«Senhoras que cantan y no cantan caresciendo de la theorica y pratica». Musical Theory and Liturgical Practice in the Monastery of Lorvão

Par Mercedes Pérez Vidal
Publication en ligne le 15 mai 2024

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«Senhoras que cantan y no cantan caresciendo de la theorica y pratica». Musical Theory and Liturgical Practice in the Monastery of Lorvão (version PDF) (application/pdf – 2,4M)

1Choir books are still under-studied when considering sources of music theory¹. Many antiphoners, graduals, psalters and hymnaries included tonaries copied in their first or last folios. However, because these tonaries are often considered liturgical documents rather than theoretical sources, some of them have not been classified or studied. The aim of this article is to present an approach to the context of the production of a formerly unknown source of music theory, intended to guide or correct the singing of the Cistercian nuns of the monastery in Lorvão in Portugal. This brief treatise was copied on the verso of the last folio of a gradual from this Cistercian female monastery (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 238). This gradual was part of a set of choral books commissioned by Catarina d’Eça, abbess of Lorvão from 1471 to 1521.

2In this essay, I discuss this source within the broader context of the production and circulation of liturgical books, particularly among Cistercian nuns. I begin by briefly situating the foundation and development of the monastery of Lorvão, analyzing subsequently the role of the lay and religious women in charge, i.e. the «senhoras» and abbesses, in the organization of the liturgy. I consider women’s liturgical authority and autonomy in writing, creating and performing the liturgy, as well as the negotiation between nuns and priests over nearly every aspect of spiritual care, including liturgical performance. The last section examines the theoretical sources of this brief musical treatise to determine whether the author of this text draws on the Cistercian tradition of the Bernardian reform, or on other kinds of musical sources. Both the sources and the use of the Castilian language shed light on the origins of the author of this text. This source, like the liturgical books in which it survives, provides new evidence of collaboration between religious men and women and of women’s agency in monastic liturgy.

Santa Maria de Lorvão: Abbesses and senhoras

3The monastery for which this music-theoretical text was produced was an early medieval foundation that remained prominent into the early modern period. Formerly a Benedictine monastery, Lorvão was transformed into a Cistercian nunnery by the infanta Teresa of Portugal (ca. 1176-1250), daughter of Sancho I, between 1206 and 1211². Until the constitution of the Autonomous Congregation of Alcobaça in 1567, the abbesses of Lorvão were elected for life, and some of them ruled for long periods. At the end of the 15^th and during the first half of the 16^th century, Lorvão was controlled by several abbesses from the Eça family, most notably Catarina d’Eça (1471-1521)³. Further important figures in these royal or aristocratic monasteries were the «señoras» or «senhoras» (‘ladies’) belonging to the protectors or founders’ families. The aforementioned infanta Teresa, and her sisters Mafalda (ca. 1195-1256) and Sancha (ca. 1183-1229), foundresses of Arouca and Celas, respectively, could be considered «dominae» or «senhoras»⁴. Having great power over the abbess, they oversaw the administration of the monastery, acted as intermediaries, and were in charge of keeping their lineage’s memory.

4Furthermore, in some cases, the same person held the position of «senhora» and abbess at the same time, as for example Catarina d’Eça. This was not exclusive to the Cistercian order, and we find similar examples among other religious orders⁵. Nevertheless, previous scholarship has suggested that Iberian «senhoras» lacked power over spiritual and liturgical matters, leaving such things in the hands of the abbesses⁶. In contrast to this opinion, I claim that there was not such a clear-cut division of roles between the «senhoras» and the abbesses. Both had an active role in creating and performing the liturgy, both shared liturgical leadership or auctoritas. Some «senhoras» promoted the circulation of artefacts such as books, relics, reliquaries and other ornamenta ecclesiae. These women self-consciously manipulated these objects, as well as buildings and liturgy, to convey religious ideas, to express power over the religious foundations they protected, and to shape their own, or their families’ remembrance and dynastic identity⁷. In the case of abbesses, this converged with the memory of their communities.

Production and Circulation of Liturgical and Legislative Books among Cistercian Nuns

5Books were crucial for shaping new Cistercian communities, particularly in foundational processes and at times of reform. Each new foundation needed books, and these were circulated not only through the Cistercian networks, but also through other networks operating locally, nationally and even internationally. As already mentioned, both nuns and lay women played a fundamental role in the donation, production and transfer of different types of books. This section will focus on discussing and summarizing our current knowledge of the liturgical books and normative texts produced and used by Cistercian nuns in general and in the Iberian Peninsula in particular, and their routes of circulation. Special attention will be paid to the female kinship networks that crossed the borders of the Cistercian order and the confines of the different Iberian kingdoms. Several not so well-known ordinaries, customaries, rituals and complementary sources, such as manuals written to help the cantrix organizing the liturgy, made by or for Iberian Cistercian nuns will be discussed. These networks of book production and exchange provide the historical context for the liturgical books made for the monastery of Lorvão, one of which includes a short work of music theory on the verso of its last folio.

6In order to ensure liturgical uniformity, the Statutes of the Cistercian General Chapter determined which liturgical books should be taken to a newly founded community: a missal, epistolary, rule, customary, psalter, hymnary, collectar, antiphoner, lectionary and gradual («Missali, Epistolari, Textu, Regula, libro Usuum, Psalterio, Hymnario, Collectaneo, Antiphonario, Lectionario, Graduali»)⁸. Obviously, this was the theoretical, ideal situation, reality was frequently very different.

