> Many of the twelfth-century Great Bibles, such as the Winchester and Bury St.
> Edmunds Bibles, were apparently intended for reading in the monastic
> refectory during meailtime: they resided permanently on or near the lectern
> provided for that purpose, and a number of them are "scored for reading",
> with tonic accents on the emphasized syllables of difficult or unfamiliar
> words, such as Hebrew names. That use isn't really liturgical, of course,
> but...Elizabeth McLachlan, Art History, Rutgers.
>
Dear Elizabeth,
That spectacularly illuminated, huge Bibles like this were read from,
I don't doubt, but it doesn't seem likely to me that they would have
been read in the refectory. There were often some quite monumental
lecterns built into medieval refectories, with mural staircases
rising to a bay-window-like projection containing the lectern.
Monks were regularly assigned to read here, while their brethern ate
in silence (presumably the same happened in houses of nuns, but I
have not seen any direct evidence of this). But while these
refectory lecterns are often quite spectacular in themselves, nobody
but the reading monk would be able to see what he was reading out of.
A more modestly produced text would have done for this. Although I
have no idea when or where else the monks (or others) might be called
upon to read from such "display Bibles", a more public venue seems
more likely. But if they weren't "service books" where would they be
read?
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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