Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Dominican Gradual Of Saints, Circa 1500, George Catalano

The Courier

LATE IN 1989 the Syracuse University Library received a manuscript volume of ecclesiastical chant (Syracuse University Library, Ms. I I) as part of a bequest from Barbara Weiss of Detroit, Michigan. No information about its history accompanied it. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to this important addition to the rare books and manuscript collections of Syracuse University's George Arents Research Library.

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance there were many kinds of chant books, such as Antiphonals and Graduals (which contain the chants used throughout the year in celebrating, respectively, the Divine Office and the …

The Medieval Librarian: Information Management In The Southwest German Empire At The Close Of The Middle Ages, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

The direct precursor of the modern librarian or archivist was the medieval scribe or notary. This person was responsible for the production or identification, storage, and retrieval of information and was the first information manager since antiquity to use vernacular languages in documents and books. The medieval information manager was highly educated and was often a prestigious and powerful official in whom important information and state secrets were entrusted. The civic secular scribes borrowed much from church practices but also worked out their own methods of source composition, verification, arrangement, and preservation. These procedures developed into many of the practices …