This manuscript contains an annal that records the celebrations for
the anniversaries of the clergy of the Cathedral of Lausanne –
cf. the unnumbered title page: Iste liber est capellanorum
celebrancium in ecclesia katedrali Lausannensi de anniversariis que
fiunt per dictos celebrantes. The original part might be from the
1420s, to which numerous later hands added on, in order to complete
the anniversary masses that were celebrated. The internal
organization follows the calendar month by month. The annal thus
begins on January 1st (on page 1) and ends on December 24th (on
page 167). Each page consists of two columns, each representing a
different day, the title of which (letter – sometimes followed by
the name of the liturgical feast) is rubricated. At the top of each
column, the days are also given as days of the month (in Roman
numerals) in a Gothic cursive script that seems to have been a
later addition. The older necrologies of the cathedral chapter of
Lausanne are known only through excerpts (included in the Lausanne
cartulary at the behest of Conon d’Estavayer in 1224 and 1238) or
mentions (in 1354 the chapter delegates were mandated to write an
“anniversary book” – which, however, disappeared). This
necrology was kept in Fribourg, probably arriving there after the
conquest of Vaud by Bern in the course of the Reformation; it is
therefore the oldest necrology surviving from the medieval period
and makes it possible to fill in certain documentary gaps.
