Medieval Music, Legend, and the Cult of St Martin
The Local Foundations of a Universal Saint

The first study to explore the music of St Martin's cult and its influence upon medieval religion, art and politics.

Yossi Maurey (Author)

9781107060951, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 October 2014

318 pages, 11 colour illus. 8 tables 26 music examples
25.4 x 18.1 x 2.1 cm, 0.79 kg

'Yossi Maurey traces the complex path by which veneration of Martin evolved from the saint's death and the celebration of his life in the biography by Sulpicius Severus through his transformation into the archetypal chivalric knight in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Thanks to his painstaking research, we now stand on much firmer ground in our understanding of Martin's widespread cult, its liturgy, and its constituent music.' James Grier, Music and Letters

St Martin of Tours was a protector saint of numerous French kings. His was one of the most successful saintly cults in medieval Europe, and the city of Tours functioned as a religious metropolis, drawing pilgrims from all over the continent. Until now, little has been known about how St Martin came to inspire such a lively folkloric tradition, numerous works of art, and the establishment of thousands of churches and numerous confraternities. In this book, Yossi Maurey addresses these questions by focusing on the church dedicated to the saint in Tours, which acted as the crucible for Martin's cult. Maurey explores the music and liturgy of the cult - the most effective means of its dissemination - to reveal its enormous diffusion and impact. Building a more concrete picture of how saints' cults operated and shaped medieval realities, this book also provides new insights into the interactions between contemporary religion, art and politics.

Introduction
1. The focal point of the cult: St Martin's Church in Tours
2. Universal and local foundations of Martin's cult
3. The musical articulation of St Martin in Tours
4. Competing with success: sharing the aura of St Martin in Tours
5. From pacifist to knight: late-medieval appropriations of St Martin
Afterword
Appendices: A. The 1141 miracle account for Martin's July 4 feast (BMT 1294, p. 221)
B. Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 159, the calendar.

Subject Areas: Medieval history [HBLC1], Music: styles & genres [AVG], Music [AV]