The Sherborne Missal Poster

The Sherborne Missal begins with a calendar recording the feast days celebrated throughout the year, followed by the texts that were read and chanted at different masses. As is usual for liturgical books, these are arranged in three sections. The first section is the Temporal, which provides texts for the feasts and holidays that are celebrated on different dates from year to year, such as Easter. Then the prefaces, musical notation and text are provided for the invariable part of the Mass, known as the Ordinary and Canon. The final section is the Sanctorale, which features the readings and prayers for fixed saints’ days throughout the year. Some of the texts in the Sherborne Missal indicate liturgical practices that were local to south-west England. The Missal was made for the Benedictine abbey of St Mary’s in Sherborne, Dorset. The abbey’s coat of arms features prominently in the illumination. A missal is a book that contains all the texts required for celebrating Mass, the central service of the liturgy. Every mediaeval church and monastic house needed a missal to perform the Mass each day. Yet the Sherborne Missal is exceptional for its deluxe scale and illumination.