Albi, Bibliothèque municipale Rochegude, 44

Cantus Siglum

F-AI 44

Holding Institution

Albi, Bibliothèque municipale Rochegude (F-AI)

Manuscript/Printed

Manuscript

Summary

Gradual and antiphoner of the canons’ cursus; dated ca. 890; from the cathedral of Sainte-Cécile in Albi. 125 fols.; 225 x 165 mm. Mostly unnotated, but some non-diastematic Aquitanian neumes with significative letters. There are lacunae in the manuscript after folios 72, 73, and 121. The end of the manuscript is missing. 68r-72v consist of a substitute gathering, preceded by an unnumbered folio after 67 (67 bis), which is numbered 67w (recto) and 67x (verso) in the index.

Liturgical Occasions

Ff. 1-55v: gradual; 56r-125v: antiphoner. 63v-65r: Christmas Day; 67x [67 bis verso]: original office of Epiphany; 68r-72v: substitute gathering with Epiphany, Purification, Septuagesima, and Sexagesima; 72r-v: genealogy of Christ; 73r-74r: Fabian and Sebastian, Agnes, Agatha; 77r: Ash Wednesday; 91r-v: Easter Sunday; 97v-98v: Pentecost; 99r-101r: antiphons for the Time after Pentecost; 101r-v: antiphons for the Summer Histories; 101v-112r: summer Sanctorale (including Lucy); 112r-117r: responsories for the Summer Histories; 117r-121v: Commons; 122r-v: Martin and Brice; 122v-123r: Common of Virgins; 123r-124r: antiphons for the Magnificat, Benedictus, and Benedicite; 124r-v: Dedication of a Church; 124v-125v: Office of the Dead; 125v: Ferial Office [mostly lost].

Description

About the Antiphoner

This manuscript, along with the Compiègne Antiphoner (Paris, BN lat. 17436), is one of only two ninth-century sources for the chants of the Divine Office that are relatively complete. Like the Compiègne Antiphoner, it contains the unnotated texts of the chants. Melisma gaps at the beginning of the gradual of Albi 44 suggest that the manuscript may have been originally planned to be notated, a plan later abandoned. In the antiphoner, about a dozen chants contain some musical notation: only one chant is notated in its entirety. Albi 44 has been dated by John Emerson to ca. 890, on the basis of the contents and paleographical and codicological similarities of this manuscript to other sources copied at the old stone cathedral of Sainte-Cécile in Albi at that time. The manuscript lacks any distinctive local saints, and thus the church for which it was copied is unknown. The anthology style of the manuscript is typical of antiphoners of early date: most chants are arranged in series by genre rather than by precise liturgical position. For example, the antiphons for the Sundays after Pentecost are presented in two series, the second labeled “de Apostolorum,” and although they are more-or-less in order by Sunday (as can be determined from the Gospel texts), this ordering breaks down in several places. Likewise, the responsories for the Easter season are grouped into three sets: on Easter Sunday, on the Octave of Easter, and before Ascension (“De Psalmis, TP”). Rubrics are inconsistently provided and often added between lines. It is clear that this was a manuscript that was intended to be used by someone who was thoroughly familiar with the Office. Two series of antiphons, on Epiphany (068v13) and the Octave of Epiphany (069r07), have the rubric “ad fontes vel ad crucem” and may be intended as either processional or stational antiphons. A procession to the baptismal font here may indicate that baptism took place on Epiphany in this church. There is no mention of the font during Triduum, Easter, or Pentecost. In its present state, the manuscript can be very difficult to read due to deterioration of the ink. This is a problem especially at the end of the manuscript.

About the Index

This index was prepared from the edition of the text of Albi 44 by John Emerson, and the edition numbers are entered in the “Extra” field (see the File Description) with the prefix “e” for “Emerson.” For purposes of electronic sorting in the index, leading zeros are given for these numbers (e.g. e0001, e0002 etc.). In the Emerson edition, verses of responsories and antiphons take the same edition number as their respond or antiphon. Likewise, a few items were added at a late stage in the edition and given duplicate edition numbers (in the edition 250 bis, 952 bis, 960 bis, 976 bis, 1130 bis). Similarly, two antiphons have been listed in the index that appear only as rubrics in the edition (items e0960, e0977). These items are all listed under the edition number of the previous item, which will present no problems for the user in finding them.

Due to the differences in the nature of a text edition and a CANTUS index, this index differs from the information provided in the edition in a number of places. CAO numbers are assigned according to CANTUS principles, and not according to Emerson’s critical notes. Thus, texts that are provided with a CAO correspondence in the edition may appear as non-CAO chants in the index. Chants not found in CAO are assigned numbers beginning with “alb.” Similarly, liturgical position is more narrowly defined in the index than in the edition. Also, the Latinity of the manuscript is highly irregular. As in all CANTUS indices, spelling is standardized, but the grammar and word-order of the original is retained. Users will need to refer to the edition for the form of the text found in the manuscript. Thus, the office designation “E” (“in evangelio”) is used freely in the index, as it is in the manuscript, for groups of antiphons after Lauds or Vespers to be used with either the Benedictus of Lauds or the Magnificat of Vespers (and probably also including some antiphons for general use as well). Three Lauds offices (Purification, and the two offices for Septuagesima: items 070v06, 071r09, and 075r06) are listed with six antiphons for the psalms. This is because it proved impossible to determine which one of these six (if any) represented a duplicate for one of the psalms. Two other differences from the edition should be mentioned: in the edition, Hodie scietis (item e0183, 063r16) is regarded as of uncertain genre—either an antiphon or a versicle. In the index, this chant is listed as a versicle for vespers, as specified by the rubric. In the edition, "Venite adoremus" (item e1986, 124v32) is regarded as the incipit of the invitatory psalm: "Venite exsultemus." For the index, a decision was made that this was in fact the second half of the invitatory antiphon itself: “Regem cui omnia vivunt, venite adoremus.” As most of the chants are unnotated, “*” appears in the mode column for the majority of chants. “?” in the mode column designates a chant with some notation, however little it may be. The differentia column is not used—there are no differentiae or invitatory tones in the manuscript.
As is customary is a liturgical book, psalm and canticle incipits (including the incipit of the invitatory psalm) are provided with antiphons. These are included in the “Addendum” field of the index; psalms have been given the prefix “ps” followed by their Vulgate number, and canticles have been indicated by their first word (or first few words). The canticles that appear in this index are:

Cantemus Ex. 15: 1-19
Confitebor Is. 12: 1-6
Ego dixi Is. 38: 10-20
Benedicite Dan. 3: 57-88, 56
Domine audivi Hab. 3: 2-19

Selected Bibliography

• Emerson, John A. Albi, Bibliothèque Municipale Rochegude, Manuscript 44: A Complete Ninth-Century Gradual and Antiphoner from Southern France. Edited by Lila Collamore. Ottawa: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 2002.
• Colette, Marie-Noël. “Le Graduel-Antiphonaire, Albi, Bibliothèque Municipale, 44: une notation protoaquitaine rythmique.” In International Musicological Society Study Group Cantus Planus: Papers Read at the 6th Meeting in Eger, Hungary (1993). Edited by László Dobszay, pp. 117-139. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Musicology, 1995.

Notes on the Inventory

The index for F-AI 44 was prepared by Lila Collamore from the edition by John A. Emerson.

Complete Source/Fragment

Complete source