Auswahl der wissenschaftlichen Literatur zum Thema „Seittenstetten, Austria (Benedictine abbey)“

This article provides the first detailed study of two medieval liturgical manuscripts from the Benedictine Abbey of Lambach, Upper Austria, kept today in the monastic Library and Archives of Downside Abbey in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, Somerset, UK. The new codicological, palaeographical and historical evidence presented in this study shows that both these manuscripts played a central part in the monastery’s liturgical life and routine during the later 12th century. The first part of the article provides a full codicological and palaeographical analysis of the two manuscripts, the first to appear in published form, while the second part offers a wider thematic study that contextualises the two codices and their contents within Lambach’s medieval liturgical and communal culture.

In the twelfth century, the scriptorium of the Benedictine abbey in Lambach, Austria, was a flourishing centre of manuscript production. Surviving manuscripts of many genres testify to the quality and breadth of the artistic output of the monastery during this period. For a long time, no examples of chant manuscripts were known; recently, however, a number of fragmentary chant manuscripts have been identified, and more recently still a noted Missal preserved at Melk has been attributed to Lambach. The study of the fragments has led to the discovery of an innovative method of indicating mode and final at the monastery, using the tonary-letter system attributed to the St Gall monk Hartker.

Within the framework of research on the Anulus seu dialogus inter Christianum et Iudaeum, written by the monk Rupert of Liège or of Deutz (about 1075-1129), a manuscript which was given up for lost by some scholars (R. Haacke e M. Neusner) has been identified. It is the Cod. 517, housed in the Benedictine abbey of Admont in Styria (Austria). This article briefly explains the significance of Rupert’s work, transmitted in this manuscript, and notes the strange oblivion in to which the manuscript had fallen in recent decades. The article offers the first complete description of the manuscript, and points out the main distinguish elements of its external aspect and contents. Of particular interest -and suggestion of future research -are the partial erasure of the name of the owner and the presence of two abruptly texts : the canon of a local synod (Auxerre ?) and the first part of the De sacramentis excommunicatorum of Bernaldo of Constance (XI century).

In 1798 the monks of the Benedictine convent of Einsiedeln had to flee from the French revolutionary troops invading their village and abbey, losing not only their home, but also their beloved instruments and musical manuscripts. The flight led them to the small monastery of St. Gerold in Austria. Einsiedeln was proud of its musical culture; therefore, the exile represented both a mental and musical caesura. Based on Magnificat compositions written by the monks themselves between 1760 and 1800 it is possible to trace some of the adjustments made in exile. In Einsiedeln composers such as P. Justus Burach wrote both small-scale pieces for four voices and continuo, as well as larger works for two choirs. The same dual repertoire can be found in the hand of P. Marcus Zech with pieces for four voices plus continuo, as well as masterful works in cantata style for orchestra, choir and soloists. P. Marian Müller also wrote large-scale works in a similar cantata style. In contrast, the earliest compositions written in exile, such as those by P. Marcus Landtwing, pursue the tradition of Burach’s and Zech’s smaller compositions, while the cantata style is no longer appropriate to the new context. On the basis of this repertoire analysis one can observe how the Einsiedeln monks reacted to the new environment of St. Gerold while striving to develop their own musical traditions.

AbstractThe study, dedicated to Beautiful Pietàs conserved in South Tyrol (Northern Italy), aims to establish, for the first time, a connection between Austroalpine raw materials and the high-fired gypsum mortars constituting the Gothic figure groups in question. The origin and chronology of this stylistically and qualitatively differing ensemble have been subject of art historical debate for nearly a century. The discourse is dominated by three main hypotheses: itinerary of an Austrian artist versus itinerary of the work of art created in an artist’s workshop in Austria versus itinerary of the stylistic vocabulary via graphical or three-dimensional models. The comparison of the δ34S values and the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the gypsum mortars and Austroalpine sulphate deposits (in a compilation of own reference samples and literature data) points to the exploitation of sediments in the Salzkammergut and possibly also in the evaporite district of the Eastern Calcareous Alps, thus evidencing the import of the sculptures and not the activities of local South Tyrolean or itinerant artists. Two geochronological units are distinguishable: The Pietà in the Church St. Martin in Göflan can be assigned to Upper Permian raw material, whereas the metrologically consistent sculptures in the Church of Our Lady of the Benedictine Abbey Marienberg and in the Chapel St. Ann in Mölten correlate with deposits of the Early Triassic (or the Lower-Middle Triassic transition). The medieval gypsum mortars also differ in their mineralogical characteristics, i.e. in their geologically related minor components, as in the first case, characterised by a significant proportion of primary anhydrite, natural carbonate impurities mainly consist of calcite (partly converted to lime-lump-like aggregates), whereas in the second group dolomite (or rather its hydration products after pyrometamorphic decomposition) predominates, accompanied by celestine, quartz and potassium feldspar. The Pietà in the Cathedral Maria Himmelfahrt in Bozen turned out to be made of Breitenbrunn calcareous sandstone (Leitha Mountains, Burgenland, Austria), which is why the sample is not considered in the geochemical analysis. Graphical Abstract