3 Singing from the Pulpit : Improvised Polyphony and Public Ritual In

3 Singing from the Pulpit: Improvised Polyphony and Public Ritual in Medieval Tuscany

BENJAMIN BRAND

Among the most distinctive features of late medieval churches were the screens that marked the division between the choir and the nave. Known variously as “rood screens,” “jubés ,” or “Lettner ,” they have traditionally been viewed as barriers that divided the clergy from the laity and thus accentuated the exclusivity of the mass and offi ce liturgies celebrated in the east end of the church. Only recently have they been recognized as facilitating com- munication between clerics and laypeople. Just as preachers delivered ser- mons in the vernacular from atop the screens, so these structures featured sculptural reliefs that depicted stories from the bible in a naturalistic style comprehensible to the laity and aptly described as a “visual vernacular.” 1 Equally important, the screens were sites of musical performances. At Notre Dame of Paris, for instance, the canons typically sang organum (i.e. polyphony) at High Mass from the eagle lectern situated in the middle of the choir behind (and at some distance from) the jubé . 2 On select Christological and Marian feasts, however, they fi rst processed to the crucifi x atop the screen, where as many as six of them sang a responsory verse polyphonically. 3

Th e following abbreviations denote libraries and archives: ACPist = Archivio Capitolare, Pistoia; BCIS = Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena; BCL = Biblioteca Capitolare, Lucca; BGV = Biblioteca Guarnacci, Volterra; BRF = Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence; BUB = Biblioteca Universitaria, Bologna. 1 J . E . J u n g , Th e Gothic Screen: Space, Sculpture, and Community in the Cathedrals of France and Germany, ca. 1200– 1400 ( Cambridge University Press , 2013 ) and J. E. Jung , “ Beyond the Barrier: Th e Unifying Role of the Choir Screen in Gothic Churches ,” Th e Art Bulletin, 82 ( 2000 ), 622 – 657 , with references to earlier literature on choir screens. See also E. Duff y , Th e Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400– 1580 ( New Haven : Yale University Press , 1992 ), 109 – 116 . A. Kirkman , Th e Cultural Life of the Early Polyphonic Mass: Medieval Context to Modern Revival ( Cambridge University Press , 2010 ), 47 – 48 , likewise draws on Jung’s notion of the “visual vernacular” in his discussion of the use of secular cantus fi rmi in fi ft eenth- century masses. 2 C . W r i g h t , Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500– 1550 ( Cambridge University Press ), 341 . According to Wright (p. 340, n. 104), there survive only fragments of the original, thirteenth- century choir screen, which was replaced by a second enclosure in the fourteenth century, on which see D. W. Gillerman , Th e Clôture of Notre-Dame and its Role in the Fourteenth Century Choir Program ( New York : Garland , 1977 ) . 3 R. A. Baltzer, “How Long Was Notre-Dame Organum Performed?,” in Beyond the Moon: Festschrift Luther Dittmer, ed. B. Gillingham and P. Merkley ( Ottawa : Institute of Medieval Music , 1990 ), 118 – 143 . 55 56

56 Benjamin Brand

In such cases, the jubé was not a barrier between clergy and laity but instead a backdrop to the public performance of organum. Less familiar but equally suggestive cases in which choir screens amplifi ed the public character of liturgical polyphony emerge in connection with the cathedrals of medieval Tuscany. Pertinent evidence survives in six ordinals compiled for the wealthiest dioceses of the region (Table 3.1 ). 4 Detailed witnesses to the musical and ritual life of their mother churches, these books document a tradition distinctive of (though not unique to) Tuscany. At High Mass on solemn Christological feasts, as related below, soloists sang the Alleluia from the pulpit atop the choir screen, typically cum organo (i.e. with polyphonic elaboration) and sometimes with additional text called prosulas. Together, such ritual, musical, and literary embellishments not only amplifi ed the longstanding association of the Alleluia with heavenly, angelic song, but also mirrored the unusually elaborate scenes from the life of Christ sculpted in relief on the pulpits. Th rough the coordination of liturgy and iconography, choir screens thus became vehicles for public musical performance as well as the creation of a visual vernacular. Th e six ordinals provide invaluable yet uneven evidence for the tradition of polyphonic singing from the pulpit in medieval Tuscany. As collections of liturgical prescriptions, they include no music but rather text of two kinds: incipits of chants, readings, and prayers, and rubrics that specifi ed, to varying degrees, matters of ritual context and performance practice. 5

