Bible Missals are manuscripts that integrate liturgical prayers for the Mass with the scriptural texts of the Latin Vulgate. Long overlooked by scholars, Bible Missals offer important evidence for the development of the medieval liturgy and the liturgical use of scripture by medieval Christians. This monograph is the first comprehensive analysis of the codicology and contents of Bible Missals. Mostly produced in the first half of the 13th century by professional book makers in centers like Paris and Oxford, these hybrid manuscripts were customized for secular, monastic, and mendicant patrons. This monograph focuses on Dominican Bible Missals, the largest group within the repertoire, providing detailed codicological descriptions of each manuscript and analyzing their texts for the Order of Mass and selected liturgical formularies, including prayers for the feast of St. Dominic. For medieval Christians, the words and events of scripture were continually called to mind and reenacted in the sacramental rites of the Mass. Bible Missals provide important material evidence for this interplay between word and sacrament.

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An account of Dominican activities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales from their arrival in 1221 until their dissolution at the Reformation

The Speculum musicae of the early fourteenth century, with nearly half a million words, is by a long way the largest medieval treatise on music, and probably the most learned. Only the final two books are about music as commonly understood: the other five invite further work by students of scholastic philosophy, theology and mathematics. For nearly a century, its author has been known as Jacques de Liège or Jacobus Leodiensis. ’Jacobus’ is certain, fixed by an acrostic declared within the text; Liège is hypothetical, based on evidence shown here to be less than secure. The one complete manuscript, Paris BnF lat. 7207, thought by its editor to be Florentine, can now be shown on the basis of its miniatures by Cristoforo Cortese to be from the Veneto, datable c. 1434-40. New documentary evidence in an Italian inventory, also from the Veneto, describes a lost copy of the treatise dating from before 1419, older than the surviving manuscript, and identifies its author as ’Magister Jacobus de Ispania’. If this had been known eighty years ago, the Liège hypothesis would never have taken root. It invites a new look at the geography and influences that played into this central document of medieval music theory. The two new attributes of ’Magister’ and ’de Ispania’ (i.e. a foreigner) prompted an extensive search in published indexes for possible identities. Surprisingly few candidates of this name emerged, and only one in the right date range. It is here suggested that the author of the Speculum is either someone who left no paper trail or James of Spain, a nephew of Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I, whose career is documented mostly in England. He was an illegitimate son of Eleanor’s older half-brother, the Infante Enrique of Castile. Documentary evidence shows that he was a wealthy and well-travelled royal prince who was also an Oxford magister. The book traces his career and the likelihood of his authorship of the Speculum musicae.