The ''Fleury Playbook'' (french: Livre de Jeux de Fleury — Orléans, Bibliothèque Municipale MS. 201) is a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

collection of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

dramas dating from around 1200 AD It was included in a composite volume of sermons, biblical texts, liturgical dramas, and hymns that was bound and kept at the library of Abbaye Saint Benoît de Fleury, a

Benedictine monastery , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (, literally ''Saint-Benoît on Loire'') is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France. Monastery This town hosts the '' Abbaye de Fleury'', also known as the ''Abbaye de Saint Benoît'' (Saint Benedict A ...

, France, until after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and is now housed in the Bibliothèque de la Ville (Municipal Library) at

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and The works in the playbook are told in a musical style similar to that of

plainsong Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgy, liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in La ...

. The origin of the book is unknown, but it is possible that it was written by multiple authors. The playbook consists of a total of 10 works, occupying pages 176–243 of the manuscript.

Origin

The playbook was compiled in the late 12th century. Although it is widely accepted that the ''Fleury Playbook'' was created in the Fleury Abbey, the

neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but not ne ...

s in the musical scores are not similar to those found there, nor was the Abbey known for any achievements in drama prior to the ''Fleury Playbook'', both of which suggest that the book may have been bound elsewhere. However, the manuscript was copied and housed in the abbey's

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes and ...

, and may have served as an early example of a

liturgical drama Liturgical drama refers to medieval forms of dramatic performance that use stories from the Bible or Christian hagiography. The term was widely disseminated by well-known theater historians like Heinrich Alt (''Theater und Kirche'', 1846), E.K. C ...

.Ogden, Dunbar H. (2002)
The Staging of Drama in the Medieval Church
University of Delaware Press. p. 221. . Google Book Search. Retrieved 2009-11-27.

Context

The plays are both

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

and non-liturgical (specifically those pertaining to St. Nicholas), and may be performed both monastically and non-monastically, as the text does not specify. As each drama appears to correspond with different dates of the

liturgical year The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and whi ...

, it is likely that main purpose of the playbook is not liturgical. The plays are meant to be performed, as evidenced by their structure, staging, and effects. Overall, the plays cover both

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

themes such as the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

and conversion.

Plays

The ten works in the ''Fleury Playbook'' are written in the following order: *Miracles of

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...

** ''Tres Filiae'' (The Three Daughters) ** ''Tres Clerici'' (The Three Clerks) ** ''Iconia Sancti Nicholai'' (The Image of Saint Nicholas) **''Filius Getronis'', (The Son of Getron — the most popular of those relating to Saint Nicholas) *

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

plays ** ''Ordo ad Representandum Herodem'' (The Service for Representing Herod — about the Nativity) ** '' Interfectio Puerorum'' (The Massacre of the Innocents) *

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

plays: ** ''Visitatio Sepulcri'' (The

Resurrection of Jesus The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...

) ** ''Peregrinus'' (The Pilgrim; about the

Supper at Emmaus According to the Gospel of Luke, the road to Emmaus appearance is one of the early post-resurrection appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb. Both the meeting on the road to Emmaus and the subsequent supper ...

) * Conversion and rebirth ** ''Conversio Sancti Pauli'' (The

Conversion of Saint Paul The conversion of Paul the Apostle (also the Pauline conversion, Damascene conversion, Damascus Christophany and the "road to Damascus" event) was, according to the New Testament, an event in the life of Saul/Paul the Apostle that led him to ce ...

) ** ''Resuscitatio Lazari'' (The

Raising of Lazarus Lazarus of Bethany (Latinised from Lazar, ultimately from Hebrew Eleazar, "God helped"), also venerated as Righteous Lazarus, the Four-Days Dead in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the subject of a prominent sign of Jesus in the Gospel of John, ...

)

References

{{reflist Plays based on the Bible Medieval drama 13th-century Latin books Christian plays French plays