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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 August 2011
The peculiarities of the Exultet in the South-Italian Church have often been the subject of scholarly investigation. Quite recently, several new studies have been devoted to this famous and indeed very beautiful liturgical prose hymn which was sung on the Saturday of Holy Week. Among these peculiarities, the practice, for example, of writing the hymn on a long scroll and of embellishing the text with illuminations was observed nowhere but in Southern Italy. This scroll, as is well known, was intended to fall more and more over the ambo so that, as the archdeacon sang the text, the congregation could at the same time gaze at the illustrations to the respective parts of the prayer. Word and illustration thus supported each other in a singular way.
1 See the very brilliant and learned book by Avery, Myrtilla, The Exultet Rolls of South Italy (Princeton-London-The Hague, 1936).Google Scholar Further: Ladner, Gerhart, ‘Die italienische Malerei im 11.Jahrhundert,’ in Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, Neue Folge V (Vienna, 1931), 122 ff.Google Scholar; Klauser, Th., ‘Eine rätselhafte Exultet-Illustration aus Gaeta,’ in Corolla Ludwig Curtius zum 60. Geburtstag (Stuttgart, 1937), 168 ff.Google Scholar; Cabrol, F. et Leclercq, H., Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, vol. XIII, 2 (Paris, 1938), coll. 1559 ff.Google Scholar See also: Franz, Adolf, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen im Mittelalter, II (Freiburg, 1909), 517 ff.Google Scholar; Duchesne, L., Christian Worship, Its Origin and Evolution (5th edition, London, 1923), 254 ff., 537 ff.Google Scholar; Ebel, B., ‘Zum Verständnis des Exultet,’ in Liturgische Zeitschrift, Heft 6/7 (Regensburg, 1930/1931), 165 ffGoogle Scholar. was not available to me.
2 Bannister, H. M., ‘The vetus Itala text of the Exultet,’ in The Journal of Theologi cal Studies XI (Oxford, 1910), 43–54.Google Scholar
3 Cf. Cabrol-Leclercq, loc. cit.
4 See on this finale Bernold of Constance, ‘Micrologus de ecclesiasticis observationibus c. 6,’ in Migne, Patr. Lat. 151, col. 981.
5 Bannister, loc. cit.
6 Madrid, Bibl. Nac. ms. lat. 289 (153), fol. 115v; cf. Young, Karl, ‘Some texts of liturgical plays,’ in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, XXIV (Baltimore, 1909), 325 ff.Google Scholar I am greatly indebted to my former pupil, Dr. Angel Ferrari Nuñez of Madrid, who generously provided me with photostats of Madrid mss. before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
7 On the abundance of Sicilian mss. in Madrid see, for instance, Martin de la Torre y Pedro Longas, Catálogo de los Códices Latinos de la Biblioteca Nacional, I (Madrid, 1935)Google Scholar; the second volume containing the liturgical mss. has not been published.
8 Madrid, Bibl. Nac. ms. lat. 132, fol. 99v; cf. Delisle, L., ‘Un livre de choeur normano-sicilien conservé en Espagne,’ in Journal des Savants, VI (1908), 42–49.Google Scholar
9 Palermo, Cathedral ms. 544; cf. Giovanni di Giovanni, De divinis Siculorum officiis tractatus (Palermo, 1736), 267Google Scholar; on the Gallican rite in Palermo see Mantia, La, ‘Ordines iudiciorum Dei’ nel missale Gallicano del XII secolo (Palermo-Torino, 1892).Google Scholar
10 Cf. Myrtilla Avery, op. cit., pl. CLXXXV; on the Troian Exultet Rolls see also Whitehall, in Speculum II (1927), 80 ff.; on other Troian mss. see the most recent study of Miss Avery, ‘A Manuscript from Troia: Naples VI. B. 2,’ Mediaeval Studies in Memory of A. Kingsley Porter, I (Cambridge, Mass., 1939), 153–164.Google Scholar
11 Naples, Bibl. Naz. ms. lat. VI. G. 34, fol. 82. The ms. is mentioned in Analecta Hymnica, vol. XLVII, p. 25, No. 105. In the ruler's prayer, a “gloriosissimus rex noster ill.” is quoted, so that the ms. must have been written in about the middle of the 12th century; this is also suggested by the script. For the provenance from Troia see fol. 136, “Horum festa plebs troiana colat et apulia.”
