Bobbio Missal

Its specific authorship and provenance is much disputed, though general agreement points to the valley of the Rhône, with Besançon (Mabillon's suggestion) and Vienne given as two popular options.

Lowe: "The Missal proper is written by one hand, designated as M... the few pages in uncial - the Mass pro principe, written by another hand - are referred to as M2... the pages containing added matter, in two different styles of crude writing, one showing distinct majuscule and the other as distinct minuscule traits, are referred to as A and a".

[6] The Catholic Encyclopedia (1917) in its entry on the Celtic Rite, lists the Bobbio Missal in its section entitled "Manuscript sources - Irish (whether insular or continental)".

[7] Mabillon notes that in the "Missa Pro Principe" (Mass for the Prince), after the "Contestatio" in the Canon, the name of the martyr Eugenia is commemorated as well as the other usual saints, this being a unique occurrence.

[1] The most comprehensive study to date is Yitzhak Hen and Rob Meens’ The Bobbio Missal: liturgy and religious culture in Merovingian Gaul.

This book of collected works by international scholars who met in Utrecht in 2001 examines in detail "virtually all of the issues that have swirled around the Bobbio missal".

It was published in 2004, and summarizes the history of scholarship on the manuscript in terms of philology, paleography, Latin spelling and orthography, theology and liturgy amongst other aspects.

[9] McKitterick agrees with Mabillon on the origin of the manuscript in Provençal or somewhere in South-East France, around the late 7th/early 8th century, and that it was not designed for use in a monastic community.

Lowe's division of the script into four characteristic styles of writing - M, M2, a and A - asserts that three of these styles were meant to be read aloud: "Having considered the punctuation and word spacing of the oldest quires, we have found the conventions of M to be consistent with those of late antique (liturgical) books meant for reading aloud by a native speaker of Latin - even if the consistency of the punctuation may leave something to be desired... M2 follows M’s conventions, as did A.

[11] Charles and Roger Wright note that additions were made to the Bobbio Missal - that is, texts were added some time afterward by a subsequent scribe, notably the sermon "De Dies Malus" and an untitled question/answer dialogue primarily regarding biblical and ecclesiastical history.

[12] Yitzak Hen hypothesizes, along with Lowe, that the Bobbio Missal was created by an individual in his private capacity for practical purposes, and that its small size indicates it traveled with its owner: "Judging from the script and the manuscript layout, it is well justified to describe the Bobbio Missal as a vade mecum of a Merovingian clergyman...It seems, therefore, safe to conclude that the Bobbio Missal is indeed a vade mecum of a bishop or even a priest, who offered liturgical services to secular, clerical and monastic communities...its unique and practical selections of prayers and benedictions supports this conclusion.