From the Abbey of Lire, in the diocese of Evreux. The contents consist of a calendar with obits of the abbey: f. 5-10v; another calendar: f. 13-18v; the Martyrology of Usuardus: f. 19-122v; the Benedictine Rule: f. 123-155v, and settings of sequences with musical notation at the beginning and end of the manuscript. A probably 14th century hand has written 'Wymundus Wynton Simon Compton' at the foot of f. 159. This suggests English origin, and Machabey believes the MS was written for the monks of Wareham in Dorsetshire, for Wareham was a cell of Lire.

plain parchment over wooden boards.

rudimentary Notre Dame type

empty, mainly four-line brown staves for Deus in adiutorium (f. 2-2v); 6-8 four-line staves (f. 156-159v); red staves (f. 156 & 159); brown staves only on 157 and 158

11v

19th century ink at t.r.r.

elegant script with red and green initials for the Martyrology, but only red for the Benedictine Rule

i paper + 159 parchment + i paper

RISM B/IV 1: A 12th century parchment manuscript meas. 185 x 124 mm and containing 159 folios plus 1 blank unnumbered modern paper folio each end. The only foliation is a 19th century ink one at t.r.r. The binding is of plain parchment over wooden boards. As for its origin, the provenance of the codex is the Abbey of Lire, which is in the diocese of Evreux. The contents consist of a calendar with obits of the abbey: f. 5-10v; another calendar: f. 13-18v; the Martyrology of Usuardus: f. 19-122v; the Benedictine Rule: f. 123-155v, and settings of sequences with musical notation at the beginning and end of the manuscript. The ms corpus is written in an elegant script with red and green initials for the Martyrology, but only red for the Benedictine Rule, which appears to date from the 13th century. This last remark is also true of most of the music, except for the two-part work. The date 1262 appears on f. 12, while a small, probably 14th century hand has written "Wymundus Wynton Simon Compton" at the foot of f. 159. This latter note suggests English origin, and Machabey believes the ms was written for the monks of Wareham in Dorsetshire, for Wareham was a cell of Lire. On f. 2-2v are empty, mainly four-line brown staves for Deus in adiutorium. The notation in longs and undifferentiated ligatures begins in the middle of a sequence on f. 3-4v. The two-part Gloria trope Spiritus et alme on f. 11v is in a rudimentary notation of Notre Dame type. It differs from the monodies in using both a 'g' and a 'c' clef simultaneously, together with oblong notes rather than the square ones found elsewhere in the ms. The music at the end from f. 156-159v is on 6-8 four-line staves: f. 156 has red staves and initials, f. 159 red staves only, while the pages between employ only brown ink.

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