The Sacramentary of Ratoldus (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 12052). Edited by Nicholas Orchard. Pp. ccvi + 601. Illustrated. (Henry Bradshaw Society, 116.) London: The Boydell Press, 2005. isbn 1 870252 22 5. £35/$70. The Liturgy of the Late Anglo-Saxon Church. Edited by Helen Gittos and M. Bradford Bedingfield. Pp. xi + 331. (Henry Bradshaw Society Subsidia, 5.) London: The Boydell Press, 2005. isbn 1 870252 21 7. £50/$90
Kenneth Stevenson
The so-called ‘Sacramentary of Ratoldus’ is one the most complex liturgical texts late Carolingian era, as Nicholas Orchard's excellent edition demonstrates. Written at behest Ratoldus, Abbot Corbie 972–98, probably for a northern French bishop, manuscript itself has had life well. Ending up in Bibliothèque nationale Paris after Revolution, it been object numerous studies period since, and successive attempts last fifty years critical edition, starting with Dom Louis Brou, OSB, Quarr Abbey. This particular that rare breed, Sacramentary–Pontifical. But uniqueness ‘Ratoldus’ heightened by scholarly consensus whereas ‘Sacramentary’ material French, emanating from St-Denis, ‘Pontifical’ predominantly Anglo-Saxon, Canterbury. And yet, when all said done, text appears not to have used its intended recipient, but found way back Corbie, where further additions were made.
The Journal of Theological Studies