gothica textualis rotunda, Notre-Dame notation written in England

A, Av offset, B, B offset, Bv —mounted as f.51

Parchment

RISM Supplement: 2 fols, (damaged, with a large cut in fol. B; a bifolium used as the rear-pastedown [now raised to form fol. 51] and the preceding unfoliated stub), and offsets on the front cover from a further bifolium, now lost. Parchment. Now 170 x 240 mm; originally 135 mm wide. Written space 102 mm wide. Ruling: probably twelve or nine (now eight) red five-line staves (10-13 mm), freely-ruled in systems of two with almost no space between adjacent staves; frame rules in dry-point, with two vertical rules at each side, double text guides, and ruled indentations (c. 10 mm) for initials to 1 and 4. Collation: two adjacent bifolia (of which one is lost); the fold of the original gutter in the remaining bifolium confirms the order of the leaves. Script: gothica textualis rotunda. Notation: Notre-Dame. Decoration: red and blue plain capitals flourished in blue and red.

Written in England. Bound sideways to form the paste-downs (one now lost) at each end of MS 752, a copy of Julius Frontinus, Strategmata, and Vegetius, De re militari, s. xiii ex., heavily annotated, s. xvi. A further bifolium from this manuscript may have been used with the surviving pastedown at the end of the book (see the scraps between the stub and fol. 51). The binding of this book, probably the original, s. xiii/xiv, is of white whittawed leather over bevelled oak (back) and, perhaps, beech (front) boards; three grooves of equal length for sewing-bands. Single clasp and pin fastening, now lost; 'Liber frontini' and 'de re militari' written in ink on the back cover. 'Shyrwynnj' on fol. 1, and 'Lady Curtney' written upside down on fol. 50v, both s. xvi. 2° fo. -ceptis acie. Re-backed s. xix/xx in. Owned: Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1695 - 1715. MS 752 may be identifiable with the manuscript copy of 'Fl: Vegetius Renatus: Institutionum Rei Militaris, cum comm: Steweckij' in the 1693 catalogue (Llp, MS 1708) of the library founded by Tenison at St. Martin's Lane, London, which was the source of several of Tenison's manuscripts at Lambeth; possibly part of Sir Charles Cotterell's donation of military books to that collection, made in the mid-1680s (see Losseff for further details). Given with MSS 577-595 and 639-928.

NOTES ON CONTENTS

1 Portions of upper voice lost at beginning. 2 Continues on offset '-tatitur Crist- ...', amid other scattered and partly legible syllables. 3 End only, from '-ia serpens di-' on offset; begins on fol. B 'patris redit in amplexus'; ed. Anderson, III, pp. 1, 187. Also in D-HEu, MS 2588, fol. 3r-v; W1, fols. 112-113 (No. 232); W2, fols. 104v-107v (No. 80); Ma, fols. 69-71; F, fols. 299-300V (No. 715); CH-EN, MS 102, fol. 150v (one voice only); CH-Zz, MS C. 58, fol. 148 (text only); D-Sl, H.B. I. Asc. 95, fols. 25v-26 (one voice only); this piece was the first item in a book given by Ralph de Sancto Gregorio to St Paul's Cathedral, London and described in 1295 as a 'minimus liber vêtus et organicus' (Lsp, MS W.D4). Falck 26. 4 Extract, beginning Hec est rosa venustatis (verse 2); ed. Anderson, III, pp. 11,189. Complete version also in W1, fols. 117v-118v (No. 237); W2, fols. 101v-104v (No. 79); Ma, fols. 81-83; F, fols. 216-217v, 307V-308 (Nos. 639, 720B). Falck 256. 5 Opening and end lost; ed. Anderson, III, pp. 6,188. Also in W1, fols. 113V-114 (No. 233) and W2, fols. 112v-114v (No. 83); Ma, fols. 116-117v (No. 67); also in a three-voice version, with added triplum, in F, fols. 215-216 (No. 638); 06, MS Digby 166, fol. 62 (text only). Falck 265. 3-5 Ed. Anderson, III, pp. 1,11, 6; see also pp. 187, 189,188.

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