A miniature from Montecassino, MS 73, fol. iv © Archivio dell’Abbazia, Montecassino

Monumenta Liturgica Beneventana

The broad and principal aim of the Monumenta Liturgica Beneventana is the discovery, study, and editing of medieval liturgical texts contained in manuscripts displaying the distinctive writing known as ‘Beneventan.’ This type of script was first used towards the middle of the eighth century in the Duchy of Benevento (to which general region the hand owes its name), and it was practiced until at least the middle of the sixteenth century (and into the eighteenth in a ‘pseudo-Beneventan’ form). ‘Beneventan’ was written throughout the area comprising the Duchy and also along the Dalmatian coast, the script having been transported there by Benedictine monks who came to found or to populate monasteries.

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