Liturgical dramas

With no doubt, one of the main problems in the history of the trope has been the present-day terminology. From the most meaningful attempts (which take account of a perspective which can be purely historical, practical, aesthetical, philological, musicological or liturgical), the question of “genre” in the medieval world urges an answer, which may comprehend in a deeper way what the trope as a phenomenon meant in those centuries. The analysis of some samples preserved in Spanish manuscripts will provide more information about the sense, the meaning and the purpose of medieval compilation workers, such as their writing tropus in the heading of an item. This research will also point out different reasons of agreement and disagreement between their medieval conception of genre and our “modern” one.

Although the Virgin Mary only spoke on four occasions in the New Testament (Luke 1:26–38, 1:46–56, 2:41–52, and John 2:1–11), medieval devotional and dramatic sources imagined the Mother of God to speak eloquently and powerfully. This article explores examples of Mary in conflicted dialogue with her husband Joseph. Analysis of their manufactured dialogues demonstrates how their discussions
reflected concerns within the medieval household. The Corpus Christi plays, a form of English liturgical dramas, reflected prevailing thoughts on women’s speech within the domestic sphere. This article argues that the depictions of Mary within the Corpus Christi dramas served as a mouthpiece to encourage proper behavior in the household.
The pageants “Marriage of Mary and Joseph,” “Joseph’s Troubles of Mary,” and “The Trial of Joseph and Mary,” supply examples where Marian legends were creatively portrayed in these public performances. The ways in which Mary’s voice was manipulated reflects key issues concerning women’s speech in medieval society. This article grounds pageant analysis in medieval writings on marital expectations, illuminating a complex socio-religious tradition. Evaluating these sources in tandem also illustrates how the wife’s speech was a central concern throughout these sources, and how Mary’s voice provided a suitable model for imitation.

The expression "liturgical drama" was formulated in 1834 as a metaphor and hardened into formal category only later in the nineteenth century. Prior to this invention, the medieval rites and representations that would forge the category were understood as distinct and unrelated classes: as liturgical rites no longer celebrated or as theatrical works of dubious quality. This ground-breaking work examines "liturgical drama" according to the contexts of their presentations within the manuscripts and books that preserve them. Available online: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_edam/5/

En 1566, el exorcismo de la joven Nicole Obry fue utilizado por el catolicismo francés como argumento de debate en contra de la crítica reformista de los hugonotes al culto a la Eucaristía y a los Santos. A tal fin, el caso de posesión se difundió como un milagro eucarístico, para el que se redactaron varios textos y se diseñaron dos grabados. En uno de éstos, se representó sintéticamente la larga ceremonia del exorcismo llevado a cabo en la catedral de Laon, sobre un tablado elevado en el antecoro de la catedral. Este artículo trata sobre las implicaciones arquitectónicas y litúrgicas del grabado en nuestra comprensión de la catedral medieval, frente a su consideración como fuente para la historia del teatro.

RESUMEN Presentamos una serie de textos poéticos contenidos en un manuscrito de la segunda mitad del siglo XVI, los cuales se ponen en relación con ciertas manifestaciones dramáticas y procesio-nales que contribuyeron al desarrollo del teatro litúrgico castellano de los siglos XV y XVI. Este tipo de composiciones en lengua romance aparecieron con frecuencia interpoladas en el oficio, siguiendo cierto orden teatral, y pervivieron incluso después de que las disposiciones tridenti-nas impusieran la depuración de dichos materiales y la prohibición de aquel tipo de representa-ciones. Palabras Clave: Teatro litúrgico, lírica tradicional, vueltas a lo divino, oficio, Ordo Prophetarum. ABSTRACT We present a series of poetic texts included in a manuscript from the second half of the 16 th century, which are related to certain theatrical and processional manifestations that contributed to the development of the 15 th and 16 th century Castilian liturgical drama. Such compositions in the Romance language often appeared interjected in the offices, following a certain theatrical order, and persisted even after the Tridentine decisions imposed the purification of those lines and the prohibition of that sort of performances.

El cant de la Sibil·la és una tradició medieval que avui encara es canta a l'illa de Mallorca durant la nit de Nadal. Però existeixen traces que demostren el coneixement popular d'aquesta representació a l'illa de Menorca almenys fins al segle XIX.

The Chant of the Sibyl is a medieval tradition that is still sung in the island of Mallorca during the Christmas eve. But they exist traces that show its popular knowledge in Menorca at least until XIX century.

Revista Lluc, núm. 877, juliol-setembre de 2011, p. 65-67.

Lang: Catalan

The paper explores the affective potential of sculptural groups and painted images of the Crucifixion, Deposition and Lamentation by considering the synaesthetic and performative relationships that existed between art and drama in the context of liturgy.

