Two parchment bifolia which were originally adjacent, nested, at the centre of a gathering, used to form pastedowns in the binding of a copy of the printed Nuremberg Chronicle: H. Schedel, Liber chronicarum, Nuremberg, 1493. The provenance is unknown, but the music and script are all English. The pages of each bifolium are here foliated 1–4. Leaf A (fols 1 and 4; 1r/4v pasted down, 1v/4r exposed) was the front pastedown, leaf B (fols 2 and 3; 2r/3v pasted down, 2v/3r exposed) was the rear.

Contents: an unknown setting of the Ave regina on the first recto (1) is directly followed by two movements of the Mass Alma redemptoris (Credo, Sanctus, 2-3) ascribed elsewhere to Leonel Power; an Agnus Alma redemptoris that uses the tenor of the setting ascribed elsewhere to Power but with newly-composed upper parts (4); and the Gloria of the Mass Rex seculorum (5) attributed variously to Dunstaple and Power. The Kyrie of that mass, known from elsewhere, was therefore not copied here preceding the Gloria; and the Credo of the Alma redemptoris mass was not immediately preceded by its Kyrie (which we do not have) and Gloria. No composer names are visible here.

Measurements in mm:

front pastedown/leaf A (pasted-down face) left hand side:
Staves (selection): 12, 11.9, 12
Height: fore-edge 287.7; with tab 301-327; gutter edge 319
Width: 204.5
(no vertical rule on L)

front pastedown/leaf A (pasted-down face) right hand side:
Staves (selection): 12.3, 11.8, 11.7
Height at gutter: 318; middle (smallest) 315-319; with tab 332.5
Width: 269-276.5
Vertical rules: 193.5

Combined width: approx. 473-7 (bottom edge is wider than this because there’s a detatched segment pulling away from the body).

back pastedown/leaf B (exposed face) right hand side:
Staves (selection): 11.9, 12.4, 12.0, 12.4
Height: 314, 320, 322.5
Width (from gutter fold): 265.5
Vertical rules: 195.5-197

back pastedown/leaf B (exposed face) left hand side:
Staves (selection): 11.6, 11.8, 12.3, 11.8
Height: 321.5; with tab 327.5; at gutter 322.3
Width: 198-213
(no vertical rule on L)

Combined width: approx. 469-478

Gathering Diagram

The present binding (from the 1990s) appears to incorporate leather covers from an 18th century imitation of an earlier binding which may have retained the pastedowns from that earlier binding.

The chronicle was given to the cathedral by Charles Trimnell, who was Prebendary of Norwich Cathedral from 1691, later Bishop of Norwich (1708-1721) (see Oxford DNB). The library preserves a small number of other books given by him, at least one of which notes him as “Preb”, not bishop. The chronicle first appears in an undated manuscript catalogue that must have been compiled somewhere between 1771 (latest publication date included) and 1819 (next known – printed – catalogue of the library).

The music is in black notation. Three text hands seem to have participated: textura with anglicana elements 2-4; anglicana cursiva in 1 and 5, less neat in the latter.

Mostly red five-line staves.

Parchment

Notified to Margaret Bent by David Pearson in 2018.

The lifted pastedowns are kept in plastic sleeves in the same box as the book, without a separate shelf-mark.

To be described and reproduced in Margaret Bent and Andrew Wathey, Fragments of English Polyphonic Music ca. 1390–1475: A Facsimile Edition, Early English Church Music, vol. 62.