4 Citations to the Tuscan ordinals refer to the original manuscript source. Th e following studies establish the dating of the Tuscan ordinal: M. S. Tacconi , Cathedral and Civic Ritual in Late Medieval and Renaissance Florence: Th e Service- Books of Santa Maria del Fiore ( Cambridge University Press , 2005 ), 94 – 98 (Ritus), G. Cattin , “ ‘Secundare’ e ‘Succinere’. Polifonia a Padova e Pistoia nel duecento ,” Musica e storia, 3 ( 1995 ), 63 – 86 , at 70 (OOPist); R. Argenziano , Agli inizi dell’iconografi a sacra a Siena: Culti, riti e iconografi a a Siena nel XII secolo (Florence : Galluzzo , 2000 ), 54 – 58 (OOES); B. Brand, “Liturgical Ceremony at the Cathedral of Lucca, 1275– 1500,” Ph.D. diss., Yale University (2006), 6– 7 (OOL). A. Th ompson , Cities of God: Th e Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125– 1325 ( University Park, PA : Penn State University Press , 2005 ), 9 , dates OOP to the late twelft h century. Th at OOP makes no mention of St. Ranierius, who was buried in the cathedral in 1160, nonetheless suggests an earlier date of compilation. Moreover, its self- identifi ed author is surely the same Rolando whose name appears in several acts draft ed in the 1140s and 1150s and published in N. Caturegli , Regestum pisanum ( Rome : Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo , 1938 ) . An eponymous deacon and cathedral canon consecrated the church and hospital of San Marco in 1141 (no. 381, p. 256) and witnessed three public acts, two at the episcopal palace in 1147 (no. 407, p. 274) and 1154 (n. 433, p. 297), and one in Pisa in 1158 (no. 457, p. 318). 5 On ordinals in general, see T. Lohse , “ Stand und Perspektiven der Liber ordinarius -Forschung ,” in Liturgie in mittelalterlichen Frauenstift en , K. G. Beuckers (Essen : Klartext Medienwerkstatt, 2012 ), 215 – 255 , A.- G. Martimort , Les “Ordines,” les Ordinaires et les Cérémoniaux ( Turnhout : Brepols , 1991 ), 62 – 85 , and E. Foley , “ Th e ‘Libri Ordinarii’ ,” Ephemerides liturgicae , 102 ( 1988 ), 129 – 137 . For a more detailed discussion of the Tuscan ordinals in particular, see 57

Singing from the Pulpit 57

Table 3.1. Th e Tuscan Ordinals

Diocese Title/ Incipit Date Manuscript Organum Pulpit

PisaOrdo Offi ciorum (OOP) 1140–1160 BUB 1758 X Volterra Ordo Offi ciorum Vulterrane 1161 BGV 5789 X Ecclesie (OOVE) FlorenceRitus in ecclesia servandi 1180–1190 BRF 3005 X (Ritus) Siena Ordo Offi ciorum Ecclesie 1215 BCIS G.V.8 X X Senensis (OOES) Pistoia Ordo offi ciorum Pistoriensis late thirteenth ACPist, C 102 X X ecclesie (OOPist) century LuccaOrdo Offi ciorum (OOL) Ca. 1292 BCL, 608 X X

Collectively, the books illustrate a growing desire to codify these latter two dimensions of the liturgy: the thirteenth- century ordinals feature longer, more detailed rubrics than the twelft h- century ones, and consequently include more directions to sing polyphonically (cum organo ) and/ or from the pulpit (in pulpito ).6 Th at the Ordo Offi ciorum of Pisa fails to mention the marble pulpit of its cathedral, on which more will be said below, thus does not necessarily indicate that its clergy eschewed this public stage for musical performances. It more likely refl ects the brevity of the rubrics of the Pisan ordinal, which make little if any reference to any liturgical fur- nishing of its church. Th at the ordinals of Volterra and Florence do not pre- scribe the performance of organum is likewise attributable to the concision of their rubrics rather an indiff erence or hostility to polyphony on the part of their clergy.7

B . B r a n d , Holy Treasure and Sacred Song: Relic Cults and their Liturgies in Medieval Tuscany ( Oxford University Press , 2014 ), 116 – 123 . 6 For instance, OOL identifi es at least seventy- two items sung with organum: B. Brand, “Liturgical Ceremony,” 178– 189, and A. Ziino , “ Polifonia nella cattedrale di Lucca durante il XIII secolo ,” Acta musicologica , 47 ( 1975 ), 16 – 30 (on OOL). OOES, by contrast, uses the expression “cum organo” more than two hundred times: G. Gonzato , “ Alcune considerazioni sull’ ‘Ordo Offi ciorum Ecclesiae Senensis’ ,” in Le polifonie primitive in Friuli e in Europa. Atti del congresso internazionale (Cividale del Friuli, 22– 24 augusto 1980), ed. C. Corsi and P. Petrobelli ( Rome : Torre d’Orfeo , 1989 ), 247 – 293 . G. Cattin, “ ‘Secundare’ e ‘Succinere’,” 63– 86, transcribes the many citations to polyphony in OOPist. 7 Indeed, the proscription of organum during periods of mourning (i.e. the Easter Triduum and a canon’s funeral) in Ritus, fols. 37v and 115r, suggests that such music was regularly sung on other occasions in Florence: M. Tacconi, Cathedral and Civic Ritual , 129– 130, and G. Cattin , “ Novità dalla cattedrale di Firenze: Polifonia, tropi, e sequenze nella seconda metà del XII secolo ,” Musica e storia, 6 ( 1998 ), 29 – 34 . 58

58 Benjamin Brand

Unlike the celebrated organum of Notre Dame of Paris, polyphony in Tuscany (as throughout the Italian peninsula) remained a largely unwrit- ten, extemporized art. Alone among the six ordinals, the Ordo Offi ciorum of Lucca alludes to the way in which singers improvised an organal voice against pre- existing chant. In one instance, it directs clerics to perform a mat- ins invitatory “with organum by concordant modulation,” and in another it obliges them to sing a responsory “with organum or discant.” 8 S u c h p h r a s e s suggest that Lucchese (and perhaps other Tuscan) organum involved “concordant” intervals (i.e. perfect consonances) and conformed to the strict, note- against- note style denoted by the term “discant.” 9 Th ey accord with a rare example of notated, two- voice polyphony in a twelft h-century anti- phoner from the Lucchese convent of Santa Maria di Pontetetto. It adheres to the “post- Guidonian” style of organum espoused in the treatise Ad organum faciendum (ca. 1100): the organal voice sounds above and in contrary motion with the original chant, forming intervals as large as an octave. 10 Tuscan singers, such anecdotal evidence indicates, cultivated a widespread improvisatory tradition of “singing on the book” (cantare super librum) that endured both north and south of the Alps through the late Middle Ages. 11

