Antiphonarium of the Abbey of Saint Bartholomew near Ferrara
Liturgy for the Office of the Veil
"Seven times a day shall I praise thee" (Ps 119:164)
Most of the books in this exhibit assume a system of cycles that had been adopted in a general way from Jewish practice. These cycles include, of course, the weekly cycle, in which a day is set aside for worship (the Sabbath for Jews, Sunday for Christians). However, they also include a yearly cycle of liturgical seasons, and a daily cycle of hours. The yearly cycle begins with Advent and reaches its high point at Easter; in its major feasts, it recapitulates the central events of the life of Christ. The daily cycle includes seven times of prayer plus a nightly prayer. These hours are Matins (in the middle of the night), Lauds (at dawn), Prime and Terce (during the morning), Sext (at noon), None (mid-afternoon), Vespers (at sunset) and Compline (before bed).
Books which were produced for liturgical use were frequently very large in size, making it possible for more than one person to use the book at the same time. The music books and manuscripts in this exhibit include such material, where both the texts and the music is of the appropriate size. And while monks and nuns in monasteries and convents would have memorized a great deal of material, particularly the chants which were sung very frequently, there is also a large body of liturgical chant which would have received occasional use, only on certain feast days or festivals.
Among the many chants found in these books is the familiar Pentecost hymn in Loewen 5, Veni creator spiritus, still found in many of today's hymnals: Come, O Creator Spirit, Come.
Come, O Creator Spirit, come,
and make within our hearts thy home.
To us thy grace celestial give,
who of thy breathing move and live. (Hymnal: A Worship Book, 27)
Some of the books in the exhibit simplify the complex liturgical system of the monasteries in order to make the hours of prayer more accessible to the laity. The earlier of these attempts is found in the Books of Hours. These were private devotional books for those wealthy enough to have learned to read and to have the time for following the daily office; many were owned by aristocratic women. These books, a later medieval development, begin with a liturgical calendar that lists the feast days of the year. This is followed by extracts from the four Gospels, and then the defining text of the Book of Hours, the Hours of the Virgin, sets of devotional prayers to Mary. The books also contain other sequences of hours, particular prayers, and the Seven Penitential Psalms.
The Book of Common
Prayer stands in sharp contrast to the Book of Hours in some respects,
and in others bears striking resemblances. First printed in 1549, the
BCP attempts to strip away 'medieval errors' from the liturgy: precisely
such medieval errors as excessive adoration of the Virgin. On the other
hand, this book is also a simplification of the daily hours for the laity.
It collapses the hours into two: Morning and Evening Prayer. Unlike the
Book of Hours, the BCP was not a private but a public book, to be followed
in every parish in England. Unlike today, when everyone in church has
his or her own book, in 1549, a typical small parish church would have
found one book a significant expense. As in the monastery, most liturgy
was a matter for memory.