I suppose that life is about balance. What, did you really think I was about to say it’s like a box of chocolates? I guess that’s fairly accurate for this whole manuscript business, as well as the trip. It all started out beautifully, with great weather and some fun opportunities. Honestly, starting the week by getting to see Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” in person was fantastic. Even as nervous as we were about going to the Morgan Library the first day was understandable, but ultimately unnecessary. Everyone was incredibly helpful and kind to us there, and the reading room was fantastic, reminding me somewhat of the atmosphere one is met with inside Oxford’s Radcliffe Camera reading rooms.
On the first day in the Library, Katie and I were shown how to operate the microfilm machines and provided with the reels of most of the manuscripts that we had requested. Hilariously, one of my reels had been pulled by mistake, the number being nearly identical to that of the manuscript I had actually asked to see; supposedly, it was supposed to have a microfilm copy, but that turned out to be untrue. I was so confused as to why the entire microfilm was of folios with chess move diagrams, and later backgammon moves. Beyond that, looking through the microfilm and the physical manuscripts we were granted permission to access was perfectly straightforward.
Of course, all good things must be balanced by something negative it seems at times. My work was complicated by my laptop crashing Tuesday evening in a way that was beyond my capabilities to remedy — busted hard drive… Maybe? I got a single day of working in the reading room with my laptop there to provide me with help. I never realized how easy it was to bring up the Psalm I was looking for to compare to those in a manuscript, or double check text against a hymn when I was using a laptop. All my information all stashed in one place in separate tabs one little click away, with a full sized keyboard. So it wasn’t impossible, but it was somewhat frustrating to type text into a Google search with just my thumbs on my phone, looking to see if I could find a match to what I was looking at.
Manuscript-wise, what I found seems to point towards standardization. I encountered many of the Psalms that I already knew were common in the Long Hours of the Passion, and many hymns that I’ve recorded as occurring in that text also were featured in multiple manuscripts that I looked at. I’m still compiling the information right now. My methods mainly consisted of transcribing the hymns found in each hour, and making note of the Psalms in each one, and whether they were included in their entirety or not. I am working from there to add to all of the data I have previously accumulated, and hope to be able to extract a hypothesis from there.
One notable manuscript was a fourteenth century Book of Hours produced either in Tyriol, Austria or southern Germany. Much of it seems to be local text, and my German is pretty rusty. However, within the Hours of the Passion in this book, there is at least one Psalm that is common in the Books of Hours that I’ve previously looked at: Psalm 21. As out of practice as I am, I could definitely recognize ‘Mein Got Mein Got warum hast du much verlassen?’ It wasn’t in the sext hour like is common in most French and Dutch manuscripts, but that it still occurs indicates the obvious association the Psalm held with the Passion.
I will continue to compile my data from my transcriptions, and from there, this will contribute to my CURO Symposium presentation. Look forward to some posts about that process and what I find from this week of research!
Madison Hogan