8 “Ad nocturnum invitatorium Alleluia Christus resurexit [sic] a mortuis a quattuor cum organo cumcordi modulatione cantetur” (OOL, fol. 32r). “Responsorium Homo quidam sollempniter cum organo seu discantu” ( ibid., fol. 41v). 9 While “discant” had originally served as a Latin equivalent to “diaphony,” by the thirteenth century it had acquired the more precise meaning of note- against- note polyphony as distinct from fl orid organum: M. Beiche , “Discantus / Diskant,” in Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie, ed. H. H. Eggebrecht (Stuttgart : Franz Steiner, 1997 ) . 10 BCL 603, fol. 256r, which preserves Regi regum, a two- voice setting of a troped Benedicamus Domino for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Tacconi, Cathedral and Civic Ritual , 130– 131, and F. A. D’Accone , Th e Civic Muse: Music and Musicians in Siena During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance ( University of Chicago Press , 1997 ), 95 – 96 and 118, provide transcriptions of Regi regum and speculate that it characterized the style of polyphony sung in Florence and Siena respectively. Neither author associates it with Ad organum faciendum in particular. It was surely no coincidence that two organum manuals associated with this treatise circulated in the diocese of Lucca. Known as “Berlin A” and “Berlin B,” these appear in a miscellany, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MS theol. lat. quart. 261, compiled somewhere in the diocese of Lucca in 1292. For an inventory of the contents of this manuscript, see H. H. Eggebrecht and F. Zaminer , Ad Organum Faciendum: Lehrschrift en der Mehrstimmigkeit in nachguidonischer Zeit ( Mainz : Schott , 1970 ), 29 – 32 , and M. Huglo and C. Meyer (eds.), Manuscripts from the Carolingian Era up to c. 1500 in the Federal Republic of Germany (D- brd), RISM B III 3 (Munich: Henle, 1986), 30– 32. On its provenance and dating, see H. Knaus, “ Neudatierung einer Berliner Musikhandschrift ,” Die Musikforschung , 21 ( 1968 ), 312 – 314 . Eggebrecht and Zaminer, Ad Organum Faciendum provides an edition and German translation of Ad organum faciendum, Berlin A, and Berlin B while S. Fuller , “ Early Polyphony ,” in Th e New Oxford History of Music, ed. R. Crocker and D. Hiley (Oxford University Press, 1990 ), 521 – 522 , analyzes the contents of these three texts. 11 R . W. D u ffi n, “Contrapunctus simplex et diminutus: Polyphonic Improvisation for Voices in the 15th Century ,” Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis , 31 (2007 ), 69 – 90 , with bibliography. 59

Singing from the Pulpit 59

More distinctive to Tuscany than its organum were its marble pulpits ( Table 3.2 ). The earliest surviving example was executed for the cathedral of Pisa in 1152– 62 and transferred to Cagliari (in Sardinia) in 1312. Its inscription describes its sculptor, Guglielmo, as “most excel- lent among the modern masters,” intimating the novelty of its icono- graphic scheme. 12 Now divided into two parts set against the façade of its present church, it originally formed one platform encircled with at least eight panels sculpted in bas-relief (Figure 3.1 ). If the very appear- ance of figurative sculpture was novel to twelfth- century Tuscany, so too was the narrative formed by fourteen scenes from Christ’s life depicted in the panels. With their naturalistic style and explanatory inscrip- tions (or tituli ), they anticipate the visual vernacular characteristic of choir screens in the late Middle Ages. The veritable “fons origens of Romanesque sculpture in western Tuscany,” Guglielmo’s work set the precedent for no fewer than five pulpits created for cathedrals and collegiate churches in the region, ones that likewise told the story of Christ’s, death, and resurrection.13 Th e Tuscan clergy surely associated the visual vernacular of their pulpits with the longstanding role of such stages in conveying the visual and aural splendors of the liturgy to the congregation. In a letter addressed to the clergy and laity, Bishop Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258) described the pulpit as a place from which a reader “is seen by his brothers,” and “is heard to the joy of his brethren.”14 Isidore of Seville (d. 636) defi ned it as “that in which a reader or singer, situated in public, can attract the notice of the populace

