Antiphonary of Bangor
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The Antiphonary of Bangor (Antiphonarium Monasterii Benchorensis) is an ancient Latin manuscript, supposed to have been originally written at Bangor Abbey in modern-day Northern Ireland.
History
A thin manuscript volume of 36 leaves, it is the oldest extant liturgical monument of the Celtic Church to which an approximate date can with certainty be assigned, and which on this and other grounds is of particular interest to liturgical scholars, particularly in Ireland and England.[1]
The
It is natural that a certain measure of occasional contact may have been kept up between Bobbio and Bangor. At what time or by whom the Antiphonary was carried from Bangor to St. Columban's Abbey of Bobbio, cannot with ceritainty be determined. It would not be surprising if, on the destruction of the establishment at Bangor by the Danes in the ninth century, some monk from Bangor should have sought shelter in the house founded by the disciple of St. Comgall, and should have carried thither a portion of the literary treasures of his own monastic home.[1]
The actual bearer of the codex from Bangor is generally supposed and stated to have been
Muratori is careful to state in his preface that the codex, though very old, and in part mutilated, may have been a copy made at Bobbio, by some of the local
Here only a summary can be given of the contents of the codex, to which the name of "Antiphonary" will be found to be not very applicable: (1) six
There are six canticles given:
- Audite, coeli
- Cantemus Domino
- Benedicite
- Te Deum
- Benedictus
- Gloria in excelsis
The Bangor Antiphonary gives sets of collects to be used at each hour. One set is in verse (cf. the Mass in hexameters in the Reichenau Gallican fragment). It also gives several sets of collects, not always complete, but always in the same order. It may be conjectured that these sets show some sort of skeleton of the Bangor Lauds. The order always is:
- Post canticum" (evidently from the subjects, which, like those of the first ode of a Greek canon, refer to the Crossing of the Red Sea, Cantemus Domino)
- Post Benedictionem trium Puerorum
- Post tres Psalmos, or Post Laudate Dominum de coelis (Ps. cxlvii–cl)
- Post Evangelium (clearly meaning benedictus, the only gospel canticle in the book and the only one not otherwise provided for. The same term is often applied—e.g. in the York Breviary—to Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis)
- Super hymnum
- De Martyribus-The last may perhaps be compared with the commemorations that come at the end of Lauds in, for instance, the pre-Vatican II Roman Divine Office. There are also sets of antiphons, super Cantemus Domino et Benedicite, super Laudate Dominum de coelis, and De Martyribus. In the Bangor book there are collects to go with the Te Deum, given apart from the preceding, as though they formed part of another Hour; but in the Turin fragment they, with the text of the Te Deum, follow the Benedicite and its collects, and precede the Laudate Dominum de coelis.
The Antiphonary gives twelve hymns of which eight are not found elsewhere, and ten are certainly intended for liturgical use. Comgall and Camelac are credited as authors.
In his Vita S. Columbani, Jonas of Bobbio mentioned that as a young man, Columbanus composed a number of pieces suitable for singing and useful for instruction. Michael Lapidge suggests that some of these may have found their way into Bangor books, including the Antiphonary, which seems to have been written around 700, about 100 years after the death of Columbanus. He indicates that there are compelling reasons to believe that the hymn Precamur patrem was written by Columbanus,[5] although this interpretation is not universally accepted.[6]
References
- ^ a b c ""The Bangor Antiphonary", The Tablet, p.9, 14 April 1893". Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
- ^ a b c Ua Clerigh, Arthur. "Antiphonary of Bangor." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 14 April 2015
- ^ Muratori, Ludovico Antonio. Antiquitatis Italicae Medii Aevi, Milan, 1740, III, 817–824
- ^ "The Antiphonary of Bangor", Reeves, William, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, First Series, Vol. 1, pp. 168-179, Ulster Archaeological Society , 1853
- ISBN 9780851156675
- ISBN 9780851158891
External links
- The Antiphonary of Bangor: an early Irish manuscript
- http://foundationsirishculture.ie/record/?id=7
- More information at Earlier Latin Manuscripts
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Antiphonary of Bangor". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.