One scribe copied the music for the main part of the manuscript; the Mass (ff. 51'-62) is a later addition, in a mid-16th century Italian hand (JepFR). Copied in Naples (Rifkin, Allan Atlas), but illuminated at Florence (ReidB). Probably intended as a gift for Margherita Castellani and Bernardino Niccolini upon the occasion of their marriage. The manuscript remained in the Niccolini family library in Florence until the late 18th century, when it was acquired by William Beckford of England. Upon Beckford's death in 1844, the manuscript went to the library of his son-in-law, Alexander Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, where it bore the numbers 'HB 223' and '451.' When the Hamilton library was sold at auction in 1882, the manuscript was acquired by the Prussian government, and deposited in the Kupferstichkabinett. It was temporarily transferred to Celle during World War II. Contrary to Besseler's statement in MGG (III, 900), the manuscript survived the war undamaged (ReidB). Close repertorial connections with EscSL IV.a.24 (AtlCM).
D-Bkk MS 78.C.28 (Margherita Castellani's songbook, Niccolini chansonnier)
Staatliche Museen der Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Kupferstichkabinett., Berlin, Germany
manuscript of polyphony: c. 1465; early 1470s (Gallagher)
| Archive | Staatliche Museen der Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Kupferstichkabinett., Berlin, Germany (D-Bkk) |
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| Shelfmark | MS 78.C.28 (Margherita Castellani's songbook, Niccolini chansonnier) |
| Image Availability | DIAMM does not have images of this source. Please refer to the external links for image availability. |
| Surface | Parchment |
| Numbering System | Foliation |
| Measurements | 246 x 160 mm |
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| Notations |
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| Provenance |
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| Contents | Contains 48 compositions, 19 from 10 composers, 29 are anonymous. |
General Description
Binding
Original blue velvet covers.
Notation
black void mensural
Foliation
New pencil foliation, 1-71 (one folio numbered twice).
Decoration
The initials and illumination (in gold, blue, red, purple, and green) were done in Florence, possibly at the workshop of the brothers Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni del Fora (ReidB). The coats of arms on f. 2' are those of the Castellani and Niccolini families, prominent in 15th-century Florence.
Surface
parchment
Census Catalogue of Music Description
This information is reproduced here by kind permission of the publishers. It is COPYRIGHT and copying/reproduction of this content without permission may result in legal action.
1 Kyrie-Gloria-Sanctus Mass (a later addition), 1 French secular piece (text added by a later hand), 41 textless pieces = 43. Concordant sources show that the textless pieces are mostly French chansons; there are also a few Italian and Spanish secular pieces and 2 Latin motets.
(Basin)-1, (Bedingham)-1, (Bedingham/Dufay)-1, (Bedingham/Dunstable)-1, (Bedingham/Frye)-1, (Binchois)-2, (Binchois/Frye)-1, (Dufay)-1 + 2?, (Frye)-1, (J. Legrant)-1, (Morton)-1, (Pullois)-3, anon-26
i + 70 + i parchment folios, 246 x 160. Ff. l'-2 and 62'-70' are blank. New pencil foliation, 1-71 (one folio numbered twice). Original blue velvet covers. No index. One scribe copied the music for the main part of the manuscript; the Mass (ff. 51'-62) is a later addition, in a mid-16th century Italian hand (JepFR). The initials and illumination (in gold, blue, red, purple, and green) were done in Florence, possibly at the workshop of the brothers Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni del Fora (ReidB). The coats of arms on f. 2' are those of the Castellani and Niccolini families, prominent in 15th-century Florence.
Ca. 1465 (ReidB). Copied in Naples (Rifkin, Allan Atlas), but illuminated at Florence (ReidB). Probably intended as a gift for Margherita Castellani and Bernardino Niccolini upon the occasion of their marriage. The manuscript remained in the Niccolini family library in Florence until the late 18th century, when it was acquired by William Beckford of England. Upon Beckford's death in 1844, the manuscript went to the library of his son-in-law, Alexander Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, where it bore the numbers "HB 223" and "451." When the Hamilton library was sold at auction in 1882, the manuscript was acquired by the Prussian government, and deposited in the Kupferstichkabinett. It was temporarily transferred to Celle during World War II. Contrary to Besseler's statement in MGG (III, 900), the manuscript survived the war undamaged (ReidB). Close repertorial connections with EscSL IV.a.24 (AtlCM).
Vol. 4
Composers: Add "(Plummer?)-1"; change "anon-26" to "anon-25."
The inventory could not be loaded.
Sets
Loire Valley Chansonniers
Linked by Origin or Contents · 7 sources
‡ denotes primary source study
Gallagher, Sean. 2007. The Berlin Chansonnier and French Song in Florence, 1450-1490: A New Dating and Its Implications. Journal of Musicology, Vol. 24 no. 3: 339-364. Notes: contents list; concordances; date.
Korth, Hans-Otto, Helmut Hell, and Jutta Lambrecht. 1997. Die Signaturengruppe Mus ms. 40000 ff. Folge 1: Handschriften des 15. - 19. Jahrhunderts in mensuraler und neuerer Notation. Katalog. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kataloge der Musikabteilung, Erste Reihe, vol. Handschriften, 13. München.
Curtis, Gareth R K, and Andrew B Wathey. 1994. Fifteenth-Century English Liturgical Music: A List of the Surviving Repertory. Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 27: 1-69.
Atlas, Allan W. 1985. Music at the Aragonese Court of Naples. Cambridge. Pages: l 19,149-50,233. Notes: contents list (partial); concordances (partial); mention of MS; discussion.
