medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear list members,
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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