen era l
the collect o f the M ass of the d a y w a s used . In certain regions, this
usage probably persisted even after the ninth century, when the first
collectars w ere p rodu ced. Sev eral saeram entaries o f the eighth andninth centuries, w hether o f the Gelasian o r Greg orian type, contain
collects od matutinns |"at Lau ds"] and ad vesperum ["at Vespers"]; this
perh aps correspon ds to the original structure o f the Ro m an Office,
j 15 . Gy, "CoHecta ire." This text is repea ted in an updated fo rm in P.-M. Gy, La
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which w a s limited to tw o I lo urs.117 These collects are often grouped
together, form ing o ne section o f the sacrame ntary, or else they follow
the Mass form ularies on certain d ay s, Kaster in particular. The Leonine
Sacramentary also gives, between formularies XXXI and XXXII, a series o f four orations for La ud s and V espers.“ * T hese collects and the
multiple aiiae orationes ¡"oth er orations''] of the sacram entaries are the
storehouse from which the independent collectar drew its material.
In its purest form, during the ninth century, the collectar contained
only collects'19 for the different Hours, in general borrowed from the
Mass of the day. In addition, it has collects spec ific for I ,auds and Ves
pe rs, according to Ihc order of the liturgical feasts, with Temporal and
Sanctoral com bined; ver y soon, capitula (short readings from sacred
Scripture) and an assortment of other preces (orations) wore added to
the collectar. From Ihc tenth century on , it w as en larged by the ad d i
tion o f other pieces,“ 0 and took vario u s form s belonging to strongly
characterized types in which the books we re either juxtaposed or com
bined. Thus, one m eets w ith hvm nal-(collectar)-psalters, antiphonal-collectars, bene dictional-collectars in wh ich the b lessing s are distrib
uted throughout the liturgical year at their proper places. The evan-
geliary with collects12’ contained the gospel pericopes with the corre
sp on din g orations; this book w as for the presider, w ho w as to read
these pieces at the night office. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
especially in monasteries, a ritual was joined with the collectar.122
O verall, the book s w e ha ve m entioned w ere m ost o f the time complete books to be used throughou t the entire liturgical ye ar and, m ore
rarely, festive com posite collectors intended for abbots, abbe sses, and
bisho ps w ho officiated on ly on big feasts.
In contrast to the sacramentary, whose contents were assigned very
ea rly to the different da ys of the ye ar (Tem poral and Sanctoral), the
11 7 . Gy, "C ollectaire," 442; A. Chiivasso, Le MCrtimittiain'gi'lntim (Tournai, 1958)
4.53- 455«1 18. See L. C. M ohlberg, Sacntmetthirium Verownse (Rom e, 1956) 75-76.
119 . On the origin o f the w ord "collect." see Part 1. L the section on sacramen
taries, anti Correa, Durham Collectar, 5-2 1 .
1 20. Those which Salm on calls the '«in ch ed collectors" in contrast lo the "sim ple
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repertory tor the collector, wh ether sim ple or au gm ented , evolved
slowly toward a fixed and more or less definitive form. Precision in the
assign m ent o f collects and even short readings, and other preces w as
observed only from the twelfth century on and grew more rigorousd u ring the second half o f the M iddle Ages.
The Manuscript Tradition
The numerous collectors of the High Middle Ages have been in
ventoried and described, at least in sum m ary fashio n, by P.-M. Gy,
P. Salmon, and K. Gamber;,2J some of them have been the object of
spccial studies. A s a result o f these efforts, the existence o f ind epe ndent coliectars is w ell attested as ea rly as the tenth century, an d the
typological diversity of the book can be uncovered thanks to the
manuscripts that have come down to us.
T he o ldest do cum ents attesting to the existence o f the collector are
fragm ents from the eighth cen tury: St. Ga ll, Stiftsbibl., cod. 349, pp.
5-36 (second ha lf of eighth century, from the region o f Constance),
co verin g the portion o f the ye ar from Easter Su n d ay to the feast of
Sts. Peter and Paul;13'1 Karlsruhe, Bad. Landesbibl., Fragm. augien. 22
(35 fols.; abou t 800, K eichenau), fragm ents of a pure Gre go rian collec
tor, with the orations for funerals.125 In the St. Gall fragments, the col
lects are arranged into form ularies corresp on ding to the da ys o f the
w eek after Easter (Vespers only ), the A nnuncia tio n, A scensio n, Pente
cost, the feasts o f Joh n the B aptist and Peter and Paul (I .auds and Vespers). Every form ula ry is interspersed w ith a series o f Aliae ora-
l tones paschales ["other paschal orations"].
For the ninth century, the Collectar of Prum (Trier, StadtbibL, cod.
504 [12 45]; i29v--.t38v),,2rt w hic h is attac hed to a m artyrolog y-
tonary, offers a m ore com plete collection com prising a part of the Sane-
toral w ith da ily collects ad nmtutinas, ad vesperas, and post evangtrlium.
12 3. (¡y, "C ollectain ;," especially .152-454, for the coliectars before the twelfth
century; Salm on, Office divin . 50-60; (¡amber, Cl I A , 548-559.124. See (¿amber, CLLA, no. 15 0 1; (X Ht’iinin jj, "D as Kollek tar tr<i)»nuvnt des
Sangallensis 340, pp. 5-36, Saec. Vlll," MMitnfzex li(urgitftu,a offer!* itu R. P. ttom
Bernard Bette (Louvain, 1972) «75-203; Correa, Dttrluim Collectar, 22-25.
«25. See Cam ber, CLLA, no. >502, and CLLA. Supplementum, 144; Correa, Durham
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At that period, the term s and expressio ns colkctarium, liber collector-
his, collectaneuni, or else oratiomUe appear to designate the collector.127
In the tenth century, one obse rve s the m ultiplication o f pro per and
com plete collectars, often with re ad ings, som etime s attached to otherboo ks, most freque ntly the ritual, psalter, and hym na l. Let us cite es
pecially the follow ing m anuscripts:
— Rh eims, M., ms. 304 (first half of tenth century, Rh eim s, Saint-
Thierry), a ritual-collectar (ordo for the funeral se rv ice);’ '4*
—Vercelli, Bibl.capit., t:od. 178 (beginning of tentli century, Vercelli),
a ritual-collectar (ordines for baptism and penance); certain col
lects arc acco m pan ied by antiphons, respon sories, and lessons;lig
—D urham , Ch ap ter lib., cod. A .IV.19 (m iddle o f tenth century,
Durham ), a ritual-collectar (with b lessing s, rituals for ma rriage
and confirmation);150
— Zu rich, ZentralbibL, cod. Rh. 83 (about 1000, Kem pten), a hym -
nal-martyrology-co llectar, the collectar beg inning at fol. i&v, with
the title fu nomine D N I incipit liber officiorutn expositua a Sco Gregorio papa de fes tis diebua vel domiuicis sen cotlidinnh de circulo mini
("In the nam e o f the Lo rd, here beg ins the book o f offices set forth
by Pope St. Greg ory for festive day s and Su nd ays as w ell as for
ferial d ays th roughout the yearly c yc le "] .'’-*1
From the eleventh a nd twelfth centuries on, other books w ere joined
to the collectar, suc h a s the pontifical (O xford , Bodl. Lib., ms. liturg.
359; end o f eleven th century, Arez zo );'32 but in gene ral, the final andoften complex form of the collectar tended to evolve toward the early
forms of the breviary.'3-'
127 . Se e the num erous references in Becker, Oiialogi, and Bischoff, Schalzt'erzeich-
nisse. The terms collechvwuttt and orafionak postdate cotlcciarium and liber collectarius,
12ft. (.¿amber, CLLA, no. 1509, and CLLA, Supplctnention, 145; Corr&i, Durham
Collectar, 63-68.
129 Camber CLLA no 1510
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IV. Reading at the Office
At the Office, there are three sorts o f readings; scriptural, patristic,and hagiograp hic, to w hich correspond as m any sorts o f boo ks, albeit
not always clearly differentiated. At first, these books were joined to
gether into the Office lectionarv; later on, the lesson s fou nd their place
in the breviary alon g w ith other parts o f the Office. To m ake things
easier, w e sha ll treat of these three typ es o f books separately, one after
the other.
t . T H E B I B L I C A L R E A D I N G S A N D T H E IR B O O K S
In the prayer of the early Christians, the reading of and meditation
on the Bible occu pied a p lace o f the greatest impo rtan ce.1-*4 It is pro b
able that the practice o f lectio am limu i (readin g the B ible in its entirety)
y ield ed early on to that o f choosing readings appropria te to the occa
sion. In his rule, Benedict directs several times that sacred Scripturebe read at the Office. Bv ery d ay at V igils, the series o f ps alm s is inter
acted by three readings (lectiones) draw n from either the O ld or N ew
Testament. A fter the second series of psalm s, a pa ssag e from the epis
tles is read. In summer, the nights being shorter, there are just three
readings with o nly one from the Old Testament. But on Sund ay, w hat
ev er the seaso n, there are four read ings a t the end of each o f the three
noctums, then, after the Te I.X'um, the presider reads the gospel. Lastly,Benedict prescribes for all the d ay H ours one reading after the psa l
mody (without specifying what kind). Benedict, following the Rule of
the Master, alread y d istinguishes long read ings from short ones (chap
ters). It is certain that the custom o f cu tting a biblical p as sage into
several readings existed at that period
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ba silica o f St. Peter in Ihe second half o f the seven th century.155 The
liturgical yea r began w ith Q uinqu agesima a nd the great book s of the
Old Testament: Genesis, Bxodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
joshua. Durin g H oiv Week, passages from Isaiah and Lam entations
w ere read; at Easier, the epistles, the Acts o f the A postle s, and R eve
lation; after Pentecost, the balance o f historical books: Sam ue l, K ings ,
and Ch ronicles; in October an d N ovem ber, the W isdom books: Pro v
erbs, Ecclesiastes, So ng of So ng s, W isdom; in December, Isaiah, Jere
miah, Daniel; after Kpiphany, Ezekiel and (he minor prophets. Orrfo
romanus XIII A , w hich in the eighth cen tury form alizes the selectionof biblical read ings at the Lateran in Rom e, sh ow s som e modifications
of the preceding orrfo.136
In its overall structure, the cycle of readings described in Ottfrnes
XIV and XIIIA is th e one observed d urin g the M iddle A ges, w ith, of
course, more or less important local ada ptations dep en din g on the
places and custom s (in particular, on the venera tion o f local saints
since a ha giograp hic read ing m ight replace the biblical one in a givenmonastery).
G iven this scriptural fram ew ork, the liturgists o f the M iddle Ag es
eng age d in a curtailing o f all the read ings at the O ffice, som etimes
go ing as far as red ucing a pericope to its incipit. Tha nk s to a certain
flexibility in practice, the length of the readings varied from one Hour
to the other, according to the time of year and the different places.
The reasons for this curtailing were many. First, there was a generaltendency du ring the M iddle Ag es to drastically shorten the readings
in offices w hich h ad gro w n too long and increasingly enriched w ith
singing (tropes, hym ns, and so on). Second, there w a s the search for a
balance between prayer and other forms of devotion, and even a cer
tain alienation from Scripture— the exception to this disaffection w as
the Franciscan breviary of the thirteenth century in which the num
ber of patristic and h agiograp hic reading s w as reduced in favor o f
Scripture, in agreement with the renewed esteem for meditation on
the B ib le .1-17
In the beginning and d urin g a large part o f the M iddle Ag es, it w as
custom ary to use a B ible for the readings. Th is w as a sim ple proce*
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dure: marginal notations written at the beginning of each biblical
bo ok allow ed the reader to qu ickly find the pcricopes for cach da y
an d each H o u r.'58 So m e rare m anuscripts of the Bible present an en
tirely liturgical structure, the book s being arra ng ed not in the ordero f the Vulgate but acco rding to the cycle of rea din gs (M ilan, Hibl.
Am brosiana, cod. E 51 in f.; ele venth-tw elfth centuries).‘ 3g The pro
gressive abridgement of readings gave rise to smaller books with se
lected contents, such as the Sa l/bu rg m anu script (M useum Carolino-
A ugusteum , no. 2163) from the ninth century in w hic h folio s 2 - 10
contain only the read ing s from Isaiah for A d v en t;140 another conse
quen ce of these shorter reading s w as the appearan ce o f lectionaries,
and then breviaries (see IV, 4, and VI of this part).
For the short read ings or abbreviated readin gs d ivid ing a biblical
pa ssag e into seve ral pericopes, it becam e customa ry early on to copy
them into the collectar, follow ing tine collects for the w ho le o f the
liturgical y ea r or inserted at their plac es in the celebration. The prob
able reason for this w as that the pre side r at the Office ha d the task of read ing a nd reciting both the brie f lesson an d the collect.141 H ow ever,
some collections of short readings (capitularies)*4* independent from
the collectar are extant; they w ere used in m ona steries for the day
H ours and the night office durin g Eastertide and d uring the summ er:
Ro m e, Bibl. Vallicel., cod. A .3, fols. 1-8 5 (eleventh century); St. C all,
Stiftsbibl., cod. 423 {tenth century) and 428 (eleventh century).143
Finally, one can su rm ise that in add ition to the lists of pericope s forthe M a ss /44 there existed lists of biblical rea dings for the O ffice, al
though none h as come d ow n to our times. But in the G allican liturgy,
w e have bib lical lectio naries, written in the six th and seventh cen
turies, that contain the Mass pericopes and the Office readings/45
138. See Salmon, Office divw . 26-27.
139. See Martnnort, ¡¿'dure.s lilurgitfues, 73.140. Cam ber, no. 1630a; for a gene ral view of the m anuscript witnesses
of the books of biblical readings at the Office in the High M iddle A ges , see C U A , 588-592.
141. Gy, "Collectaire," 448-450; Martinmrt thinks—wrongly, in our opinion—
that it is the presen ce o f the little chap ters in the collectar that led the presid er to
assu m e their reading, Lectures liturgtques, 75
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either combined or in separate sections. One of the representative ex
amples of this type of book is the Lectionary of I uxeuil (Paris, B. N.,
lat. 9427; end of seventh or b egin ning of eighth century, from the re
gion of Paris).146
2 . TM K P A T R I ST IC R E A D IX 'G S A N D T H K IR B O O K S
In the West,147 the practice of reading the works of the Church Fa
thers is attested b y the Rule of Benedict wh o directs that, besides b ib
lical texts, biblical com m entaries be read e ve ry d a y at Vigils at the
time of yea r w hen nights are long: Oxiices uutem leguntur in vigiliis
Jivim ie auctoritalis, tarn veteris Testmmmti ijmtm Novi, sed et exposiliones
iv ¡rum, quae a nominal is et orthodoxis Patribus fac loe sunt ("Besides the
inspired b ooks of the Old and N ew Testaments the w ork s read at the
v ig ils should inclu de expla nations o f Scripture by reputable and or
thodox Fathers"|.,,,A But already in the Decrelmu Cehsianum —an Ital
ian work from the fiflh century which lists authors from the third,
fourth, and fifth centuries and w ho se reading w as recom m ended—the concern w as to eva luate the authority of the Fathers in orde r to
discern their su itability for liturgical re ad ing.'44 Because this com pila
tion utilizes Rom an docum ents, one can sup po se that the use o f pa
tristic read ings in the liturgy w as k n ow n in R om e before the sixth
century. Ordo rotnanus XIV (second h alf o f seventh century), repre
senting the custom s o f mo nasteries servin g the basilica o f St. Peter,
end s w ith these w ords: Tractatus z>ero sancti Hieronymi, Ambrosi, cetera- runt Palrutn, proul ordo poscit, leguntur ("Readings are taken from the
treatises of Sts. Jerom e, Am brose , and other Fathers, as the ordo indi
ca tes "!. 150 Con clud ing the yea rly cyc le of biblical re ad ings, these texts
w ere in tended as com m entaries on sacred Scrip ture. A little later, a
ho m ily on the gospe l replaced the scriptural text ev ery da y; and by
146. On this manuscript, see Salmon, i v Itrikmnain' tU' i.uxeuil, 2 vols.. Collectaneabiblica latma 7 and 9 (Romo, 1944, 1955).
147. Ihere is a goo d s um m ary o f tho state o f the questions concerning tlu* patris-
tic readings in A -G. Marhm ort, " 1 a kvturv patristique dan s la liturgie de s I leu tv s/ '
T m l i t w c t P n ig / vs st o : S t td l t f it u r g ic i in on ow Pn>f. A d r ie n N t v r n t , O S B , Sludia Anselmi-
ana 95 (Rom e, 1988) 31 1- 3 3 1 . See also M artimort, iuriun-s iitur^u(iu's. 77-ik); CR 4:222-225; Salmon O ffice Abitt
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the eighth century, the cur$n$ o f patristic read ings can be regarded as
fixed in the West for the duration o f Ihe M iddle A ge s, albeit with a
good nu m ber of local v aria n ts. '5’
A s for the practice o f lectio continue, which w as one o f two w ays o f reading the Fathers at the O fficc /5’ no pa rticular book w as necessary.
It was sufficient to make use of the monastery library and take out a
manuscript o f the wo rks o f Au gustine or Jerome, for instance, and then
sim ply ad d in the m argins the div isions into readings. A representa
tive example of this practice is furnished us by some collections of
A u gustin e's serm ons: Bibl. Vat., Pal., lat. 2 10 (six th/seventh cen
turies, Lorsch); Pal., lat. 298 (tenth century, of un kn ow n pro ve
nance).15' H ow ever, the more and more rigorous assignm ent of
prop er read ings to the Ho urs an d feasts required the m aking o f ap
propriate books. Thu s w ere bom the sermon aries and hom iliaries of
fering to the celebrant a choice o f patristic co m m entaries easily
ava ilable for the patristic read ing at the O ffice.151 Th e great varie ty of
these books attests to the many customs in force, depending upon theplaces and the diffusio n o f traditions.
In the M iddle Age s, the distinction betw een serm on ary and homil-
iary was artificial even though in the Latin usage, the word "homily"
is reserved for the exp lanation o f the G osp el. In both book s, the Fa
thers’ texts, div ided into readings o f vary ing length, w ere copied in
the order in which they were used in the liturgical year, frequently
with a separatio n between the w in ter part (from A d vent to Faster)and the sum m er part (from Easter to Ad ven t). Sometimes, the authors
w ere id entified by an alp habetic system in which each had his ow n
letter. Some of the.se collections were simply used as an aid for the
spiritual meditation of the monastics; others were a resource for the
preparation of sermons; still others were intended for use at Mass.155
The work of several researchers has made it possible to reconstruct
the Roman homiliary of the sixth and seventh centuries on the basis
>51. On the later evolu tion, espe cially in the thirteenth century, o f the orga niz a
tion of patristic readings in the West, s w Salm on, Office div in, 9 3 * 9 4 » 166-167.
152. See Miirtimort. Lectures fiturgique*. 79-80.
153. {bid., ftu.
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o f m ore recent m anu scripts (tenth to twelfth cen turies).156 Tha nk s to
the comparison with other ancient Roman books, such as lectionaries
{or rather lists of readings), it lias becom e po ssible to reconstitute the
origina l liturgical structure (respective organ ization o f the Temporal
and Sanctoral) of the homiliary of St. Peter. For each celebration, this
ho m iiiary offered a collection o f serm ons am on g w hich the presider
w as free to choose. So scholars have deduced that as with the sacra-
m entarv at M ass, each church or m onastery had its ow n particulari
ties. On the basis of the homiliary of St. Peter from the seventh
century, four types took form in the eighth century: (1) the Homiliary o f the Basilica o f St. Peter (after Bibl. Vat., Arch . S. Pietro, cod. C .10 5 ;
tenth century), ov era ll faithful to its mo del but incorp orating changes
due to the evolution of the Roman liturgy in the eighth and ninth
centuries; {2) H om iliary of Agim ond for the R om an basilica o f Sts.
Philip and Jam es, whoso three vo lum es cover the w ho le liturgical
year; (3) the H om iliary o f Egin on o f Verona (afte r Berlin, Deutsche
Staatsbibl., Phillipps 1676), written for the cathedral of Verona about796-799, under Egin on 's episcopa cy; (4) the H om iliary o f A lain of
Farfa (7 61-77 0), which can be reconstructed from tw o group s of
m anusc ripts.157 O ther hom iliaries preced ing the C aro ling ian reform
do not b elong to the Rom an tradition, and it is no t sure that they
w ere used fo r the O ffice.158
A t the time o f the adaptatio n o f the Rom an liturgical usages to the
needs of the Callican church, from tine eighth century on, the curseso f patristic read ings p rogressively became m ore precise, dep end ing
on local customs and the character of the officcs, either long and need
ing com plete rea ding s or short and requiring the curtailment o f all
kinds of texts, among them the Fathers' sermons and homilies. As he
had d one in the case of the sacram entary, C harlem agn e play ed a de
cisive role in the case o f the books o f read ings at the Office by com
156. Se e particularly the two basic pu blications of R. Gre goire , Lcs homelmires du Moyen Age: tnventnire. t'i analyse ties tuanuscnis (Rom e, 1966), <md Honteiiaires liiitr- giques mMievaux (Spoleto, 1980); A. Ch ava sse, "U n hom eliaire lihiryiqu e remain
du V lc sk-clo/' Kitiu’ bencdicline 90 (1980) 194 -23 3; J.-1 ’ ttouhot, "L'homeli.iin- de
Smnt-Pierre du Vatican au milieu du V IP sieck* et s«a posttfrite " Rccherches uugut-
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missioning Paul the IX'acon to compose an "official" homiliary which
rap idly gaine d acceptance through out the em pire.*59 T his collection
contained 244 sections corresponding to the liturgical year as it had
been established by the Gregorian Sacramentary. This is a revealingfact, dem onstrating that the autho rity o f the official sacram entary at
the time of the Caroiingian period succeeded in imposing itself at the
expense of the Roman model represented by the homiliary of St. Peter
from the seventh century, wh ose influence end ured but w as transmit
ted through other channels. When compared to preceding collections,
the homiliarv of Paul the Deacon innovated on two essential points;
first, it strictly assigned one patristic text to each da y (with rare exce p
tions) and no longer a num ber of texts am on g wh ich a choice could
be m ade; second, it offered for all the Su n da ys of the ye ar and m any
feasts a hom ily on the gospel o f the d ay identified by one or two o f
the ope nin g verses.
From the ninth century on, one sees particular traditions proliferate
and become entrenched, depending upon the choice made by monasteries an d churches with regard to patristic rea din gs at the Office.160
Here, one m ust not take into account either A lcu in's hypothetical ho-
m iliary16’ or the ho m iliaries of the School of A u xe rre 162 com pose d for
m editation (in close connection w ith exegetical teaching) and not for
liturgical reading. Without going into a detailed description of each of
the collections, on w hich w e p ossess ve ry m any m on og rap hs,163 let us
sim p ly note som e im portant points in the evolution o f the liturgicalho m iliaries between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. The anc ient tra
ditions, p articu larly the Kom an hom iliarv o f St. Peter, either persisted
locally, esp ecia lly in central Italy, or w ere sup plan ted by profound
transform ations occurring in particular churches. In the West as a
159. Jbid., 87 -Î& (with bibliography}; Vogel, Introduction, 363-365. The com mis
sioning letter of Ch arlemagn e can be found in M G H , Qipitularia regum Fmncorum, vol. 1 , Ko-ft i.
160. See a report on the state of this question in Vogel, Introduction, 364-365.
161. See L'Eco le carolingienne d'Auxerre : De Murethitch <> Rfati, 8)o<.yoS: Entretiens
d'Aiixern' io S q . ed. D. logna-l’rat, C. Jeudy, G. Lorichon (Paris, 1991), in particular,
R. Etaix, "I.es hom éliaires carolingiens de l'Hcole d'Au xerre ,“ 24 3-2 51; see also H.
Barré, Les Imnêliatrcs airotingtent de IT.cote d'Auxerre, Slu d i e Iesti 225 (Vatican City,
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whole , one notes im portant interaction between liturgical and exegeti-
cal ho m i!iaries/ the Jailer n urtu ring the first, and also betw een d iffer
ent liturgical traditions. From the tenth and eleventh centuries on,
texts from recent or contem porary au thors we re ad de d to the readingsdrawn from the Fathers/ and through these additions, the various tra
ditions asserted m ore clearly their distinct identities. The new orde rs
o f the twe lfth an d thirteenth ce nturies (especially the Cistercians and
Carthusians), imp osed a stand ard m odel upon the different hous es of
their orders.
Lastly, let us mention that in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Ihe
liturgical ho m iliarv w as inserted into the O ffice lectionary, like lhat of
Cluny (see section 4 below) in which the biblical, patristic, and hagio
graphie readings are grouped together. A little later, the Office lec-
tionary w a s itself incorp orated into Ihe bre via ry /64 but not without
having been reorganized in relation to the other parts of the Office.
