Liber precum variarum (Book of Various Prayers)
Liber precum variarum
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
A collection of prayers in varied forms compiled by John of Fécamp, numbered among the ascetical works he specifically composed for Empress Agnes of Poitou. The text is preserved in the Patrologia Latina (PL CXLVII) and represents the most explicitly prayer-book-like of John's compositions for the imperial widow—a set of varied intercessions and devotional addresses designed for private daily use. Its inclusion in the cluster of works sent to Agnes confirms direct court-restricted circulation at the highest level of the Holy Roman Empire.
Why it still matters
A collection of varied prayers by one of the greatest devotional writers before Thomas à Kempis, this text can be used today as a daily breviary-style supplement, cycling through its prayers at different hours or intentions.
Kept alongside
Summe Sacerdos et vere Pontifex (Supreme Priest and True Pontiff)
Summe sacerdos et vere Pontifex
A private preparatory prayer for Holy Communion, composed by John of Fécamp and circulated for centuries as a prayer of St. Ambrose in the pre-Mass prayers of the Roman Rite. Beginning 'Summe sacerdos et vere Pontifex, qui te obtulisti deo patri hostiam puram...,' it meditates on the priest's unworthiness before the Eucharist and implores Christ's mercy through His Precious Blood. Its inclusion in pre-Mass devotions anchored it to the court chapel practice of every Norman, Capetian, and imperial chaplain who followed the Roman rite. The misattribution to Ambrose guaranteed it universal prestige. André Wilmart's twentieth-century scholarship restored authorship to John.
Confessio theologica (Theological Confession)
Confessio theologica
John of Fécamp's masterwork of affective monastic devotion, composed as an extended prayer-confession in three parts, drawing heavily on Scripture, Augustine, Cassian, and Gregory. As abbot of Saint-Bénigne de Dijon and later of Fécamp, John was in close contact with Emperor Henry III and Empress Agnes of Poitiers; after Henry's death, Agnes placed herself under John's spiritual direction and he composed for her a series of ascetical works (Liber precum variarum, De divina contemplatio Christique amore, De superna Hierusalem, De institutione viduae, De vita et moribus virginum). The Confessio circulated primarily to monasteries in Fécamp's Norman network and was the seedbed of the enormously popular pseudo-Augustine Meditationes, which circulated under false attribution throughout the Middle Ages.
Libellus de scripturis et verbis patrum (Little Book of Writings and Words of the Fathers)
Libellus de scripturis et verbis patrum collectus
John's second major work, the Libellus is a reworking of the Confessio theologica arranged as a florilegium of scripture and patristic sentences for lovers of the contemplative life—essentially the version he sent to an anonymous nun around 1030 and then further revised. It was this recension that, retitled 'Meditations of Saint Augustine,' achieved over 450 manuscript copies between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, making it among the most widely read devotional texts in medieval Christendom. Eleven manuscripts survive from the late eleventh and twelfth centuries made for houses in Fécamp's immediate network. Its patristic anthology format made it ideal for the kind of spiritual reading (lectio divina) practiced both in monasteries and in the private chapels of great nobles.