Description
Paper Abstract: The study of the nomenclature, classification, and physical location of liturgical books constitutes a particularly fruitful means of investigating the implications of de-contextualization and re-contextualizion for book objects. Not only do the numbers, types, and ever-evolving combinations of liturgical books as single-volume pluritextual libraries present considerable challenges for the modern cataloguer, but the use, function, and meaning of the liturgical book object is uniquely bound to its location: sacristy, “library”, or elsewhere. Determining the physical spaces in which medieval puritextual liturgical books were kept, and the conceptual categories of like objects with which they were associated in lists and inventories, helps us to reposition liturgical books in relation to the ritual action whose texts, gestures, prayers, and music they supply and prescribe, and to determine to what extent and when they fell within the care of mansionarius or skeuphylax (associated with other revered – and pawnable treasure), and when they were remanded to the keeping of the bibliothecarius. We can thereby learn a great deal about the use, disuse, and re-purposing of some of the most deluxe, and often revered book objects in an ecclesiastical or monastic collection: its ritual books.Taking as a starting point the history of the liturgical books in the basilica and library of Montecassino, this paper will consider the liturgical book as a itself a kind of library, before surveying evidence of the nomenclature, categorization, description, and location of liturgical books early and high medieval treasure lists, booklists, and library lists in Italy and Germany, paying particular attention to instances of re-location, and re-contextualization.
| Period | 12-Sept-2018 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 41. Kölner Mediävistentagung: Die Bibliothek, The Library, La bibliothèque |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Cologne, Germany, North Rhine-WestphaliaShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |
Keywords
- Medieval Studies
- Medieval Liturgy
- Medieval Manuscripts
- Codicology