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Digital Parish Sources

This page features:

  • Archival and written resources in digital format
  • Audio resources
  • Visual and material resources
Archival and written resources

(in digital format; for printed materials see ‘Printed Primary SourcesLink opens in a new window‘)

The original documents – previously in the possession of the Drechsel-Mayr family – are now held in theSüdtiroler Landesarchiv / Archivio Provinciale di Bolzano. TranscriptLink opens in a new window of the two passages. Excerpts kindly submitted and transcribed by Hannes Obermair of the Stadtarchiv Bozen / Archivio Storico Cittá di Bolzano.

 

 Bibliothek Greifswald

Manuscripts of the Bibliothek des Geistlichen Ministeriums, an early modern parish library, in the Dom of St Nikolai at Greifswald / Germany. Photo: BK.

Audio resources:
  • Danish church music from the fragmentary 15thC Missale Danicum 1, as featured on ‘Liturgical Fragments from Denmark’ [online audio samples]
  • English pre-Reformation parish music: John Taverner (English composer c. 1490-1545; active e.g. as lay clerk at the collegiate parish church of Tattershall , Lincs., in the 1520s and as a singer at St Botolph, Boston, in the late 1530s), Missa ‘Western Wynde’, performed by Choir of New College, Oxford; Edward Higginbottom [online audio sample of ‘Gloria’Link opens in a new window]
  • English post-Reformation parish music: examples of psalm-singing and organ accompaniments recreated by the Dufay Collective for Christopher Marsh’s Music and Society in Early Modern England Link opens in a new window(Cambridge, 2010), audio CD, tracks nos 43-46, and of bell-ringing performed by the ringers of St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, nos 47-48.
  • German church music:
  • Greek church music performed by the Byzantine choir at Athens [online audio samplesLink opens in a new window]
  • 100 Ballads - top pop from seventeenth-century England: Broadside ballads were single-sheet songs that sold for a penny a piece. Find over 100 resoundingly successful examples that can be investigated through recordings, images and a wealth of other materials [website]
  • Musicians and choirs specializing in late medieval and Renaissance church music:
  • 'Village Music Project': a website dedicated to the traditional social dance music of England – where it came from, where it went to, who it travelled with and where it is now (with details on pre-1850 publishers and transcriptions).

Benefactions table Thame

Table of benefactions for the poor of Thame (Oxon.) [Photo: BK]

Visual and material resources:
  • Stratford-upon-Avon, Guild Chapel: information and teaching resources relating to the reconstruction of late medieval wall paintings (Doom, Dance of Death, Holy Cross legend) in a collaborative project of historians, archaeologists and Heritage Technology Limited.
  • Swedish Medieval Art (Medeltidens bildvärld): provides access to some 19,000 pictures of artworks (sculptures, paintings, fonts etc) from Swedish churches, searchable by region/place, material, topic and museum (in Swedish).
  • Teregua (Valtellina, Italy): 16th century wall paintings (by Vincenzo de Barberis) and wood sculptures of the Chiesa della Santissima Trinità [Holy Trinity Chapel] in the parish of S. Nicolò, Valfurva.
  • Wallpaintings in Danish churches are featured in these two extensive online resources: Kalkmalerier.dk (where reproductions can be obtained for commercial and other purposes) and Kalkmalerier i danske kirker Link opens in a new window(under the auspices of the Danish National Museum), both with search functions

lyddington_rails_1635.jpg lyddington_cw_fowler__jordan_1635.jpg

Somewhat against the spirit of the Laudian reforms (aiming to re-enhance the ‘beauty of holiness’ through moving altars to the east wall of chancels and demarcating them by means of a rail), the parishioners of St Andrew, Lyddington (Rutland), railed their communion table on all four sides (left). The work was carried out in 1635 under the supervision of the vicar, Richard Rudd, and the churchwardens, Kenolm Fowler and Nicholas Jordan (initials on the right). Photos: BK.