9 - Cantor, Sacrist or Prior? The Provision of Books in Anglo-Norman England

Summary

The account of the office and duties of the cantor in the monastic customs compiled during the late 1070s or early 1080s by Archbishop Lanfranc for Henry, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, ends by assigning to him general responsibility for the community's books: ‘He takes care of all the books of the house, and has them in his keeping, if his interests and learning are such as to fit him for keeping them.’ By the later eleventh century it had become common in England and on the Continent for the duties of the cantor to be combined with those of the armarius, to whom several late tenth and eleventh century customaries had assigned custody of the community's books in addition to oversight of the liturgical and other readings, together with certain other duties. For Anglo-Norman England, the norms described in customaries can be supported by other forms of documentary evidence from the twelfth century onwards, recording the allocation of revenues to the cantor for various purposes associated with the production, custody and upkeep of books. The identification of the handwriting of a number of cantors acting at some point in their career as copyists, annotators and correctors has also been seen to reflect the close relationship between the cantor and the production and custody of books. In a volume that examines the activities of those involved in the practice of the liturgy, its music and the writing of history, and seeks to understand and explain how such activities might be connected, it may be helpful to consider in more detail to what extent and in what ways the duties of the combined office of cantor-armarius encompassed the provision of books within Anglo-Norman monastic communities, which other offices were associated with the provision of books and why the amalgamation of the roles of cantor and armarius continued to endure throughout the twelfth century and beyond.

The production and custody of books

Lanfranc's assigning of the care of the community's books to the cantor, like much else in his customs, reflects the influence of the customs of Cluny.