12 A. Peroni , ed. Il Duomo di Pisa, 3 vols. ( Modena : F.C. Panini , 1995 ), vol. 1, 598 : “Hoc Guillielmus opus pr(a)estantior arte modernis quat(tu)uor annorum spatio, sed Do(mi)ni centum decies sex mille duobus.” An inscription on the façade of the cathedral of Pisa likewise marks “the tomb of Master Guglielmo, who made the pulpit of Santa Maria” (Sepultura Guillielmi (m)agistri qui fecit pergum S(an)c(t)e Marie) (vol. 1, 340). 13 C. Baracchini and M. T. Filieri , “ Raccontare col marmo: Guglielmo e i suoi seguaci ,” in Niveo de marmore: L’uso artistico del marmo di Carrara dall’XI al XV secolo, ed. E. Castelnuovo ( Genoa : Colombo , 1992 ), 111 – 119 . Th e present quotation derives from D. F. Glass , Portals, Pilgrimage, and Crusade in Western Tuscany ( Princeton University Press , 1997 ), 9 . G. Tigler , “Pulpiti romanici toscani: Prime valutazioni di un censimento ,” in Pulpiti medievali toscani. Storia e restauri di micro- architetture. Atti della Giornata di studio, Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Firenze, 21 giugno 1996 , D. Lamberini ( Florence : Leo S. Olschki , 1999 ), 55 – 94 , surveys all surviving Romanesque pulpits from Tuscany. 14 G. F. Diercks , ed. Sancti Cypriani episcopi epistularium, 4 vols. (Turnholt : Brepols , 1972 ), vol. 2, no. 38, 184 – 185 , cited in C. Page , Th e Christian West and its Singers: Th e First Th ousand Years ( New Haven : Yale University Press , 2010 ), 105 : “ad pulpitum post castatam venire, illic fuisse conspicuum gentilium multitudini, hic a fratribus conspici, illic auditum esse cum miraculo circumstantis populi, hic cum gaudio fraternitatis audiri,” in which the author juxtaposes pulpit with the “pillory” ( castita), the podium where defendants traditionally stood trial. 60 Last Supper Isaac; ce of xion; Lamentation; Lamentation; xion; omas guration; Ascension; Last Supper; Kiss of of Last Kiss Supper; Ascension; guration; Presentation; Harrowing of Hell; Christ at Emmaus; Emmaus; Christ at Hell; of Harrowing Presentation; Incredulity the Apostles; Christ to of Apparition Th St. of Massacre of the Innocents; Epiphany; Return of the of Return Epiphany; the Innocents; of Massacre in the Temple; Christ; Presentation of Baptism Magi; Transfi Resurrection the Tomb; at Women Judas; in the Temple; Presentation Epiphany; the Magi; Crucifi the Feet; of Washing Death Pentecost; Ascension; Hell; of Harrowing the Virgin of Volterra Volterra of Cathedral Reconstructed Sacrifi Visitation; Annunciation; Selected Pulpits of Medieval Tuscany h / early early h / thirteenth century 1239– 501239– da Como Guido PistoiaBartolomeo San Reconstructed the Magi; of Adoration Nativity; Annunciation; 1170s twelft Late (?) Guglielmo 751250– Pistoia1270 Pistoia of Cathedral Fragmentary Christ of Last Capture Supper; Visitation; da Como (?) Guido Barga Cristoforo San Guglielmo Fra Pistoia IntactGiovanni San Reconstructed the Magi of Adoration Nativity; Annunciation; of Adoration Nativity; Visitation; Annunciation; 60 Table 3.2. Date621152– Sculptor Guglielmo Pisa City Pisa of Cathedral Church Reconstructed Herod; before Magi Nativity; Visitation; Annunciation; State Present Scenes Narrative 61

Singing from the Pulpit 61

Figure 3.1. Guglielmo’s Pulpit for the Cathedral of Pisa, Cagliari (1152– 1162). (Alinari / Art Resource, NY).

and is more freely heard,” words that Papias Grammaticus quoted nearly verbatim in a widely circulating dictionary of ca. 1056. 15 Tuscan readers had access to both passages: the cathedral canons of Lucca, for instance, owned

15 W. M. Lindsay , ed. Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi Etymologiarum sive originum , 2 vols. ( Oxford University Press , 1911 ) , vol. 1, bk. 15, ch. 4, no. 15: “Pulpitum, quod in eo lector vel psalmista positus in publico conspici a populo possit, quo liberius audiatur.” Cf. the defi nition from Papias’s Elementarium, quoted in C. Du Cange , L. Favre ed., Glossarium mediae et infi mae latinitatis ( Niort: L. Favre , 1883– 87 ) , vol. 6, col. 564: “Pulpitum dictum, quod in eo Lector vel Psalmista positus in publico conspici a populo possit.” 62

62 Benjamin Brand

copies of Cyprian’s letters and Papias’s dictionary. 16 Equally if not more infl uential, however, was the liturgical commentary, the Mitrale (1205), by Sicardo of Cremona. Tracing the origins of the pulpit to the platform from which Ezra had recited the Law to the Israelites, Sicardo explained that it rendered a man “visible above the entire people.” Echoing Isidore, he further noted that such platforms were “called ‘pulpits,’ as if almost ‘public’.” 17 Th e Tuscan clergy were among the earliest readers of the Mitrale : the Sienese ordinal of 1215 quoted extensively from the commentary and the cathedral canons of Lucca possessed a copy by at least 1239.18 Th e Tuscan pulpits belonged to one of two types of screens, both of which accentuated their public character but in diff erent ways. At the cathedrals of Lucca and Pisa, the choir and presbytery were situated only several steps above the nave, from which they were divided by a low enclosure. Obscured by subsequent renovations, this arrangement survives at the collegiate church of San Cristoforo of Barga (Figure 3.2 ). Comprising a series of rectangular marble panels, or plutei, that span the entire width of the basilica, the screen stands approximately one meter tall, thus allow- ing congregants an unobstructed view of the clergy and high altar in the east end.19 Extending into the nave, the pulpit remains the most prominent

