# Liturgical Chant and Devotional Practices in Late Medieval Dominican Nunneries

Kristin Hoefener

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Kristin Hoefener. Liturgical Chant and Devotional Practices in Late Medieval Dominican Nunneries. Ueli Zahnd, Florian Wöller (eds). Dominican Culture, Dominican Theology The Order of Preachers and Its Spheres of Action (1215 – ca. 1600), Aschendorff, pp.139-157, 2025, 10.17438/978-3-402-22697-1 . hal-05367683

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# Liturgical Chant and Devotional Practices in Late Medieval Dominican Nunneries

KRISTIN HOEFENER

...si was sengerin und sang mit grosser froede ir hertzen
[...she was a *cantrix* and sang with great joy in her heart]<fnref n="1" />

Dominican sisters, who led a more contemplative life than the friars, practiced a slightly different liturgy, very much tied to the space of the church (often in their separate high choir) and remarkably slower. Their chant repertoire mirrors local devotions and practices that were transmitted from generation to generation through constant re-creation.<fnref n="2" /> Particular features of chants for Mary and other female saints in relation to the repertoire, performance and devotional practices are the central focus of this article.

I will try to answer several liturgical and musicological questions and deal with liturgical and non-liturgical use, performativity and language.<fnref n="3" /> The first section concerns the early Dominican liturgy and its specificities with regard to female communities (1), which is followed by a section about the Marian cult in Dominican communities (2) and specific Marian antiphons (3). Only a few chants from the High Medieval period kept their traditional place in the monastic liturgy of hours, among them antiphons like *Salve regina, Alma redemptoris mater, Ave regina caelorum* and *Regina caeli*, which were sung during the liturgy but also at other moments, such as during the evening procession at the end of Com-

<footnote n="1">¹ MEYER, RUTH, ed.: *Das St. Katharinentaler Schwesternbuch. Untersuchung, Edition, Kommentar* (Münchener Texte zur deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters 104), Tübingen 1995, p. 138. English translation is mine.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² See the scholarly debate on the early development of the Dominican liturgy, relating to the period of the foundation and implementation of a uniform liturgy in the thirteenth century, for instance, BONNIWELL, WILLIAM R.: *A History of the Dominican Liturgy, 1215–1945*, New York 1945; BOYLE, LEONARD E./GY, PIERRE-MARIE, eds.: *Aux origines de la liturgie dominicaine: le manuscrit Santa Sabina XIV L 1* (Collection de l'École française de Rome 327/Documents, études et répertoires 67), Aubervilliers 2004; GIRAUD, ELEANOR: "Totum officium bene correctum habeatur in domo: Uniformity in the Dominican Liturgy", in ed. CORNELIA LINDE: *Making and Breaking the Rules: Discussion, Implementation, and Consequences of Dominican Legislation*, Oxford 2018, pp. 153–155 and GIRAUD, ELEANOR/LEITMEIR, CHRISTIAN T., eds.: *The Medieval Dominicans: Books, Buildings, Music and Liturgy* (Medieval Monastic Studies 7), Turnhout 2021.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ The research presented here is part of the project "The Revival of Salve Regina. Medieval Marian chants from Aveiro: musical sources, gender specific context and performance" (RESALVE), funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program (Grant Agreement no. 101038090).</footnote>
pline,<fnref n="4" /> and at the moment of death, in the more intimate setting around a dying sister. After a short section about female saints (4) I will briefly compare chant and devotional practices in Southern German convents (5). These practices are described in two Dominican chronicles known as sister-books (*Schwesternbücher*), the first from St. Katharinental in Freiburg and the second from Engelthal near Nuremberg, written by Christine Ebner (1277–1356). While the liturgical use of *Salve Regina* was associated with the end of the day, here we see that the antiphon is used in Latin or German, either as chant or prayer for a private devotional practice at times of serious illness or death. I will conclude with thoughts about practical performance (6).

# 1. DOMINICAN LITURGY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FRIARS AND SISTERS

After the order's official recognition by Pope Honorius III in 1216, the friars in the Order of Preachers first and foremost established the order's institutional and organizational structure.<fnref n="5" /> But it was only thirty years later that they started the first official process of revision and unification, which was carried out by Humbert of Romans after his election as master-general in 1254.<fnref n="6" /> As a result of this process, and after confirmation by Pope Clement IV in 1267, liturgical model-manuscripts, also called prototypes, were produced in Paris as obligatory exemplars for the entire order.<fnref n="7" /> They included not only various types of liturgical books—such as graduals, antiphoners, psalters, missals, and processionals—but also ordinaries, that is, books detailing the ‘order’ of the liturgy to be performed.<fnref n="8" />

From the very beginning, sister houses were also founded, some of them by Dominic himself, in Prouille (1206), Madrid (1220) and Rome (1221).<fnref n="9" /> Dominic

<footnote n="4">⁴ LUMMA, LIBORIUS OLAF: *Die Komplet: Eine Auslegung des römisch-katholischen Nachtgebets*, Regensburg 2019, pp. 155–160.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ HINNEBUSCH, WILLIAM A.: *The History of the Dominican Order*, vol. 1, New York 1965, p. 43 as well as BÉRIOU, NICOLE/HODEL, BERNARD, eds.: *Saint Dominique de l'ordre des frères prêcheurs. Témoignages écrits fin XIF-XVIᵉ siècle*, Paris 2019, pp. 199–263.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶ See, for instance, BONNIWELL 1945; MELVILLE, GERD: "The Dominican *Constitutiones*," in ed. KRIJN PANSTERS: *A Companion to Medieval Rules and Customaries* (Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition 93), Leiden/Boston 2020, pp. 253–281 and GIRAUD 2018, pp. 153–155.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷ See BOYLE/GY 2004, here especially the chapter by HUGLO, MICHEL: "Comparaison du 'Prototype' du couvent Saint-Jacques de Paris avec l'exemplaire personnel du maître de l'Ordre des Prêcheurs (Londres, British Library, Add. ms 23935)", pp. 197–214.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">⁸ BOYLE, LEONARD E.: "A material consideration of Santa Sabina ms. XIV LI", in BOYLE/GY 2004, pp. 19–42: 20 and 27–31.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">⁹ These foundations processes could take some time, in San Sisto (Rome) between 1219 and 1221, in Madrid between 1218 and 1220. For a comparative analysis of the foundation of both Prouille and San Sisto see CARIBONI, GUIDO: "Domenico e la vita religiosa femminile: tra realtà e finzione istituzionale", in *Domenico di Caleruega e la nascita dell'ordine dei frati Predicatori. XLI Convegno storico internazionale del Centro italiano di studi sul Basso Medioevo* (Atti dei Convegni dell'Accademia Tudertina e del Centro di Studi sulla Spiritualità Medievale.</footnote>
had already composed a set of statutes for the sisters of San Sisto in Rome in 1220/21.¹⁰ During the revision process, Humbert of Romans composed new statutes, based on those of the friars, for the sisters of Montargis, which were approved for all sisters by the General Chapter in 1259.¹¹ In contrast to the friars’ preaching obligation, the sisters had to find a balance between prayer and manual work. The regulations for the sisters’ daily offices¹² also affected the tempo and articulation of their performance.¹³ The friars were expected to read or sing briefly (*breviter*),¹⁴ whereas the sisters were instructed to devote more time to performing the office in a slow manner (*tractim*). Chant and prayer texts were expected to be performed succinctly by the friars, but distinctly by the women:

> Hore canonice omnes in ecclesia tractim et distincte taliter dicantur, ne sorores devocionem amittant et alia que facere habent minime impediantur.¹⁵

There are also differences in the way Matins, i.e., the night office, was performed by the friars and the sisters. Matins was preceded by a specific office for the Virgin which, in the earlier *Constitutiones*, could be recited by the friars while getting out of bed.¹⁶ In 1270 this was slightly revised as follows: the friars were to rise from bed (*surgent*) and perform the office standing (*stando dicant*) in their dormitory, before going to the liturgical choir for Matins.¹⁷ The regulations for the sisters were different, as they had to perform both the office for the Virgin and Matins in the liturgical choir. We know that both sisters and friars from the Teutonia province were allowed to perform the office for the Virgin in their dormitory before going to choir for Matins.¹⁸ In the constitutions from the Teutonia

N.S. 18), Spoleto 2005, pp. 327–360. The convent in Madrid is mentioned for the first time in a letter to the sisters from 1220, see TUGWELL, SIMON: "St Dominic's letter to the nuns in Madrid", in *Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum* 56 (1986), pp. 5–13.

