Research Guides: Medieval Time: Divine Office

Overview

Intended as an overview of available sources of liturgical time. Grouped into the following categories:

Browse Sources by Subject
Books of Hours
Breviaries
Divine Office
Catalogs
Websites

Divine Office

De divinis officiis by Rupert, of Deutz, approximately 1075-1129.
Call Number: BV30 .R8 1967
De horis canonicis dicendis. by Heinrich, von Langenstein, approximately 1325-1397.
Call Number: MICROFILM 2854.3
Microfilms of rare and out-of-print books ; list 47, no. 23.

Located in Pius Spec Coll VFL.
The Divine Office in Anglo-Saxon England, 597-C. 1000 by Jesse Billett; Jesse D. Billett
Call Number: BR749 .B51 2014
ISBN: 9781907497353
Publication Date: 2019-02-15
At the heart of life in any medieval Christian religious community was the communal recitation of the daily "hours of prayer" or Divine Office. This book draws on narrative, conciliar, and manuscript sources to reconstruct the history of how the Divine Office was sung in Anglo-Saxon minster churches from the coming of the first Roman missionaries in 597 to the height of the "monastic revival" in the tenth century.
The hours of the divine office in English and Latin by Catholic Church
Call Number: BX2000 .A4 1963
The Rule of Saint Benedict by Anthony C. Meisel; M. L. Del Mastro (Translators)
Call Number: BX3004 .E6 1975
The Last Divine Office by Geoffrey Moorhouse
Call Number: BX2596.D8 M66 2009
ISBN: 9781933346182
Publication Date: 2009-04-01
Exploring the enormous upheaval caused by the English Reformation and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, this vivid new history draws on long-forgotten material from the recesses of one of the world's greatest cathedrals--the great Benedictine Durham Priory, now the Anglican Durham Cathedral.

Breviaries

The breviary is the book of the Divine Office.

Breviarium Romanum by Catholic Church
Call Number: BX2000 .A2 2009
Ex decreto SS. Concilii Tridentini restitutum summorum pontificum cura recognitum ... totum : editio typica 1961
Breviary. ca. 1467
Call Number: BAV MSS MICROFILM 11975
Vatican City, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Arch. Cap. S. Pietro B. 81

Located in VFL
Breviary.1423
Call Number: BAV MSS MICROFILM 11981
Vatican City, Biblioteca apostolica vaticana, Arch. Cap. S. Pietro B. 82.

Located in VFL
Bridgettine breviary of Syon Abbey by A. Jeffries Collins (Editor)
Call Number: BV170 .H5 vol. 96
Publication Date: 1969
From the ms. with English rubrics F.4.11 at Magdalene College, Cambridge
Grimani Breviary by Mario Salmi et al.
Call Number: ND3365 .G7 1974
ISBN: 9780879510220
Publication Date: 2010
While the original Grimani Breviary is safely housed in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, this linen-bound, facsimile edition captures all of the beauty and enchantment of this ancient manuscript.
Isabella Breviary by Janet Backhouse
Call Number: ND3365.I7 B33 1993
ISBN: 9780712302692
Publication Date: 1993-01-01
Located in Pius Spec Coll VFL Ref
Paraclete breviary
Call Number: BX2000.A3 C47 1983
The Old French Paraclete ordinary, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Ms français 14410 and the Paraclete breviary, Chaumont, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms 31
Summer-season Molesme breviary : Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale manuscript 807 by Chrysogonus Waddell (Editor)
Call Number: BX2000.A3 T7 1984

Browse Sources by Subject

Free Library Philadelphia MS Lewis E 086, ff. 34v-35r

Catalogs

Liturgical manuscripts for the Mass and the Divine Office by John Plummer
Call Number: Z7838.L7 P5
Catalog of manuscripts selected for exhibition in the Pierpont Morgan Library, Jan. 14-Mar. 21, 1964.
Libri d'ore della Biblioteca apostolica vaticana : catalogo della mostra, salone Sistino by Giovanni Morello (Editor)
Call Number: ND3363 .B52 1988
Illumination from Books of Hours by Janet Backhouse
Call Number: ND3363.A1 B3 2004
Acts as an introduction to manuscripts in the collections of the British Library

Located in Pius Spec Coll VFL Ref
Andachtsbücher des Mittelalters aus Privatbesitz : Katalog zur Ausstellung im Schnütgen-Museum by Joachim M. Plotzek
Call Number: ND3363.A1 P4 1987
Located in Pius Spec Coll VFL Ref
Les heures de la prière : catalogue des livres d'heures de la bibliothèque de l'abbaye d'Einsiedeln by Miriam Milman
Call Number: ND3363.A1 M55 2003
Located in Pius Spec Coll VFL Ref
Les livres d'heures manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale by V. Leroquais
Call Number: Z7838.H6 L6 v.1
Located in Pius Spec Coll VFL Ref
Leuchtendes Mittelalter. V : Psalter und Stundenbuch in Frankreich vom 13. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert by Eberhard König
Call Number: ND2899.5 .H475 1993
Located in Pius Spec Coll VFL Ref
Les bréviaires manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France by V. Leroquais
Call Number: Z7838.L7 L5 1934
Codices breviarii : (Cod. brev. 1-167) by Virgil Ernst Fiala und Wolfgang Irtenkauf
Call Number: Z6621 .S9352 Bd.3
Catalog of breviaries in the Württembergischen Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart.
Les manuscrits liturgiques latins de la Bibliothèque vaticane by Pierre Salmon
Call Number: BX1970 .S24
Five volume catalog of liturgical manuscripts in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: 1. Psautiers, antiphonaires, hymnaires, collectaires, bréviaires.--2. Sacramentaires, épistoliers, évangéliaires, graduels, missels.--3. Ordines Romani, pontificaux, rituels, cérémoniaux.--4. Les livres de lectures de l'office. Les livres de l'office du chapitre. Les livres d'heures.--5. Liste complémentaire. Tables générales.

Websites

CANTUS
CANTUS is a database that assembles indices of the Latin ecclesiastical chants found in early manuscript and printed sources for the liturgical Office, such as antiphoners and breviaries.
CHD Center for Håndskriftstudier i Danmark
A tutorial on the Book of Hours and an Index to a Selection of Uses is part of the website of the Institute for the Study of Illuminated Manuscripts in Denmark.
Liturgical Studies Research Guide
The Catholic Church is fundamentally liturgical and sacramental in its public life of worship. Here is a guide to liturgical resources.
Hypertext Books of Hours
This site includes parallel Latin-English transcriptions of the major texts found in most books of hours.
Musica Sacra
The Church Music Association of America (founded in 1874) is an association of Catholic musicians and others who have a special interest in music and liturgy, active in advancing Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, and other forms of sacred music. Their website includes pdf files of pre-Vatican II liturgical books.
Picturing Prayer: Books of Hours in Houghton Libary, Harvard University
This website is designed to permit you to open some of the books of hours in the Houghton Library's collection without traveling to the reading room. It also explains the structure of the text and includes a short bibliography and links to other sites.