7Together with the liturgical books, each new foundation had to have a basic collection of legislative texts, including the Rule of St. Benedict, a copy of the Carta Caritatis, the Exordium Parvuum (or Magnum), the Statuta or Capitula of the general chapter, and the Ecclesiastica Officia, sometimes a calendar and the Usus Conversorum, later replaced by the Definitiones. This collection of texts was also frequently accompanied by papal bulls of Cistercian reform, such as Calixtus II’s bull approving the Carta Caritatis, the Parvus Fons (1265) and Fulgens sicut stella matutina (1335)⁹. These legislative compilations have been preserved in several codices (Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, 114; Ljubljana, Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, 31; Paris, BnF, lat. 4346; Trento, Biblioteca Comunale, 1711; Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Codex Guelf. 1068)¹⁰. They were also copied in Alcobaça, in Latin during the 13^th and 14^th centuries (Lisbon, BnP, ALC. 187; ALC. 185; ALC. 281; ALC. 186), and in the Portuguese vernacular during the 15^th century (Lisbon, BnP, ALC. 208; ALC. 218 and ALC. 278)¹¹.

8The Ecclesiatica Officia, the Cistercian customary-ordinary which was part of these legislative compilations, regulated not just the liturgy but all aspects related to daily life in the monastery, and it remained in use throughout the Middle Ages¹². The Ecclesiastica include short references to monastic spaces (from the church to the chapter house, the refectory and the cemetery), to objects or artefacts, to movements in the choir, and to musical performance, for example about the location, the repertoire and the manner of singing, or about the ringing of the bells, the tabula, and monastic silence¹³. Each religious house was required to have a copy of these fundamental normative texts, the purpose of which was to ensure uniformity¹⁴. However, the provenance of the liturgical and legislative codices could not have been more varied, and they travelled through different intersecting networks¹⁵. The circulation of books occurred not only through the networks of the Cistercian Order, but also through other networks operating at local, national and even international levels. For instance, two manuscripts containing the basic legislative corpus survive from the Cistercian nunnery of Bonrepòs in the diocese of Tarragona; both are of foreign, most likely French, origin¹⁶.

9In the case of Lorvão, but also in Arouca and Celas in Portugal – all founded as or transformed into Cistercian nunneries by the three daughters of King Sancho I – it is clear how this network of female kinship overlapped with the Cistercian network and extended to the neighboring kingdom of Castile¹⁷. In 1277, almost seventy years after the Benedictine monks were replaced by a community of nuns, the community of Lorvão requested that Branca de Portugal (1259-1321) be appointed «senhora» of the monastery with the same power as the founder, Dona Teresa. However, a short time later Branca moved to Castile where she became «señora» of Las Huelgas (1295-1321)¹⁸ and also, from 1298 to 1321, «protectora» of Caleruega, a Dominican nunnery¹⁹. This is important as it is an example of the expansion of these networks beyond the Cistercian order. Exchange with Dominican communities is seen in liturgical manuscripts, as well. For example, Manuel Ferreira studied how the Dominican hymn [Ae]terne regi gloriae was added to a late 12^th-century antiphoner-hymnary from Arouca (Arouca, Museu de Arte Sacra, 25, fol. 2^r) in the 13^th century, pointing to the «senhoras» and «protectoras» as mediators across and between religious orders.²⁰

10Manuscripts that belonged to nuns, like those from Arouca, Lorvão, and Las Huelgas, deserve particular attention. As Emilia Jamroziak recently pointed out, customaries used by Cistercian nuns remain understudied in the historiography²¹, and the same can be said for Dominican nuns, something the work of Claire Taylor Jones is addressing in particular in her forthcoming book²². In general, our knowledge of ordinaria from women’s monasteries is still limited. Despite outstanding research over recent years on women’s libri ordinarii, mostly on German Frauenstifte²³, many ordinaria from female monasteries do not even appear in recent catalogues, such as the one produced in 2021 by Jürgen Bärsch, Tillmann Lohse, and Andreas Odenthal, with the collaboration of Sebastian Walter²⁴. Their list does not include ordinaria from monasteries in other territories, such as the customary-ordinary (consueta) from the Cistercian monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos (1390-1406)²⁵ or the ordinary from St. George in Prague, which was written ca. 1350 in the context of a quarrel with the archbishop²⁶. Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula, some of these sources (Tab. 1) were not even known until relatively recently, for instance the aforementioned consueta from Las Huelgas, the medieval consueta of Sigena (recently discovered in a miscellaneous codex and the object of an ongoing PhD dissertation by Alberto Cebolla Royo²⁷), and the consueta from Lorvão, studied within the framework of the project on Lorvão discussed here.

Tab. 1. Customaries-ordinaries from Iberian female monasteries discussed in this article, in chronological order²⁸ (see image in original format)

11These manuscripts and other similar legislative and normative texts written by and for nuns raise interesting questions about women’s liturgical authority and autonomy in writing, creating and performing the liturgy, and about the negotiation between nuns and priests over nearly every aspect of spiritual care, including liturgical performance and book production. Since the post-Carolingian period, and particularly after the monastic and ecclesiastical reforms of the Central Middle Ages, women had been removed from liturgical, sacramental and pastoral roles in their communities, as evidenced by their physical segregation from the space surrounding the altar, the prohibition against touching sacred vessels or linens, and the reinforcement of enclosure and silence²⁹. However, according to David Catalunya, sources like the customary of Las Huelgas suggest that nuns may have celebrated Mass without consecration and communion³⁰. There is no record of Cistercian abbesses wearing “priestly” vestments at Masses without communion, but we have examples of prioresses or abbesses who owned and, in some cases, wore them or used other ornamenta sacra in liturgical performance before and after Trent. Among Cistercian nuns in the Iberian Peninsula, there is the pluviale of Catarina d’Eça, abbess of the monastery of Santa María de Lorvão from ca. 1471-1521³¹. It is just a hypothesis, but this cope was perhaps not intended to be used by the priest, but by the abbess herself. For this, we have other examples outside the Cistercian order. For instance, in eighteenth-century Mexico, the Dominican prioress of Santa Rosa de Lima in Puebla, María Anna Águeda de San Ignacio (1695-1756), was authorized to wear the cope in the Divine Office on solemn festivities.³² In fact, women wrote, orchestrated and featured in various liturgical acts, fulfilling ministerial roles that had increasingly become exclusive to male clerics³³.

