William Durand. Rationale IV: On the Mass and Each Action Pertaining to it

William Durand (c. 1230-Nov. 1, 1296), Bishop of Mende, France, was unquestionably the most renowned liturgical scholar of the later Middle Ages. His encyclopedic allegorical exposition of the rites and worship services of the Latin Church, the Rationale divinorum officiorum, or Rationale for the divine offices, is the best known medieval work in its genre. Divided into eight books of varying length, the Rationale is exhaustive in its treatment of a wide variety of subjects: the church buil...