(from Lat. missale, liber cantus missae).
A liturgical book of the Western Church containing all the material necessary for the celebration of Mass.
MICHEL HUGLO/DAVID HILEY
The missal is composite, a collection of material from various liturgical books in which all the pieces necessary for the solemn celebration of Mass are brought together: the prayers and Preface chanted by the priest; lessons read by the deacon and sub-deacon; and the chants of the Proper and Ordinary performed by the choir or soloists. The missal unites in a single book elements formerly dispersed in several books: the sacramentary (for the priest); the lectionary or the epistolary and the evangeliary (for the deacon and sub-deacon); the gradual and troper-proser (for the singers); and the ordinal, which gave directory rubrics for the manner of performance of the liturgical rites.
Surviving documents indicate that the various attempts to bring together the different books that resulted in the missal were usually carried out on the basis of the sacramentary, more rarely the lectionary, and followed very different courses. This survey of the evolution of the books leading to the noted missal will be pursued through groupings which illustrate the progressive inclusion of sung pieces with the other elements of the Mass.
The sacramentary, which usually began with the feast of Christmas (25 December), contained only prayers, the Preface and the Canon missae, the chanted recitation of which is the task of the celebrant, bishop or priest. In several ancient sacramentaries, chant incipits for each feast, taken from the gradual, were added opposite the first collect of the corresponding Mass, in minuscule script. The incipits were generally given without music, as would be expected bearing in mind the antiquity of the books. Manuscripts with such chant indications in the margin are: F-AN 102 (94) (end of 10th century, from Angers); BS 37 (end of 12th century, from St Bertin; introits only); B-Br 2034–5 (12th century, Saxon sacramentary passed into use at Stavelot; see F. Masai, Scriptorium, xiii, 1959, pp.22–6, pl.5); D-DÜl D1 (10th century, from Corvey); DÜl D2 (10th century, from Corvey); GB-Ob Bodley 579 (‘The Leofric Missal’, 10th century, a Cambrai missal passed into England; ed. Warren, D1883); Ob Rawl.lit.C1 (12th century, from St Albans; introits only); F-Pn lat.821 (11th century, from Limoges); Pn lat.9430 and TOm 184 (end of 11th century, from Tours); Pn lat.9432 (second half of 11th century, from Amiens); Pn lat.11589 (11th century, from Brittany); Pn n.a.lat.1589 (end of 11th century, from Tours); RSc 213 (second half of 11th century, from Noyon); RSc 214 (10th century, from St Thierry, Reims); I-Rvat Ottob.313 (11th century, from Paris; chant text incipits included in edn. by H.A. Wilson, The Gregorian Sacramentary under Charles the Great, London, 1915); and VEcap LXXXVI (81) (11th century, from Verona).
The sacramentary was here transformed into a sacramentary-gradual: for each Mass, first the five chants from the Proper (sometimes simply a cue), then the three prayers and Preface were given. Manuscripts arranged thus are: F-AN 91 (83) (10th century, possibly from St Pierre, Angers); A 220 (12th century, from St Pierre, Apt); Pan, AB XIX 1742–3 (10th–11th century; fragments with transitional notation, perhaps of Poitevin origin); Pn lat.9439 (11th–12th century, from St Etienne, Limoges); TOm 184 (11th century, from Tours); I-TRmd 43 (10th–11th century, from Austria).
The insertion of prayers in the middle of the pieces of chant (i.e. a missal without readings) is much rarer. This arrangement is found in two Paris missals: F-Pn lat.12054 (11th century) and Pn lat.9441 (13th century). In the latter, the readings are indicated by a cue, the full text being written out further on, as in the sacramentary-gradual.
A conflict was inherent in such ‘half-missals’ between the different calendars of each component part: the sacramentaries began from the Vigil of Christmas, whereas the graduals started with the first Sunday in Advent (introit Ad te levavi). In order to align the two books it was therefore necessary for the calendar of one to give way to that of the other: in the missal, it was the gradual order that usually prevailed. Furthermore, the separation of the Proper of the Time from that of the Saints was achieved very early, and led to the creation of a Common of Saints, which did not exist in the ancient graduals (the singer was simply directed back to a previous feast of the same class).