¹⁰ See the text edition in BÉRIOU/HODEL 2019, appendix pp. 131–136.

¹¹ JONES, CLAIRE TAYLOR: *Ruling the Spirit: Women, Liturgy and Dominican Reform in Late Medieval Germany*, Philadelphia 2017, p. 17.

¹² *Liber constitutionum sororum ordinis praedicatorum*, ed. ANDREAS FRÜHWIRTH, in: *Analecta sacri ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum* 3 (1897), pp. 337–348.

¹³ HOEFENER, KRISTIN: “Salve regina in late medieval Dominican communities”, in eds. ANDREA-BIANKA ZNORVSZKY/GERHARD JARITZ: *Marian Devotion in the Late Middle Ages: Image and Performance*, Milton Park 2022, pp. 106–125: 108 and GIRAUD, ELEANOR J., “Observant Dominican Nuns’ Processionals in Fifteenth-Century Germany”, in *Yale Journal of Music and Religion* 8 (2022), pp. 38–59: 53.

¹⁴ *Constitutiones antiquae fratrum praedicatores: De officio ecclesie*, quoted after THOMAS, ANTONINUS HENDRIK: *De oudste constituties van de Dominicanen. Voorgeschiedenis, text, bronnen, ontstaan en ontwikkeling (1215–1237)* (Bibliothèque de la Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 42), Leuven 1965, p. 316: “Hore omnes in ecclesia breuiter et succincte taliter dicantur ne fratres devotionem amittant et eorum studium minime impediatur.” See also BÉRIOU/HODEL 2019, appendix p. 33.

¹⁵ *Liber constitutionum sororum*, ed. FRÜHWIRTH, p. 339. “All canonical hours are to be said/sung in the church at length and distinctly so that the sisters do not let go of their devotion and be kept the least from other things they have to do” (English translation is mine).

¹⁶ THOMAS 1965, p. 316.

¹⁷ BONNIWELL 1945, p. 134.

¹⁸ Mercedes Pérez Vidal has found evidence of this practice in Castile, too, for instance in the
province, we also find additional performance regulations: the sisters should sing and not read (*quod cantare tenentur, non legant*) and should perform the me-lodies from approved liturgical books (*notulas et libros chorales habeant secundum ordinem*).<fnref n="19" />

## 2. THE MARIAN CULT IN DOMINICAN CONVENTS

Marian devotion and the focus on the human side of Jesus gradually increased during the High Middle Ages until reaching a point that Andreas Heinz has called the flourishing of Marian devotion (“der marianische Frühling”) in the thirteenth century.<fnref n="20" /> New religious orders such as the Dominicans contributed to this spiritual renewal and the accentuation of the Virgin Mary, largely reflect-ed in artworks and liturgical or devotional books often depicting Mary as the Queen of Heaven.<fnref n="21" />

As in many other medieval religious communities, Dominican friars and sisters lived a steady life with a regular rhythm. Prayer and chant occurred sev-en days a week, seven times a day, at Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline, and once in the middle of the night at Matins, with alternat-ing psalms and chants, prayers and lessons. (Liturgical) singing was an essen-tial part of the Marian cult.<fnref n="22" /> From the beginning, Dominicans have identified themselves as under the protection of the Virgin Mary.<fnref n="23" /> This belief was further reinforced by various medieval hagiographers who attributed the foundation of the order and the creation of the friars’ habit to the Virgin Mary. The vener-

convents of Santo Domingo in Madrid, San Juan Bautista in Quejana and probably Nues-tra Señora de la Consolación in Salamanca. See PÉREZ VIDAL, MERCEDES: *Arte y liturgia en los monasterios de Dominicas en Castilla. Desde los origenes hasta la reforma observante* (1218-1506), Gijón 2021, pp. 115-117; ead.: “El espacio litúrgico en los monasterios de Dominicas en Castilla (Siglos XIII-XVI)”, in eds. F. RODILLA LEÓN/I. FENLON/E. ESTEVE/N. TORRES LOBO: *Sonido y Espacio: Antiguas experiencias musicales ibéricas; Sound and Space: Early Iberian Musical Experience*, Madrid 2020, pp. 75-115; ead.: “Algunas consideraciones sobre el estu-dio de la liturgia procesional y paraliturgias a través del arte en la Orden de Predicadores en Castilla”, in *Medievalia* 17 (2014), pp. 215-246.

<footnote n="19">¹⁹ *Liber constitutionum sororum*, ed. FRÜHWIRTH, p. 339.</footnote>

<footnote n="20">²⁰ HEINZ, ANDREAS: *Christus- und Marienlob in Liturgie und Volksgebet* (Trierer Theologische Studien 76), Trier 2010, p. 114. The early development of Marian veneration began in the fifth century in the Latin West, followed by the institution of four Marian feasts: An-nunciation (March 25), Assumption (August 15), Nativity (December 8) and Purification (February 2), replacing the former unique feast on January 1. See also PALAZZO, ÉRIC/JOHANSSON, ANN-KATRIN: “Jalons liturgiques pour une histoire du culte de la Vierge dans l’Occident latin”, in eds. DOMINIQUE IOGNA-PRAT/ERIC PALAZZO/DANIEL RUSSO: *Marie. Le culte de la Vierge dans la société médiévale*, Paris 1996, pp. 15-19.</footnote>

<footnote n="21">²¹ Fra Angelico’s magnificent fresco, “Mary Queen of Heaven,” at the Dominican Convent San Marco in Florence (cell n° 9) delivers a very compelling example of a depiction of Mary’s coronation.</footnote>

<footnote n="22">²² MIRI Rubin has written very tellingly that “Mary is song”. RUBIN, MIRI: *Emotion and Devotion: The Meaning of Mary in Medieval Religious Cultures*, Budapest/New York, 2009, p. 21.</footnote>

<footnote n="23">²³ PÉREZ VIDAL, MERCEDES: “Compline and its Processions in the Context of Castilian Dominican Nunneries”, in ed. FLOCEL SABATÉ: *Life and Religion in the Middle Ages*, Newcastle 2015, pp. 257-258; and HOEFENER 2022, pp. 111-118.</footnote>
ation of the Virgin Mary became an integral part of the Dominican identity, as reflected in the liturgical calendar. The earliest Dominican calendar, very similar to the Roman calendar, included already three Marian feasts: Purification on February 2, Assumption on August 15, and Nativity on September 8. The Annunciation (March 25), still called *Annuntiatio Dominica* in the early sources, was added next. These feasts were *totum duplex*;<fnref n="24" /> Assumption and Nativity also had an octave *simplex*.<fnref n="25" />

Two new feasts were added in the fourteenth century: Visitation (July 2) and Sanctification (December 8, with an octave *simplex*). After a dispute, the Dominicans chose to call the feast *Immaculata Conceptio Mariae* rather than *Sanctificatio Mariae Virginis*, defending the theological thesis of Mary’s release from original sin only after Anna’s conception. Based on Thomas Aquinas’s response in his *Summa*, they put forward the explanation of the sanctification before Mary’s birth while still in the womb.<fnref n="26" /> Mary’s high status in the Order of Preachers is also reflected in the Marian patronage of a significant number of Dominican churches.<fnref n="27" />

There were, of course, other occasions for celebrating the Virgin Mary, mostly on the margins of the liturgical hours and frequently linked to processions. Some of these are also performed by other religious communities such as the Franciscans or Cistercians, while others seem to be more important in the Dominican communities on which I focus here. As well as the Office for the Virgin before Matins (or between other hours), the most important moment was the daily *Salve regina* procession after Compline. On Saturdays there was a commemoration of the Blessed Virgin.<fnref n="28" /> As I will show later, there are more occasions when *Salve regina* or other Marian chants were sung or said, in Latin or in vernacular languages, at the moment of a friar’s or a sister’s death<fnref n="29" /> or during particular devotional practices, such as associations of prayer with other communities.

