medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
First of all, the Day Hours start with Lauds, but that quite often runs on
immediately from Matins (which is the night Office), so it is better to
start with Prime. The timing of the hours is controversial, but it best to
bear in mind the medieval concept of "unequal hours" - the day (daylight) is
divided into 12, so the length of the hour will vary throughout the year.
Prime would probably have been after dawn, and Compline after sunset.
John Briggs
Atkinson, Niall wrote:
>
> I am having trouble figuring out gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum's
> explanation of the canonical hours in his book, "History of the Hour"
> and I was hoping that someone might be able to save me. I am
> interested in how the hours of daylight are divided up and how they
> slide around between seasons and across time.
>
> As far as I can tell, the seven hours are:
> Matins
> Prime
> Terce
> Sext
> None
> Vespers
> Compline
>
> Matins seems to designate sunrise, Compline, sundown. Now if the day
> were exactly 12 hours long, then Sext would be midday. Would the
> other hours be spaced, in general, equally apart from each other? I
> know that None shifted to a time earlier in the day, along with
> Vespers, but at any give time of the year, would Prime have been 3
> hour-units after matins? Dohrn van-Rossum mentions that Matins is
> roughly sunrise, but then states that the Prime hour could be chanted
> just before or after sunrise.
> As well, how does the night mass in the monastery, just after
> midnight, relate to these temporal divisions?
>
> As well, could the working day, which would normally begin at sunrise,
> be marked by the bell of Matins, or Prime, or both, depending on the
> locality? In general, did these seven hours define the time of
> daylight?
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Niall Atkinson
>
> Niall Atkinson
> Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellow
> Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
> via Giuseppe Giusti 44
> I - 50121 Firenze
>
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John Briggs
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