| 7 |
| How can the above mentioned principles be adapted for practical implementation? |
| The first task is to gather the greatest possible number of prospectively coherent sources that promise to be fruitful for typological analysis. At the first encounter we may content ourselves with any hypothetical indicator concerning the institution where the sources originate, such as with data about the fate of the books, the cult of saints characteristic of a given region, etc. It is, however, most important not to form final and unchangeable judgements on the basis of these observations. |
| There is no way of avoiding devoting the time and energy needed to carry out a detailed analysis of the liturgical contents of the sources. In fact, we have to write out all the chant incipits from the entire source or a representative section of it, and if it comes to worst, all its deviations from a copy designated as a norm. |
| As we shall see later, the analysis of the differences leads to the establishment of a typology. The pillars on which this typology rests are the groups that consist of very similar sources. In most cases we shall find that the sources pertaining thereto also provide strong evi.dence by virtue of their genre (e.g. the normative choir-books of the central institutions) .We will meet additional sources that fit in by and large with the typical set-up of the main group but nonetheless contain individual features. Some sources may take up a position midway between two or three groups. (In the first stage of our research such sources can be put on one side.) There is no hurry to find a satisfactory explanation for such divergences. These kinds of sources may represent insufficiently documented different traditions which would become separate groups themselves if we could relate them to other, unfortunatly lost sources. A lot of other historical coincidences may account for the peripheral position of such sourees. |
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