12As already noted, evidence of liturgical instructions for and by nuns also survives from the Iberian Peninsula. The catalogue of books from San Clemente de Toledo, which I will return to later, was made in 1331 by the cantrix of the monastery, Urraca López. It contains the first known reference to a vernacular edition of the Ecclesiastica Officia in the Iberian Peninsula, listed among the books in the nuns’ choir: «Quatro libros de Costumbres de nuestra Orden, las unas romanzadas» (‘Four books of our order’s customs, some in the vernacular’)³⁴. The aforementioned customary-ordinary from Las Huelgas, written in the vernacular around 1400, includes an extensive manual to help the cantrix determine the calendar of moveable feasts in the liturgical year (chapters 1-78, fols. 4^r-53^v), similar to other complementary and supplementary books coming from Cistercian monasteries, such as Wienhausen,³⁵ or to the directoria supplementing the Dominican constitutions and ordinarium, studied by Claire Taylor Jones³⁶. The second and largest part of the manuscript from Las Huelgas (chapters 79-142, fols. 53^v-75^v) is the customary proper. It was compiled by and for the nuns themselves, adapting the Cistercian Ecclesiastica Officia to their own needs, as proven by the deliberate use of gendered participle forms, some Mass prescriptions clearly addressed to the nuns rather than to clerics, and the absence of some parts of the ceremony that took place at the presbytery³⁷.

13The production, by nuns or for nuns, of ordinaries, customaries, and rituals, as well as of additional or complementary sources dealing with the peculiarities of a particular religious foundation continued during the Early Modern period among Cistercians and other religious orders. Although it is very likely that Catarina d’Eça commissioned an ordinary-customary or a copy of the Ecclesiastica Officia for her monastery, this was not preserved. Instead, we have a Livro ordinário do ofício divino da Ordem de Cister (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 47, see Fig. 1) from the same monastery, finished in 1540 and commissioned by the abbess Anna Coutinho, as we can read in the colophon. It quite faithfully follows the ordinaries made between the 15^th and 16^th centuries for Santa Maria de Alcobaça, a prominent Cistercian men’s community³⁸. Early modern sources also include a later consueta from Sigena (1588)³⁹, the so-called Libro de Ceremonias from the Descalzas Reales in Madrid, which was recently studied and partly transcribed by Victoria Bosch⁴⁰, and some manuals written for or by cantrices, such as those from Vallbona de les Monges. From Vallbona we have a manual for the cantrix copied in the 18^th, century with some later additions and references to other customaries from this Cistercian nunnery (Vallbona de les Monges, Arxiu del Monestir de Santa Maria, 19.9)⁴¹. Finally, Eduardo Carrero mentions another cantrix’s manual, also from Vallbona, copied in the 19^th century together with an obituary⁴².

Fig. 1. Santa Maria de Lorvão. Livro ordinário do ofício divino da Ordem de Cister (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 47, fol. 1^r; 281 x 214 mm). ©Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. This is one of the few known ordinaries or customaries made for Iberian nuns. It quite faithfully follows the ordinaries made between the 15^th and 16^th centuries for Santa Maria de Alcobaça (see image in original format)

14Manuscript production in Lorvão after 1211 is the subject of an interdisciplinary research project led by Catarina Barreira⁴³. Preliminary results confirm the hypothesis that the community of Cistercian nuns did not have an active scriptorium, but instead that books were external commissions⁴⁴. A significant number of the preserved liturgical and devotional manuscripts date from the time of the abbess Catarina d’Eça, commissioned either by her or by other nuns⁴⁵.

15Divergences between some of Lorvão’s books and the Ecclesiastica Officia point towards a possible origin in Alcobaça. For instance, in the Lorvão processional (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 2, fol. 10^v, see Fig. 2), the first station of the Palm Sunday procession was ante capitulum, «in front of the chapter house» (fol. 10^v), as also in Alcobaça’s 15^th-century processional (Lisbon, BnP, COD. 6207)⁴⁶. In contrast, the Ecclesiastica officia cisterciensis (Ordo in Ramis Palmarum, item 17) established the first stop in parte que extat iuxta dormitorium⁴⁷. Catarina Barreira suggests that this divergence was motivated by the peculiar topography of Alcobaça, where until the middle of the 16^th century there was no direct access to the dormitory from the cloister; it was accessed from the north transept.⁴⁸ Barreira posits that the liturgical practice in Alcobaça could have shaped the performance in Lorvão. However, she points out another possible reason for this deviation related to the particular topography of Lorvão’s cloister. The dormitory there was located on the western gallery, whereas the processions exited the church and moved towards the eastern gallery of the cloister⁴⁹. Moreover, I believe it is also important to remember that the chapter house was important for the religious identity of the monastic community as a privileged place for monastic memory where religious authority was expressed. The significance of the chapter house to the community’s culture could have motivated this variation in the processional route, independently of any models from Alcobaça.

