Antiphoner

This is a medieval term for a liturgical book containing antiphons. The term first appears in library catalogies from the 8th and 9th centuries, as well as in the titles of some manuscripts from that era. In the middle ages, an antiphoner might contain antiphons for the Mass (that is, introits and communions, perhaps together with other Mass proper chants) or for the divine office. Because of potential confusion between these two sorts of books, collections of Mass proper chants are usually called ‘graduals’ in modern scholarship. Office antiphoners usually contain responsory chants as well as antiphons. While hymns are usually copied separately (in hymnals, sometimes combined with a...