Views of Transition: Liturgy and Illumination in Medieval Spain

Abstract

Change Was a Difficult Concept in Medieval Society; the Introduction of new or different ideas and approaches was generally viewed with suspicion, and could leave an innovator open to the charge of novitas, or innovation, or even heresy.Yet, change did occur. Rose Walker investigates the mechanism of change in the Middle Ages through the study of one particular innovation: the shift from the Mozarabic to the Roman liturgy in Spain after 1080. Walker focuses on the joint northern Spanish kingdoms of Leon and Castile to examine how the liturgical shift, initiated by the reforms of Pope Gregory VII, was reflected in the liturgical manuscripts of the time. By analysing the text and images in manuscripts of the Mozarabic and Roman liturgies produced in Spain before, during, and after the change in liturgy, she demonstrates how the presentation and decoration of liturgical texts helps to determine ways in which change was expressed, and to illuminate the perspective of those who had to put it into practice.

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