ABSTRACT
The Bangor Pontifical is sometimes dismissed as a book with few genuinely Welsh associations, but since it was used continuously by a succession of Welsh bishops from the early fourteenth century, its relevance is scarcely any less pronounced than that of the Penpont Antiphoner. It would also have been a far more rare volume in its time. Whereas Antiphoners must have been relatively commonplace in those medieval institutions capable of singing the Office, Pontificals were compiled exclusively, frequently with lavish decoration, for the personal use of bishops or archbishops, and never existed in great numbers. Some of the most interesting musical material generally found in a medieval Pontifical is the lengthy composite rite for the dedication of a church, a ceremony that also extended to consecration of the altar, anointing of consecration crosses, and interring of relics.
