The Ordinal of the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, Fecamp: Fecamp, Musee De La Benedictine, Ms 186, Containing Parts II, III and IV: Vol 2

Second of two-volume edition of twelfth-century Ordinal from Fécamp, giving a detailed view of monastic liturgy.

The abbey of Fécamp, reformed in the early years of the eleventh century by William of Volpiano, abbot of St-Bénigne at Dijon, was a key institution in the development of Norman monasticism in the middle ages. As one of the most energetic monastic reformers of his time, William was noted for the attention he paid to the liturgy of the many abbeys he superintended, and his liturgical cursus was influential in English and continental monastic houses.
The Fécamp Ordinal, edited here from a manuscript of the early thirteenth century, but transmitting the liturgy observed in the abbey some two centuries earlier, is the first complete source of William's liturgical work tobe printed. It is expanded by readings from complementary Fécamp service books, creating a text which gives a particularly detailed view of medieval monastic liturgy. The first volume contains the Temporale; this volume contains the remainder of the Ordinal (Sanctorale, Commune Sanctorum and Miscellanea), together with comprehensive indexes.
DAVID CHADD teaches in the School of Music at the University of East Anglia.

Invaluable in promoting a deeper understanding of monastic life in (medieval) Normandy. JNL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY One of the most important publications of its kind to have appeared in recent years, (it) assumes a central place in the study of monastic liturgical practice in the Middle Ages.... The result is a sort of super-ordinal hardly, if ever, matched in one medieval manuscript alone. And it is all managed with perfect clarity.... This edition shows that the study of medieval liturgical books is in safe and expert hands. Without doubt (the author) deserves our most sincere congratulations. PLAINSONG & MEDIEVAL MUSIC