Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/32272 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Weston, Jennifer Ann Title: The Spirit of the Page: Books and Readers at the Abbey of Fécamp, c. 1000-1200 Issue Date: 2015-03-10 Chapter 5 Books for Selective Reading at Fécamp The presence of navigational reading aids in eighteen manuscripts from the Fécamp corpus are suggestive of a reader who needed to locate specific chapters of the book, and, therefore, indicate a mode of reading that was different from the comprehensive approach of lectio divina. The present chapter aims to find an appropriate context of use for these navigational reading aids in the Benedictine monastery. Over the course of this chapter, I examine three book-types from the Fécamp corpus that contain reading aids: Giant Bibles, Gospel Books, and patristic texts. Moreover, I identify three settings where these books (equipped with navigation) would have been used: during the celebration of the liturgy (the Mass and Divine Office), during meal-time reading in the refectory, and during the evening gathering of Collation. Indeed, just as the Fécamp scribes designed many of their books to suit the practice of lectio divina (as shown in Part One of this study), it seems that they also custom-designed some of their books to accommodate a second mode of devotional reading. ! ! 1. Bibles with Navigation There are two Giant Bibles from the Fécamp corpus that include navigational reading aids: Rouen 1 and Rouen 7. As noted in the previous chapter, both books are presented in a large format and each contain a large collection of books from the Old and New Testament: Rouen 1 contains all but the Gospels, and Rouen 7 contains the Old Testament and the Gospels.1 The presence of navigational reading aids in these two Bibles (in the form of chapter tables and running titles) suggest that both of these volumes were designed to support searching and finding throughout the volume. The visual apparata present in these two Fécamp Bibles, then, prompts the following question: When, exactly, did the readers of Fécamp need to look up and find select passages of text in the Bible? Upon closer inspection of the daily worship schedule at Fécamp, as it was practiced in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, I have uncovered !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 As mentioned earlier, Rouen 7 may have originally featured a complete New Testament, but the last part of the manuscript has been lost. Chapter 5 – Books for Selective Reading at Fécamp three distinct opportunities where a Giant Bible may have been used and when additional navigational support would have been welcome. ! ! 1.1 The Bible & the Mass (Epistle Reading) Each day in the monastery there were two major liturgical meetings where the entire community would gather together to pray, chant, read, and listen to holy reading: the Mass and the Divine Office. The Mass was a Eucharistic celebration designed to commemorate Christ’s Last Supper; it was centered upon the preparation of bread and wine, and involved a series of chants and prayers, as well as two scriptural readings – the Epistle and the Gospel reading. As I will show, the Epistle reading during the Mass may have required the use of a Giant Bible equipped with navigational reading aids. During the celebration of the Mass at Fécamp, after the Introit, Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis, and Collect had been performed, a chosen soloist removed himself from the choir and stepped up to the lectern, where he would chant the Epistle reading to the congregation. This reading was typically taken from the Pauline Epistles (hence the name ‘Epistle reading’), but it could also come from the Acts of the Apostles or passages from the Old Testament.2 The decision of what to read each day was largely informed by the cycle of the liturgical calendar – the reading would be chosen to reflect the theme of the liturgical season (such as Advent or Easter), the day of the week, as well as a concurrent series of Feast Days. To keep track of which reading was suitable for each day of the year, the Epistle readings were often listed in two types of liturgical books: the Epistolary, which provided the Epistle readings, or the Lectionary, which provided both the Epistle and Gospel readings for the Mass. Both types of book helped to guide the activities of the Mass, and they typically provide the pericope for each reading, as well as some kind of indication as to where each reading could be found (usually via an incipit heading).3 The list of readings provided by the Epistolary or Lectionary are helpful in piecing together what texts were read during the Epistle, and the degree to which they !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 Henri Leclercq, ‘Épitres’, in Fernand Cabrol and Henri Leclercq, eds., Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (Paris: Letouzey, 1922), Vol. 5, cols. 244-344, at 246. 