3 . T I IE H A G I O CR A PH IC RE A D ING S A ND T H EIR BOOKSThe reading o f the lives o f saints and the pa ssions o f m artyrs du r
ing liturgical assem blies in antiquity is attested o n ly in Ch ristian
A frica, fo r in stance, at the time o f A ugustin e for the vigil o f a sain t's
feast. In the non-Roman liturgies of the seventh and eighth centuries
there w ere h agiograp hie readings at M ass and the Office, as is proved
by nu m erous Iberian, G allican, and Am brosian docu m ents. ’65 The
liturgical character o f the m an usc ripts pertaining to these traditionscannot be doubted: one proof am on g others is the existence of m ar
ginal notations for the division of the text into rea din gs for the Office
or Mass. For example, the Iberian passional, known through manu
scripts written at the A bb ey of Silos, offers a well-structured cycle of
ha giograp hie read ings follow ing the rhythm s o f the offices and litur
gical year.1** For a long time, the Roman liturgy remained hostile to
this type of wading in the liturgy. In their original state, Onlines ro-
164. See VI below, the section on the breviarv.165. On the history of hagiographie readings, see Martimort, Iscturcs liturgiques.
97-100; CP, 4:225-227. Concerning Hu* list of manuscripts of the Iberian, Gallican,and Ambrosian traditions, see Camber, CM A 18 1-183, 218-219, 286.
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ftuwi XIII an d X IV ignore them; ho w ever, after their arriva l in G au l,
they w ere subm itted to modifications, on e o f them being the «autho
rization to read hagiographical accounts: similiter tractatus. proul ordo
poscit. pasfione* niartyrum et vita? patrm n catltolicorum leguntu r ("in thesame way as the treatises, according to what the ordo prescribes, the
passions o f the m artyrs and the live s of the Catho lic bathers are
re ad "].1*7 In Rom e itself at the beg inning o f the ninth century, one ob
serv es a change o f customs: from then on, it w as recom m ended, at
least for the vigil of Roman saints in their own churches, that their
passions be read. In the twelfth century, the ordo of the l-ateran pro
vid es for a hagiographic reading for all the b ig feasts o f saints.16® In
the second half o f the M iddle Ag es, p assions and legends became pre
dom inant in the Office readings, contributing up to six, and eve n nine,
lessons; certain people regarded them with grave reservations.169
The High Middle Ages left few manuscripts attesting to the Roman
tradition concerning hagiog raph ic readings. Hie early legend aries,
w hose production began in the eighth ccntury and reached its clim axin the eleventh and twelfth, w'ere rarely intended for the celebration of
the Office.*70 Their liturgical structure suggests rather that they were
used for the reading in the refectory or for personal meditation.1"1
Som e m edieval legen daries in w hich the texts are d ivid ed into three,
six, nine, or twe lve readings, w ere used in choir du ring the Officc, for
instance, Bibl. Vat., Vat., lat. 5771 (Bobbio, tenth century).172 From the
eleventh and twelfth centuries on, we know of a greater number of passionals—the passional was designated by the terms passionarius,
passionate, or liber passiontilis in m ediev al texts. They contained the acts
of the martyrs and, by extension, any other hagiographic narrative.’7'
It is possible that they were used in liturgical celebrations, but there
167. Ordo mnuutus XIV, see A nd rieu, OK, 3:4 1, 29-30 ; also D ubois and Lemaitre,
Sources ct methedes, 1 (>1-190.168. On all these questions, see M artimort, Lttfiift’s ¡iturgiques, 99-100.
169. See Salmo n, Officc div in, 98; on the place of these rea din gs in the Office of
the Rom an Cur ia in the thirteenth ccntury, see ibid., 14 3- 14 7.
170. See Lit urgfa* Vaticanu, 44-48.
17 1. See M artimort, Lectures liturgujtu's, 10 0 -10 1. On the legendaries as a hagio
graph ic literary genre, sec G , Philippart, Irgnuiiers lat ins ft autre* numtt$crit$
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is no certain pro of of this. These p assionals gen erally follow the order
of the calenda r per circuium anni ["through the yearly cycle"]; others
are organ ized by categories of person ages (apostles, saints, confessors
of the faith). In the twelfth century, there appeared passionals presenting at the beg inning o f each life or passion o f a saint a historialcd ini
tial, whethe r related or unrelated lo a pa ssag e of the text; these are
true treasures o f hagio grap hic icono grap hy.’7-1
In fa d , the hagio grap hic re ad ing s a I the O ffice w ere most o/lcn
w ritten directly in the hom ilia rie s, cither in a distinct part o f the book
or inserted at their places in the succcssion of celebrations.1^5 How
ever , iii m an y cases, the com plete Icctionary rearran ged the cyc le of readings, including the hagiographic ones, w ith a v iew to balancing
the different kinds of texts according to the number of readings.
4 . T H E U - C T I O X ' A R Y O l ; I H H OFF-lCE
In a w ay sim ilar to that follow ed by the M ass lectionarv, the O ffice
lectionary bro ught together a large part o f the read ing s (in general,
on ly the incipit is written) for the O ffice as celebrated in a given place;
its plan correspo nd ed to each celebration for the w hole of the liturgi
cal year, most often divided into two parts (summer and winter).176
H av ing c om e onto the scene in the tenth century, the Office lectionar-
174. See, for instilncv, the famous Passional of Zw iefalten, about 11 2 0 - 11 3 5
(Stuttgart, Wurtem bergische l.andesbibl. Co d. Bibl. 2” 56-58), com prising three volum es; see Katafag dcr ilfuminierten Handschrifieii der Wurttmherpschen Umdesbib-
liothck Siu iig ar l: Die roimnischcu Handschrifien d cr Wurte/ni'crgischen Landesbiblio-
thek Siuttgart, vol. 2 .1, Provenance of Zw iefalten, ed. S. vo n Borries-Schulten and
H. Sp illing (Stuttgart, 1987) nos. 34-36; and S. vo n Borries-Schulten, "Z u r roman-
ischen Buchmnlerei in Zw iefallen: Z w ei Ulustrationsfolgen zu den Heiligenfeslen
de s Jnhros und ihrv Vorlagc n/' Zeitscltrifl fi i r Kunstgeschichti' 52 (1989) 445ft'. This
passional w as completed bv the illustrated m nriyrology, about 11 6 2 (Stuttgart, Co d.
hist. 20 415); see Z. Haefeli-Sonin, Auftm xgehrr und F.ntu't/rfckoiizt'pt im Zwkftiltencr mtirtttrolofi des 12. fahrhunderts (Berne, 1992) Krtt<ilo%, no. 64. See also the Passional
o f Weissenau, about 1200 (Geneva, cod. Bodm er 127); see S. Michon, U Grand Pas-
siomwire tiitunmu'r elr VVVvsSi*»/!« t‘t non scrifiioriunt Outour <lc 1200 {Geneva, 1990); at
the end o f this book there is a ve ry helpful catalogu e in w hich a fair num ber of il
lustrated passion als of the Middle A ge s are featured.
175. See Martimort, Uviures liiur$iipte$, 10 1, who gives a list of homiliarics with
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ies diminished in num ber from the tw elfth century on, in fav or o f the
breviaries and ev en of other older forms o f book s of readings, such as
hom iliaries or b iblical, patristic, and hag iograp hic m anu scripts with
m arginal annotations. In his history o f the formation o f the breviary,Salmon rightly thinks that together with psalters and collectars, Of
fice lectionaries, called enriched (for example, Paris, B. W, lat. 743,
eleventh century, Saint-Ma rtial of L im oge s; Florence, Bib!. M arcel.,
cod. 0 .15 9 , end o f eleventh century, Tuscany), had acted as the nu
cleus around wltich certain prim itive form s o f the brev iary had taken
shape.'77
One of the particularities o f the O ffice lectionaries w as their essentially local character; they were intended for one monastery or one
religious order. The great diversity existing in both the arrangement
o f the O ffice rea ding s and the other elem ents o f the liturgy of the
I lours prevented the emergence of a standard lectionary, authorita
tive through out the w h ole West. An ab bey or an ord er affirm ed its
identity in liturgical matters by establishing, am on g other things, its
ow n original system o f readings, the result of the combination o f sev eral ho m iliaries for instance.
A m on g the O ffice le ctio naries which have been preserved, the most
com plete, in w hich Tem poral, Sanctoral, an d Co m m on o f the Saints
succee d one «mother, con tain the incipits o f the biblical, patristic, and
ha giograp hic readings for Su n da ys and big feasts (those w ith three
nocturns and twelve readings) organized into formularies; but they
do not p rov ide for ferial d ay s or feasts w ith three readings. We pos
sess a representative exam ple o f this sort of lectionary in the Cluniac
lectionary en tirely reconstituted b y R. Etaix on the ba sis o f three
manuscripts: Paris, B. N., lat. 13371 (fols. 871-96V); n.a.l. 2390 (first
half of eleven th century); n.a.l. 2246 (about tio o ).17,i T he se attemp ts at
reconstitution pro ve to be indispensable, not on ly for kn ow ing the
liturgy of a give n place at a certain p eriod o f the M idd le A ge s, butalso for reconstructing the Sanctoral o f an o utstanding abbey, like
Cluny, and thus on the basis of one liturgical cwrsus of the office, the
evo lution of the cult o f saints in general.
ii? f h h i d ) i l di i i i d b
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O ther similar efforts have been successfully m ade by taking as a
point of departu re docu m entation often incomplete {fragm ents of lee*
tionaries) but nonetheless he lpful bec ause it can be com pared w ith
other sources like custom aries an d ordinaries (in w hich cerem oniesare described), breviaries, and also biblical ma nu scripts w ith marginal
annotations.’79
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V. The Books of the Office of Prime
Long neglected by liturgists, Ihe books used for the office in chapter [the room w here a co m m un ity of m onastics or canons assem ble]
after Prim e h av e o f recent ye ars been the object of a ren ew ed interest,
especially on the part of historians. In fact, only the martyrology had
been studied p rev iou sly by m any liturgists. The red iscove ry (in cer
tain cases, one can ev en speak of discove ry) o f the other books, such
as necrologies or obituaries, libri memoriales, libri vitae, and ev en the
book o f the chapter, was stimu lated by the historians' research on thecom m em oration o f tine de ad in the M idd le A g e s.lRn
From the Carolingian period on, new forms of commemoration of
the dead dev eloped in the m edieval W est perhaps induced by an
other vision of death and the hereafter. New liturgical practices arose
¿it M ass and the O ffice du ring which on e comm em orated all deceased
religious (clerics, abbots, abbesses, monastics) as w ell a s certain lay
persons w hose nam es w ere kept in books (or other necrological documents) ow ing their origin to these pra ctices.181 'Hie com m em oration
of the dead w as the ideal setting for the em ergence o f new form s of
social intercourse, in pa rticular confraternities, b etwe en ecclesiastical
com m unities, abbeys, churches, cathedrals, and chapters o f canons.
In the C aro lingian pe riod, the recitation o f the nam es of the de ad to
180. 5 et> in particular the w ork o f the Germ an schoo l o f M unster, and especially
the book o f essays Memoria: Der CeschicfitUcfie JZeugnisuvrl </<•*. tilur^iadien Gedi'nkett>
ini Mittelulter, ed. K. Schmid ami J. Wollasch, Munstersche Mittelalter Schriften 48
(Munster, 19B4). Sec als o O.G . Oex le, "Memoria und Momorialuberlieferung im
friihen M ittelalter," FriilnnUtelnlL’rHdie Stt/dioi 10 (1976) 70-95.
181. Concerning the many necrological docum ents of that period—books, wax
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be com m em orated du ring the liturgy d id not w ail for specific books
to be created. Before the appe aran ce o f true necrological do cum ents,
mention of the nam es of deceased persons, sin gly or in g roup s, are
found in a great num ber of m edieval docum ents. L imiting ourselvesto the liturgical field, w e find such na m es in sacramontaries, at the
canon of the M ass w here they are added to certain p ray ers (Memento,
Nobis quoque), an d in calen da rs.,'i i The creation o f new types o f book s
attests to the m assive d evelopm ent of these practices and of their
codification within a precise liturgical setting, the office in chapter,
where th ey w ere p laccd next to the com m em oration o f the sain ts and
m artyrs o f the Church. W hen re ad in a m ethodical w ay, these liturgical docum ents g ive
pre cious inform ation on ihe life of m edieva l society, in pa rticular in
m onasteries, w here the com m em oration o f the dead w as particularly
flourish ing .181 Finally, the w ork o f the School o f M ünster has show n
the richness o f these texts, or rather o f these lists, for lino stu dy o f the
relationship betw een m onasteries and for prosopo graphy .
i . T HE OF F ICE IN CHA PT ER A F T ER PRIM E
From the eighth century on, the custom o f reading the nam es of
the de ad w ho se com m em oration w as m ade at the office in chapter
after Prim e became w idespread. The H our of Prim e w as the last to
have been introduced into the cursus o f the D ivine O ffice, probab ly in
the fifth century.i8s But it was only in the eighth century- that Ihe first
tangible elem ents of this office m ake their appe arance. Written in a
little mon astic com m un ity follow ing the Lu xeu il observa nce , Ordo ro-
monuf XV III, ftoing back to the end o f the eighth century, sets the of
fice o f Prime, wh ich takes place in the dorm itory, at the first or second
hour of the day: 3. tshi prima ibi catttaiur ubi donniunt el ibidem pro in-
viccnt, cnpitolo dicto, orant. 4. St atini, ibi sediunt prior cum ipsis, i't ibi le-
gu n l regulam sam’ti Benedict} el <1 priore, vel cni ipse iussent. per sin gobs
365-405 , and b y the samt? authors, '"Socie tas et fraternités’: B egrü ndu ng eines
komm entierten Quellenwerkes zur Erforschung d er Personen und Personengrup
pen des Mittelattorx," ¡'rühinittehilterlicht Studien 9 (1975) 1-48.
iS y See Part 2 , 1, the section on sacram entaries.
S ll h d b L î M i ä S i M i l L é
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sermones exponitur, ita ut omtuv inteiiegtwl ul tiuHus frater se tie igiwran-
titwi regole excusare po$sit ["3. '['his hour o f Prim e is sun g wh ere they
sleep; and once the little chapter has been recited, they pray in the
same place. 4. Immediately afterward, they sit there, the prior being w ith th em, and re ad the Rule o f St. Benedict; all the w ord s are ex
plained one by one by the prior or anyone charged w ith doing so in
order that no brother m ay excuse him self by invo king h is ignorance
of I he R u le "| .lS(’ T he Ru le that C hrod ega ng , b ishop o f M etz, im posed
on the canons of the cathedral marks an important step in the forma
tion o f Prime since it sh o w s a w ell-organized O ffice.187
A t that time, Prim e com prised the reading o f one chapter from theRu le (according to local custom s), a serm on or ho m ily (on Sunday,
W ednesd ay, Frid ay, and solem n feasts), and the reading of the martyr*
ology. But there w as nothing yet about com m em orating the dead.
On e canon of the C oun cil o f Aachen in 8 17 describes a similarly
structured office of Prime , and stresses the im portanc e of the martvr-
o lo g y ,'^ but it also allud es to the com m em oration of the de ad .,Sÿ
By Ihe ninth century, the office in chap ter after Prime w a s com
pletely established an d presented the follow ing structure: (1) office of
the reading s, (2) chap ter o f faults, (3) assignm en t o f manu al labor.
O nly the office o f reading s h ad a strictly liturgical characte r since
the other two parts w ere concerned rather w ith the organization of
life within the monaster)'. There was a special emphasis on penance
w ith the chapter of fa ults, during w hich the m onastic s publicly con
fessed their faults, accused one another, and received the penances
nc cessa ry fo r the atonement o f faults.
Because o f the first section, the office o f readin gs, a p articular book
came into existence, the chapter book, first attested in the ninth cen
tury. Th us, w e once m ore observe the sam e process, repeated
186. Andrieu, OR. 3:195-208.
187. Tw o redactions of C hro deg ang 's Rule w ith tw o different lilies are extant: In
Itora prinui ("at the first hour"] in the first (PL 89, col. 1067) mid ¿if capiiuhan quo-
lidic venial ("that one should com e to chapter everyd ny "| in the second ( P i 89, col.no2) .
188. See B. de Gaifficr, "D e l'us ag e et de la lecture du m artyrologe: Tém oignages
antérieu rs au XI1' siècle ," Amleclti BoUandimui 79 {19 6 1) 40-59.
" ff d " h f " d h
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throughout the Middle Ages: a liturgical action, once firmly implanted,
brin gs abo ut the creation of an ap pro priate boo k, tailored fo r use in a
specific rite.
In monasteries and cathedral chapters, another consequence of theoffice in chapter after Prim e w as that a p articular spa ce reserved for
its enactm ent w as pro vided , the chap ter hall, early Indications of
w hich are alread y attested in the eighth century.191
2 . THE CHAPTIiK BOOK
A com posite book if there w as ever one sin ce it is m ade up o f oth er
books in juxtaposition, the chapter book was used in the Middle Agesfor just the first part (devoted to the readings) o f the office in chapter
after P rim e.1'1'* The o ldest com plete m anusc ripts go back to the ninth
century. The best know n am ong them is the m artyrology of U suard,
an inaccurate title since this book also includes the other texts of the
office of Prime (Paris, B. N., lat. 13745; Saint-Germain-des-Pres, after
858),195 whose contents are as follows:
— prologue by Usuard, a mon k o f Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the au
thor of the book (fols. 1- 2 );
— m artyrology, com posed by Usu ard (fols. 3-38);
— hy m ns in hon or of St. Germ ain (fols. 88v-89r);
— list o f the abbots o f Saint-G erm aiiv-des Pros (fols. 89V-90V);
— Rule o f St. B enedict (fo ls. 90%—156);
—necrology (fols. 157-183).Th e m ajority o f med ieval m anu scripts used at the office in chapter
are m ade up of the R ule (Benedictine, Au gustinian, an d so on), m arty
rology, and necrology (or obituary). Sometimes, a loctionary is added,
most often reduced to the mention of the liturgical day and gospel
pericop e follow ed by the incipit of the hom ily.194
au XVI1' siècle: L'exemple français," M enio m : Der G esdiid ii lidie XeugHtsuvrt,
625-648.
19 1. On this topic, see the texts collected b y l.en u ilre, "A u x origines de l'office
du chapitre et de la salle capitulaire: L 'exemp le tie Fontenello," La Neustriv: U v
¿my* (ii/ nord d e là Loire de 650 à S$o. Colloque historique international, éd. H. Atsm a, 2
vols ., Beiheftc lier Francia 16 (Sig m ariu gen, 1989) 2:365-369.
h h f h b k 1 " b h l " f
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In the texts of the M idd le Ag es, the mention o f the l.ilv r capituli is
rare and accord ing to the stu d y o f J.-L. Lem aitre, is not found before
the thirteenth century.*95 During the High Middle Ages, the chapter
book w as often d esignated by the title of one o f the texts com posingit imnrtyrologium, re$ula) or on occasion both.
Let us now turn to the history and contents of the two principal
liturgical books contained in the chapter book.
3 . T H E M A R T Y R O L O G Y
J. Dubois devoted a large part o f his schola rly labors to the study of
m artyrologies, in w hich the historians of m edieval liturgy are highly interested, especially because these docu m ents help us understand
the cult o f sain ts’96 an d retrace its history.
W hile the litu rgical calendar cited o n ly the nam es and qualitie s of
the saints, the martyrology, which followed the Roman (calends,
nones, and ides) not the liturgical calendar,’'*7 announced the an
niversa ries o f the saints celebrated in the different churches. A lon g
w ith nam es, the places w here the sain ts w ere venerated, their quality,
their tim e, and som etim es a sum m ary o f their actions, their "history,"
w ere m entioned; hence the term "historical m a rtyro lo g y" These texts
w ere re ad every d a y d u rin g the first part o f the office ii\ chapter after
Prime, som etim es w ith se veral saints on the sam e day, therefore sev
eral "sto ries." Com piled from d iverse sources (legends, passions, lives
o f the saints, chronicles, and so on), the notices in the m artyro logy
Hours o f the Office or at Mass. For a com plete su rve y o f the manu scripts, their
contents, their codicological aspect, their chronological and geographical reparti
tion, see Leinaitre, "Liber capituli." 637-648.
195. T he oldest kno wn mention is in the chapter book o f the A bb ey o f C lunv
containing the list of the manuscripts commissioned by the abbot Yvos I of Vergy
(1257-1275), Paris, B. N., lat. 10938: item collectorturn . . .c i librutn ruu'mir capiiuti ["likew ise, a colloc tar. . . and the new chap ter bo ok "|; see l.emaitre, "Lib er capit
ul i , " 626627.
196. See I- Dubois, /r tnartiftvloge tin Movcn Age latin, Typologic des sources du
Moyen ag e occidental, fasc. 26 (Turnhout, 1978), with 7 pag es o f up date; see also
the collection of the main articles which he has devoted to this book, Martyrologe$:
D'U$uard «INmtriywlvgi' ronuiin (Ab bev ille, 1990), See also the notice in Uturgica
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are the best sources of information on the cult of the saints, the to
pography a f places in antiquity and the H igh M iddle A ges, the dis
covery and translation of relics, the dedications of altars and
churches, the relationship betwe en m onasteries and chap ters of canons. The m ediev al m artyro logies, wh ethe r integrated into I he
chap ter boo k o r not, allo w us to reconstitute the history o f the differ
ent kn ow n traditions (based on the H icronym ian M artyro logy [fifth
century], tine Martyrology of Ado 1858], the M artyro logy o f Usuard
(after 858-b efore 875], and so on).
The m ajority o f m edieval m anu script sources contain, more or (ess
m odified, the text o f the M artyrolog y of U suard (w hich has no em pty
day). Usuard composed his martyrology, using several textual tradi
tions .198 A go od nu m ber of local typ es de rive from the M artyro logy
o f U suard, recast to a g reater o r lesse r extent.1'*9 The relative unity o f
different m artyrologies is due to their draw ing from a com m on store;
in the manuscripts, this forms a structure on which are arranged ele
m ents either particular to one religious hou se or shared by otherm onasteries o f the sam e family. Th is blend o f un ity and d ivers ity is
one of the riches of these liturgical documents. They enable us to
fathom, even to reconstitute, the history of a particular cult, to get the
feel of the evolution o f hagiog raph y in the M iddle A ge s, thanks to
he lpful com parisons w ith other liturgical books an d var iou s texts.
True w itnesse s to the liturgical life of an abbey, they bea r the traces of
new cults in the num erous m arginal additions visible in alm ost allmanuscripte. The great numb er o f sources which h ave come dow n to
us prove that each church wanted to possess "its own" martyrology,
indispensable because of its use at the office. The martyrologies were
not on ly em ploye d to anno unce the saints of the d ay ; abov e all they
w ere m eant to in struct and spiritually ed ify the m em bers o f the com
m un ity by describing the saints' virtues and miracles.
The public reading of the martyrology at the office influenced the
material aspect of the manuscript, especially the layout of the pages,
w hic h needed to be cle ar in order to facilitate the read er 's task.
4 . T H E N E C R O L O G Y A N D O B IT U A R Y
l ike the martyrology the necrology followed the Roman calendar;
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m em ory w as to be recalled at the office in chapter after Prime. In the
Carolingian fiber memorialis, used «it M a ss/ 10 m em bersh ip in a reli
gious community, lineage, and other criteria determined the order in
which the nam es w ere p la ced, w hereas, in the necrology, the date of death w as the sole factor determ ining the structure o f the book. The
advent of necrologies in the course of the ninth century, along with
the chap ter book s in w hich they genera lly w ere included, did not
spell the dem ise of the libri tnemoriafes, which continued to be used
until the twelfth century, as the m anu scripts that ha ve been kept
show. A s early as the Carolingian period, the necrology w as aug
mented by the transcription, into the m argins o f the original text, of
mutual agreements between confraternities by w hich two com m uni
ties pledged to commemorate the other's deceased monks in the
same w ay as their own.
In the thirteenth century, M ass end ow m en ts for the com m em ora
tion of the dead necessitated ihc creation of a new book, the obitu
ary,21” w hose contents w ere ak in to those of the necrology. Instead o f com m em orating a dea d person du ring the office of Prime, one cele
brated a M ass for that person. The structure of the obitua ry w as not
affected by this change o f practice since, like the necrology, it remained
a list of n am es classified in the order of the ann iversaries of the d ay s
of death. The on ly sizable difference between the two books w as that
the ob ituary also contained the legal w ill setting u p the end ow m ent
for anniversary Masses; thus, as much as n liturgical book, the obituary is a book of accounting since the income from the foundation was
entered there.