12 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library ms. 379, fol. 111. On the interesting ms. see my discussion in a forthcoming book, Laudes regiae. Studies in Liturgical Acclamations and Mediaeval Ruler Cult (Berkeley, 1941), Append. II.Google Scholar
13 Every single verb can be traced easily in finales of prayers and benedictions, for instance:
qui vivit et regnat, or
qui vivit et imperat, or
qui vivit et gloriatur, or even
qui tecum vivit et gloriatur et regnat.
For the last form, which seems to be relatively rare, see the coronation order from 888, edited by P. E. Schramm, ‘Die Krönung bei den Westfranken und Angelsachsen,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, kanon. Abt., XXIII (1934), 198. The triad of rivis, regnas, imperas, however, does not seem to occur in any other finale apart from the praeconium.
14 The principle agrees with that of ancient acclamations, in which the doxological finale must be included anyhow; see, for instance, Sueton., Calig., 6, 1:
“Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus.”
The principle of the climax is always the same. The triad of the Roman missal, on the other hand, displays a totally different rhythm of life, so that the two triads really disclose two fundamentally different currents within the Church.
15 Written about 1005; cf. Mon. Germ. Hist., Poetae, V, 131, line 581.
16 Register VII, ep. 12; Migne, Patr. Lat., CCXV, 296.
17 Kehr, K. A., Die Urkunden der normannisch-sizilischen Könige (Innsbruck, 1902), 166Google Scholar, n. 1; for the literature on the document, see Caspar, Erich, Roger II (Innsbruck, 1904), 501 f.Google Scholar
18 It may be worth while to indicate the great number of letters of the Capuan and other schools of epistolary style, which begin with the words of the Exultet; see, e.g., Petrus de Vinea, Epistolae, II, No. 1, “Exultet iam Romani,” etc.; ibid., II, No. 45, “Exultet universa turba fidelium,” etc.; Berlin, Staatsbibl. ms. lat. folio 188, f. 66v, “Exultet iam Romanum imperium …, exultet universa suorum turba fidelium,” etc.; Winkelmann, E., Acta Imperii inedita (1880), I, 557Google Scholar, No. 702, “Exultet civitas Placentina”; Rymer, Foedera (1818), II, 1, p. 20Google Scholar, “Exultet ecclesia Anglicana.” That the Capuan School of Petrus de Vinea was especially fond of the Exultet and its tone is not surprising. The School, in the first place, picked up all the elements contributing to the exaltation of the ruler; second, this prose hymn was a rhetorical masterpiece of rhythm, cursus and tone; cf. Capua, F. di, ‘Il ritmo della prosa liturgica e il praeconium paschale,’ Didaskalion, N. Ser. V (1927), pp. 1–23Google Scholar; on the triad, see also Quinctilian, Inst. orat., VII, 4, 23; Weymann, in Historisches Jahrbuch, XXXVII (1916), 79.
19 Paris, Bibl. Nat. ms. lat. 8567, f. 3v; cf. ibid., f. 17v, a Christmas sermon of the same clerk Stephen (whose letters I hope to publish shortly), which ends almost like the finale of the praeconium,
quod ipse prestare dignetur … qui cum Deo patre et spiritu paraclito vivit, regnat et imperat in secula seculorum.
20 The author was an Italian; cf. Ferri, Tina, ‘Appunti su Quilichino e le sue opera,’ Studi Medievali, N. Ser., IX (1936), 250.Google Scholar
21 Strecker, Karl, Moralisch-satirische Gedichte Walters von Châtillon (Heidelberg, 1929), 110, No. 10.Google Scholar
22 Lehmann, Paul, in Historische Vierteljahrsschrift, XXX (1935), 49Google Scholar, verse 51 f., 104; the author is a Theodoric (of St. Troud?).
23 See E. Kantorowicz, Laudes regiae (cf. supra, n. 12); Schramm, P. E., ‘Ordines-Studien III: Die Krönung in England,’ Archiv für Urkundenforschung, XV (1938), 315 f.Google Scholar, 326, was able to refer to my ms. years ago, as it was then ready for print. For the time cf. Cabrol-Leclercq, ‘Laudes Gallicanae,’ Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, VIII, pp. 1898–1910, which is little more than an extract from the old, but remarkably circumspect work of Prost, A., in Mémoires de la société nationale des antiquaires de France, 4me sér., vol. VII = vol. XXXVII (1876), 149–320.Google Scholar The crown-wearings on the Church festivals formed the subject of a stimulating article by Klewitz, Hans-Walter, ‘Die Festkrönungen der deutschen Kaiser,’ Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, kan. Abt., XXVIII (1939), 48–96.Google Scholar
24 Foulcher of Chartres, Historia Hierosolymitana, II, c. 30; Recueil des historiens des croisades. Hist. Occid., III, 413; see also Notes and Queries, vol. 158 (London, 1930), 65, 118.
