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“So, what exactly do you do?”

Raise your hand if my posts about paleography lost you. Raise your hand if you have no idea what a medieval manuscript looks like.

Well, do I have good news for you! For my final project in my Chant as Popular Music class, I’m making a catalog of all the Gregorian chant manuscripts located in the Worcester area. The local colleges and universities have been so helpful in this research. I just spent the afternoon at Assumption College, where I was able to work with Fr. Donat Lamothe. Assumption has several flyleaves of Gregorian chant manuscripts. So…this is what I do:

Welcome to the Emmanuel d’Alzon Library at Assumption College!

Assumption College has several flyleaves of chant manuscripts in its archives. Now, since I’m still a non-specialist, I can’t handle the manuscripts. Instead, they have to remain in the frames. Even if I could take them out of the frames, I would have to wear gloves to prevent any oils on my hands destroying the already delicate sheets. Three of the leaves were framed in such a way that I could see both sides (recto and verso), but I could only see the recto side of the other two leaves.

This is an antiphon for the Feast of Pentecost. This manuscript is from the 1400’s, and I’m still trying to identify the specific hand. It’s definitely on parchment, and this manuscript was probably intended for monk use only since it’s not that elaborate.

Here’s a close up. What I do now is I transcribe the hand and then I’ll translate it. The line with the fancy “A” reads: “Accipite spiritu sanctum,” which translates to “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Oh, and those squares are neumes, which is a precursor to modern musical notation.

Let’s look at another one:

This manuscript is much more elaborate than the first one. This manuscript is printed on vellum, for starters (yes, that’s animal skin), which was much more expensive than parchment. This one is also Renaissance, and I’m thinking that it’s probably English. I have to look at it a bit more closely before I can determine that. What’s really interesting about this manuscript (and the other two that are identical to it) is that it just gives the incipits (or, the first line of the chants) and not the actual melody or lyrics, as the other one did. The people using this text would have known the chant melody and lyrics by heart. This one specifically details the Christmas Mass. How can you tell? Look at the big fancy “P.” The letters after it are “uer.” This is the first word of the ultimate Christmas chant, “Puer Natus Est” – A boy is born.

Here’s a close up of that P. Pretty incredible, isn’t it?

Here’s another manuscript written in the same hand:

This one is the incipits for the vespers of the Feast of the Assumption.

Luckily, the title tells us that. That’s quite rare, usually.

But let’s take a closer look at that “A”:

Isn’t it gorgeous? And, if you couldn’t tell from the Latin that these chants are intended for the Assumption, then you can definitely tell from the illumination of the letter A. This is where my true interest in paleography lies – the connection between word and image. That’s another entry for another time, though.

There are more photos of my adventure at Assumption today, but I think I’ll stop where I am now. Welcome to the scary world of a future medievalist!
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The Road Ahead

Tonight, the Ballroom Dance Team deliberated on next year’s e-board. Seeing another HCDBT member with my title for next year is a) weird but b) exciting. I truly wish that I had another year with the team since the team is capable of so much next year. But I know that our new co-chairs next year have a vision for next year, and it’s going to be a fantastic year for all involved. What was truly great about the process was just to see how much interest in leadership we have on the team – it’s so exciting to see a group of dancers who are thrilled to take on leadership positions to continue our team’s traditions and create their own.

In other news, I officially decided on graduate school. Despite what some of you might think, this decision was actually pretty tough, and I deliberated for quite some time. There are too many factors that went into my decision to elucidate them here, but please trust me when I say that my pros and cons list for each school was extensive. And now…the drumroll please…OXFORD!

Yes, I chose Oxford. I’m excited (but still nervous) to spend the next two years of my life pursuing my MPhil in Medieval Studies at Oxford. It’s going to be so different from my year abroad – I mean, this time, I’ll be a fully matriculated Oxford student. I won’t have the support network that I did during my year abroad. I’m on my own. I’ll be staying up late and analyzing manuscripts, translating Latin and Old English, and learning British slang all over again. Who’s excited!?
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“To Fr. Grace!”

Thanks to the generous support from Mr. and Mrs. Michael Halloran ’60, the English department hosted the first annual Fr. Tom Grace Memorial Lecture in Medieval Studies. This was the first time that I had heard of Fr. Grace, but I actually owe most of my education at Holy Cross to him. Fr. Grace was an Oxford-trained Medievalist who was a member of the English faculty in the 1950’s and 60’s. He inspired a generation of Holy Cross students to go to graduate school, and many of them became medievalists, including Traugott Lawler, who is a Professor Emeritus at Yale University and was present at the speech yesterday. He reflected upon how Fr. Grace inspired him personally and professionally – according to Mr. Lawler, Fr. Grace relied heavily on the Socratic method and wanted students to lead discussion instead of lecturing to them for hours on end. He pushed them to deliver only their finest and to follow their academic passions, whatever they might be. So, although I never met Fr. Grace, I feel connected to him through my association with Holy Cross, Oxford, and the medieval period. The talk also helped me realize the Holy Cross Medieval Studies tradition of which I’ve become a part, starting with Fr. Grace and continuing through Professor Lawler.

The speaker last night was Dean Seth Lerer from the University of California in San Diego. Funny story – one of his books was actually on my reading list for one of my tutorials last year. Small world, huh? Anyway, Dean Lerer talked about a manuscript that he happened to find at the San Diego Public Library. It’s a 15th century book of hours that has additions in it throughout the 16th (and maybe 17th) century. These personal prayers are written in a letter-like style, and they possess a Pauline quality. I’m going to stop there because I’m afraid that I’m going to bore most of you to death if I continue, but if you’ve followed this blog at all, you can probably guess why I was so excited about the talk. Lerer was an extremely energetic presenter, and we’re really so blessed to have had him as the speaker for the first Tom Grace Memorial Lecture.

What was also fantastic is that I got to go out to dinner with Dean Lerer, Professor Lawler, Professor Kee, Professor Ireland, and Mr. and Mrs. Halloran after the presentation. The conversation was superb – I was able to talk to Professor Lawler about medieval studies (whoever decided to seat the two of us next to each other…THANK YOU). It turns out that Professor Lawler is very good friends with Ralph Hanna (that’s a blast from the past for you blog readers). Dean Lerer attended Oxford for his Masters (Hertford College, actually!), so I was able to talk with him about graduate school, etc. And, perhaps the best moment of the night was when Mr. Halloran commented on my polka dot socks (they were the only clean trouser socks that I had, and I thought my pants were covering them). At that, Dean Lerer showed us his “modest” argyle socks. It was, quite frankly, one of the best nights that I’ve had at Holy Cross.

So, here’s to Fr. Grace and all those that he was able to inspire in his brief time at Holy Cross!