GB-Lbl Harley 978

British Library, London, England

Codex (complete), miscellany, with added polyphony: 3rd quarter 13th century

Archive British Library, London, England (GB-Lbl)
Shelfmark Harley 978
Surface Parchment
Format portrait
Measurements 190 x 130 mm
Other Identifiers
  • RISM: LoHa
Notations
  • English mensural
Relationships
External Links
Provenance
  • England
Contents Contains 2 compositions, 2 are anonymous.
General Description

The music appears only on f. 1-15, though there is also a very interesting list of compositions of the period on f.160v-161. These undoubtedly polyphonic works were mainly Gloria, Gradual and Alleluia Tro and motets, and three composers are named, all of whom were connected with Reading Abbey. One is W. de Wicumbe who perhaps wrote parts of GB-Ob Rawl. C. 400*.

The notated music, apart from some monodic sequences, consists of the unique rota Sumer is icumen in, a three-part motet written in score like a conductus and 3 two-part estampies. The rota is a canon in up to four parts over a two-part Pes. Both vocal pieces have contrafactum texts.

The ms is clearly from Reading, or from Leominster Priory, a dependency of Reading.

DIAMM, 2025
Notation

English mensural notation

Helen Deeming, 2011
Ruling

The motet is written on 4 accolades of 3 red staves, generally 5+5+4 lines if one reads down the page but varying in number and drawn more or less continuously; the rota employs six-line staves generally, even seven lines on one occasion.

DIAMM, 2025
Foliation

8v-11v

Helen Deeming, 2011
Surface

Parchment

Helen Deeming, 2011
RISM Description

RISM B/IV 1: A parchment manuscript dating from the latter part of the 13th century and meas. 190 x 130 mm., LoHa contains 162 folios + 4 flyleaves at each end. In each case the outer one of the 4 flyleaves is paper, the other 3 parchment. In addition, f. 1 is a flyleaf of 18th or 19th century ribbed paper with erroneous comments, one dated 1862. The old parchment folio f. 162 bears the date March 5, 1595 in Latin. The present binding is a British Museum one dating from 1950 in red morocco with gilt arms on the cover and a gilt title on the spine: MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS. 13TH CENT. || BRIT. MUS. || HARLEY MS 978. There are 3 foliations at t.r.r. The first is probably 18th century ink, the second British Museum pencil (not including the present f. 1, which was f. 1* in the 19th century), and the third a more recent British Museum pencil numbering including f. 1* as f. 1. The contents are very varied and include a calendar of Reading Abbey (f. 15v-21v), the Ysopet in French verse (f. 40-67v), Latin goliardic poems (f. 68 ff), and the lays of Marie de France (f. 118-160). The music appears only on f. 1-15, though there is also a very interesting list of compositions of the period on f.160v-161. These undoubtedly polyphonic works were mainly Gloria, Gradual and Alleluia Tro and motets, and three composers are named, all of whom were connected with Reading Abbey. The ms is clearly from Reading, or from Leominster Priory, a dependency of Reading. The notated music, apart from some monodic sequences, consists of the unique rota Sumer is icumen in, a three-part motet written in score like a conductus and 3 two-part estampies. The rota is a canon in up to four parts over a two-part Pes. Both vocal pieces have contrafactum texts. The notation is the so-called English mensural type; for the motet, it is written on 4 accolades of 3 red staves, generally 5+5+4 lines if one reads down the page but varying in number and drawn more or less continuously; the rota employs six-line staves generally, even seven lines on one occasion. Initials are generally red or blue, but black on f. 12-13v.

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Répertoire International des Sources Musicales

10

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Sets

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‡ denotes primary source study

Thomson, Rodney M. 2008. The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, volume 2: 1100-1400, . edited by Rodney M. Thomson,  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pages: p.164, n.137.

Taylor, A. 2002. Textual Situations: Three Medieval Manuscripts and Their Readers.  Philadelphia.

Taylor, A, and Alan Coates. 1998. The Dates of the Reading Calendar and the Summer Canon. Notes and Queries, 243: 22-24.

