It was in wide circulation during the Middle Ages and was used as the basis for the modern Roman Pontifical. It contains 258 Ordines describing ecclesiastical procedures including rites of ordination, blessing, baptism, celebrations of Mass, confession, etc. It has significant novel content: for instance, rites and prayers for the beginning of Lent, subsequently widely adopted, that had nothing to do with existing Roman liturgy.
The term "Pontificale Romano-Germanicum" for this body of documents was coined by its discoverer, Michel Andrieu. The definitive edition was compiled by the theologian Cyrille Vogel and historian Reinhard Elze.
A redaction of the text, the Cracow Pontifical (Pontificale Cracoviense saeculi XI), believed to be written at Tyniec in the late 11th century, resides as MS 2057 in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków.[1][2]
Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of Santiago de Compostela, Richard A. Fletcher, Clarendon Press, 1984, ISBN0-19-822581-4online cache
^The Cracow Pontifical (Pontificale Cracoviense saeculi XI) Cracow, Jagellonian Library, MS.2057, Zdzisław Obertynski, Henry Bradshaw Society, London, 1977, ISBN0-907077-17-X
Les ordines romani du haut moyen age, Michel Andrieu, Louvain : Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense Administration, 1961–1974.
Le Pontifical romano-germanique du dixième siècle, ed. C. Vogel and R. Elze (Studi e Testi vols. 226-7 (text), 266 (introduction and indices), 3 vols., Rome, 1963–72).
Parkes, Henry (2015). The Making of Liturgy in the Ottonian Church: Books, Music and Ritual in Mainz, 950–1050. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series. Cambridge UP. ISBN9781107083028.