Christian Liturgy and Devotion

HMML and Saint John's University hold a large collection of manuscripts and printed books related to Christian worship including liturgical books for the mass and office (missals, breviaries, choir books, processionals, rituals, martyrologies, etc.), and devotional texts (psalters, books of hours, prayer books, etc.) dating from the Middle Ages through the early modern period. The manuscript facsimile collection supports teaching about early liturgical development from Carolingian sacramentaries and psalters to lectionaries and Gospel books. The collection includes printed Catholic and Protestant liturgical texts from across Europe, as well as devotional and liturgical texts from Ethiopia and the Middle East.

Highlights

Liturgical Books

Manuscripts

• Fesler Antiphonary, 15th/16th century, Spain; large choir book (Fesler Ms.)
• Spanish Antiphonary, 16th century, Spain, large choir book (SJU Ms. 3)
• Album of clippings decorated initials from three liturgical manuscripts: a 13th-century antiphonary, a 14th-century gradual, and an unknown 13th-century book (Bean Ms. 3)
• Bethune Breviary/Missal from northeastern France, c. 1300 (HMML Bethune Ms. 2)
• Ethiopian Psalters in Ge’ez from the 17th-20th centuries
• Dominican Processional, Spain, 16th century (Kacmarcik Ms. 4)
• 19th-century Processional used by Spanish-speaking nuns (SJU Ms. 7)
• Coptic Lectionary (AARB 273)
• Coptic Psalter fragment, 9th century (AARB 44)
• Kacmarcik Codex (Kacmarcik Ms. 6)
• Sermon collection (SJU Ms. 5)

Facsimiles

• Drogo-Sakramentar: Manuscript Latin 9428, Bibliothèque nationale (Paris), Graz, Austria, 1974
• Karolingisches Sakramentar. Fragment. Codex Vindobonensis 958 der Oesterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Graz, Austria, 1971
• Sakramentar von Metz. Fragment. Ms. Lat. 1141, Bibliothèque nationale (Paris), Graz, Austria, 1972
• Vollständige Faksimile-Ausgabe im Originalformat der Handschrift 32, Utrecht-Psalter, Graz, Austria, 1982
• Exultet-Rolle... Codex Vaticanus Latinus 9820 der Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Graz, Austria, 1974-1975

Of parallel interest:

• Die Darmstädter Pessach-Haggadah, Codex Orientalis 8 der Hessischen Landes- und Hochschulbibliothek Darmstadt, Berlin, 1971-1972
• Lectionary for the Feasts of Saint Benedict, Saint Maurus and Saint Scholastica, New York, 1982

Printed Books

• Breviarium Monasticum, Venice, Italy, 1573
• Breviarium Romanum, Venice, Italy, 1550. Other Roman Breviaries held from 1561 and 1569
• Teutsch Römisch Breuier vast nutzlich und trostlich: Nämlich den klosterfrawen die nach dem lateinischen Römischen breuier als die clarisserin vnd ander jre tagzeit bezalen, Augsburg, Germany, 1535
• Missale secundum ordinem sancte Romae ecclesie, Venice, Italy, 1485
• Missale Romanum, Venice, Italy, 1493
• Missale secundum ritum ac consuetudinem Ratisponensis ecclesie..., Augsburg, Germany, 1515
• Processionale complectens antiphonas, responsoria, aliaque cantica sub processionibus in celeberrimo s.r.i. Monasterio Ottenburano Ord. S.P. Benedicti..., Kempten, Germany, 1671
• Church of England. The Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, London, 1662. Special Collections holds several copies of the Book of Common Prayer from the 17th to the 20th centuries
• Ritus ecclesiastici Augustensis episcopatus, tribus partibus siue libris comprehensi, Dillingen, Germany, 1580

Books of Hours, Primers, Devotional Works

Manuscripts

• Book of Hours, France, 15th century (Bean Ms. 1)
• Book of Hours, France, 15th century (Bean Ms. 2)
• Book of Hours, France, 15th century (Mabon Hours/ SJU Ms. 1)
• Book of Hours, France, 15th/16th century (Gavin Ms. 2)
• Cistercian Book of Hours copied in 1609 for Abbess Apollonia Schrötlin of the Kloster Mariä Himmelfahrt, Germany (Kacmarcik Ms. 16)
• Over 20 Ethiopian Prayer Scrolls
• German prayer books from the 17th to the 19th centuries (Kacmarcik Ms. 13, Kacmarcik Ms. 15, SJU Ms. 16)
• French prayer books, 18th century; for use during the Mass (Kacmarcik Ms. 18 and Kacmarcik Ms. 19)

Facsimiles

• Stundenbuch der Maria von Burgund (Hours of Marie of Burgundy), Graz, Austria, 1969
• Speculum Humanae Salvationis, Graz, Austria, 1972. A typological look in pictures at the life of Jesus, with supporting text in German and Latin
• Die Wiener Biblia Pauperum, Codex Vindobonensis 1198, Graz, Austria, 1962
• Biblia Pauperum manuscript facsimiles from Salzburg, Austria, and Weimar, Germany, and a facsimile of a 15th-century printed edition
• Rabanus Maurus. Liber de laudibus sanctae crucis, Graz, Austria, 1973. Pictographs for meditation.

Printed Books

Numerous smaller devotional works among the 16th- and 17th-century printed works, including:

• A Book of Hours on vellum (early 16th c.)
• English Prymer (1538)
• Horae in laudem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae (Paris 1559) in parallel Greek and Latin texts