Mercedes Pérez Vidal was able to retrace in written sources and artworks

<footnote n="24">²⁴ *Totum duplex* is the highest rank for a feast, other ranks are *duplex*, *semiduplex* and *simplex*.</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵ Only twelve octaves, all of them *simplex*, were introduced into the Dominican calendar. BONNIWELL 1945, pp. 101–117.</footnote>

<footnote n="26">²⁶ HORST, ULRICH: *Dogma und Theologie. Dominikanertheologen in den Kontroversen um die Immaculata Conceptio* (Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Dominikanerordens. NF 16), Berlin 2009, pp. 4–18 and BONNIWELL 1945, pp. 227–231.</footnote>

<footnote n="27">²⁷ See, for instance the study for the Teutonia province by SPRINGER, KLAUS-BERNWARD: “Pauslus, Maria, Johannes, Maria Magdalena und Katharina von Alexandrien: Vorbilder für Kontemplation und Apostolat”, in eds. SABINE VON HEUSINGER/ELIAS FÜLLENBACH: *Die deutschen Dominikaner und Dominikanerinnen im Mittelalter* (Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Dominikanerordens. NF 21), Berlin/Boston 2016, pp. 446–457.</footnote>

<footnote n="28">²⁸ See for a detailed analysis of the adaptation of this compline procession on Saturdays in female convents of the Teutonia province, JONES, CLAIRE TAYLOR: *Fixing the Liturgy: Friars, Sisters and the Dominican Rite, 1256–1516*, Philadelphia 2024, pp. 34–35, 69–70, and 160–161. This procession could also be held on Sundays after Compline, as described for Santo Domingo de Lekeitio, see PÉREZ VIDAL, MERCedes: “La liturgia procesional de Completas en el ámbito de los monasterios femeninos de la Orden de Predicadores en Castilla”, in *Hispania Sacra* 69/139 (2017), pp. 81–99.</footnote>

<footnote n="29">²⁹ See LIPPINI, PIETRO: *La vita quotidiana di un convento medievale. Gli ambienti, le regole, l'orario e le mansioni dei Frati Domenicani del tredicesimo*, Bologna 2003, p. 302 and CARRERO SANTAMARÍA, EDUARDO: “Epigraffa y liturgia estacional entre el locutorio y el pasaje a la enfermería de la abadía de Santa María la Real de las Huelgas, en Burgos”, in *Territorio, Sociedad y Poder* 9 (2015), pp. 117–132.</footnote>
from Castile several examples of the course of the *Salve regina* procession, passing via the altars of St. Dominic and St. Thomas to the Marian Altar as the final station (in Santo Domingo of Toledo), or the singing of the *Salve* at the Marian altar in the liturgical choir (in Santo Domingo of Madrid and Santa Maria of Medina del Campo).<fnref n="30" /> She argues that in Castilian nunneries these processions were not only carried out in the church or in the liturgical choir, but rather within the cloister in its chapels.<fnref n="31" /> I can confirm this practice from the Convent of Jesus in Aveiro, Portugal, where the sisters added more and more chapels for processions and devotional practices behind the liturgical high choir and throughout the entire cloister.<fnref n="32" />

### 3. SPECIFICITIES OF THE DOMINICAN SALVE REGINA

Among the medieval additions to the liturgical offices are the Marian antiphons *Alma redemptoris mater, Ave regina caelorum, Regina caeli* and *Salve regina*,<fnref n="33" /> which were traditionally ascribed to different times of the liturgical year. *Salve* was sung after Pentecost, *Alma* between Advent and Nativity, *Ave* during Quadragesima and *Regina* at Easter. Unlike other antiphons that are sung in combination with a psalm, these have a more hymn-like function,<fnref n="34" /> but can also be performed as votive or intercessional chants.<fnref n="35" /> The Dominicans prescribed another ancient Marian antiphon, *Sub tuum praesidium*, to be sung after Lauds, Little Hours or Vespers, in the fourteenth century.<fnref n="36" />

The most popular of these was probably *Salve regina*, the oldest medieval Marian antiphon,<fnref n="37" /> which had multiple uses and underwent a significant transformation. Its role shifted from being a liturgical chant into being used in Latin or vernacular prayers of a more devotional character in the late Middle Ages.<fnref n="38" /> There are at least three candidates for its authorship: Hermannus Contractus in the eleventh century,<fnref n="39" /> Bernard of Clairvaux in the first half of the twelfth cen-

<footnote n="30">³⁰ PÉREZ VIDAL 2015, pp. 260–65.</footnote>

<footnote n="31">³¹ *Ibid*., pp. 265–72.</footnote>

<footnote n="32">³² I would like to thank José Antonio Cristo and the curators of the Museum of Aveiro for letting me study not only the manuscripts but also the conventual space during my research in November 2021 and for our most stimulating discussions.</footnote>

<footnote n="33">³³ Heinz offers their most extensive and detailed analysis: HEINZ 2010, pp. 114–135.</footnote>

<footnote n="34">³⁴ However, some liturgical manuscripts transmit a psalm tone (*differentia*) at the end of the manuscript.</footnote>

<footnote n="35">³⁵ PALAZZO, ÉRIC: “Marie et l’élaboration d’un espace ecclésial au haut Moyen Âge,” in eds. IOGNA-PRAT/PALAZZO/RUSSO 1996, pp. 313–325: 318: “d’authentiques prières à la Reine du Salut”.</footnote>

<footnote n="36">³⁶ BONNIWELL 1945, p. 223.</footnote>

<footnote n="37">³⁷ HOEFENER 2022, p. 111.</footnote>

<footnote n="38">³⁸ There are versions with Latin or French tropes (textual or melodic additions) such as the fourteenth-century *Salve regina* ‘en romans’, MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, français 858, f. 246v, or the sixteenth-century *Salve Iesu rex misericordie*, MS Copenhagen, Det Kongelige Bibliotek, NKS 138 4°, ff. 97v–98r from an Islandic gradual.</footnote>

<footnote n="39">³⁹ This attribution has been rejected by some scholars, including VALOIS, JEAN DE: *En marge d’une antienne, le Salve regina*, Paris 1912, p. 42 and more recently HARPER, SALLY ELIZABETH:</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 9.1: *Salve regina*, MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, nouvelles acquisitions latines 1412, f. 42v, an early Cistercian version (c. 1175) from Morimondo for Vespers</figcaption></figure>

tury,<fnref n="40" /> or Ademar, bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay around 1130.<fnref n="41" /> In the same year, at the general chapter of the Cistercians in Dijon in 1130, Bernard advocated it for the antiphon to be adopted by the entire Order.<fnref n="42" /> The Cistercians used it

Medieval English Benedictine Liturgy: Studies in the Formation, Structure, and Content of the Monastic Votive Office, c. 950–1540, London 2021.

<footnote n="40">40 See BERSCHIN, WALTER: "Hermann der Lahme als Sequenzdichter. Mit Diskussion der Antiphonen Salve regina und Alma redemptoris mater", in eds. WALTER BERSCHIN/MARTIN HELLMANN: *Hermann der Lahme: Gelehrter und Dichter (1013–1054)* (Reichenauer Texte und Bilder 11), Heidelberg 2004, pp 73–109: 103; and Heinz 2010, pp. 127–128.</footnote>

<footnote n="41">41 See COLETTE, MARIE-NOËL: "La 'Salve regina' en Aquitaine au XIIe siècle: l'auteur du Salve", in eds. LÁSZLÓ DOBSZAY et al.: *Cantus Planus/International Musicological Society Study Group: Papers Read at the Fourth Meeting in Pécs, 3–8 September 1990*, Budapest 1992, pp. 521–547.</footnote>

<footnote n="42">42 ALBERICI: *Trium-fontium Monachi, chronicon ab orbe condito ad annum Christi 1241*, MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 4896A, f. 176r: "Unde in quodam generali capitu-</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 9.2: *Salve regina*, MS Rome, Santa Sabina Archives, OP XIV L1, f. 317v, exemplar from St. Jacques in Paris (1256–1259)</figcaption></figure>
as a *Benedictus* or *Magnificat* antiphon for Lauds and Vespers (fig. 9.1) and most probably as a processional antiphon.<fnref n="43" />

The inclusion of the *Salve Regina* in early Dominican sources, such as the prototype from Paris (fig. 9.2), illustrates the emphasis on Marian devotion within the Dominican tradition. The use of the *Salve Regina* also underlines its importance in their liturgical and devotional practices. Jordan of Saxony first affirmed the Dominican use of *Salve Regina* in 1230, though Suitbert Bäumer and others argue that it might also have been introduced from the Parisian liturgy of Louis IX.<fnref n="44" /> The General Chapter officially introduced it into the Order of Preachers' liturgy in 1250.<fnref n="45" /> The use of the *Salve Regina* after Compline was indeed recorded in an Ordinary of 1256,<fnref n="46" /> and it gradually supplanted the other Marian antiphons during the liturgical year.<fnref n="47" />

The text of the *Salve Regina* has been subject to several changes since its inception was first written down in a twelfth-century addition to a manuscript attributed to the monastery of Reichenau.<fnref n="48" /> *O dulcis Maria* was added at the end and there is also a *versus* (or trope) in a manuscript from St. Gall (MS St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. sang. 390, p. 10). The Dominican versions have no tropes and greatly resemble the Cistercian and St. Gall versions, as they all share the same text, without *mater* and *virgo*, except for the sources from Paradies (near Soest, Germany), where *mater* and *virgo* are included later (figs. 9.3 and 9.4). Thus, we can clearly observe the process of additions and the way that scribes wanted to adapt to the new standard.