3 Sometimes these books were divided into two distinct volumes: the ‘Epistolary’ containing the Epistle readings, and the ‘Evangeliary’ containing the Gospel readings. When these readings are combined into one volume it is known as a Lectionary. 139 ! Chapter 5 – Books for Selective Reading at Fécamp changed over the course of the year. Although there is no surviving Lectionary from the Abbey of Fécamp from this period, it is possible to piece together a programme of Epistle readings based on similar contemporary sources. In his 1922 study on Epistle readings during the Mass, Henri Leclercq, for example, argues that many communities in the Latin West maintained similar reading programmes and relied upon nearly identical texts for the Mass, which makes sense as most would have been following the same liturgical calendar.4 To see what types of books (and chapters) were read during the Epistle reading, we can turn to a Lectionary known as the Liber comicus. Copied in the eleventh century and used by the Benedictine community at the Abbey de Silos (on the Iberian peninsula), this Lectionary provides an outline of the types of books commonly read during the Epistle and can help us to better understand what would have been read at the Abbey of Fécamp in this period.5 During the first week of Easter, for example, it is clear that the readings were primarily drawn from the Apocalypse and the Acts of the Apostles:6 Table 6: Epistle Readings during the First Week of Easter (from the Liber comicus) Day of the Week Reading Easter Sunday Apocalypse, I: 1-18; I Corinthians, XV: 1-11; 22-22 Monday Apocalypse, II: 1-17; Acts of the Apostles, I: 15-26 Tuesday Apocalypse, II: 8-11; Acts of the Apostles, II: 22-41 ! Wednesday Apocalypse, III: 7-13; Acts of the Apostles, II: 42-47 Thursday Apocalypse, II: 12-17; Acts of the Apostles, X: 25-43 Friday Apocalypse, II: 18-29; Acts of the Apostles, V: 12-6 Sabbath Apocalypse, III: 1-6; Acts of the Apostles, XIII: 26- 39 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4 Leclerq observes that even communities who followed different liturgical rites in the west (Ambrosian, Gallican, Mozarbe, or Roman) followed a similar reading programme during the Epistle: ‘On y retrouve, de façon constante, les trois séries de lectures qui existèrent aux origines de toutes les liturgies, ou dans leur source commune: la série Ancient Testament, ou prophétique; la série Nouveau Testament, Actes, Épîtres, Apoc., la série évangélique. Sur le point, le rite mozarabe est en étroit accord avec l’ambrosien, le gallican et le romain ancient’ (Épitres’, Vol. 5, 262). 5 This manuscript is known as the Liber Comicus (Paris, BnF nouv. ac. lat. 2171). The list of readings is reprinted in Leclercq, ‘Épitres’, Vol. 5, cols. 244-344. A complete edition of the lectionary can be found in D. Germanus Morin, ed., Liber Comicus: sive Lectionarius missae quo Toletana Ecclesia ante annos mille et ducentos utebatur (Maredsoli: Monaterium S. Benedicti, 1893). 6 Leclercq, ‘Épitres’, Vol. 5, 266-267. 140 ! Chapter 5 – Books for Selective Reading at Fécamp While the books of the Apocalypse and the Acts of the Apostles were the primary focus for the Epistle reading during the week of Easter, at other points in the year, different books were chosen depending on the date. On the Feast Day dedicated to the saints Justa and Rufina, for example, the Epistle reading is Ecclesiastics, 39:17-21 and II Corinthians, 4:5-10;7 alternatively, on Holy Thursday (the Mass of the Lord’s Supper), the focus is on the book of Zechariah.8 It is also important to stress that the Epistle readings were subject to change each day. This means that the individual chosen to perform the reading would have needed to look up and find the appropriate book and chapter each day. What is more, if we look back to the list of readings for Easter Week taken from the Liber comicus, we see that, even though the books of the Apocalypse and the Acts of the Apostles were used each day, the readings do not follow the original textual sequence of the books. On the third ferial day of Easter [Tuesday], for example, the reading is listed as Apocalypse, Book III, chapters 7-13, while the following day [Wednesday], the reading begins with Apocalypse, Book II, chapters 12-17.9 Essentially speaking, the Epistle reading of the Mass service required the reader to take a selective and non- sequential approach to the text. In order to locate the appropriate book and chapter for the Epistle reading each day, it makes sense that the community of Fécamp would have needed a system. One option was to collect all of the texts used throughout the year during the Epistle reading and compile them together into a single volume, arranged according to the liturgical calendar.