Micrologus de Ecclesiasticis Observationibus

MICROLOGUS DE ECCLESIASTICIS OBSERVATIONIBUS. - It is a sober and accurate description of the liturgy of the Mass and of the liturgical year, which avoids exaggerated symbolism and inculcates Roman uses and orders.

A work widely diffused in the early Middle Ages, it marks a new revival in liturgical literature after the decline that followed the Carolingian splendor. Its author is Berold of Constance. Written shortly after the year 1000, it was printed for the first time in Paris in 1510. From then on the editions multiplied; the latest is in PL 151, 973-1022. For a long time its author was held to be Ivo of Chartres (ca. 1116), as some codices of the 12th and 14th centuries indicate; someone else, on the other hand, attributed it to G. Belet (12th century), others to Rabanus Maurus (9th century). S. Bäumer, after a careful examination of 18 codices, came to the conclusion that it could be attributed only to Ivo of Chartres. G. Morin, instead, definitively establishes that it is the work not of a Frenchman, but of a German, Berold of Constance. The learned Benedictine arrived at his assertion after a careful study of the writers of the period, such as Honorius of Autun (De luminaribus Ecclesiae, IV, 113; PL 172, 231), the anonymous writer of Melk, a contemporary of Honorius (De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis* : PL 148, 1058-1432) and of others, as well as a meticulous examination of the text, and of other writings of Berold.

Silverio Mattei