Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday 12 January 2024

Durandus on Epiphany


According to traditional usage we are still in the Epiphany Octave, so it is still appropriate to cast our minds back to the Feast itself.

The New Liturgical Movement has had two articles by Gregory Di Pippo about the commentary of the thirteenth century scholar bishop Guillaume Durandus on the celebration of Epiphany. The articles can be read at Durandus on the Epiphany (Part 1) and at Durandus on the Epiphany (Part 2)

Wikipedia has a short account of Durandus which serves as an introduction to his several works at Guillaume Durand

The Rationale is available in translation from Amazon or through bookshops. It became well known to scholars and to clergy in the nineteenth century as a major source for understanding and copying medieval practice. In the wake of the inter-way Liturgical Movement and of Vatican II it has been perhaps sadly less influential. It is good therefore to see it easily accessible in modern editions.


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