300 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
I 
The most important dramatic germ of the liturgy of Christ¬ 
mas was long ago recognized in a trope of the Introit of the 
third Mass of Christmas morning (Missa in Die, Magna Missa, 
or Missa Major). 1 The simplest form of this trope is repre¬ 
sented by the following : 
2 AT) D 0'M.ini c om. missam: 
Quern quenUs in presepe, pastores, dicite? 
Saluatorem Xpistum Dominum. 
sents part of a general treatise on the subject of liturgical drama 
which I now have well under way. The needs of my own classes in 
the subject and the importance of certain new texts prompt me to 
publish, from time to time, detached sections, which are less in¬ 
telligible in their isolation than they will be, I hope, when they are 
disposed in a treatise and are preceded by necessary prologomena. 
iSee L>. Gautier, Historire de la Poesie Liturgique. I Les Tropes, 
Paris, 1886, p. 218; W. Creizenach, Gesohichte des Neueren Dramas, 
Vol. I, Halle, 1893, p. 57; E. K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, Ox¬ 
ford, 1903, Vol. II, p. 41; H. Anz, Die lateinischen Magierspiele, 
Leipzig, 1905; pp. 37-42. A non-critical text of this trope based upon 
six manuscripts is found in Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi (ed. C. 
Blume and G. M. Dreves), Vol. XLIX, Leipzig, 1906, pp. 8-9. My ob¬ 
servations are based upon my own study of texts in twenty five manu¬ 
scripts. This study was made possible by the great kindness of 
Reverend H. M. Bannister, of Rome, and through the use of Mr. 
Bannister’s list of troparia, now published in Analecta Hymnica, Vol. 
XLVII, pp. 22-25. I have not seen the texts to be found in Turin, 
Bibl. Regia, MS. F. IV. 18, Troparium Bobbiense saec. xii, fol. 10r, 
and Pistoia, Bibl. Capit., MS. 70, Troparium Pistoriense saec. xl-xii, 
fol. 14 a The absence of this trope from the St. Gall troparia is, 
of course, noteworthy. Anz (p. 38) is in error in associating this 
trope with St. Gall. 
2 Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS. latin 887, Troparium—Sdquen- 
tiarium—Prosarium Sancti Martini (?) Lemovicenis saec. xi, fol. 9 a 
T he same simple form of the trope is found in the following: Paris, 
Bibl. Nat., MS. latin 13252, Troparium Sammaglorianum saec. xii, fol. 
3r; IMd., MS. lat. 903, Troparium Sancti Aredii Lemovlcensis saec. xi, 
fol. 147 v ; IMd., MS. lat. 1119, Troparium Sancti Augustini Lemovi- 
censis saec. xi, fol. 4r; IMd., MS. lat. 1121, Troparium Martialense 
saec. xi, fol. 2r-2v; IMd., MS. lat. 9449, Troparium Nivernense saec. 
xi, fol. 7r; IMd., MS. lat. 1084, Troparium Martialense saec. xi, fol. 
53v~54r; IMd., Nouvelle Acquisition, MS. lat. 1235, Graduale-Troparium 
Nivernense saec. xii, fol. 183 v -184r; IMd., Nouv. acq., MS. lat. 1871, 
Troparium Moissiacense saec. xi, fol. 4r; Huesca, Bibl. Capit., MS. 4, 
Troparium Oscense saec. xi-xii, fol. 124r; Modena, Bibl. Capit., MS. 
O. I. 7., Troparium Ravennatense saec. xi.-xii, fol. 6 v -7r (fragment); 
Placentia, Bibl. Capit., MS. 65, Troparium-Hymnarium Placentinum 
saec. xii, fol. 229^ (fragment); Vercelli, Bibl. Capit., MS. 146, Tro¬ 
parium Vercellense saec. xi, fol. 107 r ; Vercelli, Bibl. Capit., MS. 161, 
Troparium Vercellense saec. xii, fol. 118v; Vercelli, Bibl. Capit., MS. 
162, Troparium Vercellense saec. xii, fol. 187r-187 v ; Vich, Museum, 
MS. 31, Troparium Vicense saec. xii-xiii, fol. 30r; Vich, Museum, 
MS. 124, Processionale saec. xiii-xiv, fol. Av-Ba 
