Cesena, Feast of San Giovanni, the Chorale C kept at the Malatestiana will be exhibited in the Cathedral

Also this year, on the occasion of the feast of San Giovanni, the traditional moment that unites the Malatestiana Library to the city Cathedral is renewed and which takes the whole city back to the past, or to the years in which this tradition was born and took root. From 10:00 to 12:00 on Monday 24 June, the day of the city’s patron saint, on the occasion of the Pontifical Mass celebrated by the bishop of the Diocese of Cesena-Sarsina, HE Mons. Douglas Regattieri, one of the great liturgical books owned by the Diocese preserved in the Malatestiana Library, will be exhibited inside the Cathedral of Cesena. It is a manuscript – a Gradual – which includes the music and texts that the choir performed during the celebration of the mass, for example the opening song (Introitus) and that of Communion. These songs varied according to the Saints of the day and – precisely because of the special devotion to Saint John the Baptist, patron saint of the city – in this volume the first song of the evening mass of 23 June and the daytime mass of 24 June are accompanied by a very rich decoration .

This year, sheet 72v will be shown which corresponds to the beginning of the St. John’s Eve mass. The initial N contains the portrait of the adult saint, represented with unkempt hair and beard and a poor hermit’s tunic, the red cloak of martyrdom and the cross that made him a figure of Christ.

The page contains a message of hope contained in the famous ‘Ne timeas’, ‘Do not be afraid Zechariah because Elizabeth will give birth to a child loved by God who will be called John’, an invitation not to be afraid and to be courageous in the face of the difficulties that life presents. It is possible to browse online the Corale Duomo C, a parchment manuscript, in the open catalog of manuscripts of the Malatestiana Library.

The Cathedral Choirs
The seven chorales (six Graduali and one Kyriale) were commissioned by the bishop Giovanni Venturelli da Amelia and by the canons of the Cathedral and created by the copyist Enrico of Amsterdam between 1480 and 1495. According to the testimony of the eighteenth-century scholar Giovan Battista Braschi, they were exhibited to public devotion and admiration on the feast day of St. John the Baptist.