Fig. 2. Santa Maria de Lorvão. Processional from 1504. Prima statio ante capitulum (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 2, fol. 10^v; 270 x 192 mm). ©Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. This processional provides an example of the divergences between some of Lorvão’s books and the Ecclesiastica Officia, pointing towards a possible origin of these manuscripts in Alcobaça (see image in original format)

16Catarina d’Eça acquired various printed books, including some incunabula⁵⁰, and she directly commissioned a complete set of liturgical books which was very likely completed by successor abbesses, also belonging to the Eça lineage. This set includes a hymnary (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 18), seven graduals or «livros de missas», as they were labeled in a title added later (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 19, B 20, B 21, B 24, B 31, B 54 and Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 239), and seven antiphoners (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 23, B 25, B 26, B 27, B 28, B 29 and Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 239)⁵¹. This whole set of books must be understood within the broader framework of the material, spiritual and liturgical renovation that Catarina d’Eça encouraged⁵²: she also endowed the monastery with all the necessary ornamenta ecclesiae, objects known as «the treasury of Catarina d’Eça». The books contain very interesting details: for instance, they have no colophons but the coat of arms of Catarina d’Eça is proudly displayed in the three antiphoners (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 23, B 28 and Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 239). The graduals B 23 from Torre do Tombo and L.C. 238 (Fig. 3) from the BnP in Lisbon have many stylistic similarities, the latter being a poor version of the former, which is the most richly illuminated manuscript in this set, including two historiated initials: the Annunciation (fol. 6^r); and the Worship of the Shepherds (fol. 5^v). The second gradual includes an interesting surprise on the verso of its last folio, proving the likely participation of a Castilian monk or cleric in its production and maybe of other books from the same set: a brief explanation of music theory and practice written in Castilian. The possible origin of its author, the theoretical sources used for its composition, the likely collaboration between monks and nuns are discussed in the following sections.

Fig. 3. Santa Maria de Lorvão. Temporale of a gradual. Livro 2º das missas. From Ash Wednesday to the Friday after the 3^rd Sunday of Lent (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 238, verso of the last folio; 640 x 450 mm) (see image in original format)

Partners in Spirit: Collaboration between Nuns, Monks and Clerics in Making the Liturgy

17A brief explanation of musical theory and practice is included on the verso of the last folio of gradual 238, now at the National Library in Lisbon. At the top of the folio there is the word «Montemayor» — maybe Montemor-o-Velho, belonging to Teresa’s manor, and the location of her castle⁵³ — also displayed alone on the unfinished last folio of the earlier gradual Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 19 (Fig. 4). The language of the text is Castilian rather than Portuguese, indicating the likely involvement of a Castilian monk, chaplain or ecclesiastical visitor. This raises the following questions: How were the cura monialium and the gender relationships between nuns, priests and monks configured? What was the abbesses’ role in the creation of these texts and music for the Mass? What were the roles of the chantresses, sacristans, and other nuns in composing, writing and performing the liturgy? What does this folio reveal about musical practice at Lorvão? What were the theoretical sources used in its composition?

Fig. 4. Santa Maria de Lorvão. Temporale of a gradual. Livro 1º das missas. From the first Sunday of Advent to the first Sunday of Lent (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 19, fol. 118^v; 692 x 486 mm). ©Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo
(see image in original format)

18Regarding the cura monialium and gender relationships, collaboration in book production between women religious and friars, monks or priests is documented in several cases in Portugal just as also in Castile, Italy and Germany. Most commonly, priests, monks or friars copied books for nuns, but nuns also copied books for monks or friars⁵⁴. From Lorvão we have a collectarium commissioned by sister Margarida Coelha but produced by the chaplain friar Tomé in 1503 (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 1). The aforementioned antiphoner from Arouca (Arouca, Museu de Arte Sacra, 25) has the signature of Friar Gondisalvus, who wrote one of the 13^th century added hymns⁵⁵. A note also in Castilian, in Gradual 16 from Arouca (Arouca, Museu de Arte Sacra, 16, fol. 191^r), finished in 1485, informs us that it was paid for by Antonio de Mora, copied and illuminated in Lamego by the priest Afonso Martins, abbot of Santa Marinha de Tropeço, who corrected the book’s content «punto por punto» with the assistance of four cantrices from Arouca: «D. Isabel de Almeida, D. Branca de Almeida, D. Maria de Almeida, and D. Leonor Pinto».⁵⁶ This shows that besides the abbess, who commissioned a book, other members of the community also participated in book production (writing, illumination, or musical notation). Many of these books were indeed collective work involving nuns and clerics. This colophon shows also the cross-border relationships in the production of manuscripts.

19There are several examples of Castilian monks or friars who copied books for Portuguese nuns. Fray Bartolomeu, a Castilian Cistercian monk copied an antiphonary for Isabel de Andrade, abbess of the Cistercian monastery of Almoster in 1472, as we can read in its colophon in Castilian⁵⁷. Paula Cardoso has found several examples of chaplains copying books for Portuguese Dominican nuns, and we know that some of them were Castilian, such as «Frey Thomas de Toledo», who copied two antiphoners for the first prioress of Paraíso in Évora, Joana Correia, in 1527, one with a colophon—although in this case in Portuguese not in Castilian⁵⁸. In addition, Joana da Silva, first prioress of the Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora da Anunciada in Lisbon, commissioned three choir-books from the chaplain João Fernandes between 1524 and 1525 (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 109, L.C. 110 and L.C. 112). The nuns at the Convent of Anunciada combined internal production in their scriptorium with book commissions from outside the cloister⁵⁹. Therefore, the example provided by the two graduals from Lorvão – gradual 238 now at the National Library, and gradual B 19 from Torre do Tombo – can be easily understood within this broader context of collaboration between religious men and women in manuscript production, a collaboration that was framed within the gender relationships established by the cura monialium.