25 Martène, Dom, De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus, I (Antwerp, 1736), 614Google Scholar, with reference to Vienne, and 363, 366, with reference to Lyon.
26 Huillard-Bréholles, , Historia diplomatica Friderici secundi, Introduction (Paris, 1859)Google Scholar, p. ci, and vol. I (1852), 212. Cf. Posse, O., Die Siegel der deutschen Kaiser und Könige, I (Dresden, 1909), 27Google Scholar, Nos. 3, 4. The bulla was still used in 1243; cf. Böhmer-Ficker, Regesta Imperii V, No. 3369; Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Legum IV, Constit. II, 328, No. 239.
27 According to Engel, Arthur, Recherches sur la numismatique et la sigillographie des Normands de Sicile et d'Italie (Paris, 1882), p. 40Google Scholar, No. 50, Roger II's coin displaying St. January, Naples' patron-saint, on the obverse, bore on the reverse the obliterated legend, XPC VI·XPC [RE·XPC IM]; cf. pl. VII, 33. An uncertain Norman or Lombard princely coin of that age bears XC RE·XC IM on the reverse; ibid., 56, No. 166.
28 Cf. Dieudonné, A., Les monnaies capétiennes ou royales françaises (Paris, 1932)Google Scholar, II, 1, No. 1; see also Blanchet, A. et Dieudonné, A., Manuel de numismatique française, II (1916), 48Google Scholar, and ibid., 329, fig. 177, for the shorter legend under Charles IX. The legend had been cut down very much earlier by Charles VI, whose francs à pied show the legend XPC*VINCIT*IMPERAT; cf. de la Fuye, Allotte, ‘Les francs à pied de la trouvaille de Blangy-les-Arras,’ Revue de la numismatique française IVe sér., vol. XXX (1927), 225 f.Google Scholar See also Flores Historiarum (Rolls Series, 95, pt. 1), 209, where the acclamation Christus vincit shows, in two 14th-century mss., the wrong reading Christus vivit. Hence the exchange of the two verbs was not unusual.
29 Laudes of Frederick II: Palermo, Cathedral ms. 601, fol. 107–110; the formulary is printed by Giovanni di Giovanni, op. cit., 116 ff.; Amato, Giovanni Maria, De principe templo Panormitano (Palermo, 1728), 425Google Scholar; , Huillard-Bréholles, op. cit., I, p. 9, n. 1. The Coronation Ordo of William II, printed by Schwalm, in Neues Archiv, XXIII (1898), 17 ff.Google Scholar, contains the phrase, ‘post epistolam cantetur laus regis.’ The editor's interpretation leads us astray. That this Sicilian 12th century ordo refers to the coronation of William II and Joanna of England is evident from the fact that no other royal couple, as is provided by the ordo, can be considered; cf. Schramm, P. E., A History of the English Coronation, transl. by Legg, L. G. Wickham (Oxford, 1937), 59.Google Scholar
30 See Mabillon's Ordo Romanus I, Migne Patr. Lat., LXXVIII, 949, § 24; 950, § 28. Cf. Kösters, Joseph, Studien zu Mabillons römischen Ordines, Dissert. Münster, 1905, p. 12 ff.Google Scholar See also Biehl, Ludwig, Das liturgische Gebet für Kaiser und Reich. (Paderborn, 1937)Google Scholar, Görres Gesellschaft: Veröffentlichungen der Sektion für Rechts-und Staatswissenschaft, Heft 75, pp. 89 ff.
