Two Downside Manuscripts and the Liturgical Culture of Lambach in the 12th Century

Abstract

This article provides the first detailed study of two medieval liturgical manuscripts from the Benedictine Abbey of Lambach, Upper Austria, kept today in the monastic Library and Archives of Downside Abbey in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, UK. The new codicological, palaeographical and historical evidence presented in this study shows that both these manuscripts played a central part in the monastery’s liturgical life and routine during the later 12th century. The first part of the article provides a full codicological and palaeographical analysis of the two manuscripts, the first to appear in published form, while the second part offers a wider thematic study that contextualises the two codices and their contents within Lambach’s medieval liturgical and communal culture.