66. Antiphonary

This is the left side (verso) of the first (and only remaining) leaf of Latin text and notes from a choir book written in western Germany around the turn of the 13th century, used to record both the musical notes (“horseshoe-nail” notes, in black on a red 4-line staff) and the words of the prayers to be sung for the first nocturn (the first part of the night Office) during Pentecost, the feast celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. The size of the page made it possible for several singers to read it at a distance; it also was a sign of its value, as was the historiated initial depicting a priest and his assistant serving Mass. In a 2010 article in the Harvard Library Bulletin (21:2), pp. 5-17 Felix Heinzer explicates the complex theological relationship between the eucharistic image in the historiated initial and Pentecost.