The gradual, containing the chants for Mass, did not always remain isolated: it might be coupled to a sacramentary, a lectionary or both.
Gradual-sacramentary: the gradual, containing the chants for the Proper of the Mass, preceded the sacramentary of the Gregorian type; the same copyist transcribed both books and the same artist drew the initials. This juxtaposition occurs in very ancient books. From the 8th century: CH-Zz Rheinau 30 (from Nivelles; see Hesbert, A1935/R, pp.xii ff, and A. Hänggi and A. Schönherr: Sacramentarium rhenaugiense, Fribourg, 1971). From the 11th century: F-Pn lat.2291 (from St Amand; gradual ff.9–15, with some added Palaeo-Frankish neumes, ed. in Netzer, A1910/R, pp.283–355); Pn lat.12050 (gradual, slightly later than sacramentary, ed. Hesbert, 1935/R, pp.xxi ff, cxxiii; for the tonal indications in the margin see M. Huglo: Les tonaires, Paris, 1971, pp.91–101); Psg 111 (9th–10th century, from St Denis); GB-Ob Can.lit.319 (c997, from Reichenau; see D.H. Turner, Revue bénédictine, lxxxv, 1965, pp.255–75); CH-SGv 295 (10th–11th century, from St Gallen). This arrangement, which explains why the gradual also benefited from the attribution of the sacramentary to Gregory the Great, enjoyed wide popularity in the German-speaking regions of eastern Europe at the same time as the other, three-book arrangement (see below). Of the 57 manuscripts of the 11th century or later that use the two-book juxtaposition, only three are from Romance-language countries (F-AM 155, from Corbie; Pn lat.2293, from Figeac or Moissac; Pn lat.9434, from Tours).
Gradual-lectionary: this juxtaposition is very rare. It is found in only three manuscripts (F-SOM 252, 10th–11th century, from St Bertin; I-Rvat Borg.lat.359, 11th century, from St Etienne, Besançon; CH-SGs 374, 11th century from St Gallen).
Gradual-sacramentary-lectionary: this arrangement does not seem to be as old as the two-book juxtaposition. It appears in the 11th century in a manuscript written at Gembloux for Stavelot (B-Br 2031–2; see Scriptorium, xiv, 1960, p.86), but it is found most frequently in manuscripts of the Lake Constance region: from Zwiefalten (D-Sl HB I 236), St Gallen (CH-SGs 342–3), Rheinau (Zz 14, 71, 75), although also in a Cologne manuscript (D-DÜl D3). The juxtaposition of three liturgical books in a single volume has serious practical disadvantages: it results in a very thick ‘missal by juxtaposition’ that is not easy to handle. It survived, nevertheless, until the 14th–15th century in the east (13 manuscripts), which was more conservative than the west (two manuscripts).
The collection of the diverse component elements of the Mass (prayers, chants and readings) into a single book sufficient for the complete celebration of Mass seems to have been achieved first in Italy, possibly northern Italy. The oldest complete missals that include musical notation over the chant texts originate in Italy and belong to the 10th century: US-BAw M.6 (votive and festal masses, from St Michael, Monte Gargano), a manuscript very rich in liturgical texts see for instance the ancient offertory for Pentecost Factus est repente, ed. in Organicae voces: Festschrift J. Smits van Waesberghe, Amsterdam, 1963, pp.62–3; see also A. Doherty: A Romano-Beneventan Missale plenum in the Walters Art Gallery, diss., Princeton U., 1974); I-BV VI 33 (‘Missale antiquum’ of Benevento, with Beneventan neumatic notation; see PalMus, 1st ser., xiv, 1931/R, pls.i–vii), a manuscript with several archaisms, some liturgical (see K. Gamber, Ephemerides liturgicae, lxxiv, 1960, pp.428–9), and some scriptural (see M. Huglo, Vigiliae christianae, viii, 1954, pp.83–6); Bu 2217, ff.158–61 (10th–11th century) and Bu 2679 (11th century; fragments of missals with neumatic notation); CH-LAac (fragments of missals from the Bari region, second half of 10th century, other leaves of which are at Lucerne, Peterlingen and Zürich; see bibliography in Le graduel romain, ii, 1957, p.57); I-Ma L 77 sup. (10th century; missal with neumes from north Italy); D-Mbs lat.3005 (11th century, taken in 11th century to Wessobrunn, then to Andechs where it was noted and modified; see Le graduel romain, ii, 1957, p.77); D-Mhsa (fragment of a missal from St Christina, near Olonna, second half of 11th century, later taken to Wessobrunn; see Le graduel romain, ii, 1957, p.83); F-Pa 610 (10th century, from Worms; votive missal); I-PAVs (fragments of a 10th-century missal, from ?Pavia).
