Music, Spirituality and Material Culture in the Choirbooks of the Cistercian Convent of Seligenthal

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In 1232 the Bavarian Duchess Ludmilla founded the small Cistercian convent ofSeligenthal within the city of Landshut, close to the border of the diocese ofRegensburg. By 1260 this was a thriving female community, and between 1262 andthe early fourteenth century it acquired a gradual (BL Add. MS 16950) and anantiphonal (BSB Clm 23046). These manuscripts form the focus of my proposed PhD,in which my overarching research question is: 'in what ways is the performance ofinstitutional identity captured in the medium of the book during the late medievalperiod?'. If we understand each book as a constant throughout the institution's history,what evidence of individuality and changing identity has been encapsulated within itspages over the course of several hundred years? My proposed research anchors itselfaround the fact that the choirbooks were made specifically by women, for women,within the medieval monastic sphere. It aims to frame each book as a dynamic object;liturgical manuscripts can be understood not just as palaeographical items or musicalsources, but as manifestations of lived experience. I will ask how the women ofSeligenthal engaged with their community from both a personal and socio-politicalstandpoint, how books were used to nurture their spiritual lives, and how extantmanuscripts helped them navigate their devotional experiences and construct theirunique liturgical practice.