360 BuoniCattolici
Victor.^104 The text gives short allegorizations of clerical vestments, a sum-
mary of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, a brief commentary on the parts
of the Mass (in particular the Sanctus and Gloria), and the text of Compline.
The volume is well thumbed and dirty from use. A priest might have read
this text to deepen his devotion to the liturgy he celebrated. On the other
hand, the text would have been pretty much meaningless to a layperson. Its
allegorism of priestly vestments and its commentary on the Hebrew and
Greek words for offices like subdeacon would have been dry arcana. A sec-
ond example of a text produced for clerics is a Camoldolese manuscript in
Florence, which has two parts, a text of the monastic Office and a section
entitledFlos Omnium Orationum.^105 This second part sounds like the kind of
prayer recommended by Peter the Chanter, but it is not. These are nearly
all ‘‘psalm prayers,’’ intended for use after the psalms of the monastic Office.
They use allegory to Christianize the Psalter. Such a devotional book made
sense only for someone who regularly read or sang the Divine Office.
A search of clerical manuscripts might reveal occasional devotions suit-
able for nonclerics. A sumptuous Franciscan manuscript from the mid- 1200 s,
for example, includes a drawing showing the measure of Christ’s body size
(fig. 57 ) and two poetic forms of the Ave Maria (fig. 53 ).^106 Is it possible that
a devout layman might have enjoyed these items? Yes. Does the other con-
tent of the codex take us into the world of lay piety? No. Closer to the ideal
of Peter the Chanter is a codex of ‘‘sacred prayers’’ (preces sacre) in Bologna.^107
This book is small, portable, a devotional pocket book. Its first part is twelfth-
century and of monastic provenance, consisting of a commentary on Bene-
dict’s rule and prayers to monastic saints. On folio 28 r, however, the hand
changes. From there on, the text is thirteenth-century, perhaps late, and
includes a prayer honoring the Passion of Christ, with a rubric listing indul-
gences granted by ‘‘Pope Gregory’’ and confirmed by ‘‘Pope Nicholas.’’
These would probably be the thirteenth-century popes Gregory IX and
Nicholas III. But these later additions are monastic, too; they include a
prayer for attention in singing the Office (fol. 34 r). The thirteenth century
saw a rising lay desire to acquire indulgences, that is, Church grants of remis-
sion of punishment due for already confessed sins. The real proliferation of
indulgences in prayer collections, however, is fourteenth-century. In any
case, the feeling of this part of the manuscript is less clerical. The later
- Hugh of St. Victor,De Sacramentis, 2. 3 – 4 ,PL 173 : 421 – 38. But the parallel is not perfect; the text
is also similar to the anonymousSpeculum Mysteriis Ecclesiae(post- 1180 ),PL 177 , app., but the etymologies
of the clerical Offices resemble those of Pseudo-Alcuin of York,De Divinis Officiis, 34 – 44 ,PL 101 : 1251 – 74. - Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msConv. Soppr. C. 8. 693 (xiicent.), fols. 1 r– 52 v:Officium
Monasticum;fols. 52 v– 115 v:Flos Omnium Orationum.For another example of a similar clerical prayer collec-
tion, see Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msMagl.xxxvi. 81 bis. This codex includes four elevation
prayers, which might have appealed to a lay audience. - Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msPl.xxv 3, fol. 15 v(Christ’s body); fols. 210 v– 211 v,
363 v(versions of the Ave). - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 2858(xiicent.).