Stevens, John E. 1996. Sumer is icumen in - A Neglected Context. Expedition nach der Wahrheit: Poems, Essays and Papers in Honour of Theo Stemmler, edited by John E. Stevens,  Heidelberg: Winter.

Watson, Andrew G. 1979. Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library. 2 vols. London. Pages: vol.1, p.120 and vol.2, plate 137.

Davison, Archibald Thompson, and Willi Apel (editors). 1966. Historical Anthology of Music. Vol. I. Oriental, Medieval and Renaissance Music.  Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pages: nos. 41a, 41b and 42 (transcriptions of LoHa 1, 2 and 5).

Ker, Neil R. 1964. Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books. Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, vol. 3.  London. Pages: p. 156.

Harrison, Frank Llewellyn. 1958, second ed. 1963. Music in Medieval Britain.  London: Routledge. Pages: 135f, 143f (transcription of LoHa 5).

Gennrich, Friedrich. 1958. Bibliographie der ältesten französischen und lateinischen Motetten. Pages: XXIX, XLVI etc.

Parrish, Carl. 1957. The Notation of Medieval Music. Pages: pl. XLIII (facsimile of LoHa 5); 127ff.

Handschin, Jacques. 1949-79. Estampie. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1st Edition, 3: . Pages: col. 1557.

Handschin, Jacques. 1949. The Summer Canon and its Background. Musica Disciplina, 3: 55-94, volume 5 (1951), 65-113. Pages: I and II.

Pirrotta, Nino. 1948. On the Problem of "Sumer is Icumen in". Musica Disciplina, 2: 205-216. Pages: 205 ff.

Schofield, Bertram. 1948. The Provenance and Date of Sumer is Icumen in. Music Review, 9: 81-86. Pages: 81 ff.

Bukofzer, Manfred F. 1944. "Sumer is icumen in": A Revision. . Pages: 87 (binary transcription of LoHa 5).

Apel, Willi. 1942. (4th ed., 1949). The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600.  Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pages: 247 (facsimile of LoHa f. 9).

Rokseth, Y. 1935+1939. Les Polyphonies du XIVe siecle. 4 vols. Pages: I-II, no. 53 (facsimile and transcription of LoHa 4 after Mo); IV, 196, 261.

Anglès, Higinio. 1931. El Còdex musical de las Huelgas. 3 vols. Pages: II-III, no. 101 (facsimile and transcription of LoHa 4 after Hu); I, 259.

Handschin, Jacques. 1931. Zur Leonin-Perotin Frage. Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 14: . Pages: 516.

Ludwig, Friedrich. 1923. Die Quellen der Motetten ältesten Stils. Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 5: 185-222, Vol. 5 (1924) 273-315. Pages: 191, 203, 209, 214, 275, 305, 310.

Wolf, Johannes. 1918. Die Tänze des Mittelalters. Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 1: 10ff. Pages: 10ff (transcription of LoHa 1-3).

Ludwig, Friedrich. 1910. Repertorium organorum recentioris et motetorum vetustissimi stili. I. Catalogue raisonné. 1. Handschriften in Quadratnotation.  Halle: Niemayer. Pages: 180, 267ff, 392.

Aubry, Pierre. 1908. Cent Motets du XIIIe siècle. 3 vols. Pages: I-II, no. 1 (facsimile and transcription of LoHa 4 after Ba).

Wooldridge, Harry Ellis, and H V Hughes (editors). 1897 and 1913. Early English Harmony from the 10th to the 15th Century. 2 vols. London: The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society. Pages: pl. 18-22 (complete facsimile of LoHa polyphony).

Kingsford, Charles L. 1890. The Song of Lewes.  Oxford.

Wanley, Humphrey. 1808-12. A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum.  London. Pages: vol.1, pp.488-489.

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Horst Weber

Wednesday, 11 October, 2023

Changed genre of the Sumer canon to 'canon' / 'rota'.

Michael Stone

Saturday, 19 February, 2022

updated/corrected BL catalog link

Répertoire Internationale des Sources Musicales

Monday, 23 January, 2017

NB: Migrated from old site. Credit for notes may not be completely accurate. RISM Description