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Canon of the Mass |
The central section of a Mass is the Canon, called by this name to indicate its "canonical" or fixed nature, in that its arrangement of prayers and rites are not subject to variations due to the seasons of the liturgical year, or to the respective rankings of any coinciding feasts. These prayers of consecration of the bread and wine are said by the priest at every Mass; therefore, in the early Middle Ages, they were collected (together with certain other ceremonies) in the book reserved for the priest, called a sacramentary. By the end of the thirteenth century, the sacramentary and other books for the celebration of the Mass (the lectionary for the mass and the gradual) had been combined into a single book, the missal. In the books in the present exhibit, the Canon is clearly understood to begin with the prayer, "Te igitur," whose initial T is hierarchically signaled by a larger size, more elaborate decoration, and sometimes a miniature. The canon may be copied in larger script for ease of reading, and it may be copied (or later, printed) on parchment even if the rest of the book is on paper to ensure its survival in spite of very frequent use. Directly preceding the Canon, in the manuscripts of the
late middle ages, one often finds a Crucifixion miniature; in French manuscripts,
the page that faces the Crucifixion miniature is frequently a "Maiestas
Domini," God enthroned with the Evangelists or their symbols in the
four corners (the two full-page miniatures were often painted on a distinct
bifolium, with the outer sides of it left blank). |