31 This legend was used by Roger II obviously after his coronation only; cf. Engel, op. cit., 37 f., 43, Nos. 78, 81, 82, 84. Roger Bursa, Duke of Calabria and Apulia (1085–1111), used a lead bulla with this legend; ibid., 84, No.9. For Roger II's bulla with the inscription IC–XC NI–KA, see K. A. Kehr, op. cit., 208. The Greek symbols sur vived until the time of Charles of Anjou; cf. G. Sambon, ‘Monnaies de Charles Ier d'Anjou dans l'Italie méridionale,’ in Annuaire de la société française de numismatique et d'archéologie, 1891, p. 35; dell'Erba, Luigi, ‘La riforma monetaria angioina e il suo sviluppo storico nel Reame di Napoli,’ in Arch. stor. Napol., n. ser. XVIII (1932), 163.Google Scholar
32 Paris, Bibl. Nat. ms. lat. 904, f. 96v; cf. Le graduel de l'église cathédrale de Rouen au XIIIe siècle, p. p. Loriquet, V. H., Dom Pothier et Abbé Colette (Rouen, 1907), II, f. 96v.Google Scholar
33 Paris, Bibl. Nat. ms. lat. 905, f. 96, obviously a copy of the ms. mentioned before (n. 32), but adding an et to the formula of the finale, “qui semper vivis, regnas et imperas necnon et gloriaris.”
34 London (British Museum), Missale secundum usum insignis ecclesie Rothomagensis (printed on parchment, Mag. Martin Morin, Rouen 1499); the finale reads, “vivis et regnas, imperas necnon et gloriaris.” A hundred years later Rouen had adopted the Roman Ordo; see, for instance, the Missale Ecclesiae Rothomagensis (1623) which I consulted in the British Museum.
34a Unfortunately Brit. Mus., Addit. ms. 10028, a 12th-century sacramentary of Rouen, does not contain the Exultet; cf. Bishop, op. cit., 298. That the two 13th-century missals in Rouen, Bibl. munic, mss. 276 and 277, as well as the 14th-century ms. 278, have the triadic finale, may be taken for granted.
35 Worcester, Cathed. cod. F. 160, fol. 221; a facsimile of the ms. in Paléographie musicale, XII (Solesmes, 1922)Google Scholar; a print of the Exultet can be found in Frere, W. H., The Winchester Troper. Bradshaw Society, VIII (1894).Google Scholar
36 Legg, J. Wickham, The Sarum Missal edited from Three Early Mss. (Oxford, 1918), 119.Google Scholar The basic ms. of this edition is John Rylands, Crawford ms. lat. 24, which reads, “vivis et regnas, imperas necnon et gloriaris” (cf. supra, n. 34), whereas Bologna, University ms. 2565, shows, “vivis, regnas et imperas,” etc. (supra, n. 33). Fifty-eight other mss. “secundum usum Sarum” are quoted by Legg, J. Wickham, Tracts on the Mass. Bradshaw Society, XXVII (1904), xiv f.Google Scholar
37 New York, Morgan Library ms. 107, f. 129; it reads, “vivis, regnas et imperas,” etc.
38 Ms. lit. 408 (Addit. B20), f. 66v–67v, from the second half of the 14th century. It shows the original reading without an et. Mr. D. v. Bothmer, formerly of Wadham College, had the kindness to check up the ms. for me.
39 Bishop, Edmund, Liturgica historica (Oxford, 1918), 277 f.Google Scholar
40 Ibid.; cf. 296 ff.
41 Cf. supra, notes 36, 37; see also n. 38.
42 Cf. supra, notes 33, 34; cf. 32.
43 For the influences of the Capuan School of Epistolary Style see my study on ‘Petrus de Vinea in England,’ in Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Instituts für Geschichtsforschung, 51 (1938), 81 ff.Google Scholar; see also above note 19 concerning Stephen of St. Giorgio.
44 Haskins, C. H., ‘England and Sicily in the Twelfth Century,’ in Engl. Hist. Rev., XXVI (1911), 433 ff., 643 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science (1924), 185 f., and passim.
45 Latin Monasticism in Norman Sicily (Cambridge, Mass., 1938), 34 f., 47 ff.Google Scholar and passim.
46 ‘The Sicilian Norman Kingdom in the Mind of Anglo-Norman Contemporaries,’ in Proceedings of the British Academy (1938), 237–285, especially 268.
47 A History of the English Coronation (cf. supra, n. 29), 59 and 253. I am not sure whether or not in all European countries the customary coronation taxes figured among the “aides aux quatre cas”; in England and Sicily, at least, they did; cf. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, II (4th ed., Oxford, 1904), 60Google Scholar, and the letter of Pope Martin IV (1283, Nov. 26) to Charles of Anjou:
… collecte et subventiones tantum fiebant, cum rex Sicilie pro defensione ipsius regni defensionem faciebat ac in coronatione regis ipsius necnon, etc.