In the 11th and 12th centuries complete missals with neumatic notation proliferated: about 50 from the 11th century and about 40 from the 12th are known, almost all of west European origin. In the 13th century missals with neumes decreased in favour of missals with music on lines, which flourished until the end of the 14th century. The actual use to which these noted missals were put is not always clear, but many were no doubt used in small parishes or small monasteries with limited financial resources; a single book thus served the celebrant and his ministers, who would, respectively, intone the collect and read the lessons of the Fore-Mass (Mass of the Catechumens) from one and the same missal, while the singer also used the book, before the service, for recordatio, that is, to remind himself of the melodies to be performed.
Thus, from the 11th century, although sacramentaries sometimes remained in use at the same time as the other Mass books, a ‘missal’ was formed in each church and was passed on with all its local peculiarities from one copy to another. Particularly in the 13th century efforts were made in many churches to codify their liturgies in up-to-date, comprehensive missals and breviaries. At Salisbury, for example, Richard Poore, even before being elected head of the diocese in 1217, began the restoration of the liturgy with the help of Edmund Rich, the treasurer, thus establishing the Use of Salisbury (Sarum) for Mass and Office; it spread through most of the kingdom, displacing nearly all secular local uses (except those of York and Hereford). At Rome at about the same time, a reorganization of liturgical books was undertaken by Pope Innocent III (1198–1216), and a complete missal ‘secundum consuetudinem romanae curiae’ was established (see Van Dijk, E1956). The new Roman missal spread to several churches in central Italy from the 13th century, for example, to Todi (GB-Lbl 14793) and to Assisi. The new Franciscan order adopted the missal from the Curia, inserting their own festivals (12 August, 17 September, 4 October) which were introduced into the universal Roman missal by Franciscan popes such as Nicholas IV (1288–92), or Sixtus IV (1471–84) under whose pontificate the first Roman missal was printed (1474). In 1570 Pius V, a Dominican, made a new version of the missal which remained the basis of the Missale romanum until the Second Vatican Council. (For the missal since the Second Vatican Council see Ordo cantus missae.)
In 15th-century missals very little music was noted: the liturgical recitatives belonging to the celebrant (Preface, Pater noster) and the intonations of the Ordinary (Gloria in excelsis Deo, Credo in unum Deum); and sometimes also the Ite missa est, sung by the deacon. These pieces were reproduced from 1476 onwards in the first printed missals with music (see The Printed Note, Toledo, 1957/R, p.17; and Meyer-Baer, B1962, no.119).
Even when not noted, a missal is always of interest for the study of the ordering of chants in diverse local liturgies, at least before the Council of Trent (22nd session, September 1562) which resulted in the progressive ‘Romanization’ of the ancient local liturgies. Sometimes pieces peculiar to one church survive only in a printed 16th-century source, and certain sequences and rhythmic alleluias are known only from printed missals.
See also Gradual (ii); for illustration see Sources, MS, §II, fig.17.
