The Berthold Missal (c.1215 -1217)
Almost Byzantine in their style, the brightly colored miniatures are set on polished gold backgrounds and are exemplars of late Romanesque illumination techniques. Folio 10v (fig. 2) reveals the standard crucifixion scene with Evangelists which preceded the opening of the Canon. Here, however, the Crucifixion faces a blank folio (11r). The Canon begins on folio 11v with a full page foliate initial "T," beginning the Canon, "Te igitur clementissime pater . . . " (Fig. 3) This foliate initial(5) bear striking resemblances to earlier Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, not surprising as Weingarten had an extensive collection of such works. The Berthold Missal does not yet recognize the First Sunday of Advent as the beginning of the liturgical year. Instead it ends the year on 21 December with the feast of St. Thomas.
Although not as well known as the Drogo or Metz Sacramentaries today, the miniatures of the Berthold Missal possess an energy and cleanness of line which recommend them to the simpler artistic tastes of the late twentieth century. Although books today do not have the same meaning and value to general society and the hand written, illuminated and bound books of the Middle Ages, the sacred nature of the Book in the liturgy is still celebrated in both Eastern and Western liturgies today.
Bibliography/Recommended Reading:
Cabie, Robert, The Eucharist: The Church at Prayer, Vol. II, Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1986.
Calkins, Robert G., Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages, Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Jungmann, Josef A., S.J., The Early Liturgy, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959.
Swarzenski, Hanns, The Berthold Missal and the Scriptorium of Weingarten Abbey, New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1943.
Notes: (1) The earliest descriptions of the liturgy in the Didache and Justin Martyr indicate that the presider prayed "as long as he is able" pointing to the absence of a ritual book containing liturgical prayers. However, Didache (c.150) also sets down certain words (institution narrative) which were generally to be used for Eucharist.
(2) Book oriented processions are rather truncated in the Roman Rite liturgy, although the reforms of Pope Paul VI have restored some of the ancient aspects of these rituals. The Eastern Liturgies retain the ancient veneration of the Book with the Little Entrance, in which the Gospels are carried solemnly through the church and enthroned (or placed) on the altar.
(3) Sacramentaries did not enjoy a serious revival until the promulgation of the Mass of Paul VI
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