ABSTRACT

London, British Library, Additional MS 16964 belonged to Stavelot in the Middle Ages, and was probably transcribed there. The single volume is made up of two parts, originally separate, which contain the works of John Cassian, one of the most influential writers on the monastic life. The Becket text is an abbreviation of an office for the feast of St Thomas, lay out in two parts. Authorship of the rhymed office, or historia, comprising the Invitatory, antiphons, and responsories of First Vespers, Matins, and Lauds, which echoed the Passio, can be attributed fairly confidently to Benedict, then a monk at Canterbury, later abbot of Peterborough. In Benedict of Canterbury's original Office, the heroic elements of the Passio were highlighted in the sequences of Antiphons, Responsories, and Versicles of the first two nocturns, creating a masterly integration of spoken narrative and versified chant. The author of the Stavelot epitome, however, has stripped out most of Benedict's verse commentary.