In most chapter books in the Middle Ages, the necrology and obitu
ary part follows, each day, the martyrology or the Kule.
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VI. Genesis and Development of the Breviary
The h istory of the bre viary h as benefited from the assidu ou s w orko f m an y liturgists so that today w e are able to retrace the steps of the
gen esis and developm ent of this book du ring the M iddle A ge s and
the fo llow ing centuries.202
Like the m issal for the M ass, the br ev iary contains all the liturgical
texts for the O ffice, wh ethe r said in choir or in priva te. In the beg in
ning, the w ord breviiiriuni, wh ich m eans digest, designated a n y type
o f w ork presenting a sum m ary (sunmiarium) o f a text, juridical for instance.203 Before the first half of the thirteenth century, breviarium did
not yet designate a precise liturgical book. It is the Franciscan breviary
d eriv ing from the second rule o f the ord er app rov ed b y Innocent III in
12 2 3 that for the first time exp ressly bears the name breviarium: Clerici
fudent diinmtm officium secundum ordinem sanctae Rornam e Ecclesiae ex
cepta Psalleriô, ex quo habere poterunt b reim ia ["Th e clerics w ill celebrate
the Office according to the ordo of the ho ly Rom an Chu rch, cxccpt forthe psalter which they may use in shortened forms"].*14From the thir
teenth century on, the manuscripts often bear the title of breviarium, a
term, how eve r, that does not reflect the div ers ity o f the sources. The
first examples go back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the
202. A m on g the historians o f the breviary, let u s cite in the first place S. Baumer.Histoire du bréviaire, 2 vols. (P ar is, 1905); then, P. Batiffol, Histoire du bnhnaiw romain.
3rd ed. (Paris, 19 11 ) ; H. Boluitta, Bibliographie tier Breviere, 1501-1850 (Leipzig, 1937);
and Leroquais, Bréviaire*. The last author studied a large num ber of m anuscripts
in ord er 10 w rite the introduction to his catalogtie (pp. l.-CX X X lll), wh ich has be
com e indispensable to an y stud y o f the breviary. Later on, we ha ve Salmon, Office
divin, with the telling su btitle, "H isto ire de la form ation du brévia ire du IXe au XVT-'
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book spread like wildfire during the thirteenth, then during the rest
of the Middle Ages.205 In contrast to the missal, the breviary does not
seem to have been prepared by Iibelli, except perha ps for com plete of
fices of saints wh ich were circulated as independent booklets.206 A fewfragments of manuscripts from the ninth and tenth centuries suggest
the existence o f first attempts at brev iaries (with juxtap ose d rather
than blended parts) before the eleventh century, but their fragmentary
state preclud es an y defin itive con clusions/1-'7 li k e I ho first m issals, the
first breviaries juxtaposed the different elements of the Office: psalter,
h ym na l, antiphonal, lectionary, collector, and so on. Th is type with
juxtaposed parts w a s m ore com m only called Liber ojficialia, accordingto the expression found in the manuscript sources, especially those of
the eleventh century from Ge rm an ic regions.208 O ne grou p o f bre
v iaries from the eleventh century written in St. C a ll (for exam ple, St.
G all, Stiftsbibl., cod. 414) is represen tative of this type in wh ich the
pieces (anliphons, chapters, prayers, readings) are not abbreviated
but gro uped into sections.20*’1
A m ong the earliest breviaries w ith juxtaposed parts are som e m as
terpieces of medieval illumination, such as Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, ms.
364 (written by O derisius, abbot o f Monte Cassino between 1099 and
j 105). '2,0 It com prises, in successio n, all the books necessary for the
203. Lists o f m anuscripts are found in Leroq uais, Bmwirrrs; Van Dijk and Walker,
Origins. 528-542; Salmon , Office divin. 64-79.206. Salm on, Office di v in 62-63.
207. Set» especially the fragments pu blished by G amb er, CLIJ I , 606-614, and
CL LA. Suppkmentuni. 164 -166 . The author considers the earliest tw o attestations to
the bre viary to be the 21 folios of Basel, Universitatsb ibL, N: I 6 (nos. 8 and 20-22)
(owl oi tenth century, Irom Switzerland or northern Italy), CLLA, no. 1690, and
tw o folios kept in N urem berg, Germamschei> Museum.. Küpforstiehkabinett, Kapsel
536, SD 28 15 (first half of ninth century, from southern G erm any ); see K . Gam ber,
'Bin Brevier fragm ent aus dor 1. H alftedes 9. Jahrh un der ts," Revue Ivw dictine 93( 1985) 232-2 39. < ¡am be r's hypotheses in thus dom ain, as in that of the genes is o f
other liturgical books, are not un anim ou sly accepted by specialists; here as else
w here, the reproach is that his th eories on the form ation o f the books are base d
on fragments from which no certain conclusions can be deduced .
208. See H uglo, Livres it? chanl, 1 17 -1 18 . The expression Liber officiahs frequently
ap pe ars in the library catalogues o f Germ anic regions from the eleventh century
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celebration o f the Office an d, a t the en d, the list o f incipils o f the piece.*»
arran ged in the order o f the celebration. Th is last p ari, entitled bre-
vtariunt sive ordo offidonm ("b rev iary or order of the O ffice"! seem s to
be a so rt o f brev iary w ithin a breviary.In the eleventh an d twelfth centuries, breviaries with their different
parts combined and inserted into their proper places in the celebra
tion, mad e their appearance. Th e tendency w as to shorten con sider
ably all pieces in order to diminish the thickness of the books. In the
breviaries used in choir, the read ings retained a reason able length,
w hereas in all the other types, they w ere reduced to a few lines or
eve n a few w ords. T his principle of reduction facilitated the use of
breviaries when traveling, and the size of the books proves that they
w ere som etim es taken alo ng on a journey.211 Being o f s m all dim en
sions and a s a consequen ce ve ry thick, the breviaries were div ided
into two parts (summer, from Haster to Advent, and winter, from Ad
vent to Easter; not Tem poral-Sanctoral) . The psalter, in general w rit
ten sep arately in the beginn ing of breviaries w ith comb ined parts, w as often om itted in the pocket type. T he m anuscrip ts present a
great ran ge o f choices for the breviaries: they could b e in one o r two
vo lum es;21-* form at, arrangem ent o f the text, m usic al notation, deco
ration w ere varied, dep end ing ab ove all on the kind o f use for w hich
they w ere intended .*13 Thus, there exist bre viarie s espec ially destined
for the abbot, others for the reading of the Hours to the sick in the in
firmary, others for traveling, others for the Office in choir, and so on.On e encounters " m issal-bre v ia ries" from the eleventh and twelfth
centuries; their purp ose w as not to sup erpose a bre viary on a missal
but to grou p into one book the wh ole liturgy o f one d a y or one feast,
not that of the who le year.214 In these manu scripts, Italian o r French in
orig in, M asses w ere inserted into bre viaries after Tercc, their proper
liturgical place.
The examination of the many manuscript sources from the eleventhand twelfth centuries leads to the conclusion that the breviary was
2 1 1. The term fwrtifirrium, designating pocket breviaries, lor instance those to be
taken along w hen traveling, continued to be used in England from the twelfth
centurv to the time of printed breviaries.
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regarded as a practical book into which one attempted to gather to
gether as m any elemen ts of the Office as possible, w ithout a lw ay s suc
ceeding in including everything. At the same time, the breviary was
considered a m odel book and w as destined to reorgan ise the m ona s
tic and canonical liturg y in the second h alf of the eleventh century.
The stud y of Clun iac brev iaries com posed between the eleventh (for
instance, P aris, 13. N ., lat. 126m )215 an d thirteenth centu ries (for in
stance, the Brev iary of St.-Victor-sur-Rhins)i,h rev ea ls the persistence
o f a local tradition pe cu liar to the C lun iac Orde r, w hich influenced
the churches depending upon the great Burgundian monastery. In thethirteenth century, the breviary used by the R om an Cu ria, and su bse
qu en tly w ide ly d iffused because of its adoption by the Franciscan
Order, became the instrument wielded by ecclcsiastical authorities to
imp ose a standard liturgy o f the Office bearin g an official stam p.217
A fter Ih c M id dle A ges, breviaries prin ted in diffe rent regio ns dem on
strate in a striking manner the persistence of the medieval tradition,
especially for the Liturgy of the Hours.218
215. Set* f. Hourlier, "l x>bréviaire de Saint-Taurin: Un livre? liturgique chmisien àl’usage de PEchello-Saint-Aurin (Paris, BN, lat. 12601)," Etudes grégoriennes 3 (1959)163-176.
6 A D il "A d' b é i i it d Cl é à S i t
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Part Four
The Books of Sacraments and Rites
For an y cultic celebration, one nee ds sacred texts and gu idelines
for conducting the rites. In the Christian liturgy, orations, organized
into form ularies, biblical read ings, and su ng picces, ap p ea r in books
intended for the different ministers hav ing a part in the w ors hip serv ice.1 It is eq ua lly ne cessary to ha ve at on e's disposal b oo ks descriptive
(even prescriptive) in character, w hich sp ec ify the order the cerem o
nies are to follow , the roles, m ovem ents, and p ostu res o f the actors,
an d g ive the list o f the required liturgical objects, and so on. Ac cord
ing to its proper liturgical meaning, an onlo is a description o f the sa
cred rites, a directory, a so rt of gu ide for the use o f priests and their
assistants, de scribing in detail the ord er of the ceremo nies and them ann er of their performance.
From the earliest times of Christianity (second to fifth centuries),
the description of the rites— kn ow n for that period through the cate-
chesis an d p reaching of bishop s an d p riests—p lay s a preem inent role
in the transm ission of the faith becau se, in the last ana lysis, w ha t is
involved is the search for liturgical norms destined to be imposed
first on on e com m unity, then on a dioce se, and finally on the wh ole
of Christendom .
In the fifth and sixth centuries, the first rulings for the principal
Ch ristian celebrations ap peared : bap tism , Eu charist, dedications o f
churches, offices of Holy Week, and so on. In Ihc Middle Ages, these
( )
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romani, the rituals, an d Ihe pontificate, and on ano ther cultic plane ,
the custom aries, the ordinaries, the ceremonials, the processionals.
We turn now to the descriptio n o f the history o f these different
books. By reason o f their content an d character, ordines roman't, rituals,
and pontificals m ust be placed in the same catego ry: they are liturgi
cal books in the strict sense because they are used during celebrations
by the officiants. In contrast, custom aries, ordina ries, cerem onials,
and processiona ls belong rather to the category o f book s pertaining lo
the liturgy, regulating the rites (or describing their performance) o f a
religious order or a diocese, for instance, but play ing no part wh atso
ev er in the liturgy itself. These bo oks, wh ich a pp ea r in the second
half of the Middle Ages, will be presented later in other sections. As
for the ordinea romani, rituals, and pon tificals, it seem s judiciou s to
classify them according to their respective users: priesls, monks, bish
ops, pope. Indeed , it w ill soon become ob viou s that the type o f texts
they contain do es not a lw ay s m ake it easy to disting uish them from
one another. Finally, let us add that all these books, in som e degreeand despite their typological differences, sometime s im portant— as
the distinction between liturgical books and books ¡wrtaining lo the
liturg y— m ade an essential contribution to the C hu rch 's pur po se to
orde r its liturgy, to set do w n rules and usa ge s and then diffuse them
so that the liturg y might be the sacramen tal expression o f the
C hu rch 's doctrine.
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I. The O rd i nes Rom an i
A n ordo concerns a precise liturgical action for which it assembles
together both the sacred texts to be spoken (incipits of the orations,
readings, chants, and so on) and under the form of rubrics, the rules
governing, sometimes to the slightest detail, the performance of this
action.* in gen eral, these texts are rathe r sho rt, hence it beho oves one
to be prudent w hen interpreting the m edieval termino logy used to
design ate them. A lthou gh this is not the place to elaborate on theterms pro per to each of the boo ks dealt w ith in this part, a prelim i
nary word of caution is necessary if one is to corrcctiy interpret the
medieval references to the ordines, references that correspo nd but
faintly to the actual contents of the m an usc ripts.1 In the m anuscripts,
the ordines are ve ry rare ly give n a title, still less are they introduced
by the mention of ordo or ordo romatius. Conversely, the term ordo (or
even ordo romatius) ap pe ars time and time again in the catalogues of medieval libraries in which, although it sometimes designates a real
ordo, episcopal for exam ple, it ap plies as mu ch to a m odest libellus as
to the large v olu m e of a pontifical or parish ritual.-* H ow eve r, certain
ordines romani (called OR from now on) bear titles disclosing their con
tents with precision: Deojficiis in nodibus ["The night offices"], Imtruc-
tio ecclesiastic! ordinis ("Hxposition of the ecclesiastical orde r") Ordo
vel demmtiatio scrutinii ["Ord er and ex planation o f the scrutinies"].
2. First of nil, one mu st distinguish between ordines in general and ordines ro
wan), wh ich are so called becau se o f their Rom an origin. It w ill quick ly become
obviou s that several ordines of the M iddle Ages have nothing in common with theordines ronutni
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2 . N A T U R E O F T H E O K D I K ' E S R O M A N I
V arying in le ngth from a few folio s to more than sixty pages, the
OR have been classified according to the many liturgical actions
whic h they describe (one can alm ost sa y that there are as m any kindsof ordines as rites) and especially according to the type of liturgy they
pertain to. Distancing h im self from M abiUo n's classification, And rieu
grouped the OK (a total of fifty, without counting the doublets, see
table o f O R ) " in accordance with the sort of liturgy they refer to:
pa pa l, ep iscopa l, m onastic, and so on ; the one exception is the note
w orthy OK 50, w hich concerns the liturgical ye a r and is thus a par
ticular case. Am on g the most important for the history o f the liturgy,
one finds OR for the pope's or the bishop's Mass, Christian initiation,
the office of H oly Week, ordinations, the ded ication o f churches, the
blessing and coronation of sovereign s, funerals.
3 . TH E O R D I N E S R O M A N I I N T H E M A N U S C R I P T S 1 3
Befo re goin g on to the exam ination o f the different collections,their history, and their contents, let us see briefly how the texts were
used and circulated in the M iddle A ge s. Those liht’Hi which contained
one ordo each, gathered together at a given period (sixth and seventh
centuries), gav e rise to m ore or less organized collections o f tmUnts
(see pp . 1 8 2- 18 5 ). This grou pin g into m ore im portant codicological
entities—attested by the manuscripts of ordines from the eighth to
tenth centuries— ne ver really su pp lanted the w ritin g and circulationo f ordines (especially those of non-Rom an traditions) as indep enden t
book lets. For instance, booklets concern ing the dedication o f a church
continued to exist and were not necessarily inserted afterward into
an older m anu script or one con tem porary w ith the book let itself.l?
But a good num ber o f libelli w ere ad de d at a later date to a preexist
ing m anuscript; an exam ple o f this sort of thing is the ordo for the
1 1 . O n An drieu 's classification and num bering, see Andrieu, OK; and Vogel, In
troduction, 19 5- 19 7, with a usefu l concordance table between M abillon's clnssifica-
Hiw and And riou’s; see also Martiniort, Ordines, 1 1 0 - 1 2 3 .
12. Se e the first volu m e o f A nd rieu, OR, entirely devoted to Ihe manu scripts he
used for the edition of the texts He lias detailed reports on the fragments the iso
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dedication of a church written on six folios and, subsequently tacked
onto a sacramentary produced in the second half oí the ninth century
in the circles of Charles the Bald (Paris, B. N., !at. 2292). M. Gros has
demonstrated that the Italian calligraphy of this ordo from theeleventh century as well as its text, independent from the Romano-
Gallican tradition, lead to the conclusion that this libelius w as com
posed to adapt the Carolingian manuscript to the local liturgy.'4
W heth er Rom an or not, one ordo or several ordines not infrequently
end up being transcribed on blank pages of manuscripts, whether
liturgical or not. O r else, and w ith m ore serious consequences for the
history o f Ihe liturgy/ they are inserted perfectly from the view po intso f both co dico logy an d liturgy into sacram en tarles.15 Tine sacram én
tanos of the Leonine type d o not contain an y ordo,16 w herea s the Gela-
sian and G reg oria n '7 ha ve included texts (rubrics and prayers) for the
rites of baptism, confirmation, penance, anointing of the sick, and fu
nerals. In parishes and monasteries, priests needed ihese texts which
ena bled them to celebrate bap tism or fun erals with the sacramentary,
the book pertaining to their function. We must also mention manu
scripts of m onastic origin in wh ich one encounters sup plem entary or-
dines, for the ded ication o f a church o r the consecration o f an altar, for
instance. These sacraméntanos with "enlarged" contents did nol pre
vent the advent and developm ent o f rituals (see 11 o f th is part).
The collections o f OR were most often transcribed into indepen
dent manuscripts. At first, the contents of these manuscripts were organ ized in var iou s w ay s de pen ding on the different collections, but
later on, the m aterial w as classified accord ing to the different typ es of
liturgy in which the ordines w ere to be used. The m anu scripts of this
second category, wh ich are som etim es collections o f libelli, m ark a de
cisive step in the formation of the pontifical, to such a point that they
are called "p rim itive pontificals."'*8
14. M. Gros, "L'ortio po ur !a dcdicace dcs ¿g lises dans lo saoramentain* de Noruin*
tola," /fanir bthiedkibu' 79 {1969) 368-374 .
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4 . H I ST O R Y A N D C O N T E N T O F T H E C O L L E C T I O N S
O F O R D I N E S R O M A N I A N D O T H ER O R D I N E S " *
List of the ordines romani {the num bering is And rieu's):
x. Ordo for a pap al M ass (Rome, about 690-700).2. First supp lem en t to the ordo (Rom e, about 690-700).
3. Second supp leme nt to Ordo I (Rom e, abou t 690-71«) and
Frankish land s about 750).
4. Frankish revision o f Ordo 1 (Frankish land s, 750-800).
5. Second revision of Ordo i (Rh ine region, ab out 850-900).
6. Third Frankish revision o f Ordo I (Metz? 850-900}.
7. Prayers and sign s o f the cross at the C ano n of the M ass(Frankish land s, ninth century).
8. Vestments o f the po ntiff (Frankish land s, 850-900).
9. First ordo for an episcopal Mass (Frankish lands, 880-900).
10. First ordo for an episcopal M ass (M ainz? 900-950).
1 1 . Ordo for baptism (Rom e, seven th century, perh aps 550-600).
12 . Ordo for the Office (Rom e, 775-850).
13A. Ordo for the night o ffice read ings (Rome, 700-750).
13B. Ordo for the night office readings (Frankish lands, 775-800).
1 3 c . Ordo for the night office read ings (Frankish lan ds, about 1000).
13D. Ordo for the night office readings (Frankish lands, eleventh
century).
14 . Ordo for the read ings at the Vatican basilica (Rom e, 650-700).
15 . Capilulare ecclesiastic! ordinis ["Cha rter of the ecclesiasticalorder"} (Frankish lands, 775-780).
16 . ¡nstructio ecclesiaslici ordinis ("Ex po sition o f the ecclesiastical
ord er") (Frankish land s, 775-780).
17 . Breviarium ecclesiaslici ordinis ("Su m m ary of the ecclesiastical
order"J (Frankish lands, 780-800).
18. The mon astic D ivine Office (Frank ish land s, 775-780).
19 . Ordo for mon astic m eals (Frankish land s, 775-780).20. Ordo for the feast of the Purification (Frankish lands, eighth
century, after a Roman source).
2 1 . Procession o f the Gre ater Litanies (Frankish lands, eighth century).
22. Ordo for Lent (Frankish lan ds, 780-800}.
23. Ordo for Ho ly Th ursda y to H oly Saturd ay (Rom e, 700-750).
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¿4- Ordo for the offices from Wednesday in Holy Week to Holy
Saturday (Frankish lands, 75o-8oo>.2i*
25. Blessing of the Easter candle {Prank ish land s, 800-850).
26. Ordo for the night office from H oly Th ursd ay to Easter (Rome,750-775).
27. Ap pen dix to Ordo XX VI (Frankish lands, 700-750 , after a
[Roman) source dating from about 650-700).
28. Ordo for m iddle Su n da y [fifth Su n da y o f Lent] to the octave o f
Easter (Frankish lands, about 800).
29. Monastic ortio for the last four days of Holy Week (Frankish
lands, 870-890).
30A. Ordo for Holy Thursday to the Sa turd ay after Easter, in (t!bi$
(Frankish lands, 750-800).3<>b. Ordo for Ho ly Th ursd ay to the Sa turd ay after Easter, in albis
(Frankish lands, 775-800}.
3 1 . Ordo for the Divine Office from the middle Sunday [fifth
Su n da y o f Lent] to the octave o f Easter (Frankish lands,850-900).
32. Ordo for the last three d ay s o f H oly W eek (Frankish lands,
880-900).
33 . Ordo for the last three da ys o f Ho ly Week (Frankish lands, tenth
century).
34. Roman ordo for ordinations (Rom e, abo ut 750, after a source
from the fourth century).35. Modified ordo for ordinations (Frankish lands, 900-925).
35A. Episcopal ordination (Rome, Frankish lands, about 970).
35B. Episcopal consecration (Rome, Frankish lands, 975-1000).
36. The de grees o f the Ro m an hierarchy (Rome, 880-900).
37A. Ordo for ordinations on Em ber D ays (Frankish lands, 800-900).37B. Ordo o f ordinations on Em ber D ay s (Frankish lands, Rhine*
region, about 825).
38. Ordo for ordinations on E m ber D ays (Frankish lands, Rhine
region , about 940).
39. O rdinations in the Rom an Church (Rom e, 790-800).
40A. Ordination of the pontiff (Rome, sixth century).
40B Ordination of the pontiff (Rome sixth century)
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of the Roman C hurch wore models lo be imitated, and this goal neces
sitated the av ailab ility of written d escriptions. Here, w e com e close to
seeing the conditions unde r which the OK w ere produ ced in Ro m e in
the fifth and sixth centuries. At that lime, there d ev elop ed a m orestructured view of liturgical time, resulting in a process of the organi
zation o f the M ass orations into form ularies and of read ings and sung
pieces into system s as reflected in the sacram entaries, the boo ks of
read ings, and the antiph onals; and in parallel fashion, the practices
an d usag es pro per to the different rites w ere p rog ressively co dified in
the O R so as to en do w them w ith official status. In their w ork , An-
drieu a nd also liturgists like A. C ha va sse and V. Sa xer have described
very w ell the historical and liturgical settin g in w hic h the OR arose.32
A s an exam ple, let us sim ply recall the piv otal role the OR plaved in
the process of the development of the urban environment in the city
of Rom e (selling up o f parishes, platting o f neighborhoods and s o on).
5 . T H E R O M A N C O L L E C T I O N O R C O L L E C T I O N A Collection A w as put together in Gau l between 700 and 750 from
purely Roman ordhics an d m ade it possible to conduct celebrations ac
cord ing to the Rom an rite. We no longer h ave a ny docum ent contain
ing this collection, deriving from a Roman scriptorium. The oldest
attestation is Montpellier, Bib!. Fac. Méd., ms. 432 (Tours, beginning
o f ninth century).3* Se vera l m anusc ripts from the tenth and eleventh
centuries p ro ve that the collection w as circulated after the Carolin-gian pe riod .^ It pu ts together the follow ing ordities: (1) papal Mass
(about 690-700); (11) arrfo for C hristian initiation (about 700-750);
( î 3 a ) onto for the readings at Ihc night office (about 700-750); (27)
I loly Week (about 650-700); (42) ordo for the deposition o f relics
22. See in particular, A. Chavasse, "L'organisation staiionnale du Carême romain,
av an l le VIU1' siècle: Une organisation p asto rale /’ Rnnu' <its Science* religieuses 56(1 ^ 2 ) 17-3 2; "L es grand * cadres de la célébration à Rom e m wriv el extra murvs ju squ'a u VIIIe*s iècle," bénédictine 96 (1986) 7-26; "Am énag em ents liturgiques
à R om e au VIIe et au VIII'' siècle ." Rwue bénédictine 99 O989) 7 5 -10 2 ; "A Rome le
Jeud i sain t, au VU1’ siè cle , d ’après un vie il onto.“ Revue d'Ilhhrire ecclésiastique 50
(*9 5 5 ) 2 1 - 3 5 ; ^ Saxer, "L'utilisation par la liturgie de l'espace urbain el subur-
bain: I/exemp le de Rome dans l'Antiquité el le hau l Moy en A ge ," Acte* du X/’’
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7 . T H E G A M . . I C A N C O L L E C T I O N S
Tw o collections contain onlines which are almo st ex clusive ly theirs
and have no posterity. The St. Amand Collection, so called from the
scriptorium of the abbe y in northern France w he re it w as don e, isprese rved in on e sing le m anu script (Paris, B. N ., lat. 974; lenth cen
tury).*9 In all likelihoo d, this collection w as co m piled ab out 77 0-790
and contains a Frankish recension of the ordo for the papal Mass, and
other ordines: (30B) for the Easter Triduu m and Easter Week (about
775-780); (21) for the procession of the Greater Litanies (eighth cen
tury); (39) for ordinations (Rom e, about 790-800); (43) for the d ep o si
tion of relics; (20) for the procession on the feast of the Purification
(eighth century, after a Roman source).Jl>
The St. G all Co llection (nam ed a fter St. C a ll, Stiftsbibl., cod . 349;
end o f eighth c en tu ry),'1 or accord ing to its title in the manu script, ca-
pitulore ecclesiastic) ordiiiis ["charter of the ecclesiastical order"), was
w rille n about 775-780 by a Burgundian or Austrasian m onk. The
anon ym ous author m ade use of Rom an sources which he adapted tolocal needs. The list of ordines in this collection, ob vio us ly destined
for monastic use, is as follows: (14) ordo for the readings at the night
office at the basilica of St. Peter (Rome, about 650-700); (15) the capit
ular? ccdesiaztici ordinis, a Roman ceremonial for the liturgical year
(about 775-780); (16) imtructio ecclesiastici ordinis ["exposition o f the
ecclesiastical ord er" ], a mo nastic cerem onial for the liturgical ye ar
(about 775-780); (18) the monastic Divine Office (about 775-780); (19)ordo for monastic meals (about 775-780).