20Although monks and chaplains helped nuns produce manuscripts, the nuns themselves – including abbesses, chantresses, and sacristans – played a significant role in composing, writing, and performing the liturgy. When Catarina d’Eça commissioned the set of liturgical books, including L.C. 239 (Fig. 5), and other ornamenta sacra that she donated to the monastery, she included her coat of arms proudly displayed in several of these items (several liturgical books, two reliquaries, a cope and a portable altar). This gave her a conceptual presence in the liturgy and at the altar, a space from which women had been physically segregated⁶⁰. Catarina d’Eça acted as a lay patroness or like a «senhora» in the Iberian tradition, promoting the memory of her lineage but also, and mostly, as a Cistercian abbess, providing all the necessary elements for the liturgical performance. Following the footsteps of the foundress and senhora of Lorvão, the infanta Teresa Sanches (ca. 1176-1250), Catarina materially endowed the monastery with everything needed for divine worship: reliquaries with their relics, vessels, liturgical garments and textiles, and books.

Fig. 5. Temporale of the antiphoner L.C. 239 (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 239, fol. 1; 710 x 500 mm) Coat of arms of Catarina d’Eça. This book was part of a set of liturgical books and ornamenta sacra commissioned by Catarina d’Eça and donated to Lorvão
(see image in original format)

21However, abbesses were not alone in making the liturgy. They worked closely with the chantresses, the nuns who supervised all aspects of music-making and liturgical performance. In general, in the absence of a librarian, the cantrix of any monastery was also in charge of the book collection⁶¹. As we have seen, the cantrix of another Cistercian nunnery, San Clemente de Toledo, compiled an inventory of this monastery’s book collection—the earliest known inventory from female monasteries in the whole Iberian Peninsula—following the visitation of the dean of the cathedral of Toledo. It listed all the books from this Cistercian house: «todos los libros que à el monasterio», 64 books and 15 individual quires (the majority in Latin) that were kept in various spaces (the church, the nuns’ choir, the chapter house and the refectory). According to the Ecclesiastica Officia, in Cistercian communities the cantor (or the cantrix) could even replace the abbot (and the abbess) when he or she was absent, performing specific ceremonies, such as anointing the sick and burial: «Si abbas defuerit infirmum inungat. mortuum sepeliat. aut cui iniunxerit»⁶². Moreover, in some cases, the functions of the cantrices (as well as other monastic offices such as sacristans) could have extended beyond those prescribed for their office in monastic rules and customaries⁶³.

22Thus, not just the abbesses but also other nuns were actively involved in the commission, shaping, storage, use and correction of liturgical books. As we have mentioned, several volumes were commissioned during the abbacy of Catarina d’Eça by other nuns from Lorvão, such as the collectarium commissioned by sister Margarida Coelha and the Livro da Paixão de Cristo, which was commissioned by Isabel Cabral (Torre do Tombo, Arquivo Nacional, B 9). These and other liturgical books show the imprint of nuns’ involvement but also, as we have seen, of the participation and collaboration of other agents such as friars, monks or clerics in charge of the cura monialium. The interaction between religious men and women displayed in the Lorvão gradual with the brief music-theoretical text participated in a long and widespread tradition of collaboration, support, and exchange across gender lines.

Plainchant in the Cistercian Order

23This final section discusses in detail the plainchant in the Cistercian Order and the theoretical sources that regulated it. Comparing Cistercian music theory with the sources on music theory used in the brief explanation of musical theory in gradual L.C. 238 reveals that Cistercian nuns from Lorvão relied not just on the Cistercian musical and liturgical tradition but they also received other musical traditions, including those taught at the University of Salamanca.

24Reform and renewal have been continuous and an almost utopian aspiration—ecclesia semper reformanda—throughout church history. Reform was normally a long-term process rather than a flashpoint event, involving many agents and actors. Each reform movement was distinct, and their peculiarities deserve detailed individual analysis.⁶⁴ However, every monastic reform process paid special attention to the repertory of liturgical chants for the Mass or the Office. Plainchant was revised and either shortened, extended, or rearranged. Cistercian reform of liturgy was no exception and therefore must also be understood as a constant endeavour to improve liturgical performance in Cistercian communities.

25Cîteaux and its foundations initially used liturgical books following the Benedictine-Cluniac model of the 11^th and 12^th centuries, but this extended liturgy soon proved to be at odds with the more balanced relationship between prayer and manual labour that Cistercians were striving for. Both the reforms of Hirsau, inspired by the 11^th-century Cluniac reform and initiated by William of Hirsau in 1069, and the Cistercian reform of liturgical chant led, almost at the same time, to the use of line or staff notation, one of the greatest innovations in the evolution of musical notation in the Middle Ages⁶⁵. The first attempt at reforming the liturgical chant among Cistercians was by Stephen Harding (abbot of Cîteaux between 1108 and 1134). Seeking a return to the origins of the liturgy prescribed in the Benedictine rule, the Cistercians traced what they believed to be the purest codices to Metz and Milan. The repertoire of numerous hymns was reduced to a few Milanese hymns, and saints’ cults and processions were considerably restricted⁶⁶. This reform was not effective enough, and the General Chapter held in 1134 fostered more far-reaching reforms. These were carried out between 1143 and 1147⁶⁷ by a group of expert cantors under the direction of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, probably led by Guy d’Eu, author of the treatise Regulae de arte musica⁶⁸. François Kovács, Chrysogonus Waddell, Manuel Pedro Ferreira, and, more recently, Alicia Scarcez have studied the manuscripts that survive from the «second reform attempt» of Cistercian liturgical chant⁶⁹. Through the careful examination of the erasures from the drafts of the Bernardine reform, Scarcez has proved that the primary aim of this reform was the desire to remove Germanic dialects from the liturgy and return to the Latin tradition of the Molesme fathers⁷⁰. These drafts survive as an antiphoner⁷¹ and a gradual⁷², which were working copies, attesting to a continuous process of musical revision. In this correction we can distinguish the hand of so-called notator D, the head of the scriptorium, who, according to Manuel Pedro Ferreira, could well be Guy d’Eu, the main person responsible for the Bernardine reform. He would also have been the author of the treatise Cantum quem Cisterciensis ordinis ecclesiae, which prefaces the Cistercian antiphonary and explains the principles or guidelines of this revision⁷³.

