Ritual Life in the Medieval Dominican Order

Liturgical Expressions

Augustine Thompson, O.P. (ed)

Pages: x + 366 p.
Size:152 x 229 mm

Language(s):English
Publication Year:2025

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ISBN: 978-0-88844-838-5
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“Ritual Life in the Medieval Dominican Order represents an important milestone for Dominican and liturgical studies. The book offers a cross-disciplinary study of the rites of Dominican friars, nuns, and lay penitents in the Middle Ages, in the context of a more global religious history. The volume spans the history of the offices from the generalate of Humbert of Romans onwards, the worship of saints (especially Mary Magdalene and Thomas Aquinas), and the scope of communal confession, drawing on a renewed study of texts, music, and architectural space. The ten essays gathered here, written by leading specialists in the field, offer original research supported by editions of manuscripts and hitherto unpublished materials. Historians, art historians, musicologists, and philologists will benefit greatly from reading these thought-provoking and rigorous analyses.” — Haude Morvan, Université Bordeaux Montaigne

BIO

Augustine Thompson, O.P. is the Praeses of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto. He previously taught medieval religious history at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, the University of Virginia, and the University of Oregon. His books and articles, focused especially on high medieval Italian religious and intellectual history, include most recently Dominican Brothers: Conversi, Lay, and Cooperator Friars (2017); Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (2012); and Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125–1325 (2005).

Summary

This collection of essays devoted to the Dominican liturgy in the Middle Ages begins with the reform of ritual and music identified with Humbert of Romans (1200–1277) and proceeds to the cult and liturgy at the shrine of St Thomas Aquinas at Toulouse. Focusing on manuscript examples of local practice, going beyond the liturgy of the friars to include that of cloistered nuns, Dominican penitent women, and lay people, and exploring material elements such as architecture, the essays reflect a more anthropological approach. The volume closes with editions of the oldest known sermons on Thomas Aquinas, probably preached at his shrine in Toulouse.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures
AUGUSTINE THOMPSON, O.P.
Introduction

Part I. Humbert of Romans’s Reforms and their Reception

DOMINIK JURCZAK, O.P.
Diversitas, unitas, and uniformitas in the Early Dominican Liturgy

INNOCENT SMITH, O.P.
A Tale of Two Missals: The Missale conventuale and Missale minorum altarium in the Exemplars of the Reformed Dominican Liturgy

CJ JONES
Et tibi, mater: Women’s Communal Confession and the Dominican Confiteor in the Office

AUGUSTINE THOMPSON, O.P.
The Officium of the Dominican Penitents, 1286–1405

Part II. Dominican Music and Chant

CONSTANT J. MEWS
The Custom of the Poets: John of Garland and Jerome of Moray (Moravia) on Literature and Music

ELEANOR J. GIRAUD
Humbert’s Codex: Prototype, Final Product, Work in Progress, or All of the Above?

MARGOT E. FASSLER
The Dominican Magdalene Office: An Overview of the Early Liturgical Sources

Part III. The Liturgies of St Thomas Aquinas

MARIKA RÄSÄNEN
The Translatio Narrative for the Relics of St Thomas in the First Nocturn of Matins

RICHARD ALFRED SUNDT
The Functioning of the Dominican Church in Toulouse and the Shrines of St Thomas Aquinas

M. MICHÈLE MULCHAHEY
Preaching Thomas Aquinas: Newly Discovered Sermons for the Feast and Translation

Epilogue. Liturgical Events during the Conference

INNOCENT SMITH, O.P.
In the Midst of the Church: A Homily for the Feast of Thomas Aquinas

Contributors
Index of Manuscripts
General Index