Three groups of *Salve Regina* melodies can be ordered by mode: one in the E mode,<fnref n="49" /> one in the D mode, and one, more recent, in the F mode.<fnref n="50" /> The melody in D has short, attributive phrases that turn around the triad D–F–A and often

lo cisterciensi veniam suam accepit quatenus hec antiphona ab omni ordine reciperetur quod et factum est.” Just before this passage, the source also mentions Ademar’s authorship (“Dicebatur autem antiphona de Podio, eo quod Naymerus espiscopus Podiensis eam fecit”).

<footnote n="43">⁴³ In the early source from Morimondo (MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, NAL 1412), the antiphon has been noted several times for Vespers (ff. 42v and 105r) and for Lauds (f. 94r). For attesting its use for processions in the Cistercian order, see PÉREZ VIDAL 2015, p. 257.</footnote>

<footnote n="44">⁴⁴ BÄUMER, SUITBERT: *Zur Geschichte des Breviers*, Mainz 1889, p. 261.</footnote>

<footnote n="45">⁴⁵ HEINZ 2010, p. 116. For more about the legend of a tormented friar from Bologna who was saved by the friars’ performance of a *Salve Regina* in procession, see BONNIWELL 1945, pp. 149–150.</footnote>

<footnote n="46">⁴⁶ Ordinarium iuxta ritum Sacri Ordinis fratrum praedicatorum (1256), ed. F.M. GUERRINI, Rome 1921, pp. 120–121: “De antiphona cantanda post completorium ad recommendandum ordinem et fratres Beatae Virgini”; and PÉREZ VIDAL 2015, pp. 257–258.</footnote>

<footnote n="47">⁴⁷ Jones 2024, p. 69.</footnote>

<footnote n="48">⁴⁸ MS Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, Aug. perg. 55, f. 42v (ninth century/add. twelfth century).</footnote>

<footnote n="49">⁴⁹ This melody is found in German sources such as MS Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 9921, from the twelfth century (Ottobeuren) and MS London, British Library, Add. 27630 from the fourteenth century. See BÜTTNER, FRED: “Zur Geschichte der Marienanti-phon Salve Regina”, in *Archiv für Musikwissenschaft* 46 (1989), pp. 260–263; DE VALOIS 1912, p. 42.</footnote>

<footnote n="50">⁵⁰ The *Salve Regina* in F mode is attributed to the Belgian composer Henri Dumont (1610–1684).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Figs. 9.3 and 9.4: Text additions for *Salve regina* from Paradies near Soest (Germany), MS Düsseldorf, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, D7, f. 266v</figcaption></figure>

reach the octave d. Almost all of these largely syllabic phrases have cadences on the *finalis* D. Like the older Cistercian version, also the Dominican one is set in the D mode and has been handed down through numerous sources, starting with the earliest Parisian exemplar from the mid-1200s.<fnref n="51" /> These versions are me-

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 9.5: *Salve regina* (incipit), MS Rome, Santa Sabina Archives, OP XIV L1, f. 317v</figcaption></figure>

<caption>Fig. 9.6: *Salve regina* (incipit), MS Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Mrs. William E. Kelley Collection, 1911.142b, ff.153v</caption>

lodically very stable; there are only smaller notational variations in the grouping of notes and in the liquescent neumes, as can be seen in the two images above. The *Salve regina* in the mid-thirteenth-century exemplar from Paris shows a grouping of two notes on the last syllable of the word *regina* (fig. 9.5).<fnref n="52" /> A late thirteenth-century version from a female community from Italy shows in the same place a grouping of three notes,<fnref n="53" /> which only means a different distribution of the melody over the text syllables (fig. 9.6).

Liquescent neumes provide further variation, indicating movement towards certain consonants or diphthongs. For instance, liquescents are present on the second syllable of the word *ostende* in the versions from Paris (MS Rome, Santa Sabina Archives, OP XIV L1, f. 317v, see fig. 9.2) and Freiburg (MS Freiburg i. Br., Universitätsbibliothek, 1129, f. 192v; see fig. 9.7) while the sources from Italy (MS Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Mrs. William E. Kelley Collection,

<footnote n="51">51 See the list of Dominican sources from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in HOEFENER 2022, pp. 113–114.</footnote>

<footnote n="52">52 There are also two notes on the last syllable of *regina* in the MS Düsseldorf, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, D7, f. 266v (see fig. 9.8).</footnote>

<footnote n="53">53 We also find this distribution in the twelfth-century versions of *Salve regina* from Corbie (MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 17767, f. 3r) and the late-twelfth-century Cistercian source from Morimondo (MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, nouvelles acquisitions latines 1412, f. 43v; see fig. 9.2).</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 9.7: *Salve regina (ostende)*, MS Freiburg i. Br., Universitätsbibliothek, 1129, f. 192v</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 9.8: *Salve regina (ostende)*, MS Düsseldorf, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, D7, f. 266v</figcaption></figure>

1911.142b, f.153v–154v), Paradies (MS Düsseldorf, Universitäts- und Landes-bibliothek, D7, f. 266v; see fig. 9.8) and Poissy (MS Melbourne, State Library of Victoria, 096.1 R66A, ff. 395v–396r) only show a simple note on this syllable.

All the aforementioned Dominican versions, including the exemplar from St. Jacques (see fig. 9.2), use the liquescent descending neume on *dulcis*, which elegantly slides via the letter *l* to the lower F before the melody ascents on *dulcis* (G–A). This melodic stability is not challenged by other notational variations such as the placement of b-flats or different positioning of the separation bars, which will be discussed at the end of this chapter.

## 4. FEMALE SAINTS IN DOMINICAN CONVENTS: THREE EXAMPLES OF LITURGICAL VENERATION

As in other religious communities, the chant repertoire in Dominican convents was shaped by local customs and the veneration of specific relics. These practices are closely connected to the conventual space, where patronal figures and saints were honored in liturgical celebrations. Introducing a new feast often involved the importation, compilation, or composition of a new office or chants. This section examines three examples of offices for female saints: those for Saints Ursula and Catherine of Siena, from Aveiro, Portugal,<fnref n="54" /> and the office for St. Gertrude from Cologne in the *Teutonia* province.

St. Ursula and her companions form a group of saints whose cult spread mostly via monastic communities and was closely related to the massive excavations of relics carried out between 1155 and 1164 in Cologne.<fnref n="55" /> In the thirteenth century, the cult was promoted by the Dominicans not only through

<footnote n="54">⁵⁴ This is part of the ongoing research project on the Dominican convent in Aveiro at the Nova University in Lisbon “Chant Culture in Female Dominican Convents with a Focus on Portugal: Repertoire, Sources, and Practical Performance” (UIDB/00693/2020; https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/00693/2020 and https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0132/2020).</footnote>

<footnote n="55">⁵⁵ HOEFENER, KRISTIN: “From St Pinnosa to St Ursula: The Development of the Cult of Cologne’s Virgins in Medieval Liturgical Offices”, in ed. JANE CARTWRIGHT: *The Cult of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins*, Cardiff 2016, pp. 61–91.</footnote>
material relics but also via abundant hagiographic production. Such texts were mainly destined to be read or sung during Matins or in the refectory on the feast day of a saint or a group of saints. They served to orient the sisters in their devotional interpretation.<fnref n="56" /> Dominicans like Jean of Mailly, Vincent of Beauvais, Barthelemy of Trent, and Roderic of Cerano all contributed hagiographic texts to Cologne’s cult of eleven thousand virgins. Jacobus of Voragine’s *Golden Legend* (1264–1267) was the best known and most widely disseminated text that comprised a detailed life of the eleven thousand virgins.<fnref n="57" />

