Holy Treasure and Sacred Song
Benjamin Brand
Abstract This book explores the complex interplay between relic cults and liturgy in Middle Ages. The of saints buried churches throughout Christendom provoked expressions devotion through various media, including not only more familiar ones like hagiographic literature, sacred architecture, visual art but also texts, music, ritual liturgy. study situates this oft-neglected yet critical domain religious life at center its examination medieval Tuscany, which boasted rich well-documented veneration holy bishops martyrs cathedrals suburban shrines principal cities. Holy Treasure reveals that music composed for these local saints—no fewer than ninety chants Mass Divine Office—belonged to larger campaigns included writing their lives building decoration shrines. authors such programs were self-appointed protectors relics, namely canons, who strove a monopoly over material (if spiritual) benefits cults. In so doing, Tuscan clerics drew on influential models—literary, architectural, musical, ritual—from preeminent European powers, Rome, Carolingian Empire. By integrating detailed analyses plainsong into panorama, traces dialectic local, regional, pan-European politics revealing centrality development