Harry M. J. Banting • 1989
A posthumous work of Canon Banting (1905-1985). The MSS are for the so-called Egbert Pontifical, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS lat. 10575, and for the companion work Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College, MS 100, the De Bernham Pontifical.
The Paris MS is in a large square Anglo-Saxon minuscule of probably the mid-10th century and contains various rites, including those for the dedication of a church, the coronation of a king, and has a collection of 134 episcopal blessings. While it is clearly English, no specific location can be defined. It travelled to Evreux about the 11th century and there a supplement was added. It is one of the earliest English pontificals. The Banting edition replaces that devised by William Greenwell for the Surtees Society in the last century (The Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York. A.D. 732-766, Durham, [1853], [Publications of the Surtees Society vol. 27]), which though a pioneering effort was defective in various respects.
The Cambridge MS is a fragmentary pontifical which probably originated at either Old Minster or New Minster, Winchester. To this original section a second section was added at Durham in the first half of the 11th century and a third in the 11th or 12th century. The contents include a Mass of St Cuthbert and four antiphons of St Nicholas.
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