Black mensural

1-2v

parchment

This manuscript has been destroyed but a facsimile survives.

RISM B/IV 1: These two early 14th century parchment folios meas. 230 x 175 mm. contain late 13th century motets, and the succession of pieces has much in common with mss R and N. Formerly in the monastery library at Herenthals, where they served as flyleaves to a copy of J. Herolti Sermones discipuli, they were later preserved at the University Library at Louvain and have since been destroyed. Fortunately, photos exist in the Ludwig Nachlass, portfolio IX, 14, in the University Library at Göttingen. The codex was still at Herenthals at the time of Kossmann and Ludwig's study written in 1926. Unlike mss JR and N, Her is written on five-line staves in two columns, but otherwise notation and texts are very similar. The long is used for all single notes, and indeed this syllabic notation scarcely shows any development from that of the great Notre Dame sources. There are 11 red staves to the page, and the decorative initials appear to employ gold as well as the usual blue and red colours. Their appearance and setting in a frame is very reminiscent of R and N. Moreover, the trend of these more important sources to preserve mainly two-part motets is continued, for Her has only one three-part motet out of 9 preserved works in motet form. It is valuable for its nos. 3 and 4, which have not been found in any other source. There is no attempt to group tenors at the bottom of a page. Each composition follows in the succession Mot, T, first down one column and then down the next. The third voice of no. 2 follows after the tenor, not before it.

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