A Historical Overview of Musical Worship & Culture in Sardinia 445
saints, such as Lussorio (Luxurius/Luxorius/Ruxurius/Ruxorius), Antioco
(Antiochus), Saturnino/Saturno (Saturninus/Saturnus), Gavino, Proto e
Gianuario (Gavinus, Protus and Gianuarius), and Simplicio (Simplicius), rep-
resent the most significant literary production of the giudicati in Sardinia from
the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries.53
Contacts between the orders in Sardinia and monastic centers were fre-
quent and varied in nature. For example, Alberic of Montecassino (1030–1105),
hagiographer, poet, and musicographer, wrote a Passio Modesti, in which the
saint Modestus is considered of noble Sardinian origins: “de tellure Sardinica
[...] parentibus nobilibus.”54 There was also the Cassinese archivist and li-
brarian, Peter Diaconus (1107–1159), who continued the Chronica Monasterii
Casinensis; he was exiled to Sardinia in 1128, at the age of 21, and there he wrote
the Passio Marci et sociorum.55 On the whole, monastic European expertise in
worship and written culture (with all its implications for music), took root on
the island.
The passiones were originally conceived as readings (lectiones) for the three
nocturns of the “matins” (matutinum), followed by the singing of responso-
ries (each nocturn with three readings and three responsories, even four in the
monastic cursus), and interspersed with psalms, antiphons, and hymns. The
(Sassari, 1968); Ginevra Zanetti, I Camaldolesi in Sardegna (Cagliari, 1974); Giampaolo
Mele, “Appunti storici sul canto ‘gregoriano’ e la liturgia in Sardegna dal secolo VI al XII.
Rotte di culto e cultura,” in Gregorio Magno e la Sardegna. Atti del Convegno internazionale
di studio di Sassari, 15–16 aprile 2005, ed. Luigi Giovanni Giuseppe Ricci (Florence, 2007),
pp. 203–204.
53 Bacchisio Raimondo Motzo, Studi sui Bizantini in Sardegna e sull’agiografia sarda
(Cagliari, 1987); Giampaolo Mele, “Codici agiografici, culto e pellegrini nella Sardegna
medioevale. Note storiche e appunti di ricerca sulla tradizione monastica,” in Gli anni
santi nella storia: atti del congresso internazionale, Cagliari, 16–19 ottobre 1999, ed. Luisa
D’Arienzo (Cagliari, 2000), pp. 552–565. On the Passio of Saint Saturninus, see the splen-
did edition by Antonio Piras, ed., Passio Sancti Saturnini (BHL 7491) ad fidem codicum
qui adhuc exstant nunc primum critice edita ac commentario instructa. Accedunt legenda
(BHL 7940), hymnus (BHL 7491b) recensio Iohannis Arca nec non epitome passionis Sancti
Saturnini (BHL 9035b) (Rome, 2002).
54 Biblioteca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis: supplementum ediderunt Socii
Bollandiani (Brussels, 1901), n. 5983d. In Hartmut Hoffmann, ed., Chronica monasterii
Casinensis: Die Chronik von Montecassino (Hanover, 1980), there is a quotation from the
Passio Modesti, handed down through the fols. 63r–66v of code V 19, preserved in the
Chapter Library of Benevento (Breviarium monasticum officii et missae) in Beneventan
handwriting dating from the twelfth century, with neumes. See also, Mele, “Codici agi-
ografici, culto e pellegrini,” pp. 554–556.
55 Hoffmann, Chronica monasterii Casinensis, p. xi, n. 42.