Let us con clude this brief presentation o f the principal collections
w ith ordines wh ich w ere circulated in an independen t mann er with
out ev er becom ing part o f a ho m ogeneo us collection.32 The sm all
group of ordines transcribed in Brussels, Bibl. royale, cod. 10 12 7 -
10 14 4 (end o f eighth cen tury),53 forms not so m uch a collection as a
sort o f ritual for the pr iest's use. There, one finds the fo llow ing ordines: (3) second supplement to the ordo for the pap al M ass (about
690-700); (13») ordo for the readings at the night office; (24) ordo for
¿9. Ibid., 1:255-256.30. See Vogel, Introduction. 152, and M artimorl, Ordines, 24.
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the O ffices from W ednesday in H oly Week to H oly Sa turd ay {about
750-800); (26) ordo for the night office from I loly T hur sd ay to Easter
(about 750-77 5); ( 3 0 A ) ordo for Holy Thursday to Saturday in (ilbis.
So m e o f these texts are taken up later on in m anu scripts o f the ninthand tenth centuries.*’ Rare ordincs were circulated independently
from a ny collection (such as A n d rieu 's num bers 35B, 37, 45 ,47) , see
the list of ordines just above) before being integrated into the vast
compilation of the Komano-Germanic Pontifical in the second half of
the tenth century.,5
To sim plify, on e cou ld s ay that the history o f the OR stops in the
tenth century with the appea rance o f the "prim itive po ntificals," and
especially the Romano-Germanic Pontifical. Nevertheless, the ordines,
and not just those of Roman origin, continued to have a life after the
creation of the pontifical, if only in the many rituals which are true
typological prolongations of the prescriptive texts found in the OK.
Th eir historical interest no longer need s an y dem onstration so im
portant was their impact on the Latin liturgy in the West, especially at the lime they made their way into the Frankish Empire.-'1’ I shall
sim ply limit m yse lf to recalling the unique testimony of the nine
sm all ivo ry plaqu es attached to the back cov er of the D rogon Sacra*
mentary (Paris, B. N., lat. 9428; middle of ninth century), showing
nine sccnes o f the Eu charist celebrated b y the bishop in the cathedral
of M etz. The differen t scenes, presented w ith a m eticulous attention
to detail (num ber an d p lacement o f the officiants, gestures, liturgicalobjects, and so on), reflect the historical fact that Metz adopted the or-
dines ronwni du ring the Carolingian period un der the episcopacy o f
C hro deg an g (742-766); this is incontrovertible p roo f o f the romaniza-
tion o f the G allican liturgy in one o f its bastions, the cathedra l of
Metz.*7
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II. The Rituals
The history o f the rituals failed to aro use the interest o f a large
nu m ber o f liturgists, either those o f the seventeenth to nineteenth
centuries or those o f the twentieth century. The p articular status of
this liturgical book explains fora large part this relative historio
grap hic vo id. Indeed, at its origin, the history o f the book is one w ith
that o f the ordines romani and, from the Cou nc il o f Trent on, one w ith
that of the printed rituals. Between the two, the confusion of the rituals with the parish manuals (pastorale, manualc curatorum ["pastoral
gu ide /' "m anu al for the clergy in charge")), w hich are rather guides
and collections o f cou nsels addressed to pastors, has contributed to
render eve n m ore obscure the exact iden tity o f the rituals.3* Th e me
dieval manuscript rituals are the true ancestors of the printed rituals,
in particular of the official Rom an edition of 1 6 14 .^ T hey hav e been
p artially disentangled from othe r book s by P.-M. G y in an article w hich has left its stam p on the research in th is field .4” Besides this
ov erall study, there exist m ono graphic an alyses on a m ultitude of
manuscripts.
38. The definitions of the riftial given in good dictionaries of liturgical books are
generally not clear enough to elucidate the essential characteristics of the book;see, for instance, Fiala and Irtenkauf, Uturgischr Nom wklatur. 127, and Thiel,Uturgisciur Riichcr, 2392.
39. On the connection betw«vn manuscript rituals of the Middle Ages andprinted rituals of modem times, see J.-B. Molin and A. Aussedal-Mtnvielle, Reper
toire den rituels et processiomux imprimés en France (Paris, 1984).40. Gy, "Collectaire," 441-469, repeated, with some corrections and additions,
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i . D E F IN I T I O N A N D F U N C T I O N OI-' I H E M E D I E V A L R I T U A L
The ritual contained e very thing that w as n ecessary (rubrics and
texts) for the performance o f one or severa l liturgical actions, in pa r
ticular those which w ere not exclu sively reserved for the bishop. Thisleads u s to sp ea k o f the ritual as the book o f the priest, indispen sable
for a certain num ber o f rites he presided over, som etim es as the sole
officiant if he w as invo lved in parish m inistry; it w a s also one of Ihe
books of the m onks and priest-mon ks w hich enab led them lo carry
out properly monastic riles. Centered on the administration of the
sacram ents, the rituals of the H igh M iddle A ge s contained the texts
o f certain OR or those o f olh er ordines wh ich ne ver qualified as OR and remained independent from any collection, whether Roman or
Gallican.
In order to und erstand correctly the typolog ical specificity o f the
rituals of the H igh M iddle Ag es, one m ust place them w ithin their
historical and ecclesiological context. Several historians have shown
that from the ninth century on, the parish emerged as an administra
tive and ecclesiastical entity; this prom oted a sp ecifically presb yterial
liturgy w ithin the m ultiple priestly functions.41 Co nv ersely, it is inter
esting to note that the process of codification and uniforrnization of
Ihe liturg y du rin g the C arolingian period strong ly influenced the de
velo pm ent o f the m edie val p arish 's conscio usness o f itself. T his all-
important role of the liturgy in the formation o f the parish com m unity
w as especia lly d ecisive in the diffusion o f the different liturgicalbooks or texts proper to a specific rite. The ceremonies and formulas
oi the sacred acts hav ing been fixed in w riting , the clergy, secu lar or
regular, played its role with increased authority in their religious
41. See the inclusive report of H. Platelle, "La paroisse el son curé jusqu'à la findu X li r siècle," i'cncadn 'men l religieux des fidèles mi Moi/ot Age el /usiiirViu Concile tie
Trente: l u paroisse, le clergé, h fxtstorale, ¡a 1levoiion, Actes du 109e Congrès nation.ildes soritftes savantes, Dijon. 1984, vol. j (Paris, 1985) 11-26; the important study ofA. Angenendt, "Die Liturgie und die Organisation des Kirchlidienieborts «mf deinLande," Crisfutiiizzizioiic n i orgtinizzaziotie ecd efiaït iiü tieütrcainf>agtw uell'alto Media-
evo: Espamiowe rcsistenze. lo-iôiiprik' ¡980, 2 vols., Settimane di studio del Centroifaliano di studi sull'alto Medioevo 28 (Spolelo. 1982) lu ôçff .; J. Avril "La paroissemédiévale: Bilan et perspectives d'après quelques travaux récents." Revue ¿'H is
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m inistry lo the pop ulations.42 A n d in fact, a large nu m ber o f rituals
reflect certain a spects of this role.
2 . THE RITUAl . IN TUB L I B E L U : FORMS ANI.> FUNCTIONSIn his article pu blished in i960, G y established a meticulous typol
ogy for the different form s of man uscript rituals of the High M iddle
Ages.'1 * Within th is typolo gy, ¡¡belli occupy a place of hon or because of
their nu m ber and their imp ortance in the dev elop m en t of the ritual as
a liturgical book. Rituals contained the description of the acts (in the
rubrics) and the sacred formulas (orations, readings, and so on). From
the tenth century on, booklets meant to be used in a specific liturgical
action app eared. The m ain attestations ad du ced b y G y— to which
one m ust add the m any ¡¡belli studied since h is article w as written—
demonstrate that they were intended principally for the rites of
penance,44 the anointing o f the sick,45 an d funerals.46 Su ch a sp ecializa
tion shou ld not surp rise u s because it correspo nd s to the essential d u
ties o f a priest in his parish d urin g the High M iddle A ge s; these duties w ere second only to the celebratio n o f the Eucharist and the adm inis
tration of baptism.4“ For these last two, the priest, regular or secular,
42. On the active part taken by monks in liturgical and pastoral matters in certain parishes, in "compétition" or coordination with the secular priests, see especially C. Devailly, "L e clergé régulier et Je ministère paroissial," Cahiers ¿'Histoire
20 (1975) 259-272; Cî. Countable, "Monasteries, Rural Churches and the Cunt ant- marum in the Early Middle Ages," Cristiunïzzazionc. 1:340-389.43. See Gy, Collectant.44. The sacrament of penance underwent modification during the Carolingian
period; sec C. Vogel, l.c pécheur el la pénitence au Moyen Age (Paris, 1969); R. Kottje,"Busspraxis und Bussriten," Segtiie riti nella Chii'sa a!tomedi*a>ah: occidentale. n - 77aprile 198$, 2 vols, Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medio-evo 33 {Spoleto, 1987) 1:360-395.
45. See A. Triacca, "Le rite de Yunpoattio numuuin super infinitum dans l'ancienneliturgie ambrosienne," Iji maladie et la mort du chrétien datrs lu liturgie. ConférencesSaint-Serge, 2i‘‘ Semaine d'Etudes liturgiques, ior-4 juillet 1974, Bibliotheca■'Ivphemeridcs liturgicae," Subsidia 1 (Rome, 1975), 339-360.
46. See P.-Â. Février, "La mort du chrétien," Si’Çr» e riti. 2:881-942; D. Sicard, La liturgie de la mort dan» l'F.gliÿe latine des origines à la réforme carolingienne. LQF 63(Munster, 1978); F. Paxton, Christianizing Death: The Creation of Ritual Process in
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used the sacramentary, which very often included the ritual of bap
tism. Since this sacrament w as a dm inistered in the course of a celebra
tion, it m ade no sen se to sep ara te its texts from the sacram entary. The
rituals of penan ce and those destined to help the sick and d yin g w erean a ltogether different case. Tn the pa rishe s of the High M iddle A ges,
these rites, then in the midst of development, necessitated a mobile
practice o f the liturgy, and , therefore, dem and ed app ropriate doc u
m ents w hich w ere e asy to carry and not costly. A sign ificative sam ple
o f this kind of boo klet is prese rved in Paris, B. N., lat. 13764 (fols.
9 0- 1 i6v), written in the scriptorium of St. A m an d ab out 900 an d incor
porated into a collection com ing from St. Remi in Rheim s.4* With itstw o rituals, one fo r penan ce and another for the anointing o f the sick
(with the Mass for the sick, including the readings and sung pieces),
it no do ubt w as intended for the priest goin g to visit the sick in the
cou ntryside surro un din g his pa rish.49 Others serv e on ly for funerals,
like the Ubellus from the tenth century (Rome, I3ibl. Valliccl., cod . C .10 ;
fols. 13 3 -1 3 8 ) from the m onastery o f San Kutizio in Valcasloriana in
U m bria, today include d in an e va n ge liary from the twelfth century.541
T he variety o f parish and m onastery rituals, wh ich arose in the
tenth century, w ou ld con tinue to the end o f the M idd le Age s. In the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the typ olo gy o f these easy-to -carry
booklets w as enriched with n ew rites, such as m arriage,’ 1 and this
cart*. See P Brommer, Capitula episcoporum: Die bishößiehen KtipHularien ties 9 und j 0 Jahrhunderts, Typologie des sources du Moyen Ago occidental, fasc. 43 (Tumhout,1985}; G. DevailJy, "La pastorale en Gaule au IX1' siècle," Rtrouc d'ilistoire de l'Eglise de F rance 59 (1973) 25-54; see also J. Avril, "A propos du ’pwprius sacerdos/ quelquesréflexions sur les pouvoirs du prêtre de paroisse," Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Salamanca. 2 j -25 September 1976, ed. S. Kut-tner and K. Pennington, Monumenta iuris canonici, series C, subsidia 6 {Vatican
City, i960) 471-486; anti J. Chélini, l.'atdv du Moyen Age: Naissance de la chrétienté occidentale. la {’«• religieux des laïcs à ¡’époque carolingienne {Paris, 1991 ).48 See H. Palazzo, "Les deux rituels d’un libellus de Saint-Aniand (Paris, B. K.,
lat. 13764," Kiïrft'/s: Mélanges offerts au P. Cu. OP (Paris, 1990) 423-436.49. [;or other libdli of the same kind, see E. Palazzo, “Le rôle des liivlli dans Ja
pratique liturgique du haut Moyen Age: Histoire et typologie." Revue Mabiilon 62,n.s. 1 (1990), 9-36, especially 2i>-28.
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cau sed a n increasing specialization o f the libelli. Let us recall that in
the thirteenth century, the definitions o f diocesan liturg y and ad m in
istration of the sacraments were changed in the synodal statutes; this
favored the definitive institution of special booklets for the priests.52 At the tim e o f the Renaissance, the parish ritual w ould be com bin ed
w ith the m anual fo r the adm in is tratio n of the sacram ents ; an d the
texts for baptism, marriage, anointing of the sick, and funerals would
continue to be the core o f this book.
In the m onasteries also, the rituals continued to be m ore an d more
specialized in order to ad ap t to the evo lution o f the m ost diverse
liturgical practices. The abbatial rituals (especially in the second half o f the M idd le A ges) for rites that on ly the abb ot cou ld p erfo rm 53 are
am on g the most interesting because they became a p ecu liar category
of com posite books— they could contain texts for other rites— specifi
ca lly designed for the status and functions o f the abbot.5*
3 . T H E C O M P O S I T E R I T U A L S
W hether associated w ith other types of liturgical books or in sertedinto more important books, principally the sacramentary, the com
posite rituals of the High M iddle A ge s are as num erous as the inde
pendent libetii. They have been ve ry w ell studied by G y,55 wh o
distin gu ishes essentially the collectar-ritual and the sacram entarv-rit-
ual (or even the missal-ritual). The com bination o f the collectar5̂ and
ritual w as b om in m onastic m ilieux in the tenth century and p er
sisted at least until the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The collectar
contained all the collects the celebrant needed for the Liturgy o f the
Hours, whereas the ritual associated with it most often comprised the
texts ne cessary for the liturgy o f the sick and o f the de ad , as w ell as
rites pecu liar to m onasteries (such as the ordo ad faciendum ittonachunt
["ordo for the m akin g o f a m onk "]). The celebrant used the collectar-
ritual for the liturgical actions at the Office and for others that tookplace in va rious parts of the monastery. T his book, of which w e possess
52. O. Pontal, Uv statute synorfaux. Typologii* des sources clu Moyen Age occidental, fasc.11 (Turnhcmt, 1975), and A. Vauchez, His/iwv tie In France re!igieu$t:, ed. J. Le Goff and R. Remonri, vol. 1: Pi’s (¡rigi/ic* au XIVCsiecle (Paris, 1988) 368-381.
53 S h H * bl i f d t t
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com pare it w ith that o f the bishop, w ho w as the user of the pontifical
w hile the priest w as the user o f the ritual.
Few b ooks h av e had a m ore eventful life than the rituals, unceas
ingly adapted to the changes affecting the rites, hence the multitudeof possible form s the rituals cou ld take. A s it w as rarely a p aw n in
ecclesiastical politics— in contrast to the pontifical an d b rev iary— the
ritual eludes alm ost en tirely an y strict typo logical classification.
The m anu scripts attest to this state of affairs, because they som e
times offer com binations unh eard o f in other books; for exam ple,
there is the colleciar-ritual from the abbey of I,agrasse (Paris, B. N.,
lat. 933; second half o f eleventh century), to w hich a libcllus for thededication of a church was appended (fols. i55~i62v), written by a
scribe w h o w as p robably an Italian w orking in the southw est of
France, pe rhap s on the occasion o f a pap al visit.66
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III. The Pontifical, the Book of the Bishop
Th e history of Ihe pontifical in Ihc M iddle A g e s has been m ade al
most entirely dear thanks to the research of C. Vogel and R. Elze on
the Romano-Germanic Pontifical dating from the tenth century (from
no w on referred to as RG P);67 that of M . A nd rieu on the pontificals
from the second ha if of the M iddle Age s;*8 and that o f N. K. Rasm us
sen on the pontificals called "p rim itive" (that is, from the ninth and
tenth centuries),** which are the intermediary link between the ordities romani an d the RGP. We are therefore in po ssession o f excellent edi
tions o f Ihe texts, accom panied by stud ies on the history o f the liturgy
authored by the best experts in this field.70
By an alyzin g the evolution of the prim itive form s of the pontifical
do w n to the time wh en it acquired the status of an o fficial book (RG P
and then R om an Pontificals), it is in fact the evo lution o f a part of the
episcopal, and even papal, liturgy that vve shall follow from the ninthto the fifteenth century.
i . T H E F IR S T P O N T I F IC A L S O R ''P R IM IT I V E P O N T I F IC A L S "
U p to Ra sm usse n's w ork , historians o f the liturgical books did not
really comprehend how the transition between the ordines, whether
isolated o r orga nized into collections, and the RG P, from the second
half of the tenth century, had ha pp ene d. It w as the m ore impo rtant to
elucid ate this point o f the history of liturgical b ooks since the RGP,
prod uced in the circles o f the Ottoman court between 950 and 962, a p
peared as the first official bo ok intended for the bishop and enab ling
67 V g l nd F l PRC
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the p riestly charge w hich the bishop exercised in his cathedral, as the
priest did in his parish. At first {perhap s alread y in the second half o f
the ninth century), there were a s m an y libelli as rites to be perform ed;
and no special geograp hical region appe ars to ha ve been their privileged place of origin. Besides the indep enden t libelli, there were a few
rotuli. whose contents were equally limited to a specific rite (in gen
eral, o rdinations); some o f these date ba ck to the eleventh century,
after the app earan ce of the RGP73 The "pontifical" scrolls that have
been p reserv ed com e for the most part from southern Italy, a region
w here the use o f scrolls in the liturgy w as held in high fa vor.75 Tex
tual attestations prov e that these scrolls w ere in use as e ar ly as theCarolingian period. For instance, in a letter addressed in 8 6 9 - 8 7 0 to
Advenrius, the bis hop o f M etz, w ho w a s to travel to Trier on the oc
casion of the consecration of the new archbishop 0/ that city, Hincmar
of Kh eims su pp lies us w ith m any details on the order of the cere
mony and speaks of using a rolulus for the consecra tory rite.74
I'he follow ing references prob ably designa te as m any small-sized
iilfeUi of this kind, w hether m odest or luxu rious, dep end ing on wh erethey w ou ld be used an d for w hat type o f rite: ordo roman us ; ordo ro-
minii etweilii ["ordo for a R om an cou ncil"];75 ordo romamts in duo quater-
nionibus [ordo rommus in tw o q uires o f eight folios"]/'6 Quatenioa cum
Ictimin; Quaterno.s / cunt lelania et duos di' dedicatione; . . . quatmiiones //
["Quires o f eight folios with litany. One qu ire o f eight folios with litany
and two qu ires (for the ded ication o f a ch u rc h ). . . "] ;>7 ad ecdesiam
7 2. Rasmussen, Pontificaiix.7). See in particular the many r.xuitei scrolls Ironi ihe eleventh and twelfth cen
turies; see I’art 2, ti. 7, on the other forms of books. A good example of the pontifical scroll is supplied by ms. Asti, Uibl. Capit., cod. XIII (eleventh century); see l:.Dell'Oro, "Franum-nto di rotolo pontificate del socolo XI." Traditio ct Pntgressio: Sludi liturgia in inrnir Pwf. Adrien Nocent. OSB, Studia Anselmiana 95 (Rome,1988) 177-204.
74. See M. Andrieu, “Le sacre episcopal d'aprés I tmcrmir de Reims/’ Riwm?d'Hislow- cccl&itKtitiiie .(8 (1953) 22-7 3. For other testimonies: of the same kind, seeRasmussen, t\v\tifiaiux.
75. Catalogue of the library of the Archbishop of Salzburg, about 959*990; Becker.Catalogi. no. 34, p. 77.
76 C l f h Abb f S C ll i h B k C l / 22 31
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consecraudtun qunteriiiones duos, ad visitondunt infirnunn quaterniones
duos, tui ordinationes eeclesinsticos ijutentiotui utto ( " h v o q u i re s o f eight
fol ios for the ded icat ion (of a chu rch) , tw o qu ires o f e igh t folios for
visi ting the s ick, on e qu ire of e igh t fol ios for ecclesiast ical o rdinatio n s" ! .“5 A lready in the tenth century, b u t esp ecia lly in the eleven th
and twelfth, the term ordo in l ibrary c atalogue s, e i the r w ith added
spe cific d etai ls on the r i tes or no t , is used to designa te preferably a
pontif ical : ordo ep hco palis . . . ordo ponltficalis [ "episcopal ordo . . .
pontif ical ord o"]?* ordo I wgcmfi'Hs ("on e silver-cov ered onto"].80
The nex t step toward the pontifical w as to assem ble several libelli
into an arti fic ial collect ion, w hich d id duty as a "p rim it ive " po ntif ical . Che l i turgical and codicological composit ion of a number of those
studied by R asm ussen betrays the com pilat ion o f libelli. N o tewo rth y
in that respect are the pontif icals of Beauvais (Leiden, Bibl. Ri jsku-
nivers. , BPL. 111.2; ninth-tenth centuries) ,8 ' of Rheims (Rheims, B. M.,
ms. 340; ninth o r tenth cen tury) ,8* and a Ben evento m anu script {Bibl.
Vat., Vat., lat. 77 01 ; tenth cen tur y ).8*
In all the po ntificals he stud ied, Rasm ussen ob serve d that any f ixed
structure in the contents w as lacking as w ell as any s table nucleus on
w hich other ordittea could have been grafted. This fact proves the em
pirical charac ter of their form ation. 1 'he great d iversity o f the results ,
usually modest in appearance, is the consequence of their being a
co m p i la tio n o f libelli, even though one f inds in almost every case or-
dines for the ded icat ion of chu rches, c ler ical ord inat ions, and penan ce.Rare are the m ore careful ly executed sam ples, such as the fam ous
Pontif ical of Sens from the tenth century (St . Petersburg, Publ. Bibl.
78. P i 132, col. 468: «1 list of episcopal UMli bequeathed by the; bishop of Fine tohis cathedral in 4)15, included in his testament, rather than a collection of UMli forming a little pontifical, as Rasmussen thinks; if his opinion were right, the reference would have been much shorter and would not have enumerated the different quires of eight folios.
79. Catalogue of the church of St. Martin in Touniai, twelfth century; see L. Delisle,Le cabinet dt'$ inanutcrils de !a BibUolhetfiie nutiwak', vol. 2 (Paris, 1874)110.134, p. 500,and no. 2.% , p. 503.
