In a number of interrelated case studies of earlier unexplored poetic and musical material dating from the ninth through the thirteenth centuries, the scholars explore and shed further light on changes in functions and forms in poetry, particularly in liturgical poetry, and in medieval interpretations of this poetry and music.

Although the earlier part of the twelfth century remains the focus of the book, this should not be taken as a clearly delimited period. Many of the phenomena dealt with had roots in earlier times and did by no means end with the 'high Middle Ages'.

In several articles, the poetical heritage of the Carolingian environment of the palace school of Charles the Bald is examined – a poetic before the poetics, the place and function of music in the liturgical context, to name but two subjects that are treated. With the twelfth century, the ideas developed during the preceding centuries finally took a more institutional shape; in the present book, we see this phenomenon represented in Peter Abelards hymnary for the Paraclete, ritual representations and liturgical drama, in commentaries to biblical poetry, such as the Glossa ordinaria to Lamentations. Finally, the interpretation and understanding of musical texts,  exemplified by the view on Boethius’ De Musica and the new literary genre represented by commentaries to Sequences  in the later middle ages give the volume a final touch and tie its end again to the beginning.