The Musical Palaeography Workroom traces its distant origins to Dom Guéranger’s desire to restore the liturgical chant of the Church to its full beauty. To this end, the restorer of Solesmes asked Dom Paul Jausions (1834–1870), and subsequently Dom Joseph Pothier (1835–1929), to study medieval manuscripts of Gregorian chant in order to rediscover the chant of the early Church.
The first manuscript copy to be acquired by Solesmes was transcribed by hand by Dom Jausions at the library in Angers in 1862. As their knowledge of ancient manuscripts grew, the monks embarked on the publication of chant books, featuring melodies reconstructed from these manuscripts. The first of these, in 1883, was the Gradual, a book containing the chants of the Mass.
In 1889, Dom André Mocquereau (1849–1930) gave this work a new dimension. He decided to publish facsimiles of the ancient manuscripts which the monks had used to reconstruct the Gregorian melodies. This marked the birth of *Paléographie musicale* as a series of publications, and at the same time the official founding of the Atelier de paléographie musicale. Dom Mocquereau’s intention was to prove to the academic community that the reconstructions carried out at Solesmes were in keeping with the ancient tradition. It can be said that this aim was fully achieved.
In order to fully realise Dom Guéranger’s vision, monks from Solesmes were sent to libraries across Europe to photograph all the ancient chant manuscripts there. In this way, they built up a collection of over six hundred facsimiles of manuscripts, some of whose originals have since been lost. Together with the various tables and indexes that make them easy to use, they form the sources for the work carried out at the Atelier.
At the same time, the publication of the volumes of *Paléographie musicale* continued. Twenty-five volumes were published. The final volume was published in 2014. Since 1954, the Atelier has also been publishing an annual scholarly journal, *Études grégoriennes*.
For us, however, the ultimate aim of studying manuscripts remains the beauty of the divine liturgy. This is why the Atelier de paléographie musicale continues to publish books of liturgical chant. Between 2005 and 2007, the three volumes of the new monastic antiphonary were published. Then, in 2008, the second volume of the *Antiphonale Romanum* was published, followed by the first volume in 2020. All these books are available for purchase from our publishing house.