26The intention of both phases of the Cistercian liturgical reform was to remain as close as possible to the origin of Gregorian chant, something that is also stressed in the short treatise on the last folio of gradual L.C. 238 from Lorvão:

Has de saber que el sumo pontífice Sant Gregorio fue el primero que cantó por arte, la cual compuso y estableció. ca fuele el arte de música revelada e influyda por spiritu sancto et el ansi instructo en ella començo a ordenarla e fisola en estas vii letras. a.b.c.d.e.f. E asi la Hxorica [sic] que es la especulación, intelection y contemplación della por sus reglas documentos y preceptos, como la práctica que es saber en efecto cantar los cantos eclesiásticos que el compuso que los principales los de este officiero dominical et santoral.
[‘You should know that the supreme pontiff St. Gregory was the first who sang by art, which he composed and established, since the art of music was revealed to him and inspired by the Holy Spirit. And thus instructed in it, he began to order it and made it in these 7 letters. a.b.c.d.e.f. And so the theory which is the speculation, intellection and contemplation of it by its rules, documents and precepts, as well as the practice which is to know how to sing the ecclesiastical chants that he composed, the main ones being those of the gradual for Sundays and for the saints’]⁷⁴.

27In general, the theoretical sources for the reform led by St. Bernard were Boethius (the main proponent of the ratio as the foundation of music), Pseudo-Odo and Guido d’Arezzo. The principles or theoretical fundaments and purposes of this reform were detailed in the preface of the antiphoner, the treatise Cantum quem Cisterciensis ordinis, followed by the letter of St. Bernard, the preface of the gradual⁷⁵, the Regulae de Arte Musica (written, as noted previously, by Guy d’Eu for his disciple William, first abbot of Rielvaux, in 1132)⁷⁶, and, finally, the tonarium, traditionally called Tonale sancti Bernardi, although it must have been written by the group of experts to whom St. Bernard entrusted the reform. Its longer version is written in the form of a dialogue between master and disciple⁷⁷. The text of the tonary, as well as the introductory text to the antiphoner, is mostly taken from the Regulae treatise composed by Guy d’Eu.

28The Cistercian tonarium had no official status, and so is not found in all surviving Cistercian antiphoners, and some Cistercian manuscripts copied other tonarii. It is not preserved in the prototype or exemplar of the order, as both the antiphoner and the gradual portions of that manuscript (Dijon 114) have been lost, but it is mentioned in the table of contents⁷⁸. As studied by Michel Huglo, the text of the tonarium has come down to us in three forms, the full original form and two shorter versions. The full form was transmitted mainly in treatises on music theory, while the shortened form was included in some antiphoners⁷⁹. We find the longer version, for instance, in a miscellany of musical treatises compiled by Guy of Saint-Denis (London, BL, Harley 281) in the first half of the 14^th century. This miscellany includes an added diagram of the «didactic hand» (fol. 3^r),⁸⁰ Guido of Arezzo’s Micrologus and Trocaicus (fols. 5^r-16^v; 16^v-24^v), the Cistercian tonary (called here Tonale Beati Bernardi (fol. 34-38^v), or «Dialogus beati Bernardi de tonis» (fol. 4^r-v, in the table of contents), Johannes de Grocheio’s Ars musicae (fols. 39^r-52^r) and Petrus de Cruce’s Tractatus de tonis (fols. 52^v-58^r) and Guido «monachus de Sancto Dionisio», Tractatus de tonis⁸¹. The longer tonary is also preserved in a miscellaneous volume, now at the Biblioteca de Catalunya (Barcelona, BC, 883, fols. 15^v-19^r), which gathers together music treatises on plainchant and polyphony (organum and discantus). As Christian Meyer indicated, this manuscript transmits educational traditions spread between the Seine and the Rhine, including traditions of religious orders such as the Cistercians and Dominicans. This collection was copied in the 14^th century, perhaps in Avignon, and it was widespread in Italy during the 15^th century. Moreover, the later additions include the Tractatus brevis cantus plani by Franchinus Gaffurius (1474)⁸². Therefore, we see that the longer version of the Cistercian tonary spread beyond the Cistercian order, in a much wider context and alongside other theoretical sources of various origins.

29In contrast, shorter forms of the Cistercian tonary are found only in Cistercian liturgical sources. For instance, three antiphoners from Morimondo now now in Paris (BnF, n.a.lat. 1410, n.a.lat. 1411, fols. 159^v-166^v and n.a.lat. 1412, fols. 186^v-188^v)⁸³ contain a short form of the Cistercian tonary. From Alcobaça, we have a previously unnoticed version of the tonary, copied in the 17^th century and bound together with other music treatises (Lisbon, BnP, COD. 266//6)⁸⁴. This miscellaneous volume proves the importance of these traditions and of St. Bernard’s reform even well into the Early Modern period. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, many choir books included tonaries, frequently in their abbreviated versions⁸⁵, copied in their first or last folios, but these tonaries—or similar sources guiding the chant—have often been considered liturgical documents rather than theoretical sources. Consequently, they have not been included in the inventory of sources described in RISM B III, The Theory of Music from the Carolingian Era up to c. 1500, either in the printed version, or in the abridged online version created by Christian Meyer⁸⁶. In particular, the gradual from Lorvão has not yet been recorded among the Portuguese sources of music theory in the online version of RISM B III.