I was not able to find specific Dominican offices in honor of Cologne’s eleven thousand virgins in sources of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, except one from Avignon.<fnref n="58" /> Concentrating on sources from female Dominican communities, there are indeed traces of a St. Ursula cult in manuscripts from the German Paradies convent near Soest. This convent was located not very far from Cologne and since there are no surviving liturgical manuscripts from a Dominican convent in Cologne, this may be the closest we can get to the origin of the cult. St. Ursula is mentioned in several manuscripts of the fourteenth century in litanies for Easter as follows: *Sancta Ursula cum socialibus tuis ora pro nobis*.<fnref n="59" />

As we can see in the following example, the St. Ursula cult extended far beyond the Rhine region over time. Evidence of the cult is found, for instance, in Portugal, particularly in the Dominican Convent of Jesus in Aveiro.<fnref n="60" /> The anti-phoner MS Aveiro, Municipal Museum, ANTF 26 from Aveiro contains a complete office for St. Ursula (ff. 118v–128r) which was probably imported from a Cistercian monastery. The earliest evidence of the office *O felix Germania* can be traced back to the thirteenth century, and it was initially disseminated through the Cistercian network as far as the Iberian Peninsula, for instance to Poblet<fnref n="61" />

<footnote n="56">56 JONES 2017, p. 37</footnote>

<footnote n="57">57 JACOBUS DE VORAGINE: *Legenda aurea*, ed. and comm. RAINER NICKEL, Stuttgart 1988, p. 269 and FLEITH, BARBARA: *Studien zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der lateinischen Legenda Aurea*, Brussels 1991.</footnote>

<footnote n="58">58 MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 916, ff. 58r–72v. This is not a Dominican source but from the papal court in Avignon, yet the author of the office is the Dominican Guillelmus Adam, see HOEFENER, KRISTIN: “In choro sanctorum: Der Kult der Kölner Jungfrauen im 10. Jahrhundert in Essen und die Genese eines spezifischen Offizienzyklus”, in *Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch* 103–104 (2019–20), pp. 85–104 and ead.: “Guillelmus Adam’s Office O admiranda novitas. A New Attribution of Musical Authorship in the Fourteenth Century”, in eds. PASCAL DUHAMEL/KRISTIN HOEFENER: *Le compositeur et son nom, l’émergence de la notion d’autoriat musical (1250–1550)*, Turnhout 2025 (forthcoming).</footnote>

<footnote n="59">59 MS Dortmund, Propsteikirche, Archiv B6 (a gradual from c. 1360), MS Düsseldorf, USB, D11 (a gradual from c. 1400), and MS Düsseldorf, USB, D12 (a gradual from c. 1420). See HAMBURGER, JEFFREY F./SCHLOTHEUBER, EVA/MARTI, SUSAN/FASSLER, MARGOT A.: *Liturgy-cal Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300–1425: Inscription and Illumination in the Choir Books of a North German Dominican Convent*, 2 vols., Münster 2016.</footnote>

<footnote n="60">60 The late medieval extant sources of the convent form a particularly complete set of liturgical manuscripts that have yet to be extensively studied.</footnote>

<footnote n="61">61 The Catalan Cistercian abbey Santa Maria of Poblet was founded in 1151 as a filial of Fontfroide and functioned as the burial place for the Aragonese royal family until the fifteenth century. The breviary with the complete text of the office can be dated to the thirteenth century. See HOEFENER, KRISTIN: “O felix Germania: un office liturgique cistercien en l’honneur des vierges de Cologne. Étude des interrelations entre textes et melodies”,</footnote>
(MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 12038), then on a larger scale such that it reached Aveiro in central Portugal. Since the Dominican Convent of Jesus in Aveiro was founded in 1458 at the very beginning of the Observant reform movement in Portugal, it became almost immediately a center of reform. In its scriptorium, the sisters copied and illuminated liturgical and conventional books,<fnref n="62" /> among them the antiphoner ANTF 26 from 1488. In a ritual from the same period (MS Aveiro, Municipal Museum, MA/COD 15, dated 1491) St. Ursula is mentioned in a litany as follows: *Sancta Ursula con sodalibus* (f. 32v).

The female Dominican convents in Portugal only started to develop in the middle of the fourteenth century,<fnref n="63" /> and only really became established in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.<fnref n="64" /> The founding of Aveiro’s convent closely coincided with the rise of devotion to Catherine of Siena, particularly following her canonization in 1461. This connection is also echoed in several liturgical manuscripts from that period. In two antiphoners (MS Aveiro, Municipal Museum, ANTF 26, ff. 169v–174v and ANTF 27, dated 1480–1490, ff. 143r–148v and 162r–163v with updated responsories) and one gradual (MS Aveiro, Municipal Museum, ANTF 28, dated 1480–1490, f. 14rv), we find office chants and cycles for Catherine of Siena.

After looking at the examples from Portugal, we now turn back to Cologne, where the cult of St. Gertrude is attested. The figure of St. Gertrude, the patron of a female Dominican convent in Cologne, is commemorated in

in *Textus & Musica* 3 (2021), at https://textus-et-musica.edel.univ-poitiers.fr/index.php?id=1889 (accessed on 1 August 2024). Relics of the eleven thousand virgins are also preserved in the Cistercian monastery of Gumiel de Izán near Burgos, see FERREIRO ALEM-PARTE, JAIME: "España y Alemania en la Edad Media", in *Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia* 170 (1973), pp. 319-378 and 468-576, as well as 171 (1974), pp. 77-92, 479-521. For the cult of the eleven thousand virgins in Castile after the fifteenth century, see PÉREZ VIDAL, MERCEDES: "Legislation, Architecture, and Liturgy in the Dominican Nunneries in Castile during the Late Middle Ages: A World of diversitas and Peculiarities", in ed. CORNELIA LINDE: *Making and Breaking the Rules: Discussion, Implementation, and Consequences of Dominican Legislation*, Oxford 2018, pp. 225-252: 240-241 and ead.: "Between the City and the Cloister Saints, Liturgy and Devotion in the Dominican Nunneries in Late Medieval Castile", in ed. MICHELE C. FERRARI: *Saints and the City. Beiträge zum Verständnis urbaner Sakralität in christlichen Gemeinschaften* (5.–17. Jh.), Erlangen 2015, pp. 233–268: 256–258.

<footnote n="62">62 CARDOSO, PAULA: *Art, Reform and Female Agency in the Portuguese Dominican Nunneries: Nuns as Producers and Patrons of Illuminated Manuscripts (c. 1460–1560)*, PhD dissertation, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2019 and HOEFENER, KRISTIN: "Women writing for the liturgy: manuscripts from the Jesus Convent in Aveiro (1476–1529)", in eds. EVA ESTEVE/JOHN GRIFFITHS/FRANCISCO RODILLA: *Culture and music in the Iberian Peninsula (c. 1100–c.1650)/ Cultura y música en la península ibérica (c.1100–c.1650)* (Iberian Early Music Studies 6), Kassel 2023 (= HOEFENER 2023a), pp. 82–120.</footnote>

<footnote n="63">63 Only one convent was founded in the thirteenth century, in Santarém, and two in the fourteenth century, in Vila Nova de Gaia and Lisbon. HOEFENER, KRISTIN: "Female Chant Repertoire in Aveiro's Dominican Convent of Jesus during the Observant Reform (15th Century)", in eds. PIETRO DELCORNO/BERT ROEST: *Observant Reforms and Cultural Production in Europe: Learning, Liturgy and Spiritual Practice*, Nijmegen 2023 (= HOEFENER 2023b), pp. 157–183: 161–162</footnote>

<footnote n="64">⁶⁴ Four convents were founded in the fifteenth century, in Aveiro, Évora, and Leiria; and eight in the sixteenth century. HOEFENER 2023b, pp. 161–162.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 9.9: *Assunt Gertrudis* (incipit), MS Köln, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek, Cod. 1150, f. 155r</figcaption></figure>

a fourteenth-century gradual from the *Teutonia* province (MS Köln, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek, Cod. 1150; see fig. 9.9). The manuscript was almost certainly created for the convent of St. Gertrud at the Neumarkt in Cologne during the second half of the fourteenth century. The manuscript contains on ff. 155r–156v the sequence *Assunt Gertrudis sacrate sollempnia* and on ff. 169v–170v a Mass (*Sancte Gertrudis officium*) starting with the introitus *Gaudeamus*.

These three examples have demonstrated how the cults of St. Ursula, St. Catherine of Siena, and St. Gertrude shaped the liturgical practices in female convents. They incorporated local traditions with standard Dominican customs and adapted these cults across different regions and periods. While collective liturgical celebrations were primarily conducted in Latin, the devotional life of these communities often extended into the vernacular, especially in (private) devotional practices. This leads us to the next section, which examines how chants and devotional practices were described in sister-books from Southwest-ern Germany.

