The history of liturgy and liturgical books is of interest not only for theologians and liturgists but also for historians art historians archaeologists anthropologists and researchers in religious sciences This work meets the interdisciplinary need for a history and a typology of liturgical books A History of Liturgical Books from the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century is an introduction to Western liturgical sources and a synthesis of their history for more than a millennium It provides a historiographic summary examines the relationship between medieval history and liturgy suggests new methods of research and underscores the fruitfulness of an interdisciplinary approach Focusing on the history of liturgical books rather than the history of liturgy A History of Liturgical Books from the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century devotes a detailed chapter to each type of book intended for a specific celebrationMass Office ritesand a specific presiderpope bishop deacon monastic etc The crucial transition from oral practice to the use of the written document is discussed in every case as is the illustration of liturgical books Chapters are History of the Research on Liturgical Books The Books of the Mass The Office Books and The Books of Sacraments and Rites

Author: Robert K. Merton From the names of cruise lines and bookstores to an Australian ranch and a nudist camp outside of Atlanta, the word serendipity--that happy blend of wisdom and luck by which something is discovered not quite by accident--is today ubiquitous. This book traces the word's eventful history from its 1754 coinage into the twentieth century--chronicling along the way much of what we now call the natural and social sciences. The book charts where the term went, with whom it resided, and how it fared. We cross oceans and academic specialties and meet those people, both famous and now obscure, who have used and abused serendipity. We encounter a linguistic sage, walk down the illustrious halls of the Harvard Medical School, attend the (serendipitous) birth of penicillin, and meet someone who manages serendipity for the U.S. Navy. The story of serendipity is fascinating; that of The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, equally so. Written in the 1950s by already-eminent sociologist Robert Merton and Elinor Barber, the book--though occasionally and most tantalizingly cited--was intentionally never published. This is all the more curious because it so remarkably anticipated subsequent battles over research and funding--many of which centered on the role of serendipity in science. Finally, shortly after his ninety-first birthday, following Barber's death and preceding his own by but a little, Merton agreed to expand and publish this major work. Beautifully written, the book is permeated by the prodigious intellectual curiosity and generosity that characterized Merton's influential On the Shoulders of Giants. Absolutely entertaining as the history of a word, the book is also tremendously important to all who value the miracle of intellectual discovery. It represents Merton's lifelong protest against that rhetoric of science that defines discovery as anything other than a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance--anything other than serendipity.