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O D E :
THE FFICE OF THE EAD IN NGLAND
IMAGE AND MUSIC IN THE BOOK OF HOURS AND
RELATED TEXTS, C. 1250- C. 1500
SARAH SCHELL
SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
SCHOOL OF ART HISTORY,
UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
DECEMBER, 2009
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BSTRACT
This study examines the illustrations that appear at the Office of the Dead in English Books
of Hours, and seeks to understand how text and image work together in this thriving culture of
commemoration to say something about how the English understood and thought about death in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Office of the Dead would have been one of the most
familiar liturgical rituals in the medieval period, and was recited almost without ceasing at family
funerals, gild commemorations, yearly minds, and chantry chapel services. The Placebo and Dirige
were texts that many people knew through this constant exposure, and would have been more
widely known than other 'death' texts such as the Ars Moriendi. The images that are found in these
books reflect wider trends in the piety and devotional practice of the time. The first half of the
study discusses the images that appear in these horae, and the relationship between the text and
image is explored. The funeral or vigil scene, as the most commonly occurring, is discussed with
reference to contemporary funeral practices, and ways of reading a Book of Hours. Other
iconographic themes that appear in the Office of the Dead, such as the Roman de Renart, the Pety Job,
the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead, the story of Lazarus, and the life of Job, are also
discussed. The second part of the thesis investigates the musical elaborations of the Office of the
Dead as found in English prayer books. The Office of the Dead had a close relationship with music,
which is demonstrated through an examination of the popularity of musical funerals and obits, as
well as in the occurrence of musical notation for the Office in a book often used by the musically
illiterate. The development of the Office of the Dead in conjunction with the development of the
Books of Hours is also considered, and places the traditions and ideas that were part of the funeral
process in medieval England in a larger historical context.
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ABLE OF ONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5
LIST OF FIGURES 7
ABBREVATIONS 9
INTRODUCTION 10
INVESTIGATING THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD ..............................................................................12
PRAYERBOOKS: BOOKS OF HOURS AND PSALTERS.................................................................... 20
READING CULTURE IN ENGLAND.................................................................................................24
CONTINENTAL AND PRINTED .......................................................................................................29
THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS....................................................................................................33
CHAPTER ONE
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD ........................................................... 37
THE EMERGENCE OF A CHRISTIAN RITE.................................................................................... 40
EARLY LITURGY AND THE ROMAN ORDO DEFUNCTORUM .................................................... 41
THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD AND CAROLINGIAN REFORM....................................................... 45
THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD IN ENGLAND ...................................................................................5 0
THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD IN DEVOTIONAL BOOKS ...............................................................57
CHAPTER TWO
IMAGES OF THE FUNERAL AND REQUIEM MASS ........................................................................ 61
DEATH AND THE COMMUNITY ..................................................................................................... 63
EARLY VISUAL INFLUENCES AND THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN .............................................. 68
THE BODY AT REST AND IN PROGRESS ........................................................................................7 3
MATERIAL EMBELLISHMENTS ....................................................................................................... 78
“NINETY-THREE DOZEN CANDLES”: PROVISION FOR LIGHTS ............................................... 81
“BRYNG IN ÞE WEPARS, ARAYYD IN BLAK” ............................................................................. 95
FUNERAL NARRATIVES: FROM BEDSIDE TO GRAVE ............................................................... 101
CHAPTER THREE
SOULS, SAINTS AND SNAILS: OTHER THEMES IN THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD.................... 105
“LORD! TO ÞEE WE BITAKEN ÞE SOULES OF ÞI SERUAUNTIS”:
IMAGES OF SOULS.......................................................................................................................... 105
SUDDEN DEATH AND MEMENTO MORI: PREPARING FOR DEATH .....................................118
MIRACLES, VISIONS, AND SAINTS ...............................................................................................127
ANIMAL TALES IN THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD ........................................................................129
BIBLICAL NARRATIVES IN THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD ............................................................134
THE UNDEAD: LAZARUS AND THE PROMSIS OF RESURRECTION .........................................147
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CHAPTER FOUR
MUSIC IN SOCIETY: LEARNING AND USE.................................................................................. 153
MUSIC IN THE MONASTERIES ..................................................................................................... 155
“HOW ADMIRABLE IS THE SCIENCE OF MUSIC” ..................................................................... 157
LAY MUSICAL EDUCATION .........................................................................................................160
CHAPTER FIVE
MUSIC, THE PARISH AND THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD ...........................................................167
“WHY DO THE SORROWING, IN THEIR LAMENTATION, EXPRESS
THEIR VERY GRIEF WITH MUSICAL MODULATIONS” ...............................................................168
“… AND TO SYNGGE FOR ME AL-SO”: REQUESTS FOR MUSIC ..............................................172
THE MUSICAL VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY .............................................................................. 178
WHY A SUNG SERVICE? ................................................................................................................ 182
CHAPTER SIX
MUSIC AND ART IN MEDIEVAL BOOKS......................................................................................189
THE SOURCES ................................................................................................................................ 191
MUSIC AT PART OF THE SERVICE ...............................................................................................197
NOTATION AS MNEMONIC .......................................................................................................... 202
BEAUTIFUL TO BEHOLD: MUSIC AS A VISUAL ART .................................................................. 208
JOB: FUNEREAL PROTAGONIST AND PATRON SAINT OF MUSIC ........................................... 212
“SCRIPTUM EST ANNO DOMINI…”: MADE BY WHOM? .......................................................... 221
CONCLUSIONS
WIDER INFLUENCE OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD .............................................................. 229
FINAL CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................... 231
AVENUES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ........................................................................................ 235
APPENDICES
A: MUSIC TRANSCRIPTION ......................................................................................................... 239
B: CATALOGUE OF MANUSCRIPTS WITH A NOTED OFFICE OF THE DEAD ....................... 241
C: CATALOGUE OF MANUSCRIPTS WITH IMAGES OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEAD............. 247
SUPPLEMENT ............................................................................................................................... 286
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MANUSCRIPT SOURCES A .......................................................................................................... 291
MANUSCRIPTS SOURCES B .......................................................................................................... 293
SECONDARY SOURCES.................................................................................................................. 297
FIGURES 329
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CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to several institutions and individuals for the support that they
offered me during my years of research. I should like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Julian Luxford,
for his advice, encouragement, and patience. I would like to express my gratitude to those that
provided financial support for this project: the University of St Andrews School of Art History, the
Thomas and Margaret Rodden Trust, the Russell Trust, the Elizabeth Holt Trust, and the British
Federation of Women Graduates. The completion of this thesis would not have been possible
without this support.
I am thankful for the help and encouragement that I received while working in various
library collections. Particularly, Dr. Bruce Barker-Benfield at the Bodleian and Dr. Rowan Watson at
the National Arts Library, both of whom were interested and encouraging, as well as generous with
their time and the manuscripts in their charge. I would also like to thank all those at the British
Library, the National Arts Library, Cambridge University Library, the Wren Library at Trinity College
Cambridge, St John’s College Cambridge, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, the Bodleian Library,
Keble College Oxford, and York Minster Library who helped me learn my way around their
collections, and offered advice to make things easier.
I would like to thank the Art History Department secretaries, Dawn Waddell and Margaret
Hall for being generally excellent and useful people in sometimes adverse conditions, and all the
people that made my period of study in St Andrews a pleasant one. I am, as ever, grateful for the
Gashlycrumb Tinies: Brier for understanding, Loo for perspective, and Bets for listening. Finally, I’d
like to thank my parents for their support, and Joseph for more things than there is room to say.
This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my Regular Gran, who did not understand my desire to
do it, but encouraged me anyway.
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