This book explores the complex interplay between relic cults and the liturgy in the Middle Ages. The cults of saints buried in churches throughout Christendom provoked expressions of devotion through various media, including not only more familiar ones like hagiographic literature, sacred architecture, and visual art but also the texts, music, and ritual of the liturgy. This study situates this oft-neglected yet critical domain of religious life at the center of its examination of relic cults in medieval Tuscany, which boasted the rich and well-documented veneration of holy bishops and martyrs ... More

This book explores the complex interplay between relic cults and the liturgy in the Middle Ages. The cults of saints buried in churches throughout Christendom provoked expressions of devotion through various media, including not only more familiar ones like hagiographic literature, sacred architecture, and visual art but also the texts, music, and ritual of the liturgy. This study situates this oft-neglected yet critical domain of religious life at the center of its examination of relic cults in medieval Tuscany, which boasted the rich and well-documented veneration of holy bishops and martyrs buried in the cathedrals and suburban shrines of its principal cities. Holy Treasure reveals that the music composed for these local saints—no fewer than ninety chants for the Mass and Divine Office—belonged to larger campaigns that included the writing of their lives and the building and decoration of their shrines. The authors of such programs were the self-appointed protectors of their relics, namely bishops and cathedrals canons, who strove for a monopoly over the material (if not spiritual) benefits of local cults. In so doing, Tuscan clerics drew on influential models—literary, architectural, musical, and ritual—from preeminent European powers, Rome, and the Carolingian Empire. By integrating detailed analyses of plainsong and ritual into this rich panorama, this study traces the dialectic between local, regional, and pan-European politics in revealing the centrality of the liturgy in the development of medieval relic cults.