H. Netzer: L'introduction de la messe romaine en France sous les Carolingiens (Paris, 1910/R)
A. Gastoué: Musique et liturgie: le graduel et l'antiphonaire romains (Lyons, 1913/R)
F. Cabrol: ‘Missel’, ‘Missel romain’, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, xi/2, ed. F. Cabrol and H. Leclercq (1933–4), 1431–68, 1468–94
R.-J. Hesbert, ed.: Antiphonale missarum sextuplex (Brussels, 1935/R)
J.A. Jungmann: Missarum sollemnia: eine genetische Erklärung der römischen Messe (Vienna, 1948, enlarged 5/1962; Eng. trans., 1951–5/R as The Mass of the Roman Rite)
A. Chavasse: ‘Les plus anciens types du lectionnaire et de l'antiphonaire romains’, Revue bénédictine, lxii (1952), 3–94
S.-R. Marosszeki: ‘Les origines du chant cistercien’, Analecta sacri Ordinis Cisterciensis, viii (1952), 1–179
S.J.P. Van Dijk and J.H. Walker: The Origins of the Modern Roman Liturgy (London, 1960)
L. Delisle: ‘Mémoires sur d'anciens sacramentaires’, Mémoires de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, xxxii (1886), 57–423
W.H. Frere: Bibliotheca musico-liturgica (London, 1894–1932/R)
A. Ebner: Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte und Kunstgeschichte des Missale Romanum im Mittelalter: Iter italicum (Freiburg, 1896/R)
V. Leroquais: Les sacramentaires et les missels manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France (Paris, 1924)
W.H.J. Weale and H. Bohatta: Bibliographia liturgica: catalogus missalium ritus latini ab anno MCCCCLXXIV impressorum (London, 1928)
Le gradual romain, ii: Les sources (Solesmes, 1957)
K. Meyer-Baer: Liturgical Music Incunabula: a Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1962)
P. Salmon: Les manuscrits liturgiques latins de la Bibliothèque Vaticane (Rome, 1968–72), nos.251, 253, 260, 267, 270
For brief descriptions and bibliography for over 50 missals containing music see Sources, MS, §II.
K. Biegański and J. Woronczak, eds.: Missale plenarium: Bibl. capit. gnesnensis, MS. 149, AMP, xi–xii (1970–72)
M. Parvio, ed.: Missale aboense secundum ordinem Fratrum Praedicatorum (Helsinki, 1971)
J. Szendrei and R. Rybarič, eds.: Missale notatum strigoniense ante 1341 in Posonio (Budapest, 1982)
Le manuscrit VI–33, Archivio arcivescovile Benevento: missel de Bénévent (début du XIe siècle), PalMus, 1st ser., xx (1983)
D. Hiley, ed.: Missale carnotense: Chartres, Codex 520, MMMA, iv/1–2 (1992)
A. Hänggi and P. Ladner, eds.: Missale basileense saec. XI (Codex Gressly) (Fribourg, 1994)
D. Saulnier, ed.: Verdun, Bibliothèque municipale, 759 (Padua, 1995)
F.E. Warren, ed.: The Leofric Missal as Used in the Cathedral of Exeter during the Episcopate of its First Bishop (Oxford, 1883) [GB-Ob Bodley 579]
J.W. Legg, ed.: Missale ad usum ecclesiae westmonasteriensis (London, 1891–7) [GB-Lwa ‘Lytlington Missal’]
R. Lippe, ed.: Missale romanum Mediolani, 1474 (London, 1899–1907)
J.W. Legg, ed.: The Sarum Missal edited from Three Early Manuscripts (Oxford, 1916) [GB-Mr lat.24, I-Bu 2565, F-Pa 135]
D.H. Turner, ed.: The Missal of the New Minster, Winchester: Le Havre, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 330 (London, 1962)
A. Hughes, ed.: The Bec Missal (London, 1963) [F-Pn lat.1105]
O. Gatzweiler: Die liturgischen Handschriften des Aachener Münsterstifts (Münster, 1926)
R. Bauerreis: ‘Die geschichtlichen Einträge des Andechser Missale’, Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinischen Ordens, xlvii (1929), 52–90, 433
L.F. Miller: ‘Missal W.11 of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore’, Traditio, ii (1944), 123–54