## 5. CHANT AND DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES AS DESCRIBED IN SISTER-BOOKS

Chronicles or so-called sister-books (*Schwesternbücher*), written in Latin or German by Dominican sisters during the first half of the fourteenth century,<fnref n="65" /> explore Dominican life in the form of short mystical narratives by combining conventional history, lives of deceased sisters, and visions or other mystical experiences.<fnref n="66" /> Mostly concentrating on the sisters’ exemplary actions, these sister-books were copied and used by reformers like Johannes Meyer (1422–1482).<fnref n="67" /> The sister-books also give us further insight into the use and performance of chants and prayers in the respective female convents, where some chants were per-

<footnote n="65">⁶⁵ The eight surviving German books are from Adelhausen, Engelthal, Gotteszell, St. Katharinental, Kirchberg, Oetenbach, Töss, and Weil; the Latin book is from Unterlinden (Colmar).</footnote>

<footnote n="66">⁶⁶ JARON LEWIS, *GERTRUD: By Women, for Women, about Women. The Sister-Books of Fourteenth Century Germany* (Studies and Texts 125), Toronto 1996.</footnote>

<footnote n="67">⁶⁷ JONES 2017, pp. 127–160.</footnote>
formed in the local vernacular languages spoken by the sisters. With the help of some examples from the sister-books, it is possible to identify different usages of the *Salve regina* and other Marian chants in everyday convent life.

German versions of the *Salve Regina* are found in several liturgical manuscripts from Dominican convents,<fnref n="68" /> along with the *Paternoster*, *Credo* and *Ave Maria*, *Veni Creator*, and *Pange lingua*. However, these translations are only partial ones and sometimes they are dispersed throughout the composite manuscripts containing Latin and German chants.<fnref n="69" /> Johannes Meyer provides us with some details from the fifteenth-century convent St. Agnes in Freiburg im Breisgau when this community joined, together with the convent in Adelhausen and the one of St. Mary Magdalene, the Observant Reform.<fnref n="70" /> In his *Buch der Reformacio Predigerordens* from 1468, he describes, as Claire Tayler Jones puts it, “transformational rituals that establish Observant communities”,<fnref n="71" /> which includes for St. Agnes a description of the liturgical use of the *Salve regina*. According to Meyer, the sisters entered the church of Adelhausen, singing the *Salve regina* while kneeling in the choir and then later sang in St. Agnes, again from the choir stalls, the hymn *Veni creator spiritus* followed by *Sub tuum praesidium*.<fnref n="72" />

In the sister-book from Engelthal near Nuremberg,<fnref n="73" /> written in German by Christine Ebner (1277–1356),<fnref n="74" /> we find the story of Sister Sophie of Neitstain. She died at the age of twenty-four while “singing with a sweet voice” “*Salve regina, Gegruzt seist du kunigin*” (“Hail, o Queen”).<fnref n="75" /> The narrative relates how Sister Sophie appeared after her death to one of her fellow sisters, telling her that at the moment when she started to sing the *Salve regina*, the Virgin Mary entered her room dressed in a violet coat, accompanied by St. Agnes and several virgins, and then raised her coat against the fleeing enemies. Sister Sophie is said to have deserved this grace because she had spent a whole day reading the Psalter

<footnote n="68">⁶⁸ Besides liturgical books in Latin, there were other types of prayer books for daily use with numerous German adaptations of the *Salve regina*. WEGENER, LYDIA: "Aneignungsformen der Antiphon Salve regina in spätmittelalterlichen Gebet- und Andachtsbüchern", in eds. ANDREAS KRASS/CHRISTINA OSTERMANN: *Hymnus, Sequenz, Antiphon. Fallstudien zur volks-sprachlichen Aneignung liturgischer Lieder im deutschen Mittelalter* (Liturgie und Volkssprache 3), Berlin/Boston 2019, pp. 225–248: 228.</footnote>

<footnote n="69">⁶⁹ DOERR, MADLEN: *Klarissen und Dominikanerinnen in Freiburg im 15. Jahrhundert: Sozialstruktur und Reform*, PhD dissertation, Universität Freiburg im Breisgau 2013, p. 315 and EHREN-SCHWENDTNER, MARIE-LUISE: *Die Bildung der Dominikanerinnen in Süddeutschland vom 13. bis 15. Jahrhundert* (Tübinger Beiträge zur Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte 60), Stuttgart 2004, p. 170.</footnote>

<footnote n="70">⁷⁰ DOERR 2013, pp. 281–282.</footnote>

<footnote n="71">⁷¹ JONES 2017, p. 130.</footnote>

<footnote n="72">⁷² JONES 2017, p. 139 and DOERR 2013, pp. 281–282.</footnote>

<footnote n="73">⁷³ The convent was founded in 1240 by a group of Beguines who started following the Rule of St. Augustine in 1244 and became part of the Dominican order in 1248 under Pope Innocent IV.</footnote>

<footnote n="74">⁷⁴ SCHRÖDER, KARL, ed.: *Der Nonne von Engelthal Büchlein von der genaden uberlast*, Tübingen 1871. Several copies survived such as MS Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Cod. 1338 (fourteenth ct.), MS Vienna, Schottenkloster, Cod. 308 (fifteenth ct.) and MS Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 22 Aug. 4° (sixteenth ct.). I am grateful to Lori Kruckenberg who directed me to this sister-book.</footnote>

<footnote n="75">⁷⁵ SCHRÖDER 1871, p. 25.</footnote>
while standing, even though she had fallen down three times because of her weakness. She passed away the following day on the feast of Our Lady. Musically speaking, we learn from that story that Sister Sophie indeed sang beautifully the entire chant.

The narrative about Sister Kungunt of Eystet relates how she saw at the moment of her death beautiful children [schoner kindelin] and St. Dominic, St. Peter, and the Holy Trinity seeking refuge for them.<fnref n="76" /> And when she said *Salve regina to Ihesum*, she passed away. As we see, both versions are linked to the moment of death. We would expect the chant to be in Latin and the prayer in German, but here we see the opposite. Sister Sophie probably sang *Gegruzt seist du kunigin*<fnref n="77" /> in German—or maybe sang in both Latin and German—and Sister Kungunt said the *Salve regina* in Latin until *Ihesum*. Christina Hospenthal has studied German versions of the *Salve regina*, such as *Bist grust, maget reine* and *Wilkom, lobeswerde kungin* in late medieval hymn books.<fnref n="78" /> *Gegruuest seistu, kunigin* was most probably the version Sister Sophie sang, and her sweet voice is described so that we can imagine the sonic quality of the scene narrated in the sister-book from Engelthal.

The opening citation of this article comes from a sister-book from St. Katharinental<fnref n="79" /> in the Upper-Rhine region. This sister-book tells of Sister Kathrin of Stein entering the liturgical choir and singing *Jam lucis ordo sydere*. Sister Kathrin was a *cantrix* [sengerin] and is described as singing with “great joy in her heart”.<fnref n="80" /> Ruth Meyer notes that each half of the choir had its own *sengerin*,<fnref n="81" /> meaning that both *cantrices* had to give the right cues for the chants, the tempo and the intonation. The St. Katharinental sister-book also has a narrative about Adelheit of Schollenberg, in which we find a somewhat general statement: “when she died, the sisters heard the holy angels singing.”<fnref n="82" /> The *Salve regina* is mentioned only indirectly in this sister-book, in the narrative about Sister Adelheit of St. Gall: Adelheit helped the *cvstrin* during the feast of the Purification of Mary (February 2) after Compline, probably right after the *Salve* procession.<fnref n="83" /> This must have been the usual Latin version, however.

