Montréal, McGill University - Rare Books and Special Collections - Manuscript Collection, MS Medieval 0219

Cantus Siglum

CDN-Mrb MS Medieval 0219

Holding Institution

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

Manuscript/Print

Manuscript

Summary

Antiphonal, one leaf, Italian, late 15th-early 16th century. Square notation in black ink on red four-line staff.

Liturgical Occasions

Stephen, John the Baptist, Holy Innocents.

Description

Single leaf from an antiphoner with Lauds and Vespers chants for Stephen, John, and Holy Innocents. Text in Southern Textualis in an Italian style, perhaps 15th or 16th century. Text largely in black ink, with rubrics in red, paraph markings in blue, and secondary initials touched in yellow. Music in square notation in watery black ink on a four-line red staff; upward custodes; consistent "c" shape in both clef forms; pale lines of division, touched with yellow where they indicate the incipit.
Six (red) staves per page; vertical ruling in red marking out the region of the staff line reserved for clefs and custodes.
Modern 8 (in pale ink?) in centre right margin of the recto.
Antiphons begin with a decorative initial: the letters themselves alternate red and blue with white markings, and are on a squure or round ground with round or scalloped decorative motifs. The colours are somewhat faded, but the blue initials seem to have been on red grounds with yellow highlights, while the red initials were on what appears today as greenish-brown with yellow highlights.

Liturgical provenance unknown.

Described by McGill library (2018) as follows:

"Late 15th-early 16th century Italian. On vellum. Light-brown ink, rubrics in red ink. Four-line, red ink drawn, staves with musical notation. 496x366 mm., writing surface 390x280 mm.

Contents: r. In Vesperis. Antiphon: -tos et Iesum stantem a dextris Deo (Actus, VII, 55) De sancto Ioanne in Laudes- Antiphon: Hic est discipulus ille, qui testimonium perhibet de his v. et scimus quia verum est testimonium eius... (John, XXI, 24) De Innocenti in Laudes Antiphon: Herodes iratus occidit multos pueros in Bethleem Ju(deae)

Decoration: The fragment contains four initials set on the staves, two on each side. They are in alternating blue and red inks. Tey are bound by curvilinear shapes: curlicues, round patterns, S-curves and loops. The patterns are in red (initials S, U) around blue initials, and in burnished gold and brown ink around red initials (H, H).

Holding in McGill Library's Rare Books and Special Collections: Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles. Date received: March 1, 1933."

(Holland, Anne Marie, compiler. "MS Medieval 24". Long Descriptions Ms Medieval Manuscript Antiphonals, Missals and Graduals. Digitization and Cataloguing Project- Antiphonals, Missals and Gradual. Updated December 6, 2018), 35.

The current description (https://mcgill.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1288576599) describes the initials differently:
"the text of the each of the last four antiphons begins with a large capital, the second and fourth in blue ink with surrounding decoration in red and brown, and the third and fifth in red bound by brown ink designs."

Description Entered by

Anna de Bakker

Full/Partial Inventory

Full Inventory

Complete Source/Fragment

Fragment

Fragmentarium ID

F-4svq

DACT ID

D-04svq