30In the following, I will recover the possible theoretical sources used by the author of this brief guide to plainchant. This will help determine whether these sources are the same that informed the Cistercian tonary or quite different. As we have seen, the text in gradual L.C. 238 cites St. Gregory as the primary «authority». The author then mentions Guido, «a monk of St. Bernard», who used the first syllable of each verse of the hymn to St. John the Baptist, Ut queant laxis, to name the notes. Despite the confusion with St. Bernard, it is clear that the author is referring to Guido d’Arezzo. Boethius is also mentioned, whose work was similarly used in the second reform of Cistercian chant and rite. The text on the gradual folio goes on to list a number of figures (Tab. 2) who served as «authorities» on music theory and attested music theoreticians, among whom: St. Augustine, St. Paul, St. Isidore, St. Ignatius, St. Ambrose, «Microlo»⁸⁷, «Arnaldo dalpes»⁸⁸, «Phillipe de Vitry», «Gafforo de laude [sic]»⁸⁹, «Marcheto»⁹⁰, «Michael de Castellanis»⁹¹, «Goscaldo»⁹², «Joanes de Mures»⁹³, «Durando parisensis»⁹⁴, «Magister Franco of Cologne»⁹⁵, «Magister Pedro de Osma»⁹⁶, «Bartholomé de Pareja»⁹⁷. These are just some of the names mentioned but they do give an idea of the diversity of sources used, including two theorists who taught at the University of Salamanca: Bartolomé Ramos de Pareja and Pedro Martínez de Osma.

Tab. 2. List of authorities on music theory and attested music theoreticians mentioned on the verso of the last folio of gradual L.C. 238 (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 238). Note that this list is not comprehensive and authors are cited in chronological order, not as they appear in the manuscript (see image in original format)

31We may wonder whether these theoretical sources were available to the nuns of Lorvão, either in its library or in libraries at other nearby Cistercian monasteries, such as Alcobaça (see, for example, Lisbon, BnP, ALC. 383, catalogued in RISM B III). The author draws on the tradition of the Bernardian reform but goes much further, acknowledging indebtedness to the most renowned musical theorists up to the end of the 15^th century. Besides the broad array of music theory named in the text, we cannot exclude the circulation of small-format treatises in the vernacular containing the rudiments of music, known as «artes de canto», printed from 1492 onwards in the Iberian Peninsula⁹⁸, such as Lux bella seu Artis cantus plani compendium by Domingo Marcos Durán, printed in Seville in 1492⁹⁹ (Fig. 6), while the autor was a «bachiller» at the University of Salamanca. Durán’s work, a beginner’s manual listing musical authorities, is followed by a 14-page tonarium showing the melodic formulas to each of the eight modes. Interestingly, Lux bella mentions many of the theorists listed in the last folio of gradual L.C. 238: Boethius, Franco of Cologne, Philippe de Vitry, Marchettus of Padua, Franchinus Gaffurius, Arnaldus, probably Vincent of Beauvais (d. 1264), Michael de Castellani, among others¹⁰⁰.

Fig. 6. Domingo Marcos Durán, Lux bella seu Artis cantus plani compendium, Sevilla, Pablo de Colonia, Juan Pegnitzer, Magno Herbst, Tomas Glockner, 1492 (Madrid, BnE, Inc. 2165(3), fol. 1^v). Durán’s Lux bella mentions many of the theorists listed in the last folio of gradual L.C. 238 (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 238) (see image in original format)

32Domingo Marcos Durán wrote another treatise, Comentario sobre Lux Bella, published in 1498. Both Magister Petrus de Osma and Bartolomé de Pareja, the two theorists from the University of Salamanca mentioned in the last folio of Lorvão’s gradual, are cited consecutively by Durán at the end of the Comentario, in a long list of authorities¹⁰¹ (see Tab. 2). A copy of the second edition of Lux Bella, printed in Salamanca in 1509, and a copy of the Comentario or Glosa sobre Lux Bella also by Marcos Durán, printed in Salamanca in 1498, are currently held at the National Library in Lisbon¹⁰². These copies suggest a circulation of Durán’s treatises in Portugal at the beginning of the 16^th century¹⁰³. Therefore, I argue that the author of the text included in the last folio of the gradual from Lorvão was familiar with Marcos Durán’s treatises or, more generally, with the musical culture at the University of Salamanca in the second half of the 15^th century.

33Following the list of «authorities», the author of gradual L.C. 238’s last folio provides some rules to guide the ‘ladies’ («senhoras») in Lorvão in singing plainchant. The author finds it necessary to correct («reprobare») some malpractices in the monastery. This supports the hypothesis that these directives were written by a Castilian visitor (maybe from Salamanca) or maybe by the cantrix of the monastery following a visitation:

Et por quanto en este magnifico choro ay algunas senhoras que cantan y no cantan caresciendo de la theorica y pratica do aquí certas reglas por do sepan conocer las letras et signos finales donde los ocho tonos afortiori han de fenescer et declarando el defecto que se sigue fenesciendo en otros signos et reprobare con buenas razones et autoridades la costumbre que tienen en cantar quatro o cinquo punctos faes sobre huam sillabam. (…) E dare otras reglas para saber ligitimamente cantar Quattro voces, cinquo et otras disonancias en su perfecta y dividida composición guardando el género diatónico.
[‘And because in this magnificent choir there are some ladies who sing and do not sing lacking the theory and practice, I give here certain rules by which they may know the letters and final tones where the modes have to end. And pointing out the defect that they keep ending in other signs, and correcting with good reasons and authorities the custom that they have of singing four or five notes on one syllable (…) and to give other rules to know how to legitimately sing four or five voices, and other dissonances in their perfect and divided composition observing the diatonic genre.’]

