Mont-Cornillon is a quiet, residential district of the city of Liège, set on a hill. Little remains to suggest that this site once left a significant mark on the religious history of the Middle Ages. In the early twelfth century, a chapel dedicated to the Twelve Apostles stood here, which gradually developed into a Premonstratensian abbey with a hospital. The abbey’s most famous resident was Juliana of Cornillon, the initiator of the Feast of Corpus Christi (1246). A few decades later, the Premonstratensians departed, and in 1360 a Carthusian monastery was established on the same site.

The Gradual from this charterhouse is now preserved at the Royal Library of Belgium. The colophon on folio 204r informs us that the manuscript was completed in July 1367. Unfortunately, the two lines of text that follow have been scraped away. They probably indicated the names of the scribes, but today only traces of red ink remain.

Carthusians are renowned for their ascetic way of life and their faithful adherence to liturgical tradition, and this Gradual is a clear reflection of those values. Its sober and pragmatic decoration is only occasionally and subtly enlivened by a broader colour palette or a simple miniature accompanying chants for major feasts. The musical notation—known as square notation because of its square-shaped notes—is written on a minimal number of staff lines: usually four, but sometimes only three when sufficient. The original foliation is organized by ‘openings’, with the numbers consistently written at the bottom of the left-hand pages.

At the back of the manuscript is a fragment dating from the tenth or eleventh century, containing just one chant: an exceptionally rare introit for the liturgy of the dead. The origin of this fragment remains uncertain. It may come from the very first chapel on Mont-Cornillon, or it may be even older. In any case, a meticulous Carthusian ensured its preservation for the future.

View the Carthusian gradual of Mont-Cornillon here.