80. Inventory of the books and liturgical objects of the cathedral of Bamberg, second quarter of twelfth century; since this document (probably a pontifical, givenh d ) h d l b d h b
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im M. E. Saltykova-Schrcdina, Int. Q.v.I., no. 35)^ for the use of the
metropolitan, containing the pledges o f obedience swo rn by the suffra
gan bishops of the prov ince o f Sens, the ord inary ep iscopal functions,
and royal rites (coronation of the king and queen) whose historicalsignificance is still a m atter o f controversy. Let us recall also that these
"primitive" pontificals appeared almost simultaneously in several
different p laces, a tact dem onstrating that there w ere no deliberate
"politics" involved in their creation.
In orde r to exp lain the genesis and dev elop m en t o f the pontificals,
one m ust first have recourse to reasons of a practical order: the bishop
had at h and, gathered into one slim volum e, ail he needed outsidethe euch aristic liturgy. W hen he celebrated in the cathed ral, he could
also use the sacram entary in w hich certain episcopal rites were at
first transcribed before being "d eta ch ed " to constitute the pontifical.
The b ish op 's increasingly prom inent role in the liturg y o f his church
from the ninth century on contributed to a historical process attested
to by the "p rim itiv e" pontificals. In the ninth and tenth centuries, the
episcopal function becom es m ore clearly defined w ithin Christian so*
ciety and grows more and mort* important in the social and religious
as w ell a s in the liturgical sph eres.*5 Th e ad ve n t o f the po ntifical as
an independ ent book dem onstrates this m om entous evolution o f the
b ish op 's position in his dioce se and his liturgical responsibility.86 The
RG P w ill be a sort of fu lfillme nt of this recogn ition of the bishop as a
major figure in Western Christendom.
84. Ibid. The date (ninth century) and (he importance of this inanuwript wererccentlv reviewed, in less than convincing a manner, by P. Konakov, who ispreparing an edition with commentaries.
85. See J.-C Picard, "L'ordre carolingien," Histoire de h France religieuse, 1:171-281; M. Parisse, "Princes laïques et/ou moines: Les évêques du X1- siècle, //secoio <li t'erro: »¡¡to e realtà del secoh X. 19-25 aprile 1990, 2 vols., Settimane di studio del
Centro itaiiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo 38 (Spoleto, 1991) 2:449-516.86- See, for example, B. Guillemain, "L'action pastorale des évêques en Franceaux XIe et XI1e- siècles," Is istiluiioni eccltsiaslkhe délia 5 «)Cwf<is ¿¿ci secoh XI XU, Diocesi. pievi e parrochie. Atti délia sesta setlimana mtenwionale di studio,Milano, t-7 settembre 1974, Miscellanea del Centro di studi mediovali 8 (Milan,1 9 7 7 ) 117-135; M. Moslert, "L'abbé, l'évêque et le pape: L'image de l'évêque idéaldans les oeuvres d'Abbott de Reury," Religion et culture autour de l ’an mil: Royaume
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2. A C A T E G O R Y B Y I T S E L F : T H E B E N E D IC T IO N A L S
There w ere blessings8' in both sacram entaries and pontificals, in
w hich they gen erally fo rm ed a distinct part; otherw ise, they w ere
m ade into a separa te book called a bened ictional. In the sacramen -laries, the ble ssing s w ere essentially fo r mo nastic use. W hen joined to
a pontifical, either being a part o f the bo ok or inserted am on g the or-
dines, they concerned more specifically the episcopal function. As for
the indep enden t book, R asm ussen has p roved the existence of libelli,
sorts of em bryo s w hich he n am es "sim ple bened ictional»/'88 preced
ing the app earan ce o f the com plete bcn edictionals.*9 For the most
part, these sim ple ben edictionals are libelli containing espec ially ep iscopal blessings for the entire liturgical year and votive Masses; some
are for military or royal functions. Let us cite as an example a manu
script in M unich (Bayer. Staatsbibl., elm. 6430; fols. 1- 14 ) , prod uced
in Freising in the ninth or tenth century.** O ther m anu scripts juxta
pose the benedictional and p ontifical, as in the sum ptuo us m anu
script in R oue n (B .M., ms. Y.7 [369], written in Winchester abo ut 9&1
for Arch bisho p R obert.9' Finally, the com plete benedictional m akes
its appearance in the tenth century or thereabouts, when it becomes
an indepen dent book in the typo logy o f the liturgical docum ents per
taining to the bishop. But history of this book as distinct from the
pontifical has not yet been the object of the thorough stud y it d e
serve s.92 One of the best specim ens of this once ind epe nd ent book is
the Benedictional of Bishop W arm un dus, w ritten m northern Italy atthe end of the eleventh century (Ivrea, Bibl. capit., cod. 10 [XX|).93
$7. Concerning this particular sort of liturgical piece, set* Part 2 ,1, i, the sectionon the content nf the sacramentary, and H. E. Moeller, Corpus bewdictiomon episco-
paliuitt, 4 vols., CCSl.. 162 (Turnhout, 1971-1973).88. Rasmussen, Pwti/iam.
89. These libelti containing blessings are attested in the library catalogues likethat of St. M ary Major in Cremona, from the year 98.j: F.pi'nypaliunt bcnedictionwn UMliiiuro in$cripti volume// ttmafi ("One volum e o f booklets of episcopal blessings
written in gold"]. Jn this case, the iilvUi are perhaps already bound into one volume? See Becker, Catalogs, no. 36, p. $1.
90. See Camber, CH.A, no. 280, p. 184; J. Deshusses, "l.e benedictionnaire galli-can du VIII* siecle," Ephesneriites liturgum 77 (1963) 169-187.
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There also exist some "enlarged benedictionals" into which prayers
and ordines wore in serle d w ithin the b ody o f b le ssin gs without
ch an gin g the structure of the book in the least. IJeirtg insep arab le
from the history o f the pontifical and to a lessor de gre e from that of Ihc sacramentary, the benedictional gained its autonomy because of
the dev elopm ent o f the episcopal liturg y and becau se it is in some
w ay the second textual instrum ent after the pontifical, needed by the
bishop in h is cathcdral. Since the greatest nu m ber o f them w ere in
tended for bishops, the independent forms of this book are fre
qu en tly referred to «is ep isco pa l ben edictionals.94
3. T H E R O M A N O - G K R M A N IC P O V M F I C A L
Vogel con siders the Rom ano-Cerm anic Pontifical "o n e o f the tw o
m ain cultic m onum ents o f the Ottoman renaissance in the second
half of the tenth cen tu ry" (the othe r being the Fulda Sacramentary);^5
indeed, with it, the history o f the liturgical b ooks of the H igh M iddle
A ges takes a new turn. In the first pla ce, it consecrates the episcopal
liturgy, wh ich no w has an official book w ith w hich ob viou sly all the
other books used in worship must be in accord. In the second place,
the R G P thrusts us into another period o f the history of the liturgy
and its books, for it is the point of de partu re, if not the pro gen itor of
the books called the "seco nd gen eration." Together w ith the missal
and the breviary, it puts an end to the "first generation," bom of the
Carolingian liturgical reform (notably with the sacramentary andordim's).
H avin g been the object of m any stu dies and o f a "d efin itive " edition
by Vogel and Rh.e,90 the RGP and its history are well known today.
i\iatun' and Content of the R C I >
A lthough they are an extensiv e com pilatio n o f liturgical texts1—
som etim es called disparate— the contents of the R G P neverthelesspresent an org an ised structure so that they form a true book free
from the rando m ness and g rop ings that characterised the gatherings
94. For studies on other benedictionals of the 1Ugh Middle Ages, see in particular the works of Dc’il'Oro, among w h ic h it will be helpful to consult "II Dentxlt-
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K o i r f f s
o f t h c R o m a n f l ' G c r m a n i c P o
n t i f i c a l ( a f l e r C
V o g e i ,
J n t r o d u c t i o n
a u x
S o u r c o s , p . 2 3 5 )
0 0 S 1
o n f r i
O o í i
o
o
t i
o o i t
i x k h
i * V >
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groups: (1) Germanic (26 mss.); (2) Italian, whose.1 manuscripts were
copicd from Germanic models (7 mss.); (3) French (3 mss.); (4) Eng
lish (2 mss.). The olde st source d ates from the secon d half of the tenth
century (Lucca, Bibl. capit., cod. 607);500 in all likelihood copied inl.ucca itself from a m odel prod uced in M ain/, the ve ry p lace wh ere
the RGP originated, it is considered the manuscript most faithful to
the original state of the book.101 All the copies that have been pre
served derive from one comm on archetype wh ich an examination of
the manuscript tradition authorizes us to place in Ihe Romano-Ger-
m anic Empire, more precisely in M ainz. The v ariants prop er to the
different regional gro up s can be explained in two w ay s: several re
censions m ay h ave been p roduce d in the scriptoria of M ainz, o r these
regional variants attest that the hypothetical archetype rapidly un
derwent adaptations when it was diffused throughout a large part of
the West (see pp . 207-209).
O rigin , Date, and Historical Circumstances o f the Creation o f the R G P The RG P is a book that w as brou ght to com pletion through the em
pe ror 's w ill; it w as for the Ottonian sovereigns w ha t the Greg orian
Sacramentarv of the Hailrianum type had been for the Carolingian
rulers.102 On the political plane, this carefully planned and organized
compilation seems to have been undertaken to support the Ottomans'
attempt at a liturgical reunification of the Empire in imitation of
100. The date assigned to the Lucca manuscript is not unanimously accepted by the specialists. Some think it goes back to the verv first years of the eleventh cen
tury; see recently R. E. Renolds, "The Ritual of Clerical Ordination of the Sacra-mentarium Gelasianum Saec. Vlll: Early Evidence from Southern Italy," Ritueh, 437-445, especially 439. The analysis tips the scale in favor of the tenth century.
10 1. The wording o f the question in the ceremonial of bishops, Vis ¡nmctac Mogo-
hensi Ecdesiae, mihiet successoribus weis fuient tt subicctiowm exhitviv? ("Do you resolve to show fidelity and submission to the Church of Mainz, to me, and to my sucatsAors?"}, which the metropolitan addressed to the bishop to be ordained (hissuffragan), as well as the insertion of the names of the saints proper to l.ucca in thelitany favor the hypothesis that this is an Italian copy of a manuscript from Mainz;see Vogel, /ufnirftfc//i»>), 234 and 244. However, the morphology of the calligraphy dot's not seem to me to exclude a scribe of German origin. Could this be pertiaps a
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Cha rlem agn e a century earlier. This undertaking coincided w ith the es
tablishment of the RrichskircUetisystem ("imperial ecclesiastical system"]
by Otto I. This system linked the bishops directly to his person while
granting them the means of exercising their power in their territories.Tine rapid diffusion of the RG P w as d ue less to its intrinsic valu e than
to the renow n o f the place w here it w as co m posed , the see o f the
archbishopric of Mainz, whose eighteen suffragan dioceses made up
the m iddle part o f the em pire. At that time, the archbishop of M ainz
often combined with his charge the function of archchancellor of the
empire, which contributed to enhance the importance of the city of
M ainz , then re ga rded as the true religious cap ital. From 954 to 968,
the archbishop-archchancellor was William, son of Otto I and brother
of Otto fl. The spe cialists o f the RG P see in him the princ ipal protec
tor (perha ps even the artisan) o f the u nd ertaking, if not its inspiier.
Ordo L, which covers the entire liturgical year (Vogel-Elze, PRC,
section XCIX), does not seem to depend on an independent tradition
antedating the RGP. tn this ordo, a SangaJlian hymn (Hutnilf pn ve et sinccra dcvotiotic ("W ith hum ble p ray er and sincere de votion "] from
abou t 925) sung on Rogation D ays giv es variants characteristic of
Main/.: Ottmarus pater ["o u r father O ttmar"], fou nd er and protector
of the Abb ey of St. G all, is replaced b y Albanus pater ("ou r father
A lb an "]; m entions o f Sts . Boniface and D is ib od, the patrons respec
tively o f the city of M ainz and the A bb ey o f D isibodenberg near
Mainz. It is not plausible that these additions and substitutions weredo ne eisew he re than in the scriptorium o f St. A lban in M ain z.,,)J
The w ork of Vogel and Elze allow s us to assign a date between 950
and 962 to this compilation. The principal sources of Ordo L (practi
cally all the texts arc from the first half of the tenth century) furnish
the terminus ante quern mm. A thorough exam ination o f the oldest
manuscript witnesses (in particular ms. 607 of I.ucca) furnish the ter
m inus ad quem . These argumen ts arc confirm ed by the an alysis of the
for the royal coronation (Vogel-Elze, section LXXIl, ordo ad rcgem
benedkendum ["ordo for the blessing of a king "]) wh ich ap pea rs in this
exact form for the first time in the R G P ."HTh e contents of this ordo do
103. For a more developed treatment of the asgumcnts in favor of the Mainz ori
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not correspond to the description of the royal coronation of Otto I in
Aachen on A u gust 7, 936, which is known to us through a chronicler's
account.105 On the contrary, they are in perfect agreement with the
description of the royal coronation o f Otto il on M ay 26, 96 1, also in A achen .106 Presidin g over th is cerem ony w as the archchancellor o f
the em pire and p rima te of Germ any, W illiam o f M ainz; it is plausible
that he m ight have com posed an ortlo esp ecially for this occasion.
Its pow erful influence an d its prestige designated M ainz as the
natural place of origin for a ne w liturgical book intended to serv e the
religious politics o f the Ottoman dyn asty. The success o f tine boo k
w as im m edia te as show n by its w id espread diffusion th roughout a
large pari o f Ihe Em pire. H ow ever, because it ha d been conceived for
a lim ited use, exc lusiv ely episcopal, the book did not succecd in su p
planting in the hierarchy o f liturgical books the sacram enlary, the
symbol of the Carolingian liturgical reform. Upon William's death in
968, the abbey o f Fulda , the great rival o f the see of M ainz , recovered
its political and religious supremacy in the empire. The scriptoriumof Fulda then began to produce a series of sacramentaries; the most
important w as conceived as a sort o f "l iturgical mon um ent," a com
pilation of the types of sacramen taries from the Carolingian period,
as if to obstruct the othe r com pilation of the Ottonian period , em a
nating from the rival city of Mainz, the RGP,107 or to complete it. Fa
vorab le political circum stances because o f the renomtio imperii
["restoration o f the Em pire" ] prom oted b y the O ttonians, secured agoo d m easure o f success— albeit temp orary— for the RGP. It also
benefited from a certain liturgical decline in R om e, when* it received
a warm welcome. Otto 1, accompanied by m any d ignitaries of his
church, m ade several sojourns in Italy with the intent o f rem edying
the liturgical vo id w hich at that time afflicted Rom e along w ith a
large part of Italy. Under these conditions, the RGP appeared as the
ideal instrum ent for revitalizing the Roman liturgy. This w as theprincipal reason for its rapid implantation in Rome, where even
Piipsfe, 4 vols. (Stuttgart, 1968-1971); see also the up-to-date report by J. Mori,L'idéologie du glaive: Préhistoire de la chevalerie (Gent’va. 19R3) 84-102.
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und er G regory VII (10 73 -108 5), so reticent toward anything com ing
from the em pire, it beca m e author itative a s one of the tools for the re
newal of liturgical books.
Therefore, the RGP serves as a hinge in the typology of liturgicalbooks and o ccupies a prim ordial place in the developm ent of C hris
tian w orship d urin g the second ha lf of the M iddle Ag es. It w as both
a com pilation o f usag es and texts old er than itself and a po int of de
parture for the ma king o f ne w books. It can be said that ow ing to the
RGP's implantation in Rome, the orditu's rontnni, organized at last into
one hom oge neo us book and no long er assem bled into collections,
came back to their original homeland after a long peregrination be
yond the A lp s, w hich started at the begin nin g o f the eighth century .
4. T H E R O M A N A N D N ' O N - R O M A N P O N T I F I C A L S 108
The posterity of the RGP, espe cially in Italy, w as con siderable as
early as the eleventh century. By the twelfth, the Mainz compilation
ha d been so intim ately melded w ith the Ro m an usag es that liturgists
and canonists had even forgotten its origin. About 1150, when quot
ing (he RGP, Prior Bernard109 in his ordo officiortun Ecclcsiae Lnteranoi-
sis ["ordv for the offices o f the Church o f the L ateran "| sim ply c alls il
ordo romamts.1™ In fact, the RG P q uic kly becam e the essential source
for the composition of Roman pontificals in the twelfth century. The
process consisted in substantially pruning the Mainz book in order to
ad ap t it to the conditions o f the Ro m an liturgy. The liturgists o f thedifferent churches of Rome acted as their Frankish confreres had
don e a few centuries earlier w hen they had had to ad ap t the Roman
sources (sacramentarv, antipho nal, onlines roimni) to the ne eds o f the
Galilean church. The reworking of the RGP in Rome resulted espe
cially in the deletion of the coronation ordiues, purely monastic pieces
and rituals, strictly Galilean usages, and didactic compositions. Thus,
108. A good survey o f the history of the pontifical after the RGP has recently bm:npublished by M. Klockener, Die Liturgie dcr Ditizesamynode: Siudtett zur CtKchichie and Jlteohgie dcs ''Qrdond synndum’' dr* "Poti(ifictih‘ Rommum.“ LQF 68 (1986) es
pecially 25-^8.109. As Gv tas shown, the historical importance of this ordo is considerable since
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as modifications proceeded, the RGP itself progressively receded into
the back groun d, yieldin g to more "pra ctica l" books directly intended
for the l iturg y." ’
A n d rieu 's w ork on the Rom an pontificals o f the tw elfth century“ 2led to the conclusion that the RG P is their com m on source. The nine
m anu scripts used by A n drieu for h is edition of the pontifical o f the
twelfth century present a structure very close to that of the RGP and
are tine exp ression of the liturgy o f sev eral churches in R om e.“ 3 A fter
the First l.ateran Council, ] j 23, the pa pa cy recovered its sovereign ty
in the gove rnm ent o f the Church and in pa rticular in its liturgical ex
pression. It was decided to send throughout Europe papal legates with the missio n o f reorientin g lo cal liturgical usages and aligning
them according to Roman practices. In this operation, the new pontif
icals, born from the revision of the RGP, playe d a prom inent role.
Under the pontificate of Innocent III (1198-1216), a new impulse
w a s g iven to the Rom an pontifical w ithin a thoroughgoing refo rm of
the Latin Church initiated by the pope. The liturgists at the pontifical
court comp osed book s reflecting the official liturgy of the C ur ia and
destined to be imposed on the whole West.11,1 Among these new
books, the ordinary,115 the missal, and the pontifical occupied the
foremost positions within a system aiming at the ecclesiological iden
tification of the cccleski rotnnua and the curia romatia. Tine po ntifica l,
which the term inolo gy o f the tim e often confu sed w ith the ordinary,
resulted from the recasting of the different versio ns of the Rom anpontifical o f the twelfth century. There also, the ver y root o f the book
is the RGP. The edition o f the archetype, w hich w e also o w e to A n
drieu, has m ade it possible to distinguish se veral recensions through
out the thirteenth century.110 Already widely circulated in Italy, this
official p ontifical o f the Rom an C hurch w as, in its third recension,
m ade the norm in France at the time the pap acy m oved to Av ignon
in the fourteenth century. At that point, it competed with the pontifi-
m . On alt those questions, see ibid., PRC 5:51-55.H2. Andrieu, Pontifical, vol. 1113. On those manuscripts, sec ibid., and Vogel, tiitwfactioii, 250-251.114. See P.-M. Gy, "L‘unification liturgkjne de ('Occident el la liturgie de la curie
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cal w ritten aroun d 12 9 3 -1 2 9 5 '17 by the em inent liturgist of the thir
teenth century, William Durandus (3230 -1296), bishop of Monde.11*
A fter "stru gg les" fo r influence and recip rocal contam in ations, the
Pontifical of William Durandus—itself partially inspired by theRom an pontificals of the twelfth century since the auth or had so
jo urned in Italy— finally trium phed, thank-s to a h ig h ly unstable situ
ation in Rome al the lime of the Great Schism in the West. Partially
descended from the RGP, the wo rk o f Durand us served as a basis for
the first printed edition of the Pontificate ronumum in 1485110 (see
stenima, p. 202). The threefold division’20 adopted by Durandus for
his pontifical becam e the norm ative structure for all future printed
editions. The different sources used by D urandu s, pon tifical from the
twelfth century, pontifical of the Curia from the thirteenth century,
and e ven a few pieces from the R GP that ha d not been retained in the
Roman books, mak e this pontifical a true sum m a of the episcopal
liturgy, attesting to the abundan t po sterity o f the RGP, the progenitor
of w ork s that w ere the sym bo ls of a specific period in the history of the Church du ring the Middle Ages.
5 . I I . L U S T R A T I O N O F T H E P O N T I F I C A L " 1
"It would seem that for four centuries (down to the thirteenth cen
tury), the miniaturists did not dare to directly approach the decora
tion of the pon tifical."1“ Th is statement from the great French liturgist
l.eroqu ais is still valid for m od em research even though it deserv es
117. Andrieu, Pontifical, vol. 3. Andneu, Pontifical, vol. 4, offers tables and a general index of the three volumes of edited texts.
11 $ . On the work <ind influence of William Durandus, see Guillaume Durand: Evêque de Mende (vers 1230-1296). canoniate, liturgiateet homme politique, ed. P.-M.Gy, Actes de la table rondo du CN RS, Mende, 2-1-27 mi1' '990 (Paris, 1992).
119 . On the different versions of the printed pontificals down to Vatican II, see Vogel, Introduction, 255-256.
j 20. In prima ¡xirte de persvnartwi bcnciUctionibus, ordbuMiontbtis el consccrationis l* k .l a%ilur. . . . In fecunda parte tie consecratbnibua el Ivnnlictioinbu* aliaruw tarn sacrarum if turn pmpkanarum rerunt a$ilur. . . . hi tcrtia parte 1le quibufidum eccle$iasti- ci? officii* agitur. . . | "The first part treats of the blessings, ordinations, and consecrations of persons. . The second part treats of the consecrations and blessings
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satisfactorily dem onstrated that this cyc le reflected the ordination
liturgy o f southern Italy (ind epe nd ent from I he RG P, circulated in (he
region at that time) and that the images closely followed the rubrics
o f the ordo. T his cyc le is thus situated outside the Caro lingia n icono*graphic tradition of these rites as found in other books than the pon
ti f ic a l .C o n c e rn in g this Italian one already notices that one
o f the m ost striking characteristics o f the illustration, first o f the or-
dines, then o f the pon tifical, is as faithful a representation as p ossible
of the descrip tive part o f the rites and in pa rticular o f the rubrics.
The R G P w as never endow ed w ith an iconographie cycle on a par
with the officia l ro le which Ottoman politics assig ned to it in liturg ical
matters. The re ason s are p erh ap s to be sou gh t, in the first place, in the
absence o f an y icono grap hie tradition for the sort of p ieces contained
in this book and, in the second, in the will of the Main/ compilers to
avo id an y reference, even through im ages, to the sacram entary— the
sym bol o f the C arolingian liturgical un ity— in wh ich illustration tra
ditionally h eld an im portant place. O nly a limited n um ber o f pontifi
cals from the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries
w ere decorated w ith cycle s borrow ed from th e sacram enta ry. A s ex
amples, let us cite the luxurious Pontifical of Archbishop Robert
(Rouen, B. M., ms. Y. 7 I369]), made in Winchester about 980,127 and
the Pontifical of St. Dunstan {Paris, B. N., lat. 943), perhaps written in
Canterbury, with four full-page drawings whose Trinitarian iconogra
p h y is exceptional an d rem ained w ithou t po sterity.128 Pontificals of Germanic origin from the same period and from circles where RGI>
and Ottonian art were dom inant contain im ages h av in g an official
character: they sh ow the bishop in the exercise of his ecclesiastical
function o r in his position within Ottonian p olitics. Th ese ima ges
sho w the bishop 's po w er through the liturgical bad ge of his charge,
the pontifical. Paris, 15. N., lat. 1231 (between 1060 and 1084), opens
w ith a fu ll-page pain tin g representing the bishop o f Regensburg, O ttoof R ieden burg, offering his book to St. Peter, patron o f his church, in
the iconographie tradition of the dedication scenes.129 This is the one
126. Reynolds, "Im age an d Texl: The Liturgy of Cleric.il Ordination in Harly
Medieval Art," &xUt 22 (»983) 27-^R.
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IV. The Customaries
In the typo logy o f the liturgical boo ks of the M iddle A ge s, the cu s
tom aries occup y a place apart because of their mixed status as books
o f an d fo r the liturgy on the one han d an d a s collections of the usages
of d aily life on the other hand. Althou gh il w as not a liturgical boo k in
the strict sense, that is, it w as not use d d u ring the worsh ip services,
the custom ary neverthe less contained the rules go ve rn ing the liturgi
cal life of a m onastic comm unity. In this capacity, it d ese rve s the full
attention o f historians of Christian w orsh ip and logically takes its
place beside the oniines rottumi in the category o f documen ts prescrip
tive in character.
