Roman Hankeln (ed.), Political Plainchant? Music, Text and Historical Context of Medieval Saints’ Offices, Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen/Musicological Studies 91 (misprinted as 111). Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 2009. vi + 229 pp. €80. ISBN 978 1 896926 97 5.

of the Ordo Paginarum that she cites as her source for this entry. Indeed, surrounding entries given for York account book A/Y in REED/York refer to guild activity (see REED/York, II, pp. 622–3), while the references in the Ordo Paginarum are to the Corpus Christi procession of 1415. Other issues are evident as well. It was probably the block format used in the text editions that masked for both author and proofreader the two lines omitted from the first and third stanzas of Nos respectu gratie (RH 12241) in the settings from Besançon (B1–B3, p. 303). There are also a number of proofreading anomalies. Space does not permit an exhaustive list, so I offer a few examples here. The manuscript number given for Morandi’s sources N3A and N3B should be ‘nouv. acq. lat. 1235’ and not ‘lat. 1235’ (pp. xxix, 90, 332, 396 and 436). The reference to O quam dignis should be RH 13496 rather than 12496 (p. 77, n. 60), while that for Novae genitura should be RH 12329 rather than 12635 (p. 118, n. 108). The siglum for the Salisbury source is given variously as S (pp. xiv, n. 13, xxx, 119, 129 138 and 154) and Sa (pp. 4, 33 and 198). The manuscript number for the Vienna manuscript (Wi) is given as MS 552 in the list of witnesses (p. xxx) but as MS 442 elsewhere. In addition, a number of references given in the notes do not point to the correct locations. The citation from Dunbar Ogden mentioned above with respect to the Regensburg source, for example, is misplaced. On the page referenced (Ogden, p. 40), Ogden describes a fifteenth-century Visitatio Sepulchri from Regensburg and not the Officium Stellae. These issues notwithstanding, Nausica Morandi has provided an invaluable resource that can offer us a deeper understanding of the Officium Stellae should we be willing to make the effort. While one may quibble over her choices for organisation, presentation and formatting, Morandi’s provision of the complete textual and musical information for these sources makes possible investigations into aspects of these settings well beyond those that prompted and guided her presentation. The Officium Stellae is the one office among those labelled ‘liturgical drama’ that really does not seem to fit. Morandi’s study, and her editions in particular, offer the resources needed to allow future scholars to better understand the nature and history of this most peculiar office and its place both within and without the liturgy.