The Prague Sacramentary: Culture, Religion, and Politics in Late Eighth-Century Bavaria

Description

The Prague Sacramentary is a unique liturgical manuscript which can be very precisely located in a specific social and historical context. It was written in the turbulent period when Charlemagne crossed Bavaria to fight the Avars and when his son Pippin rebelled against him, seeking support among the Bavarian nobility. The manuscript can be linked to specific groups of Bavarian elites that had to come to terms with this explosive political situation. It also elucidates the ways in which Christian culture was expressed and experienced in Bavaria at the end of the eighth century. Although Bavaria may be regarded as a periphery from a Frankish perspective, it was certainly no cultural backwater. Because of its geographical position at the crossroads of Italian, Bavarian, and Frankish culture, Bavaria produced unique and intriguing texts and artefacts. One such object is analysed here by a team of experts, shedding renewed light on the earthly and heavenly concerns of an early medieval community in a specific region. It includes a discussion of the topics of the formal invocation of saints, vernacular understandings of Latin texts, marriage, politics, and concerns for ritual purity as well as the well-being of the conflict-ridden Carolingian family. Front Matter ("Contents", "List of Illustrations", "Acknowledgements", "Abbreviations"), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. 1 Rob Meens, Els Rose https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108011 Part I. A Book and its Users The Work of the Scribes in the Prague Sacramentary, Prague, Archiv Pražského hradu, MS O. 83, p. 13 Rosamond McKitterick https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108012 Die althochdeutsche Glossierung des Prager Sakramentars, p. 43 Elvira Glaser https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108013 Framing the Sacramentary of Prague: Munich, Universitätsbibliothek, MS 4° 3 and its Context, p. 59 Maximilian Diesenberger https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108014 Part II. A Mirror of Religious Culture The Liturgy of the Prague Sacramentary, p. 79 Yitzhak Hen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108015 The Sanctoral Cycle of the Prague Sacramentary, p. 95 Els Rose https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108016 De creatione mundi in the Prague Sacramentary, p. 123 Richard Corradini https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108017 Part III. Breaking and Building Identities The Authority of Gregory the Great: Marriage and Politics in Bavaria in the Eighth Century as Exemplified in the ‘Gregorian Part’ of the Prague Sacramentary, p. 163 Rob Meens https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108018 La prière pour les rois et le status regni dans le sacramentaire de Prague et l’attention portée par Charlemagne au salut de la communauté politique, p. 181 Philippe Depreux https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108019 Earthly and Heavenly Networks in a World in Flux: Carolingian Family Identities and the Prague Sacramentary, p. 203 Stuart Airlie https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.108020 Back Matter ("Bibliography", "Index"), p. 225