The sister-book from Unterlinden in Colmar is the sole one in Latin and can be dated between 1300 and 1310.<fnref n="84" /> The author, Catherina of Gebersweiler (Gueberschwihr), writes in her preface about the singing of the *Salve regina*: “On Saturdays, when the Office of the Virgin would be celebrated, they would sing

<footnote n="76">⁷⁶ *Ibid.*, pp. 42–43.</footnote>

<footnote n="77">⁷⁷ HENKEL, NIKOLAUS/PALMER, NIGEL F.: “Latein und Volkssprache im deutschen Mittelalter (1100–1500). Zum Rahmenthema des Regensburger Kolloquiums: Ein Forschungsbericht”, in eds. NIKOLAUS HENKEL/NIGEL F. PALMER: *Latein und Volkssprache im deutschen Mittelalter (1100–1500)*, Tübingen 1992, pp. 1–18.</footnote>

<footnote n="78">⁷⁸ HOSPENTHAL, CRISTINA: “Musik und Text in deutschsprachigen Tropen”, in *Revista de Musicologia*, 16 (1993), pp. 856–871: 863–865.</footnote>

<footnote n="79">⁷⁹ The convent was founded in the early thirteenth century and incorporated the Dominican order in 1245. The sister-book was written in the fourteenth century. There are in total eleven sources of this book, critically edited by MEYER 1995.</footnote>

<footnote n="80">⁸⁰ English translation is mine and follows Meyer’s edition, *ibid.*, p. 138.</footnote>

<footnote n="81">⁸¹ *Ibid.*, pp. 273–274.</footnote>

<footnote n="82">⁸² *Ibid.*, p. 101.</footnote>

<footnote n="83">⁸³ *Ibid.*, p. 105.</footnote>

<footnote n="84">⁸⁴ “This sister book demonstrates a high level of Latin fluency”, JONES 2024, p. 313.</footnote>
the entire Office with devotion, for the day as well as for the night, in solemn song. Most devoutly they sang with their heart and mouth the divine and holy chant: *Salve regina* in praise and honor of the same Virgin Mary, raising their voices to heaven." The antiphon is thus sung "by the convent in the liturgical choir" in Latin, but there are more details: "at the end of the day they dedicated themselves to the Virgin and asked for her protection under devout prayers and tears."<fnref n="85" /> In the account of the life of Eligenta of Sulzmatt, we learn that she "sat in the liturgical choir during Matins with the usual piety, and during the lessons she began to think sweetly of the most holy Mother of God, the venerable Virgin, and she spoke to herself in her heart, saying: 'O most merciful Mother of God, what do I owe you, I unworthy person, who prays but one little *Ave Maria* a day?'"<fnref n="86" />

Clearly, contemplative life is multifaceted and related to the daily hours and the annual calendar but also to personal preferences and experiences. Marian chants such as *Salve regina*, if sung during liturgical hours or processions, sometimes also triggered visions or sounds for certain sisters, in which holy angels would sing or Mary appear, in some cases with a child.<fnref n="87" /> Claire Taylor Jones has shown, based on descriptions in the sister-books and other self-reflective texts, that there were indeed slight differences among the (reform) convents, and that besides the *Salve* other Marian antiphons such as *Sub tuum praesidium* were also sung.<fnref n="88" /> Lydia Wegener refers to the late medieval dissemination as "an omnipresence of the *Salve regina* in late medieval devotional culture"<fnref n="89" /> and she saw the reason for its popularity and the disruption of the liturgical framework even before the fifteenth century in its text binary form and its devotional character.<fnref n="90" />

We can only touch on the relationship between private or individual devotion and collective liturgical singing here, but there is reason to believe that both Latin and vernacular languages were used by the sisters, depending on the latter's education and surroundings.<fnref n="91" /> It is certain that the liturgical chant

<footnote n="85">⁸⁵ English translation is mine and follows the German translation by CLARUS, LUDWIG, ed.: *Lebensbeschreibungen der ersten Schwestern des Klosters der Dominikanerinnen zu Unterlinden von deren Priorin Catherina of Gebsweiler*, Regensburg 1863, p. 65.</footnote>

<footnote n="86">⁸⁶ *Ibid.*, p. 303.</footnote>

<footnote n="87">⁸⁷ JONES 2017, pp. 70 and 77.</footnote>

<footnote n="88">⁸⁸ *Ibid.*, p. 139.</footnote>

<footnote n="89">⁸⁹ WEGENER 2019, p. 225. See also WEGENER, LYDIA/LALLINGER, FRANZISKA/ARRATE CANO, MARTIN-LARA: "Transformation und Destruktion. Formen der volkssprachlichen Aneignung des *Salve regina* im fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhundert", in eds. EVA ROTHENBERG/LYDIA WEGENER: *Maria in Hymnus und Sequenz. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven* (Liturgie und Volkssprache 1), Berlin/Boston 2019, 395–450.</footnote>

<footnote n="90">⁹⁰ WEGENER 2019, p. 225 and 228.</footnote>

<footnote n="91">⁹¹ Anne Bagnall Yardley describes the wide range of liturgical literacy in her "The Musical Education of Young Girls in Medieval English Nunneries", in eds. SUSAN BOYNTON/ERIC RICE: *Young Choristers, 650–1700*, Woodbridge 2008, pp. 49–67 and *ead.: Performing Piety: Musical Culture in medieval English Nunneries*, New York 2006. See also MENGIS, SIMONE: *Scheibende Frauen um 1500: Scriptorium und Bibliothek des Dominikanerinnenklosters St. Katharina St. Gallen* (Scrinium Friburgense 28), Berlin 2013 and SCHLOTHEUBER, EVA: "Sprachkompetenz und Lateinvermittlung: Die intellektuelle Ausbildung der Nonnen im Spätmittelalter", in eds. NATHALIE KRUPPA/JÜRGEN WILKE: *Kloster und Bildung im Mittelalter* (Studi-</footnote>
remained almost exclusively Latin, but at the margins of the liturgical hours there were many other forms of singing, reading and praying, and other ways of using texts and visual material.<fnref n="92" /> And the Virgin Mary and her son were the most popular subjects of Dominican devotion, as in many other contemplative religious communities.

## 6. PRACTICAL PERFORMANCE

There are numerous texts about the performance of chant in Dominican convents and the sister-books frequently mention sisters who held the position of *cantrix* [*sengerin*]. But convent registers also contain fairly detailed instructions for practical performance, especially choral conducting. For example, the register from the convent of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Adelhausen (fourteenth century) describes how the *cantrix* should make sure the convent does not start too fast, and should be alert to pauses and the order of chants not being respected.<fnref n="93" /> In other texts, the *cantrix* is given responsibility for setting the right pitch. Another description from St. Katherine in Nuremberg provides the detail that “when the word *Salve* is begun, the sisters kneel in the stalls and then stand up again at the second word *Regina*”;<fnref n="94" /> a rather dynamic body movement after the mere four notes of *Salve*. The same text goes on describing how the sisters, after the *incipit*, stand up and face each other in the (upper) choir with the chantress and subchantress (*die sengerin und ir helferin*) in the middle, and that at the end, they all bow and return to the stalls. Claire Taylor Jones calls this extremely short, one step forth-and-back-procession an “inventive choreography”.<fnref n="95" />

To conclude, let me briefly comment on the passage about ‘pauses’ not being respected, which could mean either inconsistency in the musical articulation of the singers in the choir or in the musical structure of the chant. The treatise *Tractatus de musica* written by the Dominican friar Jerome of Moravia in the thirteenth century<fnref n="96" /> may provide some insight into then-contemporary practical performance. The treatise was mainly directed at Dominican cantors

<footnote>en zur Germania Sacra 28), Göttingen 2006, pp. 61–83.</footnote>

<footnote n="92">⁹² SKINNEBACH, LAURA KATRINE: “Devotion. Perception as Practice and Body as Devotion in Late Medieval Piety”, in eds. HANS HENRIK JORGENSEN/HENNING LAUGERUD/LAURA KATRINE SKINNEBACH: *The Saturated Sensorium: Principles of Perception and Mediation in the Middle Ages*, Aarhus 2015, pp. 152–179: 153; and BYNUM, CAROLINE WALKER: “Patterns of Female Piety in the Later Middle Ages”, in eds. JEFFEREY HAMBURGER/SUSAN MARTI: *Crown and Veil: Female Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries*, New York 2008, pp. 172–190.</footnote>

<footnote n="93">⁹³ This passage has been paraphrased after GINDELE, CORBINIAN: “Chordirektion des gregorianischen Chorals im Mittelalter”, in *Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens und seiner Zweige* 63 (1951), pp. 31–44: 40.</footnote>

<footnote n="94">⁹⁴ English translation by JONES 2024, p. 237.</footnote>

<footnote n="95">⁹⁵ *Ibid.*, p. 238.</footnote>

<footnote n="96">⁹⁶ Only one copy of the treatise has been preserved: MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, lat. 16663.</footnote>
(cantores, fratres ordinis nostrì) but also to others (vel alii)<fnref n="97" /> and provides an encyclopedic compilation of musical knowledge.<fnref n="98" /> Following Błażej Matusiak it was intended as a theoretical handbook for the Dominican cantor, for their musical training and education.<fnref n="99" /> There are many passages that deal with chant practice and singing. The pauses mentioned above are vertical separation bars that visually tie together single words or groups of two or three words as we can see here: *Salve | regina | misericordie... | et spes |*. According to Jerome, there are three types of pauses: *pausa imperfecte diccionis*, *pausa perfecte diccionis*, and *pausa oracionis perfecte*. Each of these is preceded by a note lasting one tempus longer than the pause itself. He further states that the number of pauses depends on the melodic modes of the chants and that there are distinct signs for *pausa* and *note pausacionum*,<fnref n="100" /> though he does not explicitly connect these to practical performance. The regulations of the Dominican Antiphoner mention *virgulae pausarum*,<fnref n="101" /> but more in the context of copying chant books from a given prototype. In that case they would only be visual signs, possibly to help match melodic sections to the corresponding word(s). Although these more theoretical texts do not contain any information on the practical performance of chant in women's convents, they were probably also copied and read by Dominican *cantrices* who were concerned with their own slow and distinct way of chanting.<fnref n="102" /> As we have seen, the chant practices in female Dominican houses were closely connected with their contemplative life in the conventual space, which was shaped by a slower performance of their liturgy. Through singing every day, the sisters ensured the continuation of their particular devotional traditions for future generations.