On account of the renewed interest the customaries have benefited
from in recent de cad es, in pa rticular on the part of spec ialists inm onasticism, w e can avail ourselves today of a twofold docum enta
tion (editions and studies) that lay the gro un d w ork for further re
search. German historians have distinguished themselves by their
w ork in this field . Their trail bla zer has been K. H allin ger, preceded
by B. Albers. The latter wrote a pioneering thesis on monastic life in
C lu n y an d Gor/.e in the tenth and eleventh ce nturies/34 before
launching the collection Corpus Consuetudinum Momsticarum, whichhas com pletely renew ed the stud y o f customaries, as w ell as that of
other related d ocum ents, such as the statutes.1*5
i v*. K. Hallinger, Corzc-Kluntf. Siudieit ztt den momistischen Isbensfonncti and Gcftenstitzeit ini Hochnittchller, z vols. (Rome, 1950, reed. 197*); today, this book
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t . H IS T O R Y O F T H E M K D J E V A L C U S T O M A R I E S
In the ba ckg rou nd o f the custo m aries, w e find the notions of rule
an d custom . From its origins, m onast icism has been based on a series
of rules, legislated b y the fou nd ers, wh ich define the reg ular l i fe o f them onastics . Th ese rules— som e thirty of them b etwe en the f if th and the
eighth centuries— organ ize the m on ast ics ' d ai ly l i fe w ith its manual/
intellectual, and liturgical activities.**6 Being locally adapted, the rule
becam e custom w hich , not w ritten at f irst, w a s transmitted prin cipa lly
b y the usages o f com m una l l ife . 1*7 D uring the C arol ingian period, one
sees som e indiv idual m onastery or re lig ious ord er g ive a def ini t ive
form to m any custom s based on ancient rules ( for instance those of
St . Benedict an d St. Au gu stine). M odifications to the Ben edictine Ru le,
then dom inant , and the subject o f a com m entary by Sm aragd us { first
h alf of ninth cen tury) w ere pro po sed at variou s councils , like that of
A ach en in 8 16 - 8 17 , d u rin g w h ich attem pts w e re m ad e to im p ose the
custom s of Benedict o f A nian e. ’ 5* But the local usa ges held their
gro un d , and thus a m onast ic ge og rap h y is discernible in the ninthcentury determ ined b y the kinds o f custom s observed in m ona ster
ies . 159 A t that t im e, there w ere no custom aries pro pe rly so cal led, but
rather texts describing the usag es o f som e m onasteries ( like A nian e
an d F ulda) in ord er to allow other m onasteries to ado pt them. On ce
the d ai ly routine o f m onast ic l ife an d l iturgical u sag es w ere written
do w n, custom started to be codified. H ow ever, i t w as on ly in the tenth
century that cu stom aries pro perly so called cam e into existence. They w e re w ell-org an ized collections o f a ll th e aspects, w h eth er m aterial o r
136. Sec A. l>o Vogue, tes règles monastique* anciennes (400-700), Typologie des
sources du Moyen A ge occidental, fasc. 46 (Turnhout, 19&5).137. On the notion of custom, see the fundamental article of K. Hallinger, "Con-
suetudo: Begritf, Formen, Forschimgsgeschiehte, tnhalt," Untersuchuugen ztt Klofler und Siifi, Verôffentlichungen dos Max-Planck-lnstituts fur <ji?schichte68 (Gottin
gen, 1980) 140-166; see also J. F. Anjjerer, " ? . w Problematik der Dégriffé Reguki-
Consuetudo-Observanz und Orden," Stuiiien und Milleilungen zur Cescluchte des
Benediktimnvrdens ¡oui seiner 7 .xwige 88 (1977) 312-323.138. J. Sommier, "D ie Beschlüssedcs Aachener Konztls im Jah r 8 16 ," Zetlsd iriff
fi ir kirehen%e$chichtc 74 (1963) 15-82 . In the field o f monastic architecture, Benedict
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liturgical, of the life of a monastery.140 YVhat happened then was that
the tradition p rop er to one m onastery sprea d to a m ore or less exten
sive region, thus creating zone« of influen ce for im portant m onasteries
such a s Fleury (Sainl-Benoit-sur-Loire) , Fu lda, C luny, St . Em m eram
of R egen sburg, S t. Ga l l, M onte Ca ss ino, Canterbury . Al though sha r
ing a com m on backgro und , tradit ions ne vertheless de velop ed in a
re lative ly indepe nde nt m anner so that d i fferences app eared, n otably
in the internal organization of a monastery and l iturgical practices.
F inal ly , w he re and w he n var ious t radit ions recorded in the custom
aries ca m e into contact, different p olit ical , social , econ om ic, and reli
g io us ideas confronted on e another, as w e are g oing to sec.
2 . N A T U R E A N D C O N T E N T O F T H E C U S T O M A R I E S
By stu dy ing the C luniac custom s and statutes between the tenth
and twelfth centuries, D. logn a-Prat has p icked o ut three essential
characterist ics of this sort of docum ent, ap p lyin g to all the custom-
aries o f the High M idd le A ges.*1*1 Before goin g into m ore detai l concern ing ea ch o f these cha racteristics, let us recall that m ed ieval
term inology does not really d ist ingu ish between custom aries and
statutes ; the bo un da ry betw een cottsuetmiines, statutn, inslituln is
som et im es b lurred . H ow ever , the custom s recorded in custom aries
described all the practices in the l ife of a monastery, whereas the
statutes, decreed by the abbot or abbess, concerned o n ly part icular
points. Som e authors, l ike G. Co n stab le, '42 regard the preem inence of s tatutes ov er custom s as the express ion o f increas ing abbat ia l p ow er
in the twelfth c en tury; others, w ithou t reject ing this hyp oth esis , grant
a lesse r im portan ce to tine statutes, pointing ou t that they w ere before
ai l e lse correct ions— on specif ic po ints o f the custom s in force— of al
read y existent custom aries.
140. See the historical report of I- Donnat, "L c s coutumes monastiquejs auteu rde I'an mil," Religion et culture autourde ¡'tin mil, 17-24; and "Les coutumiers
ntunastKfucs: une novel?« e»un?prise et ferritoire nou veau ," Revue Mtibillon 64,
n.s. 3 (1992) 5-21.14 1. D. logna-Prat, "Coutum es et statute dum sien s comm e sources historiques
(ca 990- ca 1200)," Mabillon 64, n.s. 3 (1992) 23-48.
142. C». Constable, "Clu niac A dm inistration and Adm inistrators in ihe twelfth
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censed abbots; the second deals w ith the m eals acco m pan ying the
celebra tion of certain fea sts of the San ctoral an d Tem poral.146 H ere,
the d ai ly l i fe of the com m un ity in the cou rse of the ye ar accords with
its pa rali lurgica l a ctivit ies an d is regu lated in one o f its asp ects (diet)acco rding to the l iturgical ca len d ar. '47
Customs and statutes wen? also regulatory texts , for they could im
p os e on all the establ ishm ents of the sam e rel igious ord er a new rule
o f l ife . Th eir norm at ive character in th is case depe nd ed upon the ju
r idical va lue o f the com pilat ion s. For the au thority o f the custom aries
and the statutes to assert i tsel f w ithin a rel igious orde r or gro up of
m onaster ies , they had to em anate f rom an important abbev w hich ex
ercised its inf luence ov er a goo d n um ber of prior ies . A s ear ly as the
end o f the tenth century , the sove reignty o f C lun y w as m easured es
pe cia l ly by the m any "han dw ritten w o rk s/ ' 14*5am on g w hich custom -
aries occup ied a large place.
Last ly , these do cum en ts are, on o ccasion, also reform texts concern
ing both internal usag es and their dif fusion outside the m otherhousc.The exam ple o f the Ab bey o f C lun y is aga in v ery revea l ing s ince
m ost o f the C luniac custom s in ou r possess ion are cop ies m ade in
other m onasteries. Th e Liber w hich is such an important
source o f inform ation on m onast ic an d l iturgical l ife in the tenth and
eleventh centur ies , has come d ow n to us thanks to the reform un der
taken by A bbot H ugh o f Far fa (998-1039) in h is I ta lian m onastery, ap
paren t ly insp ired by the exam ple o f C lun y a lthough he preserved theus ag es o f Farfa. I .et us also observ e that from one abb ey to another,
the adoption of a part icular custom coming from a monastery 0/
prest igious au thority could concern ev er y facet o f li fe in the place
w h ich ad o p ted the cu sto m or e lse co u ld be on ly a p artia l b o rro w in g
that left intact the preem inence o f local traditions. Th e en d resu lt w as
that the custom s w ere m ore or less com posite de pe nd ing up on
w h eth er th e ad o p tion o f im p orted u sag es w a s total o r partial.
1 46. !.. Morclle, " \ l i s l e des repas commém oratifs offerts aux moines de l 'ab
bay e de Corb ie (vers 986-989), une nouvelle pièce au dossier du 'Patrimoine de
saint A da lhard '?" Revue M $t ' de Philologie e! d ’Hfctoire 69 {19 91 ) 279-399.
147. Other asperts o f the dailv life of monastics have been studied on the basis
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3. H I S T O R I C A L A N D L I T U R G I C A L I N T E R E S T
O F T H E C U S T O M A R I E S
The custom aries are a source of inexh austible richness for all me
dievalists, be they arch aeolog ists or historians of religious life, socialand econ om ic practices, political ideology, or art. A com pa rative stud y
of the different liturgical traditions pro per to different m onasteries
can be achieved in large part on ly on the basis of the clues sup plied
by m onastic customaries. Th e greater or sm aller degree o f codifica
tion of liturgical usa ges from p lace to place en ab les researchers to
distingu ish steps in the establishm ent of a specific liturgy and d eter
m ine w h al are its links w ith the diocesan liturgy. T his codification
should be studied m onastery by m onastery and often w ould reveal
its roots in the u sages of the Caroling ian tradition, stron gly influenced
by the reform movement of Benedictine monasticism promoted by
Benedict of An ian e.‘ 5° The m edieval custom aries are especially im
portant witnesses to the persistence, or lack of it, of the liturgical
m odes established du ring the C arolingian period. We know, for instance, thanks to the work of L. Donnat,151 that the Carolingian foun
dations w ere particularly w ell de velop ed in the Cluniac zone of
influence, w he reas to the con trary— to spe ak o n ly of the territory of
ea rly Trance— F leu ry 's (Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire) /.one of influence
maintained liturgical usages more definitely rooted in the Frankish
tradition— imbued w ith ancient practices and l<x:al custom s— ante
dating the m onastic reform of Benedict of An iane.Th e liturgical cha racteristics, am on g others, o f each tradition, tend
ing either to conservatism o r innovation, allow us to discern m ore pre
cisely the different roles played b y specific m onasteries (or grou ps o f
monasteries) in po litical an d so cial life betwe en the tenth and twelfth
centuries.15* For instance, the traces observed in C lun y o f usages com
ing from the Germanic world highlight the central position of that
Burgu ndian m ona stery situated on the border between French terri
tory and that of the emp ire. This corroborates w ha t is k no w n o f the
150. See J. Sommier, "Benedictus II: L'na régula, una consuehido," (isnciiictmc
Culture (750-1050) ( L o u v Ain 1983) «4/#
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actions by some C htniac abbots, in p articular O dilo and H ugh , in
favo r of a rapprochem ent with the em pire,’53
Th e particulars o f the da ily life and ad m inistrative system proper
to each com m un ity or group o f m onasteries ap pe ar clearly throughan attentive exam ination o f the custom aries, Questions such as the
conditions of admission to the monastery, with their implications for
social h isto ry ;'54 the ev olu tion o f the ecclesiastical hierarchy, notab ly
with the in sistence on the abbot's power, are elucid ated by several
cha pters in the custom aries. Econom ic w ealth can also be evaluated
by com paring account bo oks and charts w ith the pa ssag es in the cu s
tomaries that deal with the possessions of the monastery and the dis
tribution o f its goo ds , espec ially un de r the form o f food for the poor.
Finally, the customaries have enabled us to reconstitute through the
com parative study o f textual sources and archeological sources the
architectural and artistic history of many monasteries and churches
of the M iddle Ages, som e of which h ave entirely d isappeared. The
monastery of Cluny and its church (Cluny 11), key edifices of Burgu n dy about the ye ar 1000 and built unde r the abbacies o f M aiolus
and Odilo,*55 or the abbatial church of Fruttuaria in Lombardy, estab
lished in the eleventh ce ntu ry b y W illiam of V olp ian o/56 can be re
constructed than ks to such investigations. For the h istory o f liturgical
objects, vestments, and altars, the custom aries su pp ly a docu m enta
tion of exceptional interest, still under-exploited.
To sum up, three main steps marked the history of the customaries: ( i) the setting do w n of custom s and usages derive d from m onas
tic rules in the C arolingian pe riod; (2) the codification of usa ge s in
1 53. Among thi* many studies oi J. Wollasch on the relationship* between Cluny and the empire, se?, for example, "Kaiser Heinrich 1 J. in Cluny," Fnihmittehilterliche
Siudtcn 3 (1969) 327-342.
154. Constable, "Entrance to Cluny in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuriesaccording to the Cluniac Customaries." A iedianwlia Christiana, XF-XIIF siècle: Hommage à Raymond Foranlle (Paris, 1989) 334-354.
155. See K. J. Conant, Cluny, k f église* et la maison tin chcf d'ordre, Mediaeval Academy of America 77 (Macon, 1968); C. Sapin, "C lu ny II et l'interprétationarchéologique de son plan,” Religion et culture autour de l'an mil, 85 -% ; N. Stratford, "L es bâtiments de l'abbaye de Cluny à l'époque médiévale: Etat des ques
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V. The O rd in aries*57
O rdinaries belong ed to the sam e category o f books concerned withthe liturgy a s I he cu stomaries, the collections o f rules, an d even the
reading gu ide s (for the refectory, for exam ple) of wh ich w e spo ke
above. T he ord inaries answ ered the need for codification of the litur
gical u sages o f the clergy, w hethe r religious or diocesan, and therefore
w ere, even m ore than th e custom arie s, in dis pensable com plem ents o f
the Jitiirgical boo ks prop erly so ca lled .158
In a recent sum m ation of the subject, A .-G. M artim ort establishesa clear distinction between customary and ordinary: "Practically
what diffe rentia tes the one type from the other is that the ordin ary
desc ribes the course o f the liturgical y ea r w ith its celebrations: Office,
Mass, processions, whereas the customary enumerates (1 w ould add
'also') the usages and rites of the life of the community, thus particu
larizing and com plem enting in the case of m onastics and canon s the
prescription s o f the Ru le. . . . " ‘w None theless, there ex ists a real, al
most genetic, link betw een these tw o typ es of docum ents. One could
sa y that in som e w ay, the ord inary w as alrea d y contained in the cus
tomary. C om pared w ith the latter, it d id not include w h at concerned
the da ily life o f the m onasteries. Because o f its strictly liturgical cha r
acter, the ordinary devoted a much larger place to the description of
rites. Although it was not a liturgical book in the strict sense, it mustbe reg arde d as a boo k pe rtaining to the liturgy, since it cod ified, regu
lated the usage s of a m onastic comm unity, a cathedral, a diocese. Som e
authors even call it, and rightly, a book used in the preparation of
157. This section is inspired in large part by m y attempt to bring all results together; “ Les ordinaire* liturgiques comme sources pour 1'historien du Moycn
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w orship serv ice s/6* for from the tw elfth century on, it w as th is hook
that outlined the way in which each celebration ought to be conducted
and established connections between ihc different actors and their re
spective books.Let u s exam ine the three m ain traits which characterized an o rdi
nary. First o f all, it ve ry exa ctly follow ed the un folding o f the liturgi
cal ye ar in w hich , dep end ing on the cases, the Iem poral an d the
Sanctoral w ere either com bined or separate, and it w as gen erally pre
ceded by a calend ar w ho se contents m ight agree or not w ith its ow n.
It w as within this time frame that all liturgical actions for each da y
w ere described, the M ass as w ell as the Office. Second, as a generalrule, the ord inary g ave «inly the incipits o f the liturgical pieces (chants,
prayers, readings, and so on) in the order in which they occurred in
the celebration; these incipits w ere interspersed w ith rubrics of va ri
able length wh ich described the ccremony. These description s we re
intended for the master o f ceremon ies w ho a lso had to use this book.
In the third place, it described the essentially local usage of a cathe
dral, a monastery, or a cano ns' church; o f a diocese, a m onastic fam
ily, an o rde r of canons, mo nastics, o r m endicants.
i . H I S T O R Y O F T H E O R D I N A R Y A M D
A T T E M P T A T T Y P O L O G Y
There h ave been general studies as w ell as m onographs written on
the history o f the ordinary. The recent writing s of M artimo rt and E.Foley 1*1 com plem ent older w ork s such as the introduction o f A.
Hanggi to the Ordinary of Rheinau from the twelfth century/62 the
stud y o f B. Schimm elpfennig on the books of ceremonies in the Roman
Chu rch in the M idd le A g e s /6̂ and esp ecially the un pub lished p ape r
of J. D ufrasne on the m anu script ordinaries o f diocesan churches
160. Soi* E. Foley, "The / ibri onlituirii: An Introduction," Ephcmeriitefi iitur^iaw 10a(329-137).
161. See Martimort, Qrditws; E. Foley is above all the author of a study accompanying the publication of the first ordinary o f the Abbey of St. Denis (Paris, BiW.Mazarine, 10s. 526), dating from the second quarter of the thirteenth centurv, which will be mentioned below: The Pinl Ortiimty of (he Rin/n! Abbey of Saint-Denis in
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kept in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris.’64 In addition, there exists
a vast number o f monographic s t u d ie s ,u s u a l ly preceded by a h i s
torical introduction on the place un der consideration a nd its liturgi
cal visages. W hile the onlines romatii were centered on actions, the ordinary fo
cused rather on the liturgical organiza tion o f a spe cific place throu gh
out the year. It w as an instrum ent of codification a nd se arch for unity
among the liturgical traditions proper to a religious family, monastery,
cathedral, diocese. In order to acquire this authority, it needed to be
separated from the custom ary in w hich it w ould ha ve been submerged
in the m ass of the usages of the m onastic or canonical life describedin the latter. The appearance of the independent ordinary in the twelfth
century can also b e exp lained by practical reasons, as is often the case
w ith liturgical books: it sorted out, reorgani2ed, cla ssif ie d the num er
ous p ieces (chants, prayers, readings) that w ere gra d ua lly add ed to
the C hu rch 's prayer.
The golde n ag e o f the ord inary w as the thirteenth century, in the
course o f which one observes a sort o f extrem e individualization of the local liturgies, w hethe r m onastic o r diocesan. T his phen om enon
became even more accentuated in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen
turies with the result that the ordinary gained a major importance for
liturgical and religiou s history in general. Often, the com position of
an ord ina ry w as not fortuitous: it accom pan ied a reform of the liturgy
or set dow n a Iradition in writing d urin g a period (essentially die
thirteenth century) in which many new offices—formerly added to
oustomaries and liturgical books on extra pages or in the margins—
had to be includ ed in a manu script. In this case, w he ther locally or
w ithin a w hole religious order, a revis io n w a s undertaken: liturgical
practices were updated in order to remedy uncertainties, facilitate the
perfo rm ance of the ceremon ies, an d pre ve nt errors. The ordinary
took its place am on g the "secon d g ene ration " o f books, along w iththe pontifical (the one de rivin g from the R G P of the tenth century),
breviary, and m issal. In this grou p, it ap pe ars as a central element
164. J. Dufrasne, /¿s imiuwm’s wmhmslwVs des égti&r.s séculières conservés à !a Biblio- thïqut' naifcttaie <k Paris fvpeivriHen momoiï institut supérieur de Liturgie {Paris
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around which the other books organized themselves within a new ec-
clesiology of the liturgy, hencc its historical importance.166
If one w an ts to describe m ore accurately an d p recisely the typ ol
o gy of the ordina ries, one must of ne cessity take into account thecharacter of the community they pertained lo and therefore distin
gu ish the ordinaries of the cathedrals—a nd the churches depen ding
upon them— from those o f m onasteries an d also from those destined
for a w ho le congregation of m onastics or canons. W ithin these m ain
categories, on e mu st m eticulously exam ine the man uscripts them
selves in order to discern the types, a work to which Dufrasne ap
plied himself, and arrive at a characterization of each ordinary basedon the m anner o f celebration. Som e ordinaries furnish lengthy and
detailed rubrics en abling us to reconstruct the offices or the M ass as
they w ere celebrated in a give n place; others on the contrary are
short on rubrics (in this case the rubrics are o n ly the connecting link
between the different pieces) an d g ive scant information on celebra
tions and processions. The ordinaries with long rubrics and those
w ith short ones are not specific to one type o f ordinary: they can be
found in cath edrals or m onasteries alike. It m ust be ad de d that the
ordin aries o f the fourteenth, fifteenth, and eve n sixteenth centuries,
had a tendency to be overloaded with extraordina rily detailed
rubrics. The ea rlier ord inaries , that is, m ain ly those from tine thir
teenth century, g ive rather sparse information in the w a y o f rubrics
and a ver ag e on ly sixty to eighty sheets, w ha tever the liturgical context in wh ich they we re used.
The ca a'fu l exam ination o f the man uscripts makes it possible to re
fine the typ ology o f the ordinaries, which reflects the variety o f the
celebrations. O ne encoun ters cases o f textual juxtapo sition lending
them selves to historica l interpretation. I ,et tis cite that of a custo m ary
and an ordinary combined into one perfect paleographic and codico-
logical unity, like that in Paris, B. NL, lat. 13874 (Corbie, first half of twelfth century); in this docum ent the C ustom ary o f Clun v coexists
w ith the O rdinary o f C orbie . Another exam ple is fo und in Paris , B. N.,
lat. .1237 (Tours, fifteenth century); there also one ho m ogeneo us w ho le
results from the juxtaposition of a cathedral ord inary (fols. i- 5 ir ) and
the syn od al statutes of the dio cese (fols. 51V-83V). A third exam ple is
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this case, w e note that it w as intended for use in the diocese, w ithout
mention of an y particular place, not even the cathedral— wh ich one
w ould have expected— and w as sim p ly meant to be used in a varie ty
of w ay s w ithin the diocese. Perhaps this w as a pocket cop y whichthe bish op w ou ld ha ve taken on his travels to the parishes; thanks to
Jiis ordinary, he could fo llow the usages o f his cathedral and adapt
them to the parish he w as visiting . The sm all si/.e o f the m anuscript
{19.5 by 15 centimeters), its lim ited nu m ber of folios (thirty-two),
and its casual app earance w ou ld sup po rt this hypothesis. O verall,
the ord inar y ap pe ars to h av e been an essen tially utilitarian book
w hic h w as regularly consulted (as proved by the p ages often wornout or dam aged) and w hose mo dest aspect contrasts with the m ag
nificence o f the calligrap hy and decoration o f the liturgical books
containing sacred texts. However, a few manuscripts are exceptions,
but in general these emanate from royal or pontifical circles. Thus
Paris, B. N ., lat. 14 3 5 (50.5 by 1 1. 5 centim eters, end of fourteenth or
beginn ing o f fifteenth century), the ord inary of the chapel o f the
king o f France {the Sainte-Chap elle), is w ritten in a clean hand with,at the beginning of each celebration, a handsome initial letter
adorned with fine filigree. There exists another one, Paris, B. N., lat.
416 2 A (central Italy, 1365 ), mad e for C ard inal Albo rno z; it is one of
the rare m ed ieval sam ples that has a richly d ecorated frontispiece
spe cifyin g that it contains the text o f the ordina ry of the Rom an
Cu ria at the time of Innocent III (12 13 -12 :16) . The han dw riting is
carefu lly executed, but in contrast to the kin g's copy, it w as o b vi
ou sly h eavi ly used as show n b y its w orn condition.
The m edieval d esignations o f the ordinaries arc often approxim ate
and lack ing in precision .167 The gen eric terms most frequen tly encoun
tered, with no distinction w ha teve r between types, are the following :
fiber ordiuarius (the most frequent in the titles of manuscripts), ordi-
Harium. onto, ordo ecclesianticus, ordo officiorum, qffïcium eccltmifàiïcum, breve, observtwtiae, consueludines, liber cerenioniarum, directorium chart.
Often, the mere title is insufficient to establish a distinction between
the types of ordinaries, hence the need to study the actual text of the
manuscripts in order to discover what contents a particular title cov
ers. Consequently, in the vast u nd ertaking of refining the typo logy of
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the ord inaries, m an y specific kinds are still ov erloo ke d, such a s the
abstracts or condensations of ordinaries, w hich are sim ply m ade up
o f lists.
