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

In 1232 the Bavarian Duchess Ludmilla founded the small Cistercian convent of
Seligenthal within the city of Landshut, close to the border of the diocese of
Regensburg. By 1260 this was a thriving female community, and between 1262 and
the early fourteenth century it acquired a gradual (BL Add. MS 16950) and an
antiphonal (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 of
institutional identity captured in the medium of the book during the late medieval
period?'. If we understand each book as a constant throughout the institution's history,
what evidence of individuality and changing identity has been encapsulated within its
pages over the course of several hundred years? My proposed research anchors itself
around 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 musical
sources, but as manifestations of lived experience. I will ask how the women of
Seligenthal engaged with their community from both a personal and socio-political
standpoint, how books were used to nurture their spiritual lives, and how extant
manuscripts helped them navigate their devotional experiences and construct their
unique liturgical practice.