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The Exultet in Southern Italy. By THOMAs FORREST KELLY. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. xvi + 352 pp. + 17 plates. $95.00.
Drawing upon broad areas of interest-music, liturgy, codicology, and art history-Thomas Kelly offers a thorough study of the beautifully written and decorated southern Italian Exultet rolls which were for centuries used at the Easter celebration for the blessing of the great paschal candle. The author states two purposes for his work: first, a summary of present knowledge about the rolls and their significance; and second, a going beyond the interests covered by art historians to look at music, ceremonial use, text development of the Exultet, and the reason these rolls came to exist. The author treats each of these topics in a careful, scholarly way and presents a clear vision of the composite nature of the Exultet rolls of southern Italy.
In the introduction there is an examination of...