Les nécrologes de Saint-Denis

Abstract

The commemorative traditions of the abbey of Saint-Denis go back to the Carolingian era, and the lists of living and dead registered in the Libri memoriales of Reichenau and Saint-Remi of Reims, and in two ninth-century sacramentaries. Little, however, survives from the following centuries. Three obituaries appear to have been compiled between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. The first is lost. The second, dating fromthe mid-twelfth century, is known from a single fragment measuring 63 × 117 mm(Bibl. nat. Fr., lat 17177, fol. 70). The third, from the second half of the thirteenth century, is preserved only in the edition that Dom Félibien included in his Histoire de l’abbaye royale de Saint-Denis (1706, document VIII). From the fourteenth century the only documents that survive are chronologically arranged lists, with additions up to the seventeenth century, and an account of the Office of Charities for 1325-1326. The text published by Félibien merits a new edition.