A Study of the Palaeography, Liturgy, and Repertory of the St Albans Processional

: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 4

Abstract

The manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 4 (Laud Misc. 4) is England’s earliest surviving processional book, dated to the third quarter of the twelfth century. The processional as a book type, and consequently Laud Misc. 4, have historically been overlooked in scholarship, particularly relating to medieval English music and liturgy. This thesis offers the first in-depth study of this manuscript, examining its scribal, liturgical, and melodic practices in two parts.

Part One begins with a comprehensive palaeographical and codicological analysis, establishing St Albans Abbey as the manuscript’s place of origin and intended use, situating it within the context of book production in the St Albans scriptorium during the mid-twelfth century, a period marked by significant reform and change. I identify the hands responsible for its production, including the main scribe of the scriptorium in this period, who I argue was also the abbey’s cantor and the primary intended user of Laud Misc. 4. This is followed by an examination of the writing of musical notation in manuscripts copied at St Albans within the broader context of post-Conquest English and continental Norman notational practices. This thesis represents the first sustained study to reassess the assumptions underlying the classification of Norman notation in post-Conquest England.

Part Two of this thesis focusses on the liturgical and musical traditions preserved in Laud Misc. 4. It refines current understandings of the influences shaping performance of the liturgy at St Albans, acknowledging the monastery’s continued reliance on models introduced in its early post-Conquest history, while also highlighting the eclecticism evident in the compilation of its musical-liturgical programme, as hypothesised by previous scholars and clearly demonstrated in Laud Misc. 4. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates the broader reach of St Albans’ liturgical influence through the revision and dissemination of the Office of its patron and the protomartyr of the English church, St Alban, tracing its impact across England and continental Europe.

My study of Laud Misc. 4 underscores the central importance of processional sources, challenging their historically peripheral status in the study of liturgical books. The multidisciplinary approach demonstrated in this thesis can be applied to other processional sources, which, as I show, are rich repositories of evidence about their creators, the circumstances of their production, and the institutional and cultural influences that shaped their contents.

Date of Award	20 Jan 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Sponsors	South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership
Supervisor	Emma C Hornby (Supervisor), Benjamin Pohl (Supervisor) & Sarah Hamilton (Supervisor)