This study of Santa Maria del Gualdo Mazzocca, a Benedictine priory, and then abbey, directly dependent upon the papacy, offers a remarkable glimpse into the nature of monastic life in the Middle Ages.

At the centre of this work are an edition and study of the necrology of the monastery of Santa Maria del Gualdo Mazzocca (Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticanus latinus 5949, fols. 232r–248v). In active use for three centuries, the necrology is a remarkable mirror of monastic life. The study of the necrology is placed in the contexts of the chapter book that preserves it and the monastery that produced it. Santa Maria del Gualdo was a Benedictine priory, and then abbey, directly dependent upon the papacy. Its history and that of its chapter book are part of the history of the Benedictines and their liturgy in the Beneventan cultural zone in the High Middle Ages.