Jointly written by two art historians (Hamburger and Marti), a historian (Schlotheuber) and a musicologist (Fassler), these weighty tomes examine a network of chant manuscripts copied by Dominican nuns at the convent of Paradies bei Soest in Westphalia. One remarkable manuscript, a highly decorated Gradual copied in c.1380 (Düsseldorf, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, D 11),Footnote ¹ sits at the heart of the study. The other extant chant books from the convent include a pair of Antiphoners dating from c.1320 (Düsseldorf D7 and D9: winter and summer parts respectively),Footnote ² a Gradual from c.1420 (Düsseldorf D12),Footnote ³ plus a number of related fragments. The nuns clearly had an active and well-recognised scriptorium, for they were also commissioned to copy books for external users, including a Gradual made by sister Elisabeth von Lünen in c.1360 for the Dominican friars in Dortmund (Dortmund, Archiv der Probsteigemeinde, Cod. B. 6), and perhaps books for other Orders, which have not survived (or at least have not yet been identified). Through a detailed study of the Paradies manuscripts, the authors prompt a re-evaluation of the role of Dominican sisters and of female monasticism more generally: the high degree of literacy, education, intellectual engagement and skill demonstrated in creating these books (and some of the chants within them) challenges the narrative that there was a decline in education and comprehension of the liturgy among nuns in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Part I sets out the historical context of the convent of Paradies bei Soest, exploring what can be deduced about the foundation, buildings and the nuns’ lifestyle from surviving primary material and from comparison with other related institutions, such as that of the Dominican nuns at St Marien in Lemgo, the other female community in Westphalia. A new edition of the foundation story of Paradies is supplied in Volume 2, Appendix A. Through an examination of manuscripts, book lists, Dominican writings and other artefacts from the time, the authors convincingly argue that many of the nuns were well educated, literate and versed in Latin, and that convent schools provided an education for sisters who joined the Order at a younger age.

The chapters in Part II give an in-depth study of the production of the five key chant books that survive from Paradies bei Soest (shelfmarks above), including an examination of their codicology, palaeography, decoration and contents. Further catalogue descriptions of these manuscripts are supplied in Volume II, Appendix C. A complex picture emerges at Paradies bei Soest of sophisticated manuscript production by the sisters, who sometimes called on the services of professional artists but also employed their own artistic capabilities. The manuscripts are contextualised through extensive reference to contemporary visual, devotional and textual culture, a feature of Liturgical Life and Latin Learning which no doubt benefited from the combined expertise of the four authors.

The close attention paid to manuscripts yields insightful conclusions, but some quibbles with certain details may be raised. For example, the authors note that the stave-lines in the Antiphoners D7 and D9 and the Graduals D11 and D12 were first ruled in faint brown ink during the preparation of the page, and then were re-drawn in red (pp. 118–19, 173, 192).Footnote ⁴ I could not discern traces of brown ink in the figures supplied, or in the online facsimiles, although this may be visible on inspection of the manuscript in person. If so, this curious process of ruling each stave line twice (and perhaps erasing the first set?) would have been very labour intensive (the staves were drawn without the use of a rastrum), with the sole purpose of clarifying to the text scribe where they should avoid writing. An experienced copyist (as those at Paradies clearly were) would have been able to judge the size required for their script; if extra guidance was needed, surely ruling the lowest line of the stave would have sufficed. Likewise, the suggestion that the musical clefs may have been inserted in a single campaign after the copying of the notation (p. 118) seems impracticable, especially as the clefs regularly vary from stave to stave. It is claimed that secular scribes were probably unable to copy liturgical chant, owing to the co-ordination needed between notes and text underlay (pp. 144–5); this argument would suggest that music could only be copied by those who performed it. Certainly, music scribes must have been musically literate, and the authors put forward a convincing case that the Paradies nuns were heavily involved in designing their chant books, including copying them; nonetheless, in manuscripts elsewhere, there are also examples of professional secular scribes successfully copying liturgical music.Footnote ⁵

The chant books from Paradies bei Soest are among numerous surviving Dominican manuscripts that are beautifully decorated and illuminated. Although the Dominicans initiated an Act in 1239 which (among other things) forbade the use of gold letters in Dominican books (cited on p. 129), the approval of this Act in 1240 omitted the clause about gold lettering, and the Act was never confirmed in 1241, meaning that it did not enter the Dominican Constitutions.Footnote ⁶ As a result, while it certainly appears that Dominicans in 1239 had some qualms about gold illumination, any attempts to regulate book production in this manner were tellingly dropped the following year, and the Dominicans made no binding ruling on the matter.

