ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides an international colloquium in the episcopal see of the famed medieval canonist and liturgist, William Durand the Elder, bishop of Mende. For almost three years he had labored on a doctoral thesis in medieval history at the University of Notre Dame, devoting nearly every waking moment to the study of Durand's mammoth liturgical exposition, the Rationale divinorum officiorum. As Professor Reynolds knows, this conference was the birthplace of the modern critical edition of Durand's Rationale. Divided into eight books, Durand's treatise provides an exhaustive treatment of a wide variety of topics that are of interest to art historians, liturgists, theologians and any serious students of medieval Christian culture. Durand's treatise fared much better during the Catholic Restorationist liturgical revival that spread through France in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the Rationale, Durand's treatment of evening prayer, therefore amounts to an inspirational sermon on the liturgy of vespers.
