International Medieval Society, Paris • Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2010 - Traditio

Symposium Programme

The Masses for the Holy Cross in Aquitanian Manuscripts

Luisa Nardini, University of Texas, Austin

The concept of translatio attains to the medieval cult of the Holy Cross at many different levels.  Religious rituals involved the adoration of relics or replicas of the Cross often carried during public processions between significant points of towns, churches, or monasteries. Liturgical celebrations frequently employed texts drawn from hagiographical, or staurological, literature originally redacted in both Latin and Greek and ultimately bearing different geographical origins and dates.

The masses for the Holy Cross copied in eleventh-century Aquitanian manuscripts are an excellent case study to highlight issues of appropriation and contamination of liturgical repertories.  The analysis of Proper chants shows multidirectional influences.  At the core of the repertory there is a group of chants that were transmitted from Rome in the eighth century and that were stylistically transformed during their reception in Francia.  A second layer of chants is constituted by chants of Romano-Frankish origins (chants composed in Francia after the acquisition of Roman chant and following the general structure and melodic style of Gregorian chant).  And finally, there is a group of locally composed chants.  These last-mentioned chants, the most substantial repertory of original Proper chants for the Holy Cross from any give region of medieval Europe, are an interesting hybrid between Gregorian liturgical structures and more ancient Gallican components that can be recognized in the style of texts and melodies and in the devotional themes and theological discourses developed.

Many of these chants were eventually transmitted to various areas of medieval Italy.  Manuscript comparison shows that the transmission to Italian regions happened through parallel channels of diffusion with no signs of reciprocal influences.  Finally, the presence of Aquitanian chants in old-Roman sources shows a rare case of acquisition of Gregorian melodies in the city of Rome before the end of the eleventh century.