Exchange and Creativity in Bavarian Missals, c.900-1200.

forthcoming

MisBav intends to offer new insight into the connections and networks that made up medieval Western Europe, deploying a neglected source, the missal. Missals were found in every city, monastery and parish, because they were needed to celebrate the Mass, a ritual which played a crucial role in the relationships that made up medieval society. Each mass has a distinctive subject, which can vary hugely, and new masses were continually composed in the Middle Ages, to respond to historical events, but also to celebrate and solidify bonds. These new masses represent an entirely neglected creative output of the period. The manuscripts of missals themselves were also constantly updated and exchanged. This is not therefore the sterile tradition that it might appear, but rather a vibrant product of collaboration across cultural and political boundaries. But these sources remain largely inaccessible, and are rarely used outside of disciplinary siloes. This project will bring these sources to innovative use, deploying them to demonstrate relations of medieval institutions with each other. The specific subject is the missals made in Bavaria, a cultural crossroads of medieval Europe. Strongly culturally linked to Italy from its time as an independent state, Bavaria was brought into the Carolingian Empire and became a key participant of cultural and religious movements that spanned into France. It was also the source for the Christianisation of the kingdoms of Central and Eastern Europe. All of these left indelible marks on Bavaria's missals. The project thus aims to reconstruct the specific traits of missals made in Bavaria between 900 and 1200, and use these to track and demonstrate the cultural and intellectual exchanges that made this area part of a broader medieval Europe. It will develop new digital tools to enable research into missals more broadly. It will show how missals are a crucial witness to the dynamism and connectedness of medieval culture.