<footnote n="97">⁹⁷ HIERONYMUS DE MORAVIA: *Tractatus de musica*, eds. CHRISTIAN MEYER/GUY LOBRICHON (Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis 250), Turnhout 2012, p. 4.</footnote>

<footnote n="98">⁹⁸ LEITMEIR, CHRISTIAN T.: “Compilation and Adaptation: How ‘Dominican’ is Hieronymus de Moravia’s *Tractatus de Musica?”, in, eds. ELEANOR GIRAUD/CHRISTIAN T. LEITMEIR: *The Medieval Dominicans: Books, Buildings, Music and Liturgy* (Medieval Monastic Studies 7), Turnhout 2021, pp. 335–364: 335–36.</footnote>

<footnote n="99">⁹⁹ MATUSIAK, Błażej: “Jerome of Moravias’s Cantor: A Specialist in Musical Sounds”, in eds. GIRAUD/LEITMEIR 2021, pp. 365–389: 385.</footnote>

<footnote n="100">¹⁰⁰ HIERONYMUS DE MORAVIA *Tractatus de musica* 25, eds. MEYER/LOBRICHON, pp. 169–170. To this day, the precise meanings of these terms remain unresolved among scholars.</footnote>

<footnote n="101">¹⁰¹ HUGLO 2004, 213.</footnote>

<footnote n="102">¹⁰² I would like to thank Błażej Matusiak, Christian T. Leitmeir and Mercedes Pérez Vidal for sharing information as well as for various discussions and comments.</footnote>
archa
verbi

Subsidia 24

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

Florian Wöller • Ueli Zahnd (eds.)

Dominican Culture,
Dominican Theology

The Order of Preachers
and Its Spheres of Action (1215 – ca. 1600)
Dominican Culture,
Dominican Theology

The Order of Preachers
and Its Spheres of Action
(1215 – ca. 1600)
Archa Verbi

Annuarium Societatis Internationalis
pro Studiis Theologiae Medii Aevi promovendis

Annuaire de la Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Théologie Médiévale
Annuario della Società Internazionale per lo Studio della Teologia Medievale
Anuario de la Sociedad Internacional para los Estudios de la Teología Medieval
Jahrbuch der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Theologische Mediävistik
Yearbook of the International Society for the Study of Medieval Theology

Subsidia

iussu Societatis edendum curaverunt

Jan C. Klok

Volker Leppin

Ulli Roth

curator

Jan C. Klok

Annemarie Pilarski

Ulrike Treusch

directorium Societatis

Krijn Pansters

praeses Societatis

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required from the rights holder.

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

1. Auflage 2025

© 2025 The editors and authors. A publication by Aschendorff Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Münster
This book is part of the Aschendorff Verlag Open Access program.

Aschendorff Verlag GmbH & Co. KG
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ISSN 1865-2964
ISBN 978-3-402-10333-3 (Print)
ISBN 978-3-402-10334-0 (ePDF)

https://doi.org/10.17438/978-3-402-22688-9
Table of Contents

<table><tr><td>Preface</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>List of Figures</td><td>11</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>1. FLORIAN WÖLLER/UELI ZAHND<br>Dominican Culture, Dominican Theology: Introduction</td><td>13</td></tr></table>

I. DOMINICAN IDENTITIES AND CULTURES OF EXPERTISE

<table><tr><td>2. JAN-HENDRYK DE BOER<br>Giving Advice to the Pope<br>Dominicans as Experts During the Pontificate of Pope John XXII</td><td>23</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>3. MARCEL BUBERT<br>Black Friars as Heresy Experts<br>Dominican Identities and Inquisitorial Expert Culture<br>in Late Medieval France and Aragon</td><td>43</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>4. ISABEL IRIBARREN<br>The Monzón Affair (1387-1403) and the Construction<br>of a Dominican Thomist Identity</td><td>59</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>5. ULRIKE TREUSCH<br>The Grabow Case<br>An Example of Dominican Identity at the Council of Constance</td><td>79</td></tr></table>

II. PREACHING AND LITURGY

<table><tr><td>6. CHRISTIAN TROELSGÅRD<br>Mnemonic Verse, Theology, and Pedagogy<br>in Augustinus de Dacia's († 1285) *Rotulus pugillaris*</td><td>93</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>7. CAROL J. WILLIAMS<br>Guy of Saint-Denis and Jerome of Moravia<br>on the Modally Sequential Office</td><td>109</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>8. ALBERTO FERREIRO<br><i>In Vigilia Sancti Iohannis Babtiste</i><br>St Vicent Ferrer on the Vigil of John the Baptist in a Catalán Sermon</td><td>123</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>9. KRISTIN HOEFENER<br>Liturgical Chant and Devotional Practices<br>in Late Medieval Dominican Nunneries</td><td>139</td></tr></table>
### III. MEMORY AND MATERIAL CULTURES

10. MARIKA RÄSÄNEN
Rethinking Relic Devotion in Medieval Dominican Culture 161

11. KIRSTEN SCHUT
Lay Death and Burial in Dominican Habits 181

12. CHRISTIAN ETHERIDGE
The Iconography of Dominican Saints Found on the Claus Berg Altarpiece Made for the Priory of St Nicholas in Aarhus, Denmark 197

### IV. DIONYSIAN THEOLOGY

13. J. CORNELIA LINDE
Pseudo-Dionysian Thought in Early Dominican Theology
The Concept of *Ordo* in Guerric of St Quentin's *In Lamentationes* 225

14. SAMUEL BAUDINETTE
Between Philosophical and Christian Contemplation
The Role of Dionysius in the Writings of Albert the Great 241

15. CONSTANT J. MEWS
Dionysius, *Theologia*, and Thomas's Final *Summa* 265

### V. ALBERT THE GREAT AND THE PLURALITY OF DOMINICAN THOUGHT

16. AMALIA CERRITO
Faith and Natural Philosophy in Albert the Great's Account
of the *generatio Christi* 283

17. MARCO VORCELLI
The Book of Job Through the Lens of the *Nicomachean Ethics*
Aristotelian Fortitude and Virtuousness of Job's Lamentation
in Albert the Great's Commentary on Job 6:11-12 297

18. PAUL D. HELLMEIER
Neo-Platonic Ways and Levels of Knowledge in the Interpretation
of Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas and Berthold of Moosburg 311
VI. DOMINICANS ON PRAYER

19. JONATHAN REINERT
Thomas Aquinas on Petitionary Prayer and Divine Providence 327

20. ANJA BORK
Meister Eckhart on Petitionary Prayer and the Relationship between God and Human 345

21. ANDREAS ZECHERLE
Johannes Tauler on Petitionary Prayer
An Attempt at Bridging the Gap Between Ecclesiastical Tradition and Mystical Thought 359

VII. DOMINICANS AND THE ‘OTHERS’

22. JOHNNY GRANDJEAN GØGSIG JAKOBSEN
The Dominicans and ‘the Others’
The Friars Preachers as Vanguard Against Pagans, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, and Heretics. The Case of the Baltic Sea Region 373

23. CHERYL MIDSON
The Dominican Order and Eastern Christianity in the Thirteenth Century 395

24. VOLKER LEPPIN
Just a Quarrel of Monks?
Dominicans, Augustinians and the Early Reformation 409
List of Contributors 425
Index of Names 427
Index of Places 432
Index of Subjects 435