R.-J. Hesbert: Les manuscrits musicaux de Jumièges, Monumenta musicae sacrae, ii (Mâcon, 1954)
S.J.P. Van Dijk: ‘The Legend of the “Missal of the Papal Chapel”’, Sacris erudiri, viii (1956), 76–142
M. Huglo: ‘Un missel de St. Riquier (Wien, Ö.N.B. 1933)’, Ephemerides liturgicae, lxxiii (1959), 402–12
H. Reifenberg: Messe und Missalien im Bistum Mainz seit dem Zeitalter der Gotik (Münster, 1960)
M. Huglo: ‘Un missel d'Annet Régin, chantre de la cathédrale de Clermont’, Bulletin historique et scientifique de l'Auvergne, lxxxiii (1964), 27–32
R. Amiet: ‘Le missel du prieuré bénédictin de St. Sauveur en Rue au diocèse de Vienne’, Scriptorium, xix (1965), 42–62, pl.8
A. Olivar: ‘Sobre un missal manuscrito procedente de Santes Creus’, Analecta sacra tarraconensia, xxxviii (1965), 211–16
G. Baroffio: ‘Il messale di Boccioletto’, Rivista di storia della chiesa in Italia, xx/1 (1966), 34–43
M. Huglo: ‘Un missel noté de Fleury’, Scriptorium, xx (1966), 275–6, pl.27
H. Platelle: ‘Un missel du XVe siècle à l'usage de l'abbaye de St. Amand (Valenciennes, Ms. no.118): le donateur, l'enlumineur, le contenu’, Littérature et religion: mélanges offerts à M. le chanoine Joseph Coppin (Lille, 1966), 119–55
N.J. Weyns: ‘Een Antwerps missaal uit de XII eeuw’, Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis, bijzonderlijk van het oud-hertogdom Brabant, xviii (1966), 5–42
M. Gros: ‘El “Missale parvum” de Vic’, Hispania sacra, xxi (1968), 313–78
M. Bernard: ‘Un missel manuscrit de S. Nizier de Lyon (Ecole des Beaux Arts, Collection Masson 121, fin XVe siècle)’, EG, x (1969), 117–24
C. de Clercq: ‘Deux missels enluminés peu connus: le ms. 138 du Musée Calvet à Avignon et le ms. 86 de Lisbonne’, Gutenberg Jb 1969, 32–51
K. Gamber: ‘Das Reichmessbuch der Langobarden’, Congresso internazionale di studi sull'alto Medioevo IV: Pavia, Scaldesole, Monza and Bobbio 1967 (Spoleto, 1969), 421–6
N.K. Rasmussen: ‘Une “cartula missalis” retrouvée’, Ephemerides liturgicae, lxxxiii (1969), 482–4
J.O. Bragança: ‘O missal votivo de Santa Cruz de Coïmbra’, Didaskalia, i (1971), 363–6
K.G. Roth: ‘Zum Schicksale eines handschriftlichen Missale der Kölner Pfarrkirche St. Aposteln’, Scriptorium, xxv (1971), 290–99
A.G. Martimort: ‘Missels incunables d'origine franciscaine’, Mélanges liturgiques offerts au Rév. Père Dom B. Botte (Leuven, 1972), 359–78
A. Nocent: ‘Un missel plénier de la Bibliothèque Vallicelliana’, ibid., 417–27
K. Gamber: ‘Fragmenta liturgica, V’, Sacris erudiri, xxi (1972–3), 241–66
S. Rehle: ‘Ein Plenarmissale des IX. Jhdts. aus Oberitalien, zuletzt in Regensburg (Clm. 23281)’, Sacris erudiri, xxi (1972–3), 291–321
S. Rehle: ‘Missale beneventanum (Codex VI 33 des Erzbischöflichen Archivs von Benevento)’, Sacris erudiri, xxi (1972–3), 323–405
V. Saxer: ‘Le missel du Cardinal Bessarion’, Scriptorium, xxvi (1972), 302–13, pls.24–6
H. Hauke: ‘Das Isingrim Missale von Ottobeuren’, Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinischen Ordens, lxxxiv (1973), 151–7
K. Gamber: ‘Fragmente eines Missale beneventanum als Palimpsestblätter des Cod.Ottob. lat. 576’, Revue bénédictine, lxxxiv (1974), 367–72
M. Garand: ‘Le missel clunisien de Nogent-le-Rotrou’, Hommages à André Boutemy, ed. G. Cambier (Brussels, 1976), 129–51
G. Fontaine: ‘Présentation des missels diocésains français du XVIIe au XIXe siècles’, La Maison-Dieu, cxli (1980), 97–166
K.D. Hartzell: ‘An Eleventh-Century English Missal Fragment in the British Library’, Anglo-Saxon England, xviii (1989), 45–97
B. Hangartner: Missalia Einsidlensia: Studien zu drei neumierten Handschriften des 11.–12. Jahrhunderts (St Ottilien, 1995)