Patterns of devotion in Britain and Ireland

Abstract

From its 19th-century beginnings, the focus of modern scholarship on the later medieval liturgy of the British Isles has largely been centred on England. Musicology has thus appeared to lag behind developments set in train by Rees Davies’s work challenging and decentring the Anglo-centricism of British history in the 1990s, and echoed by investigations of palaeography, archaeology and literature which identify insular networks and connections in palaeography, archaeology and literature. This volume therefore sets out to align the study of music and liturgy in central and late medieval Britain with developments already well underway in other disciplines. At the same time, it reflects recent work highlighting the diversity of many medieval liturgical practices. The Uses of Sarum and York are no longer viewed as single traditions, but rather families of different influences with a stable core repertory. The editors do so by bringing together ten case studies. As a whole, these exemplify the revisionist work currently being undertaken in three related fields: research demonstrating the degree of localization and variation in the dissemination of the various ‘Uses’; plurality in the veneration of saints’ cults; and the various networks between the British Isles and the Continent which helped shape later medieval liturgical culture. The collection is divided into three parts, each of which begins with a helpful historiographic overview co-authored by the editors, before concluding with an epilogue pointing to future directions.