2 . H I S T O R I C A L A N D L I T U R G I C A L I N T E R E S T
OF THE OKLMNARM-IS
Like the custom aries, the ordin aries are indispe nsab le for histori
ans of Christian worship, in particular liturgists, hut also for theolo
gian s— notably in their study of the form s taken by the celebration of
the sacram ents in the course o f centuries. Indispen sable also for histo
rians of m usic, w ho , thanks to the ord inaries, are able to perfect theirkn ow ledge o f the evolution o f the repertory p roper to a g iven feast
an d also their kn ow ledge of the history of m usical notation. Indis
pensable, finally, fo r historians of architecture and a rcheology, w ho
can find in the ord inaries precio us inform ation on the history of a
bu ilding a nd its interior plan. The historical and archeo logical stu dy
of a church shou ld system atically include that of the ord inaries be
cau se it is high ly prob able tliat architectural rem ode lings an d interiorrearrangem ents, even new constructions ha ve entailed the com posi
tion of an ordinary. F or instance, the ord inary o f the Ab be y o f St.
Denis written about 1234/68 is the most important source not only for
ou r redisco very o f the m ann er o f w orship in the monaster)' and its
surroundings in the thirteenth century, but also for our evaluation of
the degree o f persistence, at a time wh en the royal influence regained
its strength, of the liturgical tradition inhe rited from S ug er (d. 1 15 1 ) ,
in spite of the architectural modifications worked on the Carolingian
and Romanesque parts of the edifice between 1231 and 1281.169 Lastly,
let u s add that for their part, expe rts in the top ograp hy of the towns
and villag es of the M iddle A ge s find in the ordinaries precious pieces
o f information, espe cially because of the m any d escriptions o f proces
sions through towns.For the fourteenth, fifteenth, and even sixteenth centuries, the ordi
naries shed light on certain aspe cts of p op ular religiosity and sacred
dram a, on occasion through the description o f superstitious practices.1̂
Som etimes, espe cially in the m anuscripts o f the fifteenth century
G8 S F l fi t O di
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w hich feature more and more d evelop ed rubrics, one com es across
unexpected details, l ike the enum eration o f the beve rage s offered to
the clcrgy on the occasion of lengthy processions.
Th e stud y o f ord inaries also contributes to a better kn ow ledge o f certain m om ents in the history o f the Church and the liturgy. We give
on ly tw o exam ples. First, the new conception of the Chu rch elabo
rated by the Roman Curia at the beginning of the thirteenth century
in wh ich an official o rdinary pla ys an im portan t ro le.'71 In the first
ha lf of the thirteenth century, Innocent Ml and his succe ssors g av e a
fresh importance to tine liturgy of the papal chapel; the concrete ex
pression of this new em phasis w as the compo sition o f reshaped l iturgical books w ith, in the first place, the ord inary o f the Curia ( 12 13 -
1216), regulating both the Office and the Mass, and then the pontifi
cal and missal. In this new system, the ordinary, which in the con
temporary references is often confused with the pontifical, occupied
an im portant place because it w as the basic book according to which
all the other books pertaining to the liturgy were organized. At the
same time, the idea that the liturgy of the papal chapel was the most
authentic in the Ro m an Church gaine d w idesp read acceptance; as a
result, the way was open to the ccclesiological identification between
the ecclesia romatut and the curia romann. In this context, it is po ssible
that a standard ordina ry— w ho se oldest attestation is Paris, 13. N., lat.,
4162 /K i?2— w as com pose d in ord er to sprea d abroad the m odel of the
pa pa l chapel througho ut the West.
The second exam ple concerns the restoration o f the diocesan church
and the redefinition of the liturgy. The liturgical ren ew al at the dioce
san level was made possible only by the strengthening of the power
o f bish op s and that of the local churches. T he concrete expression s of
this increase of episcopal p ow er w ere the deve lopm ent of the cathe
dral chapters (which elected the bishops), the rise of real episcopal cu
rias in dioceses, the growth of economic power, and a more effectiveinfluence of bishops on the urban scene (especially in the construction
o f vast cathedrals).1” The diocesan syn ods, alread y reactivated at the
171. See Gy, "PapauUS el droit liturgique," 229-245.172. This manuscript no longer entirely reflects the original state of the papaldi b i 6 J P V Dijk T/
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en d o f the twelfth century, w ere instrum ents o f reform and action in
the bisho ps' han ds. Thu s, there w as an unden iable relationship be
tween the synodal statutes of the thirteenth century and the redaction
of ord ina ries .'74 It w a s for this reason that both texts w ere often joinedin one manuscript.175 In Paris at the beginning of the thirteenth cen
tury, the statutes of E ud es de S u lly stipulated that the ordinary of
parish priests must be in conformity with 1hat of the cathedral, the
first church in the diocese. In 126 1 in A nge rs, the statutes of Nicolas
G ellent specify that "priests shou ld h ave the ord inary an d fo llow it.
We order that each church be in possessio n of the book called the or
dinary, w hich the priests w ill consult ev er yd ay before starting Vespersin order to perform these sam e Vespers, M atins, and the office o f the
following day according to the directions in the ordinary."176 As we
can see, the prescriptions o f syn od al statutes often enable us to deter
mine accurately the date o f com position for the ordinaries. It ha pp ens
that the ord inaries not on ly describe wh at w as u su ally don e, but also
rev eal that the selection o f pieces and rites w as d u e lo a decree com
ing from a higher authority.’ 77 B y regu lating the liturgy o f the dio
cese, the ord inary legislated in matters of w orsh ip in the sam e w a y as
the syno dal statutes d id for the overall diocesan adm inistration.
Therefore, the convening o f a syn od m ay w ell h ave been the occa
sion fo r the com position o f an o rdin ary o r even the revision o f an al
rea dy existing book, or indeed, its rew orking o f the latter with a vie w
to establishing liturgical legislation.
174. Contvnüng the synodal sUtutes, set» O. Postal, Les statuts synodaux. Typologie des .sources du Moyen Age occidental, fasc. 11 (Turnhout, 1975).
175. See p. 224, Paris, B. N., lat. 12}/ .176. 11*0 translation is thaï of J. Avril, Is s sta tu ts syo t la ux fra nça is du X II I' ' sièc le ,
vol. 3: sta tu ts syno d a ux an g ev ins de la seconde m o it iéd u X M r sih le (Paris, 19S8)
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VI. The Processionals
Situated a t the bo un da ry between sev eral other books pertaining tothe liturgy, the processional has not yet ga ined the attention it dese rve s
on the part o f historians because it is com m only associated w ith other
bo oks.i7* How ever, the fact that it is frequen tly joined to an an tipho nal
or a collectar has resulted in its being stu died , albeit partially, b y those
spec ializing in these book s. G y d evo ted fundam ental pa ge s to the
pro cession al.179 M uglo po nd ered the role o f the processional in the
histo ry o f liturgical chan t.,8° What follow s is esse ntially b ased onthese works.
Content and History o f the Processional
A t its begin nin g, the processio nal w as exclusively a book o f chant
and contained the procession antiphons for the Office and , m ore rarely,
for the M ass. Its existence is attested at least as ea rly as the tenth or
eleventh ccntury in m anuscripts w e sh all come back to later, but be
fore this period, we have no reliable information. R.-J. Hesbert, op
posing the hypotheses of H. Leclercq,181 supposed that convenient
booklets containing procession chants already existed in the Carolin-
gian p eriod .’8* Un fortunately, no exa m ple sup por ts H esbert's idea, so
178. 'Ihis kind of book is completely absent from the work of Vogel, I n t r oduc t i on ; a brief and somewhat imprecise notice is devoted to this book in the nomenclature of Pinia and Irtenkauf, Liiu r g h t r fie N o n w n k k t i ir, 128; in Thiel's article, the notice is even shorter and. this time, downright erroneous, Biicher, 2389,Set* also Huglo, t.wres tte chattl, 1 to -1 1 1.
179. Cry, ''Collectaire"; this text was reprinted in I.iturgte dans t'lthtoire, 91-126.180. We eagerly await the publication of Huglo's catalogue of the manuscript
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w e must be content with arguments drawn from the examination of Caroiingian chant books. In certain antiphonais of the ninth and
tenth centuries, one encounters gro ups o f procession antiphons form
ing a pari o f the books. C onversely, the absence o f these antiphonsfrom I w o o f the most important pre-Carolingian antiphonals (the
manuscripts of Monza and Rheinau)'8* suggests that these pieces
were incorporated into the antiphonal after having existed separately.In the medieval library catalogues, the term processionate (one also
finds protxssionarium, processionarius) does nol appear before the sec
ond half, and even the end, of the Middle Ages. Mentions of chant //-
belli perhaps refer in fact to processionals und er the form o f separatebooklets, but nothing allows us to affirm this: Item aiii libelli, quae [sic!
in choro habentur ["Similarly, other booklets which are kept in choir"]
(catalogue of the Abbey of Schaffhausen, about 10 8 3-j 096).184 On the
contrary, an entry in the library catalogue of the Priory o f St. Martin of
La Canourgu e en Gevau dan , dating from the twelfth century, attests
the existence o f processional booklets: Catmiiones Isici <le antiphams
processionals ["quires o f eight folios o f processional antiphons"].185
In the tenth and eleventh centuries, the processionals were fre
quently included in composite books which were perhaps the resultof a grouping of libelli; in these books, the processionals were gath
ered together with tropers and sequentiaries.'*6 Several of these
manuscripts have been described by Gy: Paris, N., lat. 1 1 2 1 (its
principal part dating between 994 and 1033 ), com prising troper, separate sequences, offertories, procession antiphons, gospel antiphons
for the time after Pentecost, sequentiary; Rome, Bibl. Casa., cod. 1741,
and Bibl. Na/.ionale, cod. 1343, two processional-tropers from the
eleventh century. In these manuscripts, the different parts are clearly
distinct from one another, without fusion of the pieces.
From the twelfth and especially thirteenth centuries on, the proces
sional acquired a place among the many liturgical books that achurch w as expected to possess. The processional appeared first
1 S3. Monza, Tesoro San Giovanni, cod. CIX (Monza, c.800); Zurich, Zentralbibl.,cod. Rh. 30 (Abbey of Nivelle* or Chur, eighth or ninth century); see Vogel, In t ro
duct ion , 359.
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under the form o f bo ok lets/87 ¿is the reference in the catalogue o f St.Martin o f La Canourgue cited above attests, or perhaps it was already
made up into a m ow substantia] book. As time went on, the proces
sional increased in size and was 110 longer limited only to processionantiphons. Several churches in France have preserved num erous pro
cessionals from the period between the thirteenth and fifteenth cen
turies. Among the new religious orders, som e did not include
processionals in the official list o f liturgical boo ks which w as estab
lished rather early in their history. This w as the case o f Qteaux,
which, however, owned more than twenty processionals at the time
of the compilation o f the catalogue o f john o f Cirey in 1489.188In the thirteenth century, one observes two developments: on the
one hand, the processional was frequently included in official lists,
notably in the Dominicans' established by Humbert de Romans, mas
ter of the order between 1254 and 12 5 6 ;^ on the other hand, the pro
cessional gained a new configuration as a descriptive book since the
rubrics pertaining to the processions increasingly took precedenceover the antiphons. The combination of the ritual and processional
then appears as a logical step because the procession chants held an
important place in the enactment of rites, such as funerals. By the
end o f the Middle Ages, although still retaining its specific character,
the processional looked more like a ritual, more or less complete, de
pending o f the rites it contained. In the fifteenth and sixteenth cen
turies, the processional became a book of utmost necessity in thechurches, whether monastic or diocesan , to such a point that its con
tents were considerably augmented. Originally containing only procession chants with their rubrics, the processional now also included
other antiphons, versicles, responsories, and complete rituals (for fu
nerals, the wash ing o f feet on H oly Thursday, the Adoration of the
187. As Gy noted in "CoJlectaire," 468, the reference drawn from the list of bookscommissioned, according to Leo of Ostia, by Didier, abbot of Monte Cassino (1058-»085), does not allow us to decide with certainty whether we are dealing with aprocessional in the proper sense or with a collection containing the orations saidby the priest: M tpi-wn fecit, el de alio libello in <juo sumi orationts processiowiuv. . . ("He composed this, and from another Ubeltus containing the processional prayers
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Cross on Good Friday, various rites o f ablution, and s o on); som e
times, the processional wa s even appended to a book o f the flo u rs .'^
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VII. The Ceremonials^1
The ceremonials are in some w ays the end result of the typological
evolution o f the ordinaries at a time (mainly the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries) the books used in worship had entered a further phase in
their history. Compared to the ordinary, the ccremonial was at once
more precise in its instructions concerning the performance of the
rites and devoid of any reference to liturgical texts (chants, prayers,
readings). To be helpfu l, it had to be used in conjunction with an ordinary, or even with the liturgical books properly so called. This ty
pological difference app ears clearly on ly from the fifteenth century
on, at the time the "true" ceremonials appeared. Before that time, the
books had features akin to the ordinary, the customary, even the pon
tifical and ceremonial. The lack of definite boundaries between these
different kinds w ere du e to the conditions which cau sed the emer
gence of a new book genuinely destined for the liturgy, the ceremonial. A s Martim ort has reminded his readers, "the need for a ceremonial
pro perly so called w ould be felt especially at the time o f the Triden
tine reform,"*92 particularly in the pontifical court and some episco
pal curias.
The strong reso lve to regulate as precisely as possible the liturgy o f
the Rom an C uria arose in the second half of the twelfth ccntury and
even more in the thirteenth. The liturgical usages of the Curia already
constituted the principal elements of the papal ceremonial. The main
purpo se of these texts w as to describe in detail the opulencc which
the rites demanded, from the material and human viewpoints, and to
give all necessary particulars concerning the roles of the officiants. For
hi h di d ifi l l d d f
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com posed w hich relaie to particular rites; one of those w as com piled
for the papa cy d urin g its stay in Av igno n.193 In the fifteenth century,
the existence of the papal a nd episcop al cerem onials is confirmed
thanks to the elaborate wo rk o f pe rson s in high places at the pontificalcourt. At the request of Innocent VIII (1484-1492), Agostino Patrizi
Piccolomini and John Burckhard compiled a ceremonial presented to
the Pope in 1488, printed for the first time in 1516, and often reprinted
afte rw ard .,SM
A lon g the sam e lines as the cerem onia l, and a lso in the fifteenth
century, diaries for use by the pap al m asters of cerem onies appeared ;
in these are noted, d ay by day, the actual perform ance of the cerem o
nies, the receptions, the corteges, the journ eys, w ith a w ealth o f par
ticulars relating to protocol and accoun ts the incidents that might
h ave occurred.
The cerem onials for the episcop al M ass ap pea red in the second half
o f the fifteenth ccntury, in the w ak e o f those destined for the papal
court, and reached their full development in the sixteenth in works
com m ission ed b y c ard ina ls.195 Before they cam e into being, the cus
tom, as early as the thirteenth century, was to simply add particular
rites to p ontificals in the strict sense.
With the develo pm ent o f the cerem onia l, the end o f the M id dle
A ges and th e Renaissance w ere characteriz ed by an in creased spe
cialization o f the boo ks that desc ribe the liturgy ; the balance which
existed in the ordinary betw een d etailed rubrics and sacred texts w aslost. For historians o f the papa cy a s w ell as fo r spe cialists of rites at
the junction o f the M iddle A ge s and M odern Times, the ceremo nials
are an im portan t source for their research.196 For m ediev alists, th ey
193. S e e ibid., 96-104, and the study of Schimmelpfermig, Zeremonienb i icher .
194. See the important studies of M. Dykmans, Le cérémonial papa l de la f i n t in M o ye n Ag e à la Rena issa nc e , 4 vols.. Bibliothèque de l'Institut historique belge deRome 24-27 (Brussels, 1977-1985), and l .'o i 'u v rc de Pa t rizi Pic c o lom in i o u le cérémo
nial pap al l ie la p rem ière Rena issa nc e . 2 vols., Sttidi e Testi 293-294 {Vatican City,1980-1982).
195. See Marlimort, O rd ine s, 107-109.196. For the sixteenth century, the ceremonials can be the p r i n c i p a l source for
the interpretation of images representing papa! ceremonies; see for example, N. K.
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arc a far cry from their ancestors o f the M iddle A ge s (ordinet mnumi,
pontificals, custom nries, ordina ries) and en able them to eva luate the
w a y s in w hich li turgical tradit io ns w ere transmitted beyond the
Middle Ages, sometimes down to Vatican II, thanks to their codification through print.
/
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Conclusion
By w ay o f epilog ue to this history of the liturgical books in the
Middle Ages in the West, I would simply recall three points, already
met with in this book, for which the study o f the sources of the liturgy proved of particular interest and whose important contribution to the
history o f the M iddle Ag es it highlighted.These three points are: the use the royal and imperial powers m ade
of the liturgical books in order to validate and strengthen political re
forms; die central role played by these books in the history o f the papacy, in particular in the thirteenth century after the Fourth Lateran
Council; and finally, the impact of these books on the developm ent of
private devotion am ong clerics and lay people, which w as on the pe
riph ery o f the official liturgy.
Historians h ave often observed that in tine kings' and em perors'
search for political stability within their territories, liturgical books
had p laye d a fundamental role. First, the Carolingians, with the Gregorian Sacramentary, then the Ottonians, w ith the Rom ano-Germanic
Pontifical, attempted, with different degrees of success, the liturgical
unification of the empire. Each time, the liturgical books were part of
an array of administrative "instrum ents" (juridical, political, economic)
whose purpose w as to im pose new regulations. Already in the middle
of the eighth century, Pepin the Short (741-768) had perceived the de
termining role of the books o f wo rship in the success of a liturgical
reform within the Frankish kingdom. First Pepin's and then Charle
m agn e's politics were aimed at liturgical unification based on the
Roman model, supported by books in use in Rome, the sacramentary
in particular. In the Caro lingian sovere igns' eye s, the authoritative
i i tt f hi ld l f R th f
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M iddle A ges, the sacram entarv occu pies the sum m it of the hierarchy
of the different books used in w orsh ip. This explains Pepin and
C ha rlem agn e's choice: the liturgy of the em pire could be organized
on ly aroun d the sacratnentary, the true corc o f Christian w orship.In the second half of the tenth century, the Oltonians imitated their
predecessors by granting a preeminent role to liturgical books in the
building of the empire; to this end, they favored the making of a new
book, the pontifical, wh ose success w a s great in the secon d h alf of the
M iddle Ag es. In contrast to the Ca rolingians, the Ottonians did not di
rect their liturgists to use an alrea d y ex isting book ; they urged them
to m ake a n ew book, and the fact that it wa s a com pilation ap pe ars as
its most innovative feature. It was destined for the bishop because of
his role in the Reichskirchensysteni ("im perial ecclesiastical svstem "J o f
the empire, l.ike theology and law, the (episcopal) liturgy was codi
fied in a compilation, an undertaking willed by the political power.
Th e contribution o f the history o f the liturgy and its boo ks to the
kn ow ledge of the pap acy is w ell kn ow n, principally for the secondhalf of the Middle Ages, beginning with Innocent 111 ( 1 19 8- 12 16 ) , a
time w hen the notion o f Curia romana makes its appearance. Let it
suffice to recall the fundamental part the popes and the Curia played
from the thirteenth century on in the process of enforcing the assim i
lation, and eve n the ecclesiological identification, o f the Eccle$ia ro-
m am w ith the Curia nwumti. In this process, the liturgy and its books
hold a place of ho nor w ith, first o f all, the com position of an ord inary (between 12 13 and 12x6), then of a m issal, a pontifical, an d a breviary.
In order to impose upon the West a liturgy in conformity with that of
the pap al chapel, new books had to be m ade and d iffused . For the
sake of com parison, it wo uld be interesting to stud y the liturgy o f the
royal c ha pe ls established in the cou rse o f the thirteenth century, esp e
cia lly that of the Sainte-Chap elle in Paris, in order to discern its own
identity and measure its eventual influence elsewhere than at court,’
alongside that exercised by the liturgy of the Curia.
1. Already spoken of by R. Branner. "The .Sainte-C hapelle and the Cap el in Re g is in the Thirteenth Century," G& t a , 10 /»(1971) 19-22; and C Billot, "Les Saintes-Chapelles {Xlir'-XVT' siècle): Approches comparées de fondations dynastûjes,"
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In the thirteenth century, therefore, the papal chapel becamc the
highest tribunal in m atters o f ecclesiology, dethro ning the Lateran
basilica, wh ich u p to then had represented the ancient tradition o f the
Roman liturgy. Prior to this development, the Lateran canons, who
w illin g ly welcom ed the pope fo r celebrations, had not been in ured to
external influences-. Th us, in the twelfth century, the cano nical ordo of
Lucca, regulating almost every thin g in the can on s' lives, had played
an important part in the writing of the Lateran canonical ordo. In the
latter, the place o f pap al cerem onies, along with those prescribed in
the canonical u sag es o f Lucc a, w ere ke pt intact.2 But the transfer of liturgical and ecciesiological power from the Lateran to the papal
chapel, which occurred in the thirteenth century, would nullify any
external influence on the organization and definition of the Roman
liturgy, from then on identified with the Curia.
Beginning with the Carolingian period, there developed forms of
liturgical expression too often neglected b y historians o f w orsh ip be
cause they we re considered m arginal w hen com pared w ith the liturgy o f the Rucharist and the sacramen ts. In large part, they concern pri
vate devotion and personal piety. For the H ig h M iddle A ges, textual
attestations and the manuscripts that have been preserved reveal the
devotional activities of the clergy and the educated laity (emperors
and em presses, kings an d qu eens, princes and p rincesses, and so on).
To satisfy their personal piety, ind ividu als needed app ropriate books,
such as the booklets of the Carolingian period (the iibelli precumy ["prayer books"]) allowing them to celebrate privately the Hours or
to devo te them selves to exercises o f devotion.
In the second half of the Middle Ages, especially from the twelfth
century on, the rise of new religious orders, the Mendicants in par
ticular, as we ll as the gr ow ing d esire o f the lay p eop le to pray by
themselves outside their participation in the liturgy of the Church,
had as a consequence the flowering and spreading o f form s of private
piety up to then practiced b y clergy, royalty, and nobility. Th is is at
tested by the many books of Hours from the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, most w ide ly disseminated am ong lay pe ople, especially the
2 See P -M Gy "Interactions entre liturgies: Influence des chanoines de Lucques
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bo urgeoisie o f the cities.'* Several scho lars ha ve fully d em onstrated
the role of these form s of expression of devo tion in the evolution of
reading practices, esp ecially am on g the Jaity, and the place o f the
book in Western culture.5The Church, essentially the regular clergy, did not remain inactive
in this m ovem ent and participated in the creation o f n ew books of
piety. Alon gside the num erous abridged psalters and pocket bre
viaries fo r the use o f m onastics and m endic ants— Franciscans and
D om inicans— one sees the de velopm en t in mona steries, particularly
am ong nuns, o f libelli precum that are adapted to the new monastic
spirituality w hich, m arked b y the spirit of the times, tended to em
phasize personal devotion and de velop a v ision ary m ysticism .6
It is also at that time that one observes the liturgical books of both
antiquity and the High ¿Middle Ages, called "first generation books,"
un dergoing changes leading to "second generation b oo ks/' the prin
cip al o f w hich are the m issai, breviary, and pontifical, all character
ized by an increase in the local particularities wh ich w ill be the rulein the life of the Ch urch d ow n to the Coun cil o f Trent.
But this is the subject of anoth er book.
4. R. Wicck, Tim e Sa nc t if ie d : The Rook o f Ho u rs in M e d ie iv l A r t rimf ¡.iff (London,1988).
5. See P. Saenger, "Books of Hours and the Reading Habits of the Laler Middle Ages," Sc rit t u ra e c iv ilité 9 (1985) 239-269, and ’' M a n i è r e s do lire médiévales/' H is
to ire de l'éd it ion fra nça ise: Le l iv re c onq uérant: D u Mo ye n Ag e a u m ilie u d u X V [ f siècle.,
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Selected Bibliography
History and Typology o f Liturgical BooksHeinzer, F. "Liturgische Bücher." U’xikon des gesamten Buchxwsens. Vol. 4,
p. 580. Stuttgart, 1995.
Johnson, M. Bibliographie Liturgien: Bibliographie der nachschlagexverkefür Littirgiewissenschafl. Biblioteca "Ephemerides Liturgic«e," Subsidia 63.Rome, 1992.
