Welcome to the online facsimile of the Wells College Liber Hymnarius. This facsimile is an ongoing project of the Wells College Art History program. The first phase of digitizing and posting the facsimile is complete. More content will be added to this site in the coming months and will include: commentary, translations, details, calligraphy analysis, and a glossary.

The Wells College Liber Hymnarius (book of hymns) is a treasured seventeeth-century manuscript found in the College's art collection. The hand-written codex is comprised of 167 folios on vellum, an additional folio is mounted to the rear cover.

An expert in sacred music, Father Lamothe of Assumption College has provided the following commentatry:

This book of sacred music contains the metrical Latin poetry that is part of the Divine Office. The word "hymnus" and its abbreviations on almost every page. Larger ornamented letters mark the beginning of a hymn. The smaller ornamented letters mark the beginning of the stanzas with the hymn.

In the first thirty folios of the manuscript, there is little musical notation and much more text as these hymns were sung often and usually from memory.

On folio 30 verso begin the hymns of the liturgical year. Hymns for Advent and the succeeding feasts follow in festal order. At the end are hymns pertaining to the commons of saints. The rubrics indicate at which of the hours of the Divine Office the hymn is sung (matins, lauds, vespers). The text in red at the end of the manuscript. shows that it was completed in 1659.