16 Th e earliest surviving inventory of the cathedral of Lucca (February 23, 1239) includes a “liber Sancti Cipriani,” perhaps the “liber epistolarum Cipriani” listed in a subsequent inventory of October 5, 1297. Papias’s dictionary appears in BCL, 614, fols. 1– 161 (late twelft h century) and is likewise listed in the later inventory as the “liber Papie, magnus”: P. Guidi and E. Pellegrinetti , Inventari del vescovato, della cattedrale e di altre chiese di Lucca ( Rome : Poliglotta vaticana , 1921 ), 123 , l. 42, 189, l. 181, and 187, l. 114 respectively. 17 G. Sarbak and L. Weinrich , Sicardi Cremonensis Episcopi Mitralis de Offi ciis ( Turnhout : Brepols , 2008 ) , bk. 1, ch. 4, 16: “Exdras autem fecit gradum ligneum ad loquendum, in quo stans super universum populum eminebat [2 Esdras 8:4– 5]. A quibus nostra ‘pulpita’ traxerunt originem, et dicuntur pulpita quasi ‘publica,’ ut quidam aiunt; licet autem lapideis sepius utamur, nulla tamen a misterio vacant. Pulpitum est igitur vita perfectorum.” 18 L. Weinrich , “ Der Ordo offi ciorum Senensis ecclesie des Oderigo und Sicards Mitralis de offi ciis ,” Sacris Erudiri, 42 ( 2002 ), 375 – 389 ; Guidi and Pellegrinetti, Inventari , 122, l. 17: “Mitrale Sicardi” (February 23, 1239). 19 I. L. Cervelli , “ L’arredo scultoreo ,” Rivista di archeologia, storia, costume , 26 ( 1998 ), 31 – 32 (on Lucca); A. Peroni , “Funzionalità architettonica, confi gurazione e arredo dell’area liturgica: Il caso del duomo di Pisa ,” in Medioevo: La chiesa e il palazzo , A. C. Quintavalle ( Milan : Electa , 2007 ), 372 – 373 ; A. R. Calderoni Masetti, “L’abside maggiore del duomo, dalle origini al Quattrocento ,” in La tribuna del Duomo di Pisa, capolavori di due secoli , ed. R. P. Ciardi ( Milan : Electa , 1995 ), 13 – 15 ; and A. Peroni , “ Architettura e decorazione ,” in Il Duomo di Pisa, ed. A. Peroni ( Modena : F.C. Panini , 1995 ), 100 – 102 (on Pisa). Th e Romanesque screens of the Lucchese and Pisan cathedrals featured geometric designs and were thus more ornate than the unadorned marble screen at San Cristoforo, as revealed by the surviving fragments of these structures: G. Monaco , L. Bertolini Campetti , and S. Meloni Trkulja , Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi, Lucca: La villa e le collezioni ( Lucca : Ente provinciale per il turismo , 1968 ), no. 434, 81 , and Peroni, ed. Il Duomo di Pisa, vol. 1, nos. 1801– 1802, 589– 590 and nos. 1865, 613– 614. 63

Singing from the Pulpit 63

Figure 3.2. Nave of San Cristoforo of Barga (diocese of Lucca) (twelft h century). (Alinari / Art Resource, NY).

element of this intimate ensemble. At the cathedrals of Florence and Siena, by contrast, the arrangement likely resembled the more imposing one of the nearby church of San Miniato al Monte ( Figure 3.3 ). Mounted upon a choir screen that stands atop a raised choir and presbytery, the pulpit remains the only space in which the populace might discern liturgical action from its position in the nave below. 20 In Tuscany as throughout western Christendom, the primary function of the pulpit was to provide a public stage for the recitation of hierarchically

20 F. Gurrieri , L. Berti , and C. Leonardi , La Basilica di San Miniato al Monte a Firenze (Florence : Giunti Barbèra, 1988 ), 15 – 31 (on San Miniato al Monte); D. Cardini , “Ipotesi sulle fasi trasformative del Centro religioso dalla formazione della cinta difensiva carolingia alla sua sostituzione ,” in Il bel San Giovanni e Santa Maria del Fiore: Il centro religioso di Firenze dal tardo antico al Rinascimento , ed. D. Cardini ( Florence : Le Lettere , 1996 ), 137 – 146 , and F. Toker , “ Excavations Below the Cathedral of Florence ,” Gesta, 14 (1975 ), 35 (on Santa Reparata); M. Seidel , “ Tradizione e innovazione. Note sulle scoperte architettoniche nel duomo di Siena,” in Sotto il duomo di Siena: Scoperte archeologiche, architettoniche e fi gurative , R. Guerrini ( Siena: Silvana , 2003 ), 74 (on Siena). None of the Tuscan cathedrals featured the high screens characteristic of mendicant churches in fourteenth- century Florence, on which see M. B. Hall , “Th e Ponte in S. Maria Novella: Th e Problem of the Rood Screen in Italy ,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 37 (1974 ), 157 – 173 , and M. B. Hall , “Th e Tramezzo in Santa Croce, Florence, Reconstructed ,” Art Bulletin, 56 ( 1974 ), 325 – 341 . 64

64 Benjamin Brand

Figure 3.3. Interior of San Miniato, Florence (late eleventh century). (Alinari / Art Resource, NY).

related scriptural passages at High Mass. Although the fi rst reading, the Epistle, usually derived from Apostles’ letters, such commentators as Sicardo nonetheless associated it with the Old Testament readings of the early Christian Mass. It thus anticipated the second reading, the Gospel, from the New Testament. 21 Music and ritual reinforced this progression from lesser to greater. Th e subdeacon recited the Epistle to a simple tone, the deacon the Gospel to a more ornate one. At the cathedrals of Florence and Siena, the former stood on a low wooden pulpit in the presbytery, facing east and away from the populace; the latter ascended the loft ier marble pulpit affi xed to the choir screen, facing north west towards the nave.22 Elsewhere, double- lectern pulpits provided a single site for both readings but preserved the hierarchy through their iconography as illustrated by Guglielmo’s pulpit for the cathedral of Pisa (Figure 3.1 ). Th e lectern from which the subdeacon recited the Epistle is supported by St. Paul who holds open a book inscribed

