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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture John Wickstrom wrote: > > Cyrille Vogel's Medieval Liturgy as revised by William Storey and > Niels Rasmussen (1986) is the best one volume presentation of > medieval liturgy I've seen. Thanks - I've ordered a copy, although why the keenest price should be in Rochester, NY is one of mysteries of life! But Harper (Forms and Orders) says that Vogel concentrates on the Mass, and doesn't really deal with the Office. > Andrew Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office has a good > introductory section (1982). I'm struggling with this. It seems to be a besetting sin of liturgiologists to devise their own complicated mnemonic systems of abbreviations, symbols and typefaces (cf Frere). > Another volume, the best for detailed discussion of the medieval > office (despite its specialized title) is volume VI of > > J.B.L. Tollhurst, The Monastic Breviary for Hyde Abbey (1942) > subsequently published (1993) as a separate volume: Introduction to > the English Monastic Breviaries. I'm *really* struggling with that one. I think that Tolhurst had spent so long with the medieval liturgy that he had absorbed the scholastic cast of thought, and was incapable of writing any other way. (I find this problem with Frere, as well.) I find that Tolhurst explains things in considerable detail, but with an almost complete absence of clarity. Not to mention neglecting to explain *why* he is explaining what he is. Obviously, a lot of knowledge is assumed - but there is not much clue as to what that might be! Where simple things *are* explained clearly, the authorities don't always agree. Take the liturgical day, which is where we came in. Tolhurst baldly states that the liturgical day starts the evening before. No exceptions. No suggestion that ferias might be different. Hughes states that by the end of the medieval period, the liturgical day was regarded as starting at midnight. Which leaves him at a bit of a loss to explain why feasts might still behave as they do. Harper states (with admirable clarity) that ferias start at midnight, that simple feasts start with their vespers the day before, and that double feasts have first vespers the day before, and second vespers on the day itself. This is all well and good, but one is left with a nagging suspicion that it might be an oversimplification! Nobody seems confident about compline... Hughes says that Harper's Forms and Orders is a book that he wished he himself had written. Given the complexity of his own book, one might perhaps be permitted some scepticism... Of course, Harper may not have been overburdened with knowledge when he wrote his book. Many years later, at a meeting this year of the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, he gave a dazzling virtuoso presentation of the results of his recent research into reconstructing the choral forces for the whole liturgy of Rochester Cathedral c.1544 - and succeeded in confusing everybody, including himself! I am still staring at the handout and can't decide whether two columns have become interchanged or not! John Briggs ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html