IMAGES OF MEDIEVAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE
FRANCE: CHARTRES (CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE-DAME)
© Alison Stones

The Martyrology and Obituary of Chartres

This manuscript, substantially written before 1027, was produced for use at Chartres Cathedral. It is one of the few medieval manuscripts to survive the accidental bombing of the municipal library on 26 May 1944. It had been removed from Chartres around 1787, and was acquired from the municipal library of Saint-Étienne (Loire) in 1946. Its contents, many listed as links below, are principally Usuard's Martyrology, music for the Office of St. Giles, and the Obituary of the Cathedral. Inserted into the Martyrology, in the first half of April, are two leaves (mounted as a bifolio) devoted to Bishop Fulbert: on the first leaf is the obituary and eulogy of Fulbert within an architectural frame (f. 33r) ending on the verso and followed by three lines giving the name of the artist, André de Mici (f. 33v). He painted the miniature on f. 34, showing Fulbert in his Cathedral addressing a crowd of men and boys, and (under a separate arch) women. The Martyrology of Usuard (d. 875), a monk of St. Germain-des-Prés, Paris, was the most popular one in use in Medieval Europe, and is a calendrical commemoration of the feasts of saints. The music for First Vespers, Matins, Lauds and Second Vespers for the Feast of St. Giles, inserted between the Martyrology and the Obituary, has been attributed in whole or in part to Fulbert, who also composed the text.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS


Tables of Rules and Moveable Feasts	Insertion Fulbert & his Cathedral	Martyrology October	Two Charters
Martyrology Prologue	Martyrology May	Martyrology November	Short Litanies of the Saints
Martyrology January	Martyrology June	Martyrology December	Liturgical Ceremony: Hic est ordo...
Martyrology February	Martyrology July	Office of Saint Giles 1st Vespers Antiphon, Matins, Laudes, 2nd Vespers Antiphon	Mass of the Dead: Lessons, Prayers
Martyrology March	Martyrology August		Mass of the Virgin: Collects
Martyrology April	Martyrology September	Obituary Fulbert's obituary	Charter