Montréal, McGill University - Rare Books and Special Collections - Manuscript Collection, MS Medieval 0078 (fragment)

Cantus Siglum

CDN-Mlr MS Medieval 0078 (fragment)

Holding Institution

Montréal, McGill University - Rare Books and Special Collections - Manuscript Collection (CDN-Mlr)

Manuscript/Printed

Manuscript

Summary

Single leaf from an antiphonal; 76 x 54 cm. Square notation on five-line red staff that suggests Spanish (or Mexican) provenance.

Liturgical Occasions

The fragment contains chants for the Vespers of the Birthday of Mary.

Description

Library description (drawn from a longform description by Dionysios Hetzopoulos commissioned by the McGill library ca. 1990.)
"1 folio ; 76 x 54 cm

Title supplied by cataloguer

1 vellum leaf from an 18th-century antiphonal ; musical notation in black ink on five-line red staves ; liturgical rubrics in red. ; modern pagination: 87 on recto ; 8 [that is, 88] on verso

Scribal techniques suggest Mexico or Spain as place of origin

Vespers chants for the feast of Nativitas Mariae (Nativity of Mary) (September 8)

Decoration: verso left border and part of bottom border elaborately decorated with interwoven curvilinear botanical designs in red, blue, green, brown and yellow inks ; top border decoration includes 2 images of "the shoot of Jesse" from which stems and flowers emanate ; verso chant begins with a large ornamental initial B, drawn with blue, red, green and brown inks, and whose decorations include several "shoot of Jesse" motifs

[...]

Holding in McGill Library's Rare Books and Special Collections: presented by Lady Roddick, 1945. Purchased from Dawson’s Book Shop.(Montreal)"

Other remarks (A. de Bakker):
Five five-line red staves per page. Square notation; upward custodes, f-clef with three lozenges. Thick black lines of division. Text hand a Spanish-style Prescissa. Chants do not give much insight into a more specific place or order. The size and script suggest a late medieval book, probably 16th century, with deliberately conservative or antiquarian decorative techniques (a floral border, puzzle-and-penwork intial) given in large format.

Notes on the Inventory

The inventory for this fragment was begun on 6 March 2020 at the "Digital Humanities in Early Music Research" seminar held in Prague, sponsored by the Masaryk Institute and Archives of the CAS. Participants: Jan Ciglbauer, David Eben, Jana Franková, Rhianydd Hallas, Lenka Hlávková, Eleonore Kinsky, Martin Konvalinka, Samuel Škoviera, Veronika Tůmová, Haig Utidjian, Hana Vlhová-Wörner. Seminar Leaders: Jennifer Bain and Debra Lacoste. Proofreading by Alessandra Ignesti (McGill University).

Full Texts Entered by

Jennifer Bain
Debra Lacoste

Melodies Entered by

Jennifer Bain
Debra Lacoste

Full/Partial Inventory

Full Inventory

Complete Source/Fragment

Fragment

Fragment ID

F-tfow

DACT ID

D:0tfow