"This book concentrates on the first few years of the Arena Chapel’s existence, treating its subject as an integrated project involving art, architecture and viewer experience. This, argues Laura Jacobus, is how Giotto would have approached the task of designing the chapel and its frescoes: as a holistic entity.  Determining the nature of the original project is of primary importance for understanding the frescoes which decorate the chapel, and this is the first book to consider the building’s original functions, form and usage.  Doing so allows the author to propose a series of completely new interpretations of the frescoes, revealing them to be both more concerned with the mundane, and more spiritually profound, than has previously been understood.

Part I rigorously examines a wide variety of evidence in order to answer many of the questions surrounding the chapel’s history.  In the fullest biography of the chapel’s patron yet published, the author calls into question received opinion about his motivation for building the chapel.  Interpreting documentary material together with physical evidence found in the chapel itself, she proposes a new understanding of the chapel as a multi-functional social space, divided along lines of gender and social status, and intended for use by very different constituencies.  She also demonstrates that the chapel’s design and construction were dynamic processes subject to change over the course of just a few years, and that Giotto’s own involvement with the project fluctuated.  Reassessing workshop practices in the light of the recent restoration of the frescoes, she offers new insights into Giotto’s role as one of the founders of the western art tradition.  Most controversially, she proposes a radical reconstruction of Giotto’s original design of the Arena Chapel frescoes. 

Part II of the book turns to the interpretation of Giotto’s frescoes in the light of these discoveries.  The author adopts a number of different perspectives, always with the aim of recovering viewers’ experience of the chapel, and their potential understanding of the frescoes.  She highlights the ideological content of Giotto’s images, suggesting that the frescoes express the interests and insecurities of the new, entrepreneurial class to which both the artist and his patron belonged.  Far from being a source of fear and loathing, wealth is re-branded in the frescoes as a social good.  The manners and mores of the newly-rich are reflected and reinforced on the walls of the chapel, which show a world characterised by socially-harmonious inequality of the sexes and social estates.  In what is possibly the earliest programme of confraternal imagery yet to be discovered,  the Apostolate is presented as the idealised ‘mirror’ of a corrupt and elitist confraternity.  Yet there are also profound moral and spiritual lessons to be learned from the frescoes, which place every viewer within an unfolding history of human salvation and offer each one the hope of Heaven through the exercise of their own moral choice.

The book includes a wealth of illustrations, and valuable appendices of newly-discovered documents or newly-edited and translated sources, by Prof. Benjamin J. Kohl and Dr. Joseph Spooner.

"This book concentrates on the first few years of the Arena Chapel’s existence, treating its subject as an integrated project involving art, architecture and viewer experience. This, argues Laura Jacobus, is how Giotto would have approached the task of designing the chapel and its frescoes: as a holistic entity. Determining the nature of the original project is of primary importance for understanding the frescoes which decorate the chapel, and this is the first book to consider the building’s original functions, form and usage. Doing so allows the author to propose a series of completely new interpretations of the frescoes, revealing them to be both more concerned with the mundane, and more spiritually profound, than has previously been understood. Part I rigorously examines a wide variety of evidence in order to answer many of the questions surrounding the chapel’s history. In the fullest biography of the chapel’s patron yet published, the author calls into question received opinion about his motivation for building the chapel. Interpreting documentary material together with physical evidence found in the chapel itself, she proposes a new understanding of the chapel as a multi-functional social space, divided along lines of gender and social status, and intended for use by very different constituencies. She also demonstrates that the chapel’s design and construction were dynamic processes subject to change over the course of just a few years, and that Giotto’s own involvement with the project fluctuated. Reassessing workshop practices in the light of the recent restoration of the frescoes, she offers new insights into Giotto’s role as one of the founders of the western art tradition. Most controversially, she proposes a radical reconstruction of Giotto’s original design of the Arena Chapel frescoes. Part II of the book turns to the interpretation of Giotto’s frescoes in the light of these discoveries. The author adopts a number of different perspectives, always with the aim of recovering viewers’ experience of the chapel, and their potential understanding of the frescoes. She highlights the ideological content of Giotto’s images, suggesting that the frescoes express the interests and insecurities of the new, entrepreneurial class to which both the artist and his patron belonged. Far from being a source of fear and loathing, wealth is re-branded in the frescoes as a social good. The manners and mores of the newly-rich are reflected and reinforced on the walls of the chapel, which show a world characterised by socially-harmonious inequality of the sexes and social estates. In what is possibly the earliest programme of confraternal imagery yet to be discovered, the Apostolate is presented as the idealised ‘mirror’ of a corrupt and elitist confraternity. Yet there are also profound moral and spiritual lessons to be learned from the frescoes, which place every viewer within an unfolding history of human salvation and offer each one the hope of Heaven through the exercise of their own moral choice. The book includes a wealth of illustrations, and valuable appendices of newly-discovered documents or newly-edited and translated sources, by Prof. Benjamin J. Kohl and Dr. Joseph Spooner.