Welsh Journals

The Bangor Pontifical: A Pontifical of the Use of Salisbury SALLY HARPER Only one complete liturgical manuscript survives from the medieval diocese of Bangor. The book referred to as 'the Bangor pontifical' is inscribed as belonging originally to Anian, bishop of Bangor, and is now confidently dated to the first quarter of the fourteenth century. It contains texts, music and detailed instructions for liturgical obser- vances conducted by a bishop: the dedication of churches, altars and cemeteries; the enthronement and consecration of an archbishop; and special blessings given during the canon of the Mass and on other specific occasions. It also includes ceremonies which are priestly rather than exclusively episcopal: the rites for the expulsion of penitents on Ash Wednesday and their reconciliation on Maundy Thursday, the last rites, the carrying of a body to the church, burial, and marriage, together with a group of votive masses. The manu- script contains a substantial corpus of plainchant, all copied onto a four-line stave, and there is one full-page illumination on fo. 8v of a bishop blessing a church. 1 The book belongs to the Dean and Chapter of Bangor Cathedral, but is now housed in the Library of the University of Wales, Bangor; Neil Ker has provided a comprehensive summary of its contents and palaeographical details.2 1 The background of pontificals and their study 1-1 Historical studies of the Bangor pontifical The Bangor pontifical is not an easy manuscript to place. At a phys- ical level it has many badly faded rubrics and some missing leaves; there are also puzzles regarding its date and provenance. References to it have appeared in studies by palaeographers, art historians and musicologists. Ker's description remains fullest and most reliable, but