medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I have been reading: Joan Greatrex, "The English Benedictine Cathedral
Priories: Rule and Practice, c. 1270-1420" (OUP, 2011), but I had only
got half-way through when the British Library recalled it (it had just
got exciting - don't tell me how it ends!)
I had originally asked for the monastic cathedral equivalent of Kathleen
Edwards' "The English secular cathedrals in the Middle Ages" (1949,
1967) - and I have to say that this isn't it. It is essentially a
companion to Greatrex's "Biographical Register of the English Cathedral
Priories of the Province of Canterbury c.1066-1540" (1997) [with data
from Durham thrown in]: that is to say, it is purely concerned with the
Cathedral Priories as monasteries, and concentrating on the actual
personnel rather than their functions - let alone the functioning of the
priory as an institution; and all derived solely from the records
themselves.
I have to say that it is hard-going with no concessions to the reader:
Latin quotations are left untranslated, and the prose is quite latinate
with terms undefined (there is no glossary). Can you say what Inception
is? [I'm not convinced that Greatrex is using the term correctly.] Or
what a postill is? [Not the correct spelling: you would have thought
that OUP would have picked that one up.]
Apart from the Minor Orders howler, there are other dubious statements:
Greatrex seems to think that there were two liturgical books called
"Temporale" and "Sanctorale" - well, yes, but if that is true in any
sense, it is less than helpful!
--
John Briggs
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