Observant Dominican Nuns’ Processionals in Fifteenth-Century Germany: Evidence From Manuscripts of the Beinecke Library

This article examines three Dominican processionals held in the Beinecke Library: Ms. 205, Music Deposit 60 and Music Deposit 61, all of which can be linked to the Observant Dominican convent of St Catherine in Nuremberg. Ms. 205 was undoubtedly used in Nuremberg, while Music Deposit 60 and 61 were likely copied from a Nuremberg Processional but made for use elsewhere, probably Regensburg. This small collection presents the opportunity to consider the Observant experience of procession, the dissemination of Observant liturgical books, and the relationship between the practices of Dominican nuns and friars. To a vast extent, these manuscripts reveal that Dominican nuns and friars shared a common practice; nevertheless, through claustration, Observant nuns had a radically different experience of procession, with the processional book acting as the touchstone of their ritual experience.