Montréal, McGill University - Rare Books and Special Collections - Manuscript Collection, MS Medieval 0092 (fragment)

Cantus Siglum

CDN-Mlr MS Medieval 0092 (fragment)

Holding Institution

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

Manuscript/Printed

Manuscript

Summary

Two leaves from an antiphonal(?) and hymnary. The recto and verso of the first leaf do not appear to be in sequence. Square notation in black ink on red five-line staff.

Liturgical Occasions

Thomas, Apostle; Wednesday, 1st week, Lent; hymns for Common of Apostles and Common of Martyrs.

Description

Note that the shelfmark 0092 denotes two leaves of similar size, which seem to come from different manuscripts. One is numbered 64 in the upper right in Arabic numerals; the other is unnumbered. Each leaf has been given a separate Fragmentarium entry (F-s7b0 and F-ofjh), but the inventory includes both.

From the library description:
"2 vellum leaves likely from different manuscripts.

Gregorian chants and hymn texts ; musical notation in brown ink on five-line red staves ; liturgical rubrics in red.

Folio 64: chants associated with the Feasts of Adventus and Thomae apostoli (December 21) ; on recto: second chant not continued on the verso possibly due to scribal error.

Unnumbered leaf includes chants associated with the Feast of Commune unius Martyrum and texts taken from the hymns Aurora lucis rutilat and Deus tuorum militum.

Decoration: folio 64r: a large interlaced initial E (Etenim) in brown ink ; unnumbered folio recto: chant text begins with a very large red (Q), on light-beige square ground, bordered by a light-blue margin, 017 mm wide. The ground and the initial contain floral and leafy decorations in green, red and blue.

Decoration: unnumbered folio recto: the initials O (Ostensa) and R (Rex) in red ink ; unnumbered folio verso: the initials Q (Quesumus) and G (Gloria) in red ink. The chant text begins with a large blue D (Deus) on square red ink traced ground containing botanical forms in white, the square bound by a narrow margin containing diagonal shapes."

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Folio "64" (F-s7b0) is very strange. Seemingly, the numbered side should be the recto; but the chant is unfinished, and does not continue to the other side. Instead, the verso begins a new chant for an entirely unrelated feast; and while the "recto" gives part of a Tract for the Mass, the verso gives a chant to be used at Vespers or Lauds. Moreover, although both pages are laid out similarly, with five five-line red staves, and use Textualis Praescissa, the hands are not identical, with different heights for the spurs on the s, different fusions of be, and a different angle on the tongue of the e, for example. The script used in the rubric and for the capital T of "Thoma" is also of a different kind than that used on the recto. The ink is also paler, and the page overall blotchier. The large initial on the verso, with a blue border and flowers, is colourful and somewhat suggestive of embroidery or other fabric art. Altogether, the page suggests that a folio from a gradual, perhaps rejected for some fault, was repurposed not long after its creation for the writing of office chants, perhaps to replace a missing page in an antiphonal; the art suggests this was done "in house" (perhaps at a convent), at a different place from the gradual's place of production.

The second, unnumbered leaf, shares little in common with the other except for size and the use of Southern Textualis Praescissa. It is ruled in red, with a double-line red border around the texted area, and has a rather delicately hatched boxed initial. Both sides contain two staves of square notation on a red five-line staff; the intervening space is taken up with the text for verses 2-5 of "Claro paschali" for Common of Apostles. Like the other folio of MS Medieval 0092, it is likely to be Spanish and 16th or 17th century, but need not have been from the same place or time.

Selected Bibliography

Entry in McGill library catalogue: https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1296383100

Notes on the Inventory

Description by Anna de Bakker. Second leaf at this shelf mark has its own Fragmentarium entry: https://fragmentarium.ms/view/page/F-ofjh .

Full Texts Entered by

Martha Culshaw

Melodies Entered by

Martha Culshaw

Full/Partial Inventory

Full Inventory

Complete Source/Fragment

Fragment

Fragment ID

F-s7b0

DACT ID

D:0s7b0