Introduction

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the liturgical reform by Alfonso VI that replaced the Old Hispanic rite with the Roman Rite in Toledo after Alfonso’s conquest of the city in 1085. One consequence of the reform was that the Old Hispanic chant melodies were never notated in diastematic notation, so the Visigothic neumes in which the melodies are preserved cannot be deciphered today. The chapter describes the medieval and early modern history of the Mozarabs of Toledo (who continued to observe their own rite) and the establishment of a new Mozarabic rite by Archbishop Cisneros. Burriel realized the differences between the editions of this rite published by Ortiz, and medieval codices of the Old Hispanic rite, whereas most historians thought that the editions transmitted the liturgy of the Visigoths. The modern Mozarabic rite was a potent cultural symbol of national identity in Bourbon Spain.