Gutiérrez-Denhoff, Martella. 1985. Der Wolfenbütteler Chansonnier Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek Codex Guelf. 287 Extrav.: Untersuchungen zu Repertoire und Überlieferung einer Musikhandschrift des 15. Jahrhunderts und ihres Umkreises. Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, vol. 29. Wiesbaden. Pages: 54-6,,301-3,307,311,313. Notes: physical description (partial); contents list (partial); concordances (partial); mention of MS; discussion.
Hanen, Martha Knight. 1983. The Chansonnier El Escorial IV.a.24: Commentary and Edition. Musicological Studies, vol. XXXVI/1-3. 3 vols. Henryville, Ottawa, and Binningen. Pages: I,34-5,38,164-70. Notes: contents list (partial); concordances (partial); mention of MS; discussion.
Atlas, Allan W (editor). 1981. Robert Morton: The Collected Works. Masters and Monuments of the Renaissance, vol. 2. New York. Pages: xxiii,xxvi-xxvii,xxxii,77-85. Notes: contents list (partial); concordances (partial); mention of MS; discussion.
Perkins, Leeman L, and Howard Garey (editors). 1979. The Mellon Chansonnier. New Haven and London. Pages: II, 152, 280ff, passim. Notes: physical description; contents list (partial); concordances (partial); mention of MS; discussion.
Pope, Isabel, and Masakata Kanazawa (editors). 1978. The Musical Manuscript Montecassino 871: A Neapolitan Repertory of Sacred and Secular Musk of the Late Fifteenth Century. Oxford. Pages: 98,442-8,541,557ff. Notes: contents list (partial); concordances (partial); texts (partial).
Reidemeister, Peter. 1973. Die Chanson-Handschrift 78 C 28 des Berliner Kupferstichkabinetts: Studien zur Form der Chanson im 15. Jahrhundert. Berliner Musikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten, vol. 4. Munich. Notes: physical description; contents list; concordances; transcription (partial); incipits (partial).
Atlas, Allan W. 1971. Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cappella Giulia XIII. 27, and the Dissemination of the Franco-Netherlandish Chanson in Italy, c. 1460-c. 1530. New York University, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Pages: 456-9. Notes: contents list (partial); concordances (partial); mention of MS; discussion.
Trowbridge, Lynn Mason. 1971. The Burgundian Chanson: An Index and Analysis of Incipits by Application of Electronic Data Processing. University of Illinois, Unpublished Master's thesis. Pages: 18-9, 106. Notes: physical description (partial); contents list (partial); concordances.
Jeppesen, Knud. 1968-70. La Frottola. Acta Jutlandica, vol. XL/2, XLI/1, & XLII/1. 3 vols. Copenhagen. Pages: II, 9, 102-3. Notes: physical description; contents list (partial); concordances (partial).
Southern, Eileen. 1968. Foreign Music in German Manuscripts of the 15th Century. Journal of the American Musicological Society, 21: 258-85. Pages: 272, 280ff. Notes: mention of MS; concordances (partial).
Plamenac, Dragan. 1954. An Unknown Composition by Dufay? The Musical Quarterly, 40: 190-200. Notes: concordances (partial); facsimile (partial).
Plamenac, Dragan. 1954. Une Composition Inconnue de Dufay? Revue Belge de Musicologie, 8: 75-83. Pages: 76ff; 82-3. Notes: concordances (partial); mention of MS; discussion; transcription (partial); facsimile (partial).
Jeppesen, Knud (editor). 1927. New York, 1965 (reprint, with new remarks by the editor). Der Kopenhagener Chansonnier: Das Manuskript Thott 291s der Königlichen Bibliothek Kopenhagen. Copenhagen and Leipzig. Copenhagen and Leipzig. Pages: lxxiv. Notes: physical description.
Wolf, Johannes. 1913-9; Reprinted: Hildesheim, 1963. Handbuch der Notationskunde. Leipzig. Pages: I, 446. Notes: mention of MS.
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Clemens Goldberg
Tuesday, 29 July, 2025
Confirmed foliation for 'Viva viva rey Ferrando'.
M. Jennifer Bloxam
Monday, 28 July, 2025
Corrected error in the inventory, ff.49v-50. This is not the setting of "O pulcherrima mulierum qualis est dilectus" by Lantins, but rather the setting of "O pulcherrima mulierum surge propera" elsewhere identified in DIAMM as by "Plummer, John (ca.1410-ca.1484) (?)"
Clemens Goldberg
Tuesday, 30 May, 2023
Noted that no source mentions Plummer as the compose of 'Terriblement' (fol. 8v-9r).
Clemens Goldberg
Tuesday, 30 May, 2023
Spelling of the title for the piece on fol. 34v–35 (Se ung peu desperance avoye) corrected to the Old-French version.
Clemens Goldberg
Thursday, 31 March, 2022
Pointing out that on fols 45v-47r there are two anonymus unica (not by Ockeghem), probably prima and secunda pars, and also that 'Ave regina caelorum' on fols 47v-49r is by Frye.
Clemens Goldberg
Thursday, 31 March, 2022
Pointing out that 'O pulcherrima mulierum' on fols 49v-50v consists of only the first part and the superius of the second part.
Clemens Goldberg
Tuesday, 29 March, 2022
inventory corrected 33v-36r: two pieces intertwined, 33v-34r and 35r-36v 'A Florence...'; 34v-35r 'Se ung peu desperance avoye'
Clemens Goldberg
Tuesday, 8 March, 2022
Pour une suis confortee is not only 2v-3r but extends over 2v-4r (part 1 and part 2)
Clemens Goldberg
Monday, 7 March, 2022
image link provided
Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music 1400-1550
Monday, 23 January, 2017
NB: Migrated from old site. Credit for notes may not be completely accurate. Census Catalogue of Music Description