PIMSPontifical Institute
of
Mediaeval Studies

Peter Jeffery is the Michael P. Grace II Professor of Medieval Studies Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, and the Scheide Professor of Music History Emeritus at Princeton University. In 2023 he was elected a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. He has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur “Genius Award” Fellowship, and other honors. His books have taken innovative approaches to the history of medieval liturgy and music.  Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures (Chicago 1992) proposed ethnomusicological and anthropological approaches to the study of Gregorian chant. The three-volume Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant (1993–97, co-authored with Kay Shelemay of Harvard University) juxtaposed historical and ethnomusicological approaches to create the first critical study of this ancient musical tradition, while The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled: Imagined Rituals of Sex, Death and Madness in a Biblical Forgery (Yale 2006) applied the history of baptismal liturgies and other data to show that this alleged discovery was actually created in the twentieth century. A New Commandment (Liturgical Press 1992) and Translating Tradition (2005) successfully prompted changes in the modern Roman Catholic liturgy by bringing medieval and post-medieval evidence to bear on contemporary pastoral problems. At PIMS he will be working on a new edition and translation with commentary of Ordo Romanus Primus (8th century), the earliest description of how Mass was celebrated according to the Roman rite.