HITTORP, MELCHIOR. - Liturgist, canon of S. Maria ad Gradus and, from 1583, dean of the collegiate church of S. Cuniberto; born at Colonia c. 1525, died there in 1584.
At the suggestion of Giacomo Pamelius, in order to defend Catholic liturgical institutions against the criticisms of the innovators, he collected in the De divinis catholicae Ecclesiae officiis et mysteriis varii vetustorum aliquot Ecclesiae Patrum ac scriptorum ecclesiasticorum libri (folio, Colonia 1568) the Ordo romanus and the liturgical writings of Isidoro, Ps. Alcuino, Amalario, Rabano Mauro, Valafrido Strabone, Bernone di Reichenau, the Micrologo, Ivo di Chartres, Ildeberto, Radulfo di Rivo, and a Carolingian Expositio Missae. The new edition prepared by G. Ferrari (Roma 1591) was enriched with seven further texts, including the liturgical works of Pietro Damiani, Pietro Cluniacense, Onorio di Autun, and Ruperto di Deutz. This edition was subsequently reproduced, with some additions, in vol. X of the Magna Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum by Margarin de la Bigne (Parigi 1610). H.’s valuable collection remains the prototype of a corpus of liturgical works.