Practical Information
(General Remarks to Section 'ANN')


5
 
Office of Trinity
Corpus Christi
At the beginning of the section ANN the chants of two post-Pentecostal feasts can be found. The Office of Trinity is incomplete or ambiguous in many sources. As it is known, this feast was introduced as late as the turn of the 10th-11th centuries. Its liturgical institution was by no means uniform as far as the age of the introduction and the day of celebration are concerned. Some churches preserved the full Octave of Whit-Sunday and commemorated the new feast on Monday. The feast of Corpus Christi created even later is either missing in the early sources or appended to the main text.
PsalteriumThe most important part of the Office, the order of the Psalterium comes after these feasts. It serves as a basis for the whole year; all the items determined neither by the Proper of the day nor the season must be taken from this unit. The Psalter may occupy different positions in the medieval codices: it may head the breviaries, come after the feast of Epiphany in the antiphonaries or after the Pentecostal section in other cases. It can often occur several times in the same book in full length or by rubrics (sometimes with slight contradictions in meaning). Due to its importance this section required a distinguished position and a clear-cut arrangement in the tables. Within the liturgical books the inner order of the Psalter was based on one of the following two principles: either the daily sequence of the Hours or the numbering of the psalms was observed (Matins + Lauds of every day, the Little Hours being inserted after the Sunday and Monday Lauds, followed by all the Vespers of the week, and finallly the Compline). We intend to employ this latter scheme.
Some of the pieces vary in the winter months. The variants will be included here in the same place of the Office marked by a sign + and discussed in addition in the notes.
In many sources the scheme of the Compline is poorly recorded. Sometimes even such features remain unclear whether the psalms are sung with antiphon(s) or simply in directaneum, whether a responsory is sung at all, etc.
Per annumThe Psalter is followed in the tables by the material of the summer and autumn seasons per annum. These Offices were made up of three layers: the Psalter (mentioned above), the Historiae and the Sunday antiphonae maiores. The pieces taken from the 2nd and 3rd groups were entered conjunctly or mixed in the medieval books. For purposes of comparing the local traditions it will be more practical to present these layers separately.
HistoriaeThe words of the Historiae cycles, i.e. the responsories for Matins and the antiphons for the 1st Vespers on Sundays are taken from the biblical scriptura occurrens of the Office as follows: Historia Regum (from Trinity until the end of June), Histora Sapientiae (August), Historia de Job (1st and 2nd weeks of September), Historia de Tobia, Judith, Esther (the rest of September), Historia Maccabeorum (October), Historia Prophetarum (November) each 'imposed' on the nearest Sunday to the Kalendae of the month.
The number of responsories is generally higher than the necessary nine (in the cursus saecularis) and their distribution is not always clear. It is therefore more practical to list all in one course, as many sources actually do. Similarly, all antiphons will be grouped together following the set of responsories. The Historia de Esther for the 5th, incomplete week in September contains only a few responsories which were combined - in rather different ways - with the responsories of the Historia de Judith. In many churches one of the nocturnal responsories was anticipated at the 1st Vespers on Sundays and its selection was more or less accurately recorded in the rubrics. Wherever such a device proves to be typical in a given tradition we will mention it in the commentary.
Gospel antiphonsThe repertory of the Gospel antiphons (for Ab and V2: Am) follows the numbered sequence of the post-Trinity Sundays. The extra items were again sung during the week but it can be rarely established evidently, in which order. In many sources all these antiphons were notated in one single group distributed among Sundays. It seems to be sensible to add the surplus items to the 2nd Vespers and mark them Am+.
Dedication
Officium mortuorum
The section and together with it the whole chart is closed down by two additional Offices, the first being that of the Church Dedication that easily fits into the general scheme. The other is the Officium mortuorum celebrated in the full, three-Nocturn form only for the dead or as a general commemoration on some days. On weekdays of lesser rank it was sung in the abbreviated, one-Nocturn form as an addition to the ferial Office. The Officium mortuorum had only 1st Vespers, Matins and Lauds Hours. In most of the rites a set of six times three responsories was offered to fill up the whole week frame. The 2nd three times three group of the eighteen responsories is included here after the N3-R3 item. The structure of the Officium mortuorum is fairly similar to that of the Triduum Sacrum in that both lack all the other parts except the psalms, canticles and the readings with their antiphons and responsories, and often the Invitatory, too.
 
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