34Later in the text, four short chapters condemn certain practices observed in the monastery, and the folio concludes with examples of intervals of fifths and fourths (Fig. 7). The folio is cropped at the bottom and some text was lost.

Fig. 7. Detail of the bottom of the last folio (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 238) showing examples of intervals of fifths and fourths (see image in original format)

35The text included in the gradual from Lorvão is a guide for plainchant but it also mentions singing with four or five voices, organum, or «canto de órgano», a Spanish term for polyphony in the Renaissance. Despite Cistercian polyphonic sources being rare, this mention constitutes another example of the actual practice of polyphony among Cistercian nuns to add to others. From Arouca, we have, in the aforementioned loose bifolio added to an antiphoner, a two-part hymn Exultat celi curia, dedicated to St. Bernard and copied in the early 13^th century¹⁰⁴. Another extraordinary example is the musical codex from Las Huelgas in Burgos, ca. 1300-1325, mainly devoted to polyphony¹⁰⁵. However, we must remember Las Huelgas’s status as a Royal nunnery, which permitted certain extraordinary practices. Polyphony and canto figurato were repeatedly forbidden among the Cistercians, even after the Middle Ages. The cantrix of São Bento de Castris expressly prohibited polyphony in the 17^th century, and the Congregation of Alcobaça forbade polyphony and instrumental music, with the exception of the organ, around 1720¹⁰⁶. The repeated admonitions show evidence that the prohibition was commonly flouted.

36Despite the corrections contained in the treatise, the fact that the author of the text states that many of Lorvão’s nuns were not lacking either musical theory or practical skills is certainly significant, particularly considering the misogynist attitude towards female voices both in plainchant and polyphony still existing in the 16^th century. Such attitudes are reflected in texts such as the Coloquios de Palatino y Pinciano by Juan de Arce de Otálora, written around 1550, containing a dialogue between two students at the University of Salamanca, where the author of the text contained in the Lorvão gradual could probably have taught or studied. In a conversation that takes place in the church of the Poor Clares in Medina de Rioseco, a certain Palatino laments the nuns’ lack of musical expertise: «A mí una me pareció bien música de monjas. Una voz sola, si es buena, me agrada; muchas juntas parécenme pipas de alcacer [sic] o dulzaina […] Todas las monjas creo yo que cantan con trabajo y a mal de su grado, y aun tan con trabajo que lloran»¹⁰⁷. However, alongside those who believed that nuns could not learn or perform music of quality, some theorists praised the virtuosity of the «música de señoras», practiced in certain convents, such as the Cistercian monastery of San Clemente in Seville. Besides, some treatises on plainchant or polyphonic chant were dedicated to nuns and many others were certainly owned and used by them, as the example of the learned Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz proves¹⁰⁸. The author of the text in the Lorvão gradual clearly believed that nuns could sing well and supported this belief by providing them with useful music theory above and beyond the usual Cistercian tonary.

Conclusions

37Taking as a starting point a single folio of a gradual (Lisbon, BnP, L.C. 238) of a single community of Cistercian nuns, Santa Maria de Lorvão, this article has reviewed some assumptions concerning the role of women, both religious and lay, in creating and performing liturgy in the Iberian Peninsula. Both women religious (including abbesses, chantresses, and sacristans) and lay patronesses (the «senhoras») were active in the commission, production and circulation of liturgical books, legislative or normative sources and other artefacts such as ornamenta sacra among communities of Cistercian nuns. They used all these as means to express power, to convey religious ideas and to shape identity and remembrance.

38Special attention has been paid to ordinaries, customaries, manuals for the cantrices and other complementary normative texts written by and for nuns in the Iberian Peninsula. These sources are crucial to understand women’s liturgical authority and the negotiation between nuns and priests over nearly every aspect of liturgical care. The brief music-theoretical text copied in the Lorvão gradual is a case in point. It was part of a long and widespread tradition of collaboration and exchange between nuns, friars, monks or clerics in manuscript production, liturgical performance and, in this case, plainchant singing.

39This short guide was written to correct («reprobare») some malpractices in the monastery, probably by a Castilian visitor who, nevertheless, acknowledged the theoretical and practical skills of Lorvão’s nuns. The author of the text was most probably familiar with Domingo Marcos Durán’s musical treatises or, in general, with the musical culture at the University of Salamanca.

40Therefore, the content of the last folio of gradual L.C. 238 from Lorvão proves how, at the beginning of the 16^th century, the musical culture of the monastery relied not just on the Cistercian liturgical tradition, but on a much wider, more diverse set of sources which were not exclusively monastic. Lorvão, and many other communities of Cistercian nuns in Europe, departed from Cistercian liturgical practice at various points¹⁰⁹. Like any other order’s discipline, that of the Cistercians was compatible with a variety of clerical backgrounds and religious identities. Numerous Cistercian antiphoners and graduals copied other tonarii from outside the Cistercian tradition. The case of Lorvão exemplifies how networks of female kinship overlapped with the Cistercian networks and extended both beyond the Cistercian order and the confines of the kingdom of Portugal. Therefore, without denying the existence of specific aspects of each order, a comparative view encompassing several religious orders not only permits a broader perspective, but also allows us to analyze the mutual influences and confluences between different religious orders. Finally, as we have seen the role of women, particularly of some abbesses and «senhoras» as mediators across and between religious orders and kingdoms or territories cannot be any longer overlooked.

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