Part III examines the sequence repertory of the three Paradies Graduals, and marks the beginning of a focus on D11, which is also the subject of Parts IV–VI, and whose sequentiary displays the greatest degree of creativity. Fassler demonstrates that the Dominican sisters carefully selected existing sequences and in all likelihood wrote new ones as a form of commentary or exegesis for important feast days. Moreover, the sequence repertory worked in tandem with the considered use of iconography and inscriptions, giving us a broader understanding of the devotional values of the community, such as a particular devotion to Mary, to St John the Evangelist, and a concern for the protection of the laity. The matrix of sequences, artwork and inscriptions also indicates that the Paradies nuns, or at least those involved in creating the books, had a deep understanding of and engagement with their liturgical practice.

Not only creative in terms of its sequences, the Gradual D11 is the richest and most innovative of the manuscripts in its decoration and use of inscriptions. Parts IV and V examine D11 page by page, cataloguing for each feast the chant incipits, rubrics, inscriptions, initials and other figures depicted in the decoration. This is accompanied by a discussion of the chant texts, inscriptions and iconography. The discussion elucidates how the visual and verbal commentary reflected the theology of the nuns, and contextualises how D11 relates to the later Paradies Gradual D12, to other manuscripts and visual culture, and to related texts, such as sermons and commentaries. Figures are included to illustrate all the artwork discussed, both from the Paradies manuscripts and elsewhere. Part IV covers every feast of the temporal cycle (the four Sundays of Advent, the December Ember days, Christmas Eve, and so on), while Part V groups specific Sanctoral feasts together for comparative analysis. Part VI, a single chapter, considers the inscriptions and iconography of D11 as a whole, reflecting on similarities with other forms of exegesis, the sources on which the nuns drew (largely scripture, but also other texts which the nuns presumably held in their library), the organisation of inscriptions on the page, and the planning that this must have involved. The exegetical imagery and inscriptions seem to imitate elements of glossing, suggesting that this community of Dominican nuns was familiar with scholarly practices, was highly educated, and had a good command of Latin.

This substantial portion of the book (spanning 483 pages) gives not only a fascinating insight into D11, but also, thanks to the extensive references to other depictions of each feast and relevant contemporary texts, will provide a useful reference to anyone studying the iconography of the liturgical year, or the interpretation of the liturgy of specific feasts. For although the manuscript is highly unusual in presenting an exegesis through imagery and inscriptions, its interpretation of the liturgy is typical of medieval thought more generally.

Overall, the authors compellingly argue that these manuscripts demonstrate that the nuns at Paradies bei Soest, despite being enclosed, were well connected with artistic, intellectual and cultural trends well beyond their walls. Taken together with the library inventory from the neighbouring Dominican convent of Lemgo, the manuscripts counter the idea that there was a decline in education among nuns of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, requiring them to use the vernacular. At least in these two convents, and likely in others, Dominican nuns had access to education and scholarly texts which (among other things) allowed them fully to understand, participate in and contribute to the celebration of the liturgy in Latin.

Volume II supplies numerous full-page images of the five manuscripts and two fragments, along with various appendices, indexes and the bibliography. Although the images in Volume II provide a cross-reference to where they feature in Volume I, the reverse is not the case: there is no indication in Volume I of which images can be found in full-page format in Volume II. Given that the four Düsseldorf manuscripts are available in high-quality colour images online, it was perhaps not necessary for select pages to be reproduced in Volume II. It would also have been helpful for the seven pages of sequence tables (Volume II, Appendix D) to have been incorporated into Volume I Part III, since the cumbersome size of the volumes makes flicking between them somewhat impractical. As it stands, the main drawback of these substantial volumes is their size: each measures 32 x 24 cm, and together weighing nearly 10 kg, they are rather unwieldy.

Like the manuscripts described, Liturgical Life and Latin Learning is richly illustrated and represents an ambitious project of collective work. It will be of great value to liturgists, chant scholars, art historians and medievalists interested in Dominican studies, education or female monasticism. Bringing a wide range of disciplines to bear on the study of five closely related Dominican chant manuscripts, and drawing together further scholarship (cited in copious footnotes), the four authors demonstrate what can be achieved through collaboration, where the result is greater than the sum of its parts.