21 Sicardo of Cremona, Mitrale , bk. 3, ch. 3, ed. Sarbak and Weinrich, Sicardi Cremonensis , 146– 147, quoted in OOES, pt. 2, ch. 49, 450– 451. 22 While Ritus, fol. 103v, notes only that the subdeacon recited the Epistle “from above” (desuper ) the high altar, OOES, pt. 2, ch. 49, 450, identifi es the location as a smaller pulpit next to the altar. On the variability of the positions for the delivery of the two readings, see J. A. Jungmann , Th e Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, trans. F. A. Brunner , 2 vols. ( New York : Benziger , 1951– 1955 ), 411 – 419 . 65

Singing from the Pulpit 65

with the opening of the Apostle’s letter to the Romans. Th at from which the deacon recited the Gospel features the Evangelists: an eagle symbolizes John in traditional fashion while Mark and Luke hold books. Both the general importance and hierarchical relationship of the twin readings found musical expression in two intervenient chants likewise laden with symbolism. With their melismatic verses sung by small ensem- bles of able singers, the Gradual and Alleluia featured the most ornate melodies of the Mass Proper. Th e Sienese ordinal provide detailed prescriptions and glosses derived from Sicardo’s Mitrale , ones that reveal how the performance of these chants underscored their symbolic resonance. Two clerics chanted the Gradual slowly ( gradatim ) from the stairs (gra- dibus) that divided the choir from the presbytery, the deliberate tempo underscoring their labors “in laments of penitence” and struggles to “climb ( gradi ) from one virtue up to the next.” Aft erward, the cantor joined his subordinates and all three ascended to the pulpit to sing the Alleluia with organum, thus amplifying its joyous (rather than penitential) character while concomitantly evoking the traditional association of this chant with angelic choirs.23 Quoting Sicardo, the Sienese ordo cast the cantor and his deputies as “perfect and contemplative [ones] who sing the Alleluia har- moniously in the pulpit and whose place is in heaven. Th ey are not men but angels.”24 Th e handpicked soloists hence underscored the transition from the Epistle to the Gospel by assuming the role fi rst of humble peni- tents and second of angelic choristers. Singing (as opposed to simply reciting) from the pulpit was a practice that originated in late Antiquity. Isidore of Seville, as noted above, identifi ed the pulpit as a place for a “singer” ( psalmista) as well as a reader. 25 Writing in the late fi ft h century, Victor of Vita (b. ca. 430) told how an Arian heretic felled a North African lector with an arrow to the throat while his victim was singing the Alleluia from the pulpit on Easter.26 In early medieval Rome, the singing of responsorial chants from this loft y position likewise became associated with major Christological feasts as indicated by the Ordines

23 OOES, pt. 2, ch. 50, 452, which derives from Sicardo of Cremona, Mitrale , bk. 3, ch. 3, ed. Sarbak and Weinrich, Sicardi Cremonensis , 148– 152. 24 OOES, pt. 2, ch. 50, 452: “Alii sunt perfecti et contemplativi, qui Alleluia in pulpitis concinunt, quorum conversatio est in celis,” which derives from Sicardo of Cremona, Mitrale , bk. 3, ch. 3, ed. Sarbak and Weinrich, Sicardi Cremonensis , 152. 25 See above, n. 15 . 26 Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution, trans. J. Moorhead ( Liverpool University Press , 1992 ) , bk. 1, ch. 41, 18– 19, discussed in Page, Th e Christian West, 100 and 221, and M. Huglo , “ Th e Cantatorium: From Charlemagne to the Fourteenth Century ,” in Th e Study of Medieval Chant: Paths and Bridges, East and West. In Honour of Kenneth Levy , ed. P. Jeff ery ( Cambridge University Press , 2001 ), 96 – 97 . 66

66 Benjamin Brand

Romani. Traditionally dated to the fi rst half of the eighth century, the earliest of these liturgical rules instructs the cantor to sing the Gradual and, time permitting, the Alleluia from the pulpit on Easter.27 Although the Ordines Romani circulated throughout the Frankish ter- ritories, few transalpine churches seem to have adopted the practice of singing from the pulpit at High Mass. In the cathedrals of Laon, Paris, and Rheims, for instance, clerics chanted the Gradual and Alleluia from a lectern situated in the middle of the choir. Th ose of Amiens, by contrast, sang the Gradual from the pulpit, thereby eschewing the symbolism of heavenly song described by Sicardo of Cremona. 28 Th at the French rarely used the pulpit as a public stage for musical performance explains why such northern commentators as Amalarius of Metz (d. ca. 850), Honorius Augustodunensis (1080–1154), and Johannes Beleth (fl . 1135– 82), from whose treatises Sicardo otherwise borrowed extensively, make no mention this practice. 29 Th e evident disinclination of transalpine clerics to sing from the pulpit makes the penchant of their Italian counterparts to do so all the more re- markable. Table 3.3 illustrates how the canons of fi ve Tuscan cathedrals adhered to the principles described by Sicardo, albeit with signifi cant local variation. 30 Most reserved this practice of “singing from the pulpit” ( cantare in pulpito ) to the principal feasts of the Temporale as well as to the Monday and Tuesday aft er Easter. 31 Only the Florentines extended

