Ars nova notation

17.5 mm

1-2v

Parchment

RISM Supplement: 2 fols, (unfoliated). Parchment. Now 355 x 357 mm. Written space at least 325 x 290 mm. Ruling: 13 red five-line staves (17-17.5 mm) ruled with a rastrum; vertical frame-rules on fol. 2v, and ruled indentations (20 mm) for one-stave initials for 1 and 3. Collation: a bifolium, not from the centre of a gathering. Script: probably two hands, each writing a moderately good gothica textualis semi-quadrata with quadrata elements, responsible for 2,3,6 and 1, 4, 5 respectively. All pauses in text indicated by punctus. Notation: Ars nova; red full coloration and mensuration signs in 6. Decoration: elaborate major initials at head of page for 1 and 2 in gold, blue and red; one-stave and one-line initials flourished in blue and red; red and blue initials in text and rubrics.

Written in England. Used to form a roughly-stitched cover, before c. 1573, for Lpro, WARD 9/356, a book of household and miscellaneous accounts of Paul Gresham, Esq., of Little Walsingham, Norfolk, covering the period 1561-1563 (see offsets on fol. 1 of this book). With other records, this document passed to the Court of Wards and Liveries after Gresham's death in 1573. Financial and other memoranda in one of the hands of the account book are added on E 163/22/1/24, fols. 1 and 2v, which suggests that the cover was made at some time before this date. A similar account, covering the period 1555-1560, survives as Lpro, E 36/255. Transferred to Westminster Hall in 1650, on the abolition of the Court of Wards and Liveries; then to the Chapter House, Westminster in 1732 (where the records of the Treasury of Receipt were stored), and then to the Public Record Office, s. xix in. (for details, see H. E. Bell, An Introduction to the History and Records of the Court of Wards and Liveries, Cambridge Studies in Legal History [Cambridge, 1953], pp. 177,184). The bifolium was removed and placed in Exchequer King's Remembrancer Miscellanea (E 163) in March 1937 (Lpro, OBS 1/1524, fol. 1). A medical recipe, s. xvi, and scribbles, s. xv/xvi, including ' Jhesu sped me at my ned', appear on fol. 1.

NOTES ON CONTENTS

1 Mot, Ct, and a hitherto unknown contratenor; partly legible under ultra-violet light. Other version, ed. PMFC 5, pp. 141-148 (No. 26) and Supplementary Volume, pp. 16-17, and Günther, pp. 17-22; T carries last section of plainsong Alma redemptoris mater, from 'Virgo prius'. Also in F-CH, MS 564, fols. 65V-66; lost F-Sm, MS 222 C. 22, fol. 7v (burnt 1870), ascribed 'Philippe Royllart'; I-Fasl, MS 2211, fol. clxxxvi_v; US-Wc, MS M.2.1. C 6 a.14, fol. 2v. Copied in 1423/1424 for the Confraternity of Our Lady at 's-Hertogenbosch (A. Smijers, 'De Illustre Lieve Vrouwe Broederschap te 's-Hertogenbosch', Tijdschrift der Vereeniging voor Nederlandsche Muziekgeschiedenis, 12 (1926), p. 59). Celebrates Charles V of France (1364-1380).

2, 3, 6 Tr and T only of probably four voices.

4, 5 Mot and Ct only of probably four voices.

2 On St Anne.

4 Mot, its text, and the Ct here are hitherto unknown. Other versions: (1) three voices, ed. PMFC 5, pp. 50-53 (No. 9), in E-Bc, MS M. 971, fols, 11v-12; E-TAc, MS s.s. [2], fol. 1v; Oas, MS 56, fol. A (No. 1, p. 81 below); I-Fasl, MS 2211, fol. clxxxviiii-cxc; I-IV, MS 115, fols. 12v-13; incomplete in I-Pu, MS 658, fol. 2v and NL-Lu, MS B. P. L. 2515, fol. 1; also in index of F-Pn, MS n. a. fr. 23190 (No. 2); (2) five voices, with different Mot text, Pantheon abluitur, Ct and a 'Quadruplum sive triplum de Apollinis', ed. PMFC 5, pp. 54-61 (No. 9a), in lost F-Sm, MS 222 C. 22, fols. 64v-65; (3) Five voices (four in source), in E-Bc, MS M. 853, fol. 1, ed. in M. C. Gomez, 'Une version à cinq voix du motet Apollinis eclipsatur I Zodiacum signis dans le manuscrit E-Bcen 853', Musica Disciplina, 39 (1985), pp. 30-41; (4) keyboard intabulation of Tr and Mot, in A-Wn, MS 5094, fols. 158v-r, ed. in F. Crane, ' 15th-century Keyboard Music in Vienna MS 5094', JAMS, 18 (1965), pp. 238-242. T carries plainsong In omnem terram (F-R(m), MS 237, fol. 241) down a fourth. Attributed to 'B. de Cluni' in Mot text.

6 Mostly legible under ultraviolet light. 'Contratenor de officio' added in margin, s. xv in., at start of lower of remaining voices. 7 Textless; possibly an instrumental piece (added s. xvi med.).

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