Sydney, University of Sydney - Fisher Library - Rare Books & Special Collections, Add.Ms. 327 (front pastedown) (fragment)

Cantus Siglum

AUS-Sfl Add.Ms. 327 (front pastedown) (fragment)

Holding Institution

Sydney, University of Sydney - Fisher Library - Rare Books & Special Collections (AUS-Sfl)

Manuscript/Printed

Manuscript

Summary

Single parchment folio from an antiphoner. Approximately 475 x 340 mm. The folio appears complete apart from any marginal trimming and segments lost to damage. It is without foliation. Black square notation is written on seven red five-line staves. Small portions of two other fragments beneath this main pastedown can be seen where some parchment has been lost from the margins.

Liturgical Occasions

Vigilia Nat. Domini

Description

The fragment is firmly attached to the inside of the front cover of the sixteenth-century cantoral AUS-Sfl Add.Ms. 327 so that it is possible only to view the exposed side. It is oriented as if intended to be read, not placed upside down or on its side. The notated content and rubrics on the visible page are complete, although there is some loss of parchment from the margins and marked darkening and discoloration of the parchment. Any page ruling that may once have been visible can no longer be seen. This is a fragment of an antiphoner with Vespers antiphons for Vigilia Nat. Domini.

Remarkably, this fragment has much in common with the folios of the final half of Add.Ms. 327 from folio [41]. There are significant shared codicological and palaeographic features. Indeed, it seems possible that the pastedown and the folios now bound into Add.Ms. 327 were once part of the same book in which the fragment may have been located several folios before that which is now folio [41] of Add.Ms. 327. The chants of the pastedown are found a little earlier within Add.Ms. 327 (on folio [36]v), but in a section clearly differentiated by a range of codicological and palaeographic features.

On the inside front cover, two underlying fragments are visible where some parchment has been lost from the margins of the main pastedown. The two underlying fragments appear to have been pasted on the inside cover prior to placement of the main pastedown on top. That on the left side has a larger format staff in red, probably a segment of a four-line staff, while the other, showing at the top right corner, shows smaller red five-line staves with some remaining notation and text.

Provenance note:

Add.Ms. 327 is thought to have been prepared and used in Spain.

Selected Bibliography

On AUS-Sfl Add.Ms. 327 and its arrival in Sydney:
Boness, Neil, "Building a Collection: The Origins of the Sydney Materials," in Cathedral, City and Cloister: Essays on Manuscripts, Music and Art in Old and New Worlds, edited by Kathleen Nelson. Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 2011, pp. xii-xvi.

Hardie, Jane Morlet, "Spain in Sydney: University of Sydney Fisher Rare Book Additional Manuscript 327, an Inventory and Introductory Study," in Treasures of the Golden Age: Essays on Music of the Iberian and Latin American Renaissance in Honor of Robert M. Stevenson, edited by Michael B. O’Connor and Walter Clark. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2012, pp. 3-28.

Notes on the Inventory

The inventory and description for AUS-Sfl Add.Ms. 327 (front pastedown) was prepared by Kathleen Nelson (University of Sydney); completed and published online 4 October 2024. Proofreading by Debra Lacoste (Dalhousie University).

Full Texts Entered by

Kathleen Nelson

Full/Partial Inventory

Full Inventory

Complete Source/Fragment

Fragment