Cf. Baronius-Raynaldus, Annal. eccles., III, 562 f.; Les registres de Martin IV (Paris, 1913), 225Google Scholar, No. 488. Richard I, by the way, planned to promote a South-Italian, the Archbishop William of Monreale, to the See of Canterbury; cf. Epistolae Cantuarienses, ed. Stubbs (Rolls Ser. 38, 2; 1865), 329 f., nos. 347, 348; cf. p. 537.
48 K. Meisen, Nikolauskult und Nikolausbrauch im Abendlande, eine kultgeo-graphisch-volkskundliche Untersuchung. Forschungen zur Volkskunde 9–12 (Düsseldorf, 1931), and Albrecht, Otto E., Four Latin Plays of St. Nicholas (Philadelphia, 1935)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, two excellent studies on the subject. For the diffusion to Normandy, cf. Meisen, 89 f., and his amazing lists of Nicholas patrocinia, pp. 137 ff., Nos. 410a–517. In England the Saint counted 437 dedications and held the 7th place after St. Mary, All Saints, St. Peter, St. Michael, St. Andrew, St. John Baptist; cf. Bond, Francis, Dedications and Patron Saints of English Churches (Oxford, 1914), 17Google Scholar; Meisen, 513. His name is found in the laudes of William I and Queen Matilda, which were sung at Winchester in 1068; cf. Maskell, William, Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae (2nd ed., Oxford, 1882), II, 86.Google Scholar
49 Histoire littéraire de la France, X, 262 f.; cf. Albrecht, op. cit., 13 ff.
50 The Miracula S. Nicolai [barensis] conseripta a monacho beccensi, “itself a significant title” (cf. White, op. cit., 51, n. 8), is printed in Catal. codicum hagiogr. latin. Bibl. Nat. Paris., II (Brussels, 1890), 422 ff.
51 Meisen, 177; cf. 89.
52 Albrecht, loc. cit.
53 Kellner, K. A. Heinrich, Heortologie oder die geschichtliche Entwicklung des Kirchenjahres und der Heiligenfeste (3rd ed., Freiburg, 1911), 183 ff.Google Scholar; Bishop, op. cit., 238–259.
54 Mai, Angelo, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, V (Rome, 1831), 65Google Scholar, reproduces the “Kalendarium marmoreum saeculi IX” of Naples with the entry on December 9th, “Conceptio s. Anne Marie virginis.” Cf. Delehaye, Hippolyte, ‘Hagiographie Napolitaine,’ Analecta Bollandiana, LVII (1939), 59Google Scholar, who once more edited the calendar and dates it ca. 849–872. Cf. Bishop, 257.
55 Kellner, op. cit., 187 ff. Not St. Anselm, but St. Anselm's pupil Eadmer, is claimed to be the author of the Tractatus de Conceptione Mariae, S., ed. Thurston and Slater (Freiburg, 1904).Google Scholar Before 1092, the Abbot John of Telese, in Campania, was St. Anselm's pupil at Bec, so that the interchange between South and North, via Bec, is not really a mystery; cf. Eadmer, , Historia novorum in Anglia, ed. Rule, M. (Rolls Series, 1884), 96Google Scholar, and White, op. cit., 51, n. 8. Bishop, 258, takes other possibilities into consideration, e.g. the visit of Canute the Great to Rome (in 1027).
56 The calendar is from the late 14th century; cf. Omont, H., ‘Le livre ou cartulaire de la nation de Normandie de l'Université de Paris,’ in Mélanges de la société de l'histoire de Normandie, VIII (Rouen-Paris, 1917), 65.Google Scholar The ‘English Nation’ in Paris introduced the day in 1375; cf. Liber procuratorum nationis anglicanae, ed. Denifle, H. and Chatelain, A., in Auctarium chartularii universitatis parisiensis, I (Paris, 1894), 480 f.Google Scholar
57 Kellner, op. cit., 191, no. 4.
58 Such investigations should also take into account the correspondence with the accompanying music by comparing the plainsong neumes; they may be found in practically all the texts quoted above. Of the Madrid ms. 132 (supra, n. 8) a facsimile is published by Delisle, loc. cit.; of the other Madrid ms. (lat. 289, f. 115v), which may be destroyed, a reproduction is found below.
