338 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts, and Letters. 
Leaving, then, the direct tradition of the Prcesepe of Bethle¬ 
hem and Borne, let ns turn to a new source of information in 
the tradition of liturgical drama itself. Waiving for the mo¬ 
ment the question of origins, let us review the evidence con¬ 
nected with the earliest plays of the Christmas season. 
External evidence of the use of the Proesepe is not wanting. 
Gerhoh of Belch ersberg, writing about the year 1160, expresses 
himself as follows: 
Exhibent prseterea imaginaliter et Salvatoris inf ant se cuna- 
bula, parvuli vagitum, puerperse virginis matronalem hibi- 
tum . 1 
The chronicler Galvano Elamma (1283-1344), in a lively ac¬ 
count of an Epiphany play produced at Milan in 1336, men¬ 
tions 'the Prcesepe as. follows: 
Ubi in latere altaris majorxs erat Prsesepium cum bove et 
asino, et in prsesepio erat Christus parvulus in brachiis Vir¬ 
ginis matris. 2 
Prom these citations we may infer that during the period from 
the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries a structural Crib was 
used for dramatic performances. The Crib contained figures, 
and was closely associated with the altar. 
Passing on to the internal evidence of the liturgical plays 
themselves, we find that as early as the eleventh century the 
dialogue of the Christmas Introit-trope Quem • quceritis in 
proesepe was delivered in a manner suggesting that either the 
altar itself or an inferred Prcesepe located upon or near the 
altar was used as a mise en scene? For the Officium Pastorum 
1 GerhoM Reich,ersbergensis Prrrpositi opera hactenus inedita, ed 
F. Scheibelberger, Lincii, 1875, p. 27. See Chambers, Vol. II, pp. 
98-99; Hager, p. 10. In a Christmas sermon of: the Cistercian abbot 
Guerricus (f circa 1157) we find the. following passage: 
Fratres, et vos invenietis hodie infantem pannis involutum, et 
positum in prsesepio altaris; videte vilitas tegminis ne offendat aut 
turbet obtntum vestrse fidei, veritatem reverendi corporis sub aliis 
rerum formis intuentis (Migne, Pat. Lat., Vol. CLXXXV, col. 46). 
1 cannot agree with Lafond (p. 567) in his inference that Guerricus 
is certainly describing an actual Prcesepe. The intention of the 
homilist seems to me to be rhetorical and mystical. 
2 A. D’Aneona, Origini del Teatro Italiano, Vol. I, Turin, 1891, 
p. 98. 
s Cf. Oxford, Bibl. Bod. ; MS. Douce 222, Troparium Novaliciense 
saec. xi. See above, p. 306. 
