medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I have finally received my copy - I had to pre-order from Amazon to get anything like a sensible discount, which meant a considerable delay while my copy crossed the Atlantic twice!
I have to say that my first impressions are not favourable. Some variation on "glued binding" is not at all suitable for a heavy book of over 600 pages. There is no bibliography - there is a list of "Bibliographical Abbreviations", but needless to say, not all abbreviated references are included, so the index has to be pressed into service to find the first occurrence where the reference should be spelled out. At which point we discover that the prefatory matter is not indexed...
But the major concern is that it does not do what it says on the tin: it is NOT 'a' (and certainly not 'the') history of the medieval English liturgy in any recognisable sense of the term. It is rather a chronologically arranged commentary on medieval liturgical texts and their editions. It is readable enough, but only really comprehensible if you already know what the author is writing about. I have only just started reading, but I have yet to encounter any actual liturgy. In order to avoid any sense of Whiggish progress, the story just peters out as the Reformation is approached. There is an alarming footnote on page 1: "The Latin service books printed c.1554-57, during the reign of Mary Tudor, are not part of our concern."
I rather rashly stated, in response to a query about the publicity bally-hoo: "Actually, Sherry L. Reames is best qualified to pronounce such a book as "major" and "authoritative" - just as Richard W. Pfaff is certainly the best qualified to write it." I would now wish to reconsider my position (probably on both counts) - and perhaps recant.
All consideration of music has been excluded. This has had one unfortunate effect which Sherry Reames should have picked up when reading the Sarum sections: Pfaff makes no reference to - indeed seems to be completely unaware of - Nick Sandon's "Use of Salisbury". As the six volumes so far published represent a critical edition of the Temporale of the Mass (words and music, rubrics translated into English), it can hardly be ignored by anyone writing on the Sarum Use (or so I thought...) The treatment of the "Missa in Capitulo" in the second edition of volume 2 would have spared Pfaff his rather tortured discussion on p.420 (Sandon may not be right, but he makes more sense!) And it is musical considerations which make sense of the gradings of feasts, something which Pfaff seems to find puzzling.
There is an inexplicable howler in a footnote on p.426: "There were two prior printings of this 'Great Breviary,'" [...] "and one of the Sarum antiphonal (in two vols, only the winter volume being extant)." The two volumes of the Sarum antiphonal were, of course, printed in 1519 and 1520 respectively; the 1520 (summer) volume is not only extant, but Harper (Forms and Orders) lists its contents, while Frere (Antiphonale Sarisburiense) gives the locations of copies!
Pfaff claims to have taken account of literature published "through 2006", but is unaware of Gerald Bray's "Records of Convocation" - which rather vitiates his discussion of Wilkins' "Concilia" (p.28).
But I come back to my original main point: it is not in any sense a history of the liturgy, and not a book for the non-specialist, although it is hard to see how much use it is likely to be for the specialist (especially without a bibliography...)
John Briggs
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