Coontains sermons and liturgical offices in honour of St. James (book I), miracles of St. James (book II), an account of the translation of St. James from Jerusalem to Galicia (book III), and a guide for the pilgrim (book V).

Now known as the Codex Calixtinus, this manuscript was at one time united with the chronicle of Turpin, which formed the fourth book of the original manuscript. The separation of the two parts apparently took place in 1619, when both volumes were foliated afresh and an incipit liber UH Sancii Jacobi for book V together with a new title page forged for the fantastic chronicle of Turpin, which had acquired a bad odour in ecclesiastical circles.

Aquitanian

foliation in Roman numerals at t.r.r.; no. 97 is repeated twice

Parchment

RISM BIV/1: A 12th century parchment manuscript meas. 295x210 mm. and containing 196 folios. Now known as the Codex Calixtinus, this manuscript was at one time united with the chronicle of Turpin, which formed the fourth book of the original manuscript. The separation of the two parts apparently took place in 1619, when both volumes were foliated afresh and an incipit liber UH Sancii Jacobi for book V together with a new title page forged for the fantastic chronicle of Turpin, which had acquired a bad odour in ecclesiastical circles. Both volumes were apparently bound in doeskin by Alonso Rodríguez León at this time, but the Codex Calixtinus was later covered in red velvet which is now rather shabby. This volume, which alone concerns us here, contains sermons and liturgical offices in honour of St. James (book I), miracles of St. James (book II), an account of the translation of St. James from Jerusalem to Galicia (book III), and a guide for the pilgrim (book V). Its 24 gatherings are mainly quaternios, in addition to which there are 5 single flyleaves. The fourth gathering was badly bound and the correct page order should be 26, 29, 28, 27, 32, 31, 30, 33, while f. 191 is missing. The foliation in Roman numerals at t.r.r. is correct except for the repetition of 97. The manuscript can be dated in the last quarter of the 12th century approximately, though its connections with the ms Barcelona, Archivo de la Corona de Aragon, Ripoll 99, which was copied by Arnaldus de Monte, a monk of Ripoll, in 1173, are not clear. A number of the pieces in the Compostela codex were copied in Ripoll 99 during Arnaldus' visit to Compostela, but the two codices do not betray a common origin. For one thing there is no polyphony in Ripoll 99, and the notation is Aquitanian, while North French influence is much more evident in the semi-quadratic neumes of the Codex Calixtinus. MachabeyN, 34 bis, gives a table showing that the Compostela ms is notationally related to the Hymnary of Nevers, Paris, Bibl. Nat., nouv. acq. lat. 1235, while Ripoll 99 tends to line up with the St. Martial mss Paris, Bibl. Nat., lat. 3719 and 3549. Ripoll 99, moreover, employs four- or five-line staves in dry point, whereas the four-line staves of Compostela are drawn in ink. As in the St. Martial sources, the polyphony is usually on two staves divided by a wavy red line. The twelve staves per page are divided into six systems, and bar-lines simplify the reading of the score notation. The first two polyphonic compositions, which are written in an earlier part of the manuscript, have both voices on a single stave, the second voice in red ink. All the part-music is à 2 except no. 4, which has often been considered the earliest three-part composition. Wagner (see below), 166, considered the highest part to be an expansion of or substitute for the middle one, and certainly there seems to be some justification for this suspicion. The two lower parts are written on the bottom stave. Another debating point is the later addition of the names of composers for most pieces. These names may or may not be apocryphal (see particularly MachabeyN, 34 ff). The Gloria patri text written underneath the V of nos. 11-14 is also a later addition.

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