Kranemann, B. "Liturgische Bücher als schriftliche Zeugnisse dorLiturgiegeschichte: lîntstehung-Typologie-Funktion." Imagination des Unsichtbaren: 1200 fahre Bildende Kunst im Bistum Münster, 147-166. Ed.K. Brandi. Ausstellung des Westfalischen Landesmuseums für Kunst
und Kulturgeschichte, Lamischaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster,
13 . Juni bis 31. Oktober 1993. Münster, 1993.Lowdcn, ]. "Luxury and Liturgy: The Functions of Books." Church and People
in Byzantium. Ed. R. Morris, 263-280. Society for the Promotion of
Byzantine Studies, Twentieth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies,Manchester, 1986. Birmingham, 1990.
Neuheuser, H.-P. Internationale Bibliographie "Liturgische B ü c h e r EineAustwM kunslhistorischer und liturgiexvissenschaftlicher Literatur zu liturgischen
Handschriften und Drucken. Munich, 1991.____. "Typologie und Terminologie liturgischer Bücher." Bibliothek: Forschung
und Praxis 16 (1992) 45-65. (Important, especially for the problems posed
by the search for a practical nomenclature for bibliographers.)Palazzo, 6. "Libri liturgici." F.nciclopedia italiana dell'arte. Rome, in press.
The Cataloging of Liturgical ManuscriptsBalboni, D. "La catalogazione dei libri liturgici." F.phemerides Liturgicae 31
(1961) 223-236.
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Palazzo, F.. "L e catalogue des ordinaires des bibliothèques de France, une nou velle entreprise de catalogage des manuscrite liturgiques." Die ErscMics-
sungder Quellen des mittelalterUchen liturgischen Cesangs 39. Wolfenbütteler
Symposion, 1996. In press.
Historiography o f the Research on Liturgical Booh
Johnson, C , and A . Ward. "The Hispanic Liturgy and Dorn Marius Férotin."
Ephemerides Ulurgieae 1 1 0 (1996) 252-256.
Klockener, M. "Bio*bibliographisches Repertorium der LiturgiewLssenschaft/'
Archiv ffir ¡.¡turgiewissenschaft 35-3 6 (1993-1994) 285-357.
SacranienlariesD avril, A., ed. The Winchcombe Sacramentary (Orleans, Bibliothèque municipale,
227/305/). Henry Bradshaw Society 109. London, 1995.
Metzger, M. Les sacramenlaires. 'typologie des sources du Moyen Age occiden
tal, fasc. 70. Turnhout, t994-
Moeller, E., I. M. Clément, and B. Coppierters 't Wallant, eds.. Corpus Qrati- omiMf. 8 vols. C C SL i6t>-i6oH. Tum hout, 1992 -
Palazzo, E. Les sacramenlaires de Fulda: Elude $ur l'iconographie el la liturgie à
¡ ‘époque ottonienne. LQF 77. Münster, 1994.
Books of ChantBernard, P. "Bilan historiographique de la question des rapports entre les
chants 'Vieux-Rom ain' et 'Gré go rien /" Ecelesia Orans 11 (1994) 323-353.
____ . "l.e s chants propres de la messe dans les répertoires 'Grégorien ' et ro
main ancien, essai d'édition pratique des variantes textuelles/'
Ephemerides Liturgicae n o (1996) 210 -25 1 .
Exultet: Rotoli liturgici de! medioevo méridionale, Dir. G. Cavallo. Coord. G.
Orwfinoand O. Pecere. Rome, 1994.
Hiley, P . Western Pîainchaiit: A Handbook. Oxford, 1993.
Hughes, A . la te Mediei'al Liturgical Offices: Resources for Electronic Research: Sources and Chants. 2 vols, and 5 computer disks. Toronto, 1994-1996.
Kelly, Th. The Benecvntan Chant. Oxford, 1989.
lioote of Mass Readingsd d b d l l d l
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Book* of the Office
Utaix, K. Homcliaires patnstiques latins: Recueils d'études de manuscrits médié
vaux. Collection des Etudes Augustiniennes, Série M oyen A ge et Temps
modernes 29. Paris, 1994.____ . "Le Actionnaire de l'office de Cruas." Reîm edu vivarais 98 ( 1994) 15-2 2.
Lilurgia delle ore: Tempo e rilo. Atll délia 22 settimana di studio dell'Associazione
Professori di Lilurgia, Susa (Torino), 29 ago sto -3 settembre 1993. Bibliot-
eca "Ephemerides Lihirgicae," Subsidia 75. Rome, 1994. In particular, F.
IJell'Oro, "Recenti edizioni critiche di fonti liturgiche," 197-303.
Ottosen, K. The Responsories and Versicles ofthe Latin Office ofthe Dead. Arhus,
1993.
Books of Sacrantents and Rights
Cygler , F. ''Règles, coutum iers et statuts (Vt‘-X ll lc siècles): Brèves considéra
tions historico-typologiques." ht vie quotidienne, des moines et chanoines
réguliers au Moyen Age et Temps modernes, 31-49. Wroclaw, 1994.
Klöckener, M. "D as Pontifikale: Ein Liturgiebuch im Spiegel seiner Benennun
gen und der Vorreden seiner Herausgeber, zugleich W ürdigung und Weiterführung einer Studie von Marc Dykm ans/' Archiv ß ir Liturgieivis-
senschaß 28 {1986) 396-415.
Palazzo, E. "Authenticité, codification et mémoire dans la liturgie médiévale,
l'exemple du 'prototype' de l'ordre dominicain." Liturgie, musique cl cul
ture au X /r siM e: U }prototype de la liturgie dominicaine. Actes du colloque
international de Rome, 1995. ln press.
____
, "L e cataloque des ordinaires des bibliothèques de France, une nouvelleentreprise de catalogage des manuscrits liturgiques." Die Erschliessung
der Quellen des mittelalterlichen liturgischen Gesangs 39. Wolfenbütteier
Symposion, 1996. In press.Reynaud, V. "U n cérémonial de la fin du X V r siècle à l'usage de la cathédrale
de Tolède." Revue Mahillon 67, n.s. 6 (1995) 225-24 1.
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Index of Persons
Ado, 16 5 Adventius (bishop of Metz), 197
Agim ond, 154
Agnellus of Ravenna, 29
Agobard (bishop of Lyon), 14 1
Ala in o f Farfa, 154
Alb om oz (cardinal), 225
Alcuin, 29, 53-55,88, 9 9 ,14 2 , 155
Amalartus o f Metz, 70,80, 140
Ambrose (bishop of Milan), St., 21,
8 4 , 1 2 6 , 1 4 2 , 1 5 2
Andrieu, M., 14 ,176 , 18 1
Arno (bishop of Salzburg), 54
A s s e m a n i ,39
Augustine, St., 3 6 ,8 4 ,1 16 ,15 2 ,15 6 ,214
Aurelian (bishop of Arles), 116
Barre, H., 15
Batiffol, P., 1 5
Baumstark, A., 5
Benedict, St., 4 7 ,11 6 ,13 7 , i 19, 121,122,129, 141,149, 152,, 214
Benedict of Aniane, St., 53 ,14 2 ,2 14 ,
218
Bernard (prior of the Lateran), 207
Beyssac, C.f 11-12
h G
Caesarius (bishop of Arles), St ,
116, 141
Canute, 59Cassian, John, 123
Cassiodorus, 130
Celestine 1, 71Charlemagne, 30 ,47 ,50 ,51-5 2, 56,
72 , 1 03 , 1 1 8 , 1 39- 1 40 , 1 54- 1 55 ,
205,237-238
Charles the Bald, 58,72,133, 178
Chenu, M .-P., 10
Chavasse , A., 12 , 1 3 ,9 2 , 18 2
Ch rodegan g (bishop of Metz), 47,
1 1 7 , 1 19 , 123, 163, 185, 237-238
Clement o f Alexandria, St., 114Columban, St., 11 6
Cy prian (bishop of Carthage), St.,
84 , 1 1 4
Pagulf, 103
Damasus I, S t, 71
Delisle, L., 12 ,1 3Pesh usscs, J., 12
Didier (abbot of Monte Cassino),
231Pisibod of Mainz, 205
Donnat, L., 218
D f M 8 8
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Durand, U., 8
Durandus, William, 209, 210
Ebner, A., 12, 13Egbert of York, 50
Eginon (bishop of Verona), >54
Elze, R., 14
limnw, 59
Eudes of Sully, 19 3,22 8
Florus of Lyon, 14 1Frere, W. H., 13
Fructuosus of B raga, St., 11 6
Camber, K., 13
Gau tier (bishop of O rleans), 3 1
Cclasius !, St., 41,4 4 ,50 ,6 0Gellent, Nicolas, 228
Gentmdius of M arseilles, 29,84
Germain, M., 7, 34
Gherbald (bishop o f Liège), 33
Godescalc, 102-10 3Grégoire, R., 15
Gregory I (the Great), St., 21, 28, 30,
45- 5°» 52,6 0,70 ,73,86 -8 7,93 ^139, 148
Gregory 11, St., 45, 52 ,95
Gregory VII, St., 118 , 207
Gregory XIII, 234
Gy, P.-M., 16
Hadrian 1,30, 50,52
Haito (bishop of Basel), 31Hnymo of Faversham, n 8
I lelisachar, 5 3 ,9 9 ,14 0
Henry 11, 104, 212
Hervé (bishop o f Beauvais), 2 12
Hesbert, R.-J,, (4
I littorp, M., 176
Honorius !, 51
llug lo, M., 14 ,72
Hugh (abbot of Clun y), St., 219Hugh (abbot of Farfa), 217
Humbert of Romans, 231
Ingeborg, 134
Innocent 111, 169, 208, 210,225, 227,
238
Innocent VM, 234Isidore (bishop o f Seville), St., 63,
8 8 , 1 1 6
Jerome, St., 6 1, 88, 10 1, J30, 132, 152
John III, 4 0 -4 1,42
John of Cirey, 231
John the Deacon, 7 0 ,139
Jungm ann,J. A ., 5
Klauser, Th., 13
Kunigiinde, 104
Lan dulf (bishop of Benovento), 210
Leidrad, 141
Leo I (the Great), St., 39,40
Leo III, S t, 53
I.eo o f Ostia, 231
Leroquais, V., 1 1 , 1 2 , 53, 209-210
Louis the Pious, 53,99,140
Mabillon, 7- 9 ,34 , 176, 17 7 ,18 1
Maiolus (abbot of Cluny), St., 219Maingaud (abbot of Corbie), 216
Mamert, St., 47
M arine, E., 7 -9 , 34 ,85 , 176 , 181
Martimort, A.-G., 15
Martin (bishop of Tours), St., 47
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Oderisius, 170
Odilo {abbot o f Ciuny)/ St., 219
Origen, 114
Otto 1, 56,205, 206Otto 11,205,206
Otto III, 59Otto of Riedenburg, 211
Pamelius (Jacques de Joig ny de
Paméle), 9, 34,5 0 ,85
Paul the Deacon, 155
Pau linus (bishop of Nola), St., 29
Pepin the Short, 4 5,4 6 ,47 ,64 ,
1 1 7 - 1 1 8 , 1 3 9 , 1 8 3 , 2 37 -238
Piccolomini, Agostino Pntrizi. 234
Pius V, St., 9
Pius X, St., 1 1 7
Prix, St., 47
Rabanus Maurus, 142
Raganaldus, 58
Ralph (bishop of Bourgcs), 31
Rasmussen, N. K., 14, 16
Regimbert (abbot of Reichenau), 193
Robert the Pious, 212
Robert (bishop of Winchester), 200,2 11
Rocca, A., 9, 34, 50
Roger (bishop of Beauvais), 2 12
Rutger (bishop of Trior), 3 1
Salmon, P., 15
Saxer, V., 17,182
Sergius 1,45 ,52 , 54
Smaragd us, 214Stuiber, A., 12
Suger, 226
TertuHian, 84, 1 14 - 1 1 5
Tomasi, J., 9, 34»44/ 7 °> s5
Usuard, 164,165
Van Dijk, S ., 15
Venerius (bishop of Marseilles), 84
Vigilius, 41
Vogel, C ., 14 , 15
Walafrid Strabo, 30 Walcaud (bishop of Liège), 3 1
W amuuuius (bishop of Ivrea)/59,
200
William (bishop of Mainz), 205-206
William of Volpiano, 219
Wilmart, A ., 10 - 1 1
Wi tiges, 84
Yves I of Vergy (abbot o f C lunv),165
Zaccaria, F. A., 10
Zacharias, St., 78
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Index of Places
A frica, 3 6 , 1 1 5 , «2 1/156
Aachen, 5 2 ,5 3 ,7 2 , 1 1 8 ,1 3 9 , 16 3 ,
206,214
Alsace, 10 5 ,13 8
A m iens, 7 4 ,10 8
A ngers, 228
Aniane, 2 14
A ntw erp, 8
Arezzo, 148
Aurillac, 82
A ustria , 76
A utun, 7 7 ,7 9 ,8 1
A uxerre, 155
Avig non, 208,2 34
Bamberg, 104, 198
Beauvais , 198,212
Bobbio, 8 8 ,157
Cambrai, 4 8 , 181
Canterbury, 8 i , 13 3 ,2 1 1 , 2 15
Ca pu a, 85Catalonia, 133
Ch artres, 99
Ch elles, 44
Chu r, 230
Citeaux, 231
l d
Constance, 147
Corbie , 74, 9 8 , 10 9 , 13 1 , 132 , 137,
2 16 ,224
Cremona, 143,200
Durham, 148
Hchternach, 28
Egypt, 1 14
Eine, 198
England, 76 , 17 1 ,223
Farfa, 21 7
Flavigny, 47Fleury, 4 7 ,2 15 , 218
Fran ce , 7 6 , 8 2 , 1 3 1 , 1 3 4 , 1 43 , 1 8 4 ,
194, 20 8 ,2 18 ,23 1
Freising, 200
Fruttuaria, 219
Fulda , 56 ,60 ,85 ,9 6 ,201 , 206,2 14 ,
2 15
Gascon y, 77
G aul , 45 - 46 ,47 - 48 ,5 4 ,6 i , 64 ,7 2 ,
75/ 8 5 ,9 1 ,98 , *57 ' 181 ,
1 8 2 - 1 8 3 , 2 3 7
Gellone 46 48 57
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Italy, 54, 74, 76, 78, 81, 98, 100, 155,
17 0 , 19 2 , 19 3 , 19 7 , 200, 206, 207,
208, 209, 2 1 1 , 225
Ivrea, 59
Jerusale m , 22
Kempten, 148
Lagrasse, 194
Lerins, 116
Liège, 188
Limburg, 33
L im oge s, 7 6 ,7 7 , 1 5 9 , 1 9 2
Lorsch, 153
Lucca, 152 , 177 , 204,205 ,239
Luxeuil , 88,98,152, 162
Lyons, 14]
Mainz, 56, 101 , 179,204, 205-206,2 0 7 , 2 1 1
Marmoutier, 58 ,10t
M eaux, 46,75
Monde, 209,228
M e tz, 4 7 , 5 8 ,6 1 ,8 0 , 1 1 7 , 1 2 3 ,1 40 ,
1 6 3 , 1 7 9 , 1 8 5
Monte Cassino, 138, 143, 17 0 ,215 ,
231
M onza, 230
Murbach, 95,98,99
N ivelles, 230
No vara, 201
Noyon , 137
Orléans, 47
Paris , 93 , 143 , 152 ,22 8 ,23 8
St-Germain-des-Prés, 8 , 13 3 , 16 4
Pa sso w, 32
Pfäfers, 193
Reichenau, 3 1 , 81 , 103 , 10 4 , 14 7 , 19 3
Khoims, 148, 190,197,198
Rheinau, 22 2,23 0
Rome, xxiv , 13 , 1 7 , 25, 4 1 , 45,47, 50,6 4 , 7 l>72, 75- * > - 8 7 - 9 1 , 9 4 , 9& ,
1 0 0 , 1 1 7 , 1 4 0 , 1 5 2 , 1 5 7 , 1 7 9 - 1 8 1 ,
182-183, 184, 206-209, 237
Lateran, 40, 52, 15 0 ,15 7 , 207,
237, 239
St. Peter, 149,152, 154-155
St. Peter in Ch ains, 45
Sts. Philip and James, 154
Rouen, 8
St. Amand, 73 ,74 ,89 ,99 , 108 , 109 ,
1 8 4 , 1 9 0
St.-Benoit-sur-Loire, see Fleury
St. Denis, 222,2 26
St. C a ll, 7 6 , 13 7 , 13 8 , 1 4 3 , 14 7 , 1 7 0 ,1 8 4 , 1 9 7 , 2 05 ,2 1 5
St.-Guilhem-le-Desert, see Gellone
St.-M ariin-de-Li-Canourgue, 230
St-M au r (congregation of), 7 ,8
S t Riquier, 30, 1 0 1 , 13 t , 140
Salzburg, 54 ,10 5, 197
Schaffhausen, 2 12 ,23 0
Sens, 198-199Silos, 156
Soissons, 162
Solesmes, 13,65
Switzerland, 76, 138,170
Tivo li, 87
Tournai, 198,203
To urs, 5 5 , 5 8 , 7 4 , 1 0 0 , 1 0 8 , 14 2 , 1 8 2 ,
224
Trent, 187, 240
Trier, 140 ,19 7
Uz&, 224
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W eisscnau, 15 $
Winchester, zoo, 2 1 1
W isse nbourg, 193
York, 50
Zwiefalten, 158
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Index of Liturgical Pieces
Agnus Del, 20,45, 66, 67 ,75 ,8 0
Allelu ia , 19 ,6 6 ,6 8 ,7 0 ,7 1 , 74, 75 ,77
Bcncdiclus, 136,138
CdWMMWCYWilS, 22
Comm union ontiphon, 2 0 ,6 5 ,7 1
Credo, 66,67
Exultet, 78, Hi, 197
Gloria, 19,66,67, 76
Gloria Patri, 131
Gradual , 19 ,33 ,66 ,7 1 ,74 ,75
M w i£//ur, 22, .|5
Humili prece et sincera devotione, 205
Introitantiphon, 19,6 5 ,6 6 ,7 1, 77
Kyrie Eleison, 19,66,67
Üivm nos, 2 2 ,23
Magniiicat, 136,138
Memento, 2 2 ,23
NoWs qttoque, 22, 23
Offertory antiphon, 19 ,65 ,66 ,74 ,
77Our Father, 20, 21 , 2 3 ,1 14 ,12 2 ,12 4 ,
125
Q«(7w oblationem, 22
Quem quaeritis, 76
Qta pridie. 22
Sanctus, 19, 22, 58,66,76
Supplices ie rogamus, 23
Supra quae, 23
Te decet Ians. 124
Te Deum, 124, 131, 149
Te igitur, 22 ,57 ,58
Tract, 71
Unde el memorvs, 22
Vent creator $piritu$, 142
Verc dignunt, 22
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Index of Manuscripts
Alb i, Biblioteca municipale
ms. 44: *37
Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale
m s . 1 8 : 1 3 1 , 1 3 2
Aosia, Biblioteca capitolare
cod. 15: 201
Aschaffenburg, Hofbibliothek
ms. 2: 96 Asti, Biblioteca capitolare
cod- XIII: 197
Autu n, Bibliothèque municipale
ms. 19 bis: 53, 58
Basel, Cod. Gressly: 109
____ , Universitätsbibliothek
N 1 6 (nos. 8,20-22): 370
Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek
Lit. 5: 81
Lit. 53: 212
Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer
Kulturbesitz
ms. Mus. 40047: .137
____ , Deutsche StaatsbibliothekPhiIHpps 1676: 154
Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale
ms. 184:95,98,99
Brussels, Bibliothèque royale
cod. 10127 -10144 :184
Durham, C hapter Library
cod. A .IV .19 :148
Düsseldorf, Universitätsbibliothek
cod. B.113: 103
Florence, Biblioteca Marcellinna
cod. C 1 59 : 159
Fulda, Hessische Landesbibliothekcod. Bonifatianus 1: 85, 97
Geneva, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana
cod. Bodmer t2 7 :158
Gottingen, Universitätsbibliothek
cod. theol. 233: 56
ivrea, Biblioteca capitolarc
cod. 10 (XX): 200
cod. 86: 59
Karlsruhe, Badische LandesbibÜo*thek
Fragment, augien. 22:147
l^jon. Bibliothèque municipale
ms. 550: 103
Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuni-
vcrsiteit
BPL 111 .2: 198
London British Library
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cod. 60 5:177
cod. 607: 204, 205Lugano, Archivio del Principe Pio
Rotulus of Ravenna (nonumber): 78
Madrid, Biblioteca de la Real
Academ ia de la Historia
cod. 39:156Manchester, John Rylands Library
ms. 7: 103
Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosianacod. Ë 51 inf.: 151
Montpellier, Bibliothèque de la
Faculté de médecine
ms. 412: 182
Mont-Renaud, Private collection
Antiphonaire: 13 7
Monza, Tesoro della basilica S.Giovanni Battista
cod. CIX: 74,7 9,2 30
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
clm. 4452:104
dm . 6430:200
clm. 15903:105
clm. 2333 8:104
Novara, Biblioteca capitolarecod. LXXXVÏM (Colombo 4): 203
Nurem burg, Germanisches
Nationalmuseum
Kupferstichkabincit, Kapsel 536,
SD 2815: 170
Oxford, Bodleian Libran'
liturg. 359:148
Padua, Biblioteca capitolare
cod. D.47: 35/ 54P i Bibli hè d l'A l
ms. 5*5:1 9*ms. 526: 222,226
Bibliothèque nationale
grec t0 2 :105
lat. 743: 159lat. 816:46
lat. 933: *94lat. 943: 2 1 1
lat. 974: 184lat. 1084:82
lat 1118: 77, 82
lat. 1121: 230la t 1 1 4 c 58
la t 1 352 : 133lat. 1231: 211
lat. 1234: 224
lat. 3237: 224,228lat. 1435: 225
Jat. 2291: 73 ,10 9lat. 2292:178lat. 2294: 29
lat. 4 i6aA : 225, 227lat. 5231: 192
lat. 7193: 44
lat. 884 6:133lat. 8850:102lat. 9427: 88,98,152
lat. 9428: 5 8 ,6 1,8 0 ,18 5lat. 9432:74, 108
lat. 9433: 28
lat. 9448: 83,82,105lat. 9451: 98, loo
lat. 9452:89 ,9 9
lat 10938: 165lat. 12048: 35,46,48, 57lat. 12050:74,109
lat. 12051:9
lat. 12601:372lat. 13159:131
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Int. 13908: 216lat. 17325: 105
{¿1 . 17436:72,81, 136, 137
new acq. lat. 1203:102
new acq. lat. 1589:74,10S
new acq. lat. 2246: 159
now acq. lat. 2390: 159
Rheims, Bibliothèque municipale
ms. 2 13:7 4 , 108
ms. 304: 148
ms. 340: 198
Rome, Biblioteca Apostolic«)
Vatican«, Arch iv io S. Pietro
cod. C.105: 154
____ _ Borghes.lat. 359: 99
____ , Ottoboni
lat. 145:192____ .Pal.
lat. 21 0 :15 3
lat. 29 8 :153____ , Regin.
lat. 9:97lat. 1 1 : 1 4 3
lat. 316 :9, 28 ,35,42 ,44 ___ rVdt.
lat- 5755=97lat. 5 7 7 1:15 7
lat. 7701:198
____ _ Biblioteca Casanatensecod. 1741: 230
, Biblioteca Nazionalecod. 1343: 230
____ , Biblioteca Vallicelliana
cod. A .3 : 151
cod. B.141: 24
cod. C.io: 190
Priary of Santa Sabina
St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothekcod. 348: 29,46
cod. 349:147, 184cod. 374:99
cod. 381:75
cod. 390/391: 137cod. 414: 170
cod. 423: 151
cod .428 : 15 1cod. 484: 75
St.-Omer, Bibliothèque municipale
ms. 252: 74St. Petersburg. Publiclunaja Biblio-
teka
lat. Q.v.l, no. 16:98
lat. Q.v.l, no. 35: 198
St.-Victor-sur-Rhins
breviary (no number): 172
Salzburg, Museum Carolino-Augus-tcum
no. 2163: 151
____ , Stiftsbibliothek St. Peler
cod. A I o: t34
Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek
M i n isteria I bibJ iothek
Min. 9 4 :212Stuttgart, Württembergische l^n-
desbibliothek
cod. Bibl. fol. 2 3 :1 3 3
cod. Bibl. 2, no. 56-58: 158
cod. Hist. 2, no. 415:158
Trent, Museo N azionale (Castel del
Buonconsiglio)
sacramentary (no. number): 35,
54-55Trier, Stadtbibliothek
cod. 504(1245): 147
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