27 M. Andrieu , Les Ordines Romani du Haut Moyen Age, 5 vols. (Louvain : Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense , 1931– 1961 ) , vol. 2, Ordo I, no. 57, 86, which was the likely source for a similar prescription in Ordo IV, no. 27, 160. 28 For the liturgical customs of the cathedrals of Laon and Rheims, see U. Chevalier, Ordinaires de l’église cathédrale de Laon (XIIe et XIIIe siècles) (Paris : A. Picard, 1897 ) and U. Chevalier , “ Ordinarius servicii Remensis ecclesie ,” in Sacramentaire et martyrologe de l’Abbaye Saint- Remy, Martyrologe, calendrier, Ordinaires et Prosaire de la métropole de Reims (VIIIe – XIII e siècles) (Paris : Picard , 1900 ) . Th e practice of the canons of Notre Dame of Paris of singing the Gradual and Alleluia from the lectern situated in the middle of the choir has already been mentioned above, n. 2 . At the cathedral of Amiens, two subdeacons sang the gradual from the pulpit, and two chaplains, whose location was not specifi ed, sang the Alleluia as, for instance, on the fi rst Sunday of Advent: G. Durand , “Ordinaire de l’église Notre-Dame cathédrale d’Amiens par Raoul de Rouvroy (1291) ,” Mémoires des Antiquaires de Picardie, 22 ( 1934 ), 25 . 29 Amalarius of Metz, “ Liber Offi cialis,” in Amalarii Episcopi Opera Liturgica Omnia , ed. I. M. Hanssens ( Vatican City : Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana , 1948 ) , Honorius Augustodunensis , “ Gemma Animae ,” in Honorii Augustodunensis Opera Omnia ( Paris : J. P. Migne , 1854 ) , and H. Douteil , Iohannis Beleth Summa de Ecclesiasticis Offi ciis , 2 vols. ( Turnhout : Brepols , 1976 ) . 30 Table 3.3 employs the following abbreviations: Gr = Gradual; Al = Alleluia; Ch = from the choir; Pu = from the pulpit; M = monophonically; P = Polyphonically; – = not specifi ed. 31 Th e Pistoiese, moreover, went further in singing the Alleluia from the pulpit on the Octave of Christmas and Easter (OOPist, fols. 12 and 30 respectively) while the Lucchese did so on all the Sundays of Eastertide (OOL, fol. 35r). 67 Nativity Epiphany Easter Sunday Easter Monday Easter TuesdayAscension Pentecost Gr Al Gr Al Gr Al Gr Al Gr Al Al Al Al Al Performance of the Gradual and Alleluia according to the Tuscan Ordinals Ordinals the Tuscan to according Alleluia and the Gradual of Performance Table 3.3. Table 3.3. FlorenceLucca PuPistoiaPu – PuPu – Pu – Siena – M – Pu – - – Pu– Volterra – P - ChCh– Pu – – – MPu – – – M Ch - – Pu – Pu– – Ch Pu M P – Pu – Pu Ch P PuPu M – – P Ch Pu Ch Ch – Pu – P Pu M M Pu Pu – Pu – – – – – – – P M – – – Pu – Ch – – – – Ch Pu – Pu – Pu M P – P Pu P Ch– – Ch M– – – – – – M Pu Pu P M Ch Ch67 M M Pu Pu P P Ch M Pu P Pu M Pu P 68

68 Benjamin Brand

it to such non- Christological occasions as the principal Marian feasts (the Purifi cation, Annunciation, Assumption, and Nativity), All Saints, the Dedication of the Church, and the dies natales of local saints. 32 Th e Sienese invariably sang the Gradual from the choir steps and the Alleluia from the pulpit, substituting another Alleluia for the former chant on Ascension and Pentecost as was common practice. Th at the Sienese thus followed Sicardo’s Mitrale exactly suggests that they were infl uenced by the treatise quoted so extensively in their ordinal. Th e Lucchese and the Volterrans perhaps adhered to his order as well, but the failure of their ordinals to identify consistently the places from which they sang makes such an hypothesis unverifi able. Finally, the Pistoiese and (more oft en) the Florentines sang the verse of the Gradual in addition to the Alleluia from the pulpit, partially obscuring the association between mundane music and the fi rst chant drawn by Sicardo. Tuscan clerics employed other performance measures to diff erentiate the Gradual and Alleluia, measures only some of which Sicardo envisioned. Th e Florentines sang the Gradual “slowly and clearly” ( tractim et distincte) in a manner akin to his association of the chant with the adverb “slowly” ( gradatim). 33 Like the Sienese, the Pistoiese consistently performed the Gradual monophonically and the Alleluia polyphonically as per Sicardo’s instructions ( Table 3.3 ). More distinctive was the solution of the Lucchese, whose ordinal prescribed the singing of the Alleluia cum organo less relia- bly. On all the principal feasts of the Temporale and on all Sundays between Easter and Pentecost, however, they distinguished the Gradual or (during Eastertide) the fi rst of two Alleluias from the (second) Alleluia by juxta- posing young and mature voices. Two choirboys or acolytes sang the fi rst chant monophonically and from the choir; as many as eight canons sang the second, oft en polyphonically and invariably from the pulpit. 34 Th us the association of the Alleluia with angelic song found expression not in the loft y tessitura of boys’ voices but rather in the consonant intervals of organum performed from on high. A fi nal way in which the Tuscan clergy underscored the importance of the Alleluia was through the addition of a new text (or prosula) as exemplifi ed

32 Ritus, fol. 98v. Such local patrons included St. Zenobius, St. Reparata, and St. John the Baptist. 33 E.g. Ritus, fol. 10v. Sicardo of Cremona, Mitrale , bk. 3, ch. 3, ed. Sarbak and Weinrich, Sicardi Cremonensis , 148– 152, quoted in OOES, pt. 2, ch. 50, 452. 34 E.g. OOL, fol. 35: “et duo Alleluia, unum [sic] a scolaribus loco gradualis, altera a canonicis in pulpitum cum organo. Et ita fi t in ominbus dominicis diebus usque ad Pentecostem.” As many as eight singers performed the (second) Alleluia polyphonically on the Monday aft er Easter and on Pentecost (fols. 33v and 40 respectively). 69

Singing from the Pulpit 69

by Iam redeunt gaudia / Christe tu vita vera sung by the Florentines and Pistoiese on Easter (Example 3.1 ). 35 Th e text of Example 3.1 translates as follows (italic type indicates the prosula, roman type the canonical chant):

Now joy returns. Alleluia. Now we [celebrate] the famous and great paschal feast. Alleluia. He seizes the arms of Hell and washes away our sins. He who governs rules the entire empire. V. Christ our pasch is sacrifi ced. Let us feast with the unleav- ened bread of sincerity and truth. O Christ, true life. Alleluia. Which infernal death itself begins to dread beyond measure. Our mouths now petition you to cleanse [our] hearts, you who rule all the heavens for ever.

