Broadly defined, pontificals are liturgical books containing rites to be performed by a bishop. These manuscripts include a wide variety of occasional rites including church dedications, ordinations, coronations, and blessings of sacred objects. Prior to the popularisation of more standardised pontifical formats in the late thirteenth century, early pontificals were diverse in content and often varied by diocese. However, these manuscripts were not always produced in the same location where they were intended for use. While pontifical provenance is commonly discussed in the context of localised content variations or a manuscript’s place of use, the significance of the scriptorium has often been overlooked. In this dissertation, I examine the scriptorium’s influence on liturgical content and transmission through a comparative case study of five Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman pontificals produced at Christ Church, Canterbury, a significant hub of pontifical production. In order to examine the relationships between these pontificals in detail, I focus on a single rite: the blessing of a bell. While the blessing of a bell was a common pontifical rite, these five manuscripts are unique when compared to other contemporary insular pontificals in that they also contain neumed chant notations for three antiphons occurring in the rite, thereby allowing for an assessment of developments in both melodic and textual content. Through a comparison of melodic and textual content in the blessing of a bell, I examine the potential relationships between these five manuscripts in order to not only provide a better understanding of textual and musical development and transmission in early insular pontificals produced at the same location, but also of how the blessing of a bell was developed and circulated in pre-and post-conquest England.
Text and Melody in the Blessing of a Bell: A Comparative Case Study of Five Canterbury Pontificals
Fenton, C. C. (Author). 6 Dec 2022
Student thesis: Master's Thesis › Master of Philosophy (MPhil)