Echternach Sacramentary and Antiphonary

The arrangement of chants and prayers to be said by the priest in successive groups makes the Echternach Sacramentary and Antiphonary a forerunner of the Roman missal. It is considered a masterpiece of early German illumination due to it numerous miniatures and splendid initials. In each table, the notated chants are set down one after the other, followed by the orations. The chants with their Neume notation are written in small script between the carefully executed letters. The rich ornamentation of both the script and the miniatures gives this manuscript extraordinary artistic value in addition to its great musicological worth. The manuscript was written and illuminated ca. 1030 for Echternach Abbey, although a few stylistic features indicate that it may have originated in Echternach itself.