Th e verse of the original (or canonical) chant, Pascha nostrum, sets prose from 1 Corinthians 5:7–8. Th e prosula comprises irregular rhyming lines designed to fi t the phrases of the original chant. Th e prosula consists of two parts: the fi rst, Iam redeunt gaudia, ornaments the initial performance of the respond and the second, Christe tu vita vera, elaborates its reprise aft er the verse. As preserved in a Pistoiese troper, the fi rst part of the prosula did not supplant the original, melismatic respond, but rather alternated with it, phrase by phrase. Each of its lines concludes with the same syllable as does the respond (i.e. “ia”), thus contributing to the integration of syllabic and melismatic dec- lamation, of which the juxtaposition transformed the sound of the original Alleluia in a manner just as striking as its polyphonic elaboration. Iam redeunt gaudia / Christe tu vita vera served not only as an aural ornament to the Alleluia but also to underscore the intersection between the plainsong sung from the Tuscan pulpits and their narrative iconography, which, as noted above, is one of the most distinctive features of these structures. Th e fi rst part of the prosula alludes to Christ’s Harrowing of Hell and his victorious return as king. Its second part likewise celebrates his con- quering of “infernal death” and concludes with a petition for His interces- sion. Few episodes from Christ’s life captured the popular imagination in the central and late Middle Ages as did the Harrowing of Hell, which obtained prominent depiction in devotional literature, visual art, liturgical drama, and the music of these periods.36 Suggestive of a more local resonance,

35 Th e prosula, Iam redeunt gaudia / Christe tu vita vera, circulated widely and appears in ACPist C. 120, fols. 72– 72v, a gradual compiled for the cathedral of Pistoia between 1108 and 1127: J. V. Maiello , “ On the Manufacture and Dating of the Pistoia Choirbooks ,” Plainsong and Medieval Music, 19 ( 2010 ), 21 – 33 . By the late thirteenth century, however, the canons of that church had replaced the prosulated Alleluia Pascha nostrum with Alleluia Angelus autem: OOPist, fol. 28v. Ritus, fol. 45v, prescribes the performance of Iam redeunt gaudia / Christe tu vita vera at the cathedral of Florence. 36 C . W r i g h t , Th e Maze and the Warrior: Symbols in Architecture, Th eology, and Music ( Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press , 2001 ) . On the late medieval treatment 70

70 Benjamin Brand

Example 3.1. Iam redeunt gaudia / Christe tu vita vera. Italic type indicates the prosula, roman type the canonical chant.

however, is its inclusion in the sculptural narratives of only two surviving Tuscan pulpits, both of which stand in churches in Pistoia where cathedral canons had long sung Iam redeunt gaudia / Christe tu vita vera ( Table 3.2 ). Perhaps the prominence given to Christ’s celebrated descent in the Easter prosula inspired the sculptors Guido da Como and Fra Guglielmo to incor- porate it into their visual narratives. Nevertheless, the correlation between Iam redeunt gaudia / Christe tu vita vera and the Pistoiese pulpits remains but one example of the broader affi nities between such plainsong and sculpture. Th e regional practice by which the canons of Tuscan cathedrals sang publically from their pulpits in turn mirrored the equally regional tradition of iconography associated with the pulpits. Singing from the pulpit, as noted above, was generally limited to feasts that commemorated key events in Christ’s life: his birth (Nativity), revelation and baptism (Epiphany), resurrection (Easter), and ascension to heaven (Ascension). All these episodes feature prominently in the sculptural narratives of the sort pioneered by Guglielmo at Pisa in the mid- twelft h century (Table 3.2). Such reliefs told a more detailed story than did the feasts, supplementing the aforementioned episodes with others marked by non- Christological commemorations (e.g. the Annunciation of

of this episode in general, see K. Tamburr , Th e Harrowing of Hell in Medieval England (Woodbridge : D.S. Brewer, 2007 ) , with full bibliography. 71

Singing from the Pulpit 71

the Virgin) or no feasts at all (e.g. the Kiss of Judas). Despite the diff erence in narrative detail, however, the public musical performances from and the visual vernacular of the Tuscan pulpits traced the same story, conveying the Gospel to the congregation through aural and visual means respectively. If the Tuscan pulpits illustrate a coordination of music, ritual, and iconography hardly atypical of the medieval liturgy, they reveal in a more distinctive fashion the public dimension of this sacred rite. Sicardo of Cremona’s aforementioned entomology, “pulpita quasi publica” (pulpits, as if almost public), intimates that the Tuscan faithful who fl ocked to Mass on high feasts of the Temporale not only heard but also saw those handpicked clerics who sang the Alleluia, oft en prosulated or with organum.37 Th e pulpits, and the choir screens to which they belonged, were thus visual frames for virtuosic singing, accentuating rather than diminishing its public character. In this particular instance, the clergy did not restrict its polyphony to the exclusive confi nes of its enclosed choir but instead rendered it a performance in something approaching the modern sense of the term.

37 See above, n. 17 .