Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University - Rare Books Collection, [No Shelfmark] Uncatalogued

Cantus Siglum

US-CLwrrb [No Shelfmark] Uncatalogued

Holding Institution

Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University - Rare Books Collection (US-CLwrrb)

Manuscript/Print

Manuscript

Summary

Vellum leaf from a gradual measuring 330 × 222 mm. 11th c., German or Swiss (St Imier?)

Liturgical Occasions

Mass chants for the feasts of Saint Prisca, Saints Fabian and Sebastian, Saint Agnes, and the third Sunday after Epiphany

Description

Vellum leaf measuring 330 × 222 mm, containing text and an early form of musical notation written in a late Caroline minuscule hand. The content includes mass chants, among others, for the feasts of Saints Fabian and Sebastian, as well as Saint Agnes. Marginal annotations also reference Saint Timothy the Apostle and Hymerehi (?), probably alluding to Saint Immerius of Immertal.

Page: 330mm x 222mm
Writing area: 250mm x 152mm
Neumes height: 4mm
Letter size: 3mm
28 lines of text per page.

Special Collections from Kelvin Smith Library provide the following text about the fragment:

"This leaf is a fine example of an early hand and musical notation, with numerous marginal annotations in contemporary and later hands. The rounded script is unmistakably Romanesque, but there is also evidence of earlier stylistic tendencies, particularly noticeable in the large rubricated initial "A." The main readings here are for the feasts of Sts. Fabian and Sebastian and St. Agnes. In the ample margins, other hands have added readings for St. Timothy the Apostle, and other, less legible notations. The intriguing addition of the name "Hymerehi ap[osto]li" in tiny script in the lower margin of this leaf probably refers to St. Imerius of Immertal (known variously as Himerius, Imier, and Immer), a 7th century hermit believed to have died in what is now known as Saint-Imier (near present day Berne). The inclusion of this unusual saint may be a clue to the manuscript's origins, or at the very least where it may have ended up. Although recovered from a binding and thus with a certain amount of soiling and creasing, the script and notation are very well-preserved and altogether pleasing. (ST14396)"

The manuscript has several textual layers. The main textual layer (about which more below) appears to date from approximately the year 1000, and to have originated in what is now Switzerland or southern Germany. Several additions and emendations date to later years: a foliation, "xi", in the upper margin of the recto (14th c?), a correction of the rubric and indication of the folio for the rubric "Diffusa est gratia" (13th c?), a mass for Timothy (perhaps 11th c, and given with a red initial like the masses of the main body); folio numbers for the incipits for Timothy (in a separate hand). The addition of "Hymerehi apostoli" appears to be roughly contemporaneous with the addition for Timothy, but its presence is difficult to explain: no chants are added, and in any case Imier (who is not usually referred to as an apostle) is more usually celebrated in November, not January. The recto also includes several early modern additions (18th c?) presumably from its use as a binding. These are difficult to read, but seem to refer to accounts: one to an Einnahme (?) "in natalis domini" of 35 K(?); another seemingly to 22 Th(?) 3 (?) 18d, "Einnemung Totallis 22 Th 16 d" and "Aussgab 33 Th 20d". This could refer to a variety of Swiss currencies, with Thaler and denier coins being used in, for example, Fribourg and other French cantons.
This leaf was apparently sold in Pirages Catalogue 74 (https://pirages.cdn.bibliopolis.com/images/upload/cat74-final-web.pdf, which includes much of the description quoted above), alongside a second leaf whose current location is unknown. This second leaf apparently included masses for Purification, Agatha, and Valentine in the main body, and (like Case's leaf) marginal additions, in this case for Blaise and St. Peter's Chair. The two leaves seem to have been part of the same binding, as they are folded in the same manner, and were likely part of a bifolio in the first instance (the other leaf is apparently labelled xiiii in the upper margin).

Several liturgical aspects of the fragment are somewhat unusual. For example, the masses for Prisca and Agatha both include a communion verse, Beati immaculati. That for Prisca, g01379a, has only 9 concordances on Cantus as of 2025, and that for Agatha (g01389a) only 8. Both are found in CH-SGs 376 and 381, D-W : Cod Guelf Helmst 1008 (Minden, but created in St Gall in the 11th century), as well as D-LEu Ms Thomas 391 and SK-BRl Rkp. 387 (from Lund).
The offertory "Filie regum" is written in responsory form, with different repentenda cues for each of the two verses; it is also written this way in St Gall 378 from the mid-11th century (but not in other inventoried St Gall sources) and Bamberg 6 (from Regensburg ca. 1000).
The mass chants for Timothy, while common, are not usually designated as such: for example, of 667 concordances for the offertory Inveni David, g01288, none are specifically designated for Timothy.

Finally, the gradual verse g01381d (which appears as part of Specie tua on the feast of Prisca) is not attested elsewhere.

Full/Partial Inventory

Full Inventory

Complete Source/Fragment

Fragment