310 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Rerum Ecclesiasticarum Theoria of Germauus of Constanti¬ 
nople : 
Altare est et dicitur prcesepe et sepulchrum Domini. 1 
The same possibility arises also from the fact that, according to 
certain texts of the Officium Pastorum, the prcesepe is found be¬ 
hind the altar, or near it. 2 3 
It should be noticed, moreover, that Quem quoeritis in 
prcesepe is not the only Christmas Introit-trope that was sung 
in dramatic fashion iuxta altare. The following text, for ex¬ 
ample, shows an extension of this dramatic practice of Christ¬ 
mas time: 
3 in ISTatiutate Domim ad Missam Maiorem. Finita 
Tercia, cant ores had ant retro altare, excelsa uoce inci- 
piant : 
Ecce adest de quo praphete cecinerunt dicentes: Puer 
natus est nobis. 
Qui ANTE FUERINT RESPONDEAUT : 
Quem uirgo Maria genuit 
Et films datus est nobis. 
Ite m Qui RF/rro euerint respondeant : 
Homen eius Hemmanuhel uocabitur, cuius imperium super 
humerum eius, et uocabitur nomen eius magni consilii 
Angelus. 
1 Bibliotheca Patrum et Veterum Auctorum Ecclesiasticorum, Vol. 
VI, Paris, 1610, col. 116. Cf. also a pertinent passage in the Expositio 
de Divino Templo of Simeon Thessalonicus, Migne, Pat. Graec., Vo-1. 
CLV, col. 703-706. See also below, pp. 336 ff. 
2 Presepe sit paratum retro altare: Rouen, Bibl. de la Ville, MS. 
384 (Y. 110), fol. 22r; Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS. lat. 1213, p. 17. See 
be'low pp. 330-333, 387. From the general mise en sc&ne indicated in 
Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS. lat. 904; fol. llv-14 1 -- (see below pp. 325 ff) and in 
Montpellier, Bibl. de la Faculte de Medecine, MS. H. 304, fol. 41r-4r»- 
(see be’low, pp. 323-4) it is clear that in these cases the Prcesepe is 
placed near the altar. 
3 Placentia, Bibl Capit., Cod. 65, Graduale-Prosarium-Troparium 
Placentinum saec. xi-xii, fol. 230^ col. 1. This text was published in 
Ephemerides TAturgicae, Annus XVII, No. 3, March, 1903, p. 149, by 
Dr. P. Piacenza, in an article entitled “De Tropis nonnullis in codice 
placentino saec xii.” My text is taken from a photograph of the 
manuscript generously brought, to my attention by my friend De 
Reverend Pere Dom Beyssac, O. S. B. It should be remembered that 
this manuscript contains also a text of Quem quceritis in pr&sepe , as 
indicate above, p. 300, note 2. 
