A collection of sermons for the time and for the saints, mainly by Bishop Haymo of Halberstadt, but also by Bede, Gregory and Augustine. Fol. i-iii are or were musical pages. F. ii verso-iii verso were later erased and covered in 15th century writing. The front board contains a reverse image offset from i recto. On the (vertical) half of the leaf where the white leather is still in place the leather contains a double image of both the reverse offset of i recto and apparently some 'forwards' music as well which is still unclear. i - iii is a bifolium, conjugate of i is just a stub, ii verso overwritten, iii recto overwritten, iii verso partly overwritten. Bruce Barker-Benfield pointed out that there is also music on the rear board. The rear flyleaf is 358 verso - apparently a lifted pastedown: Margaret Bent thinks that the only music on it (very faint) is offset from the back board; where what is offset on the white leather is still visible in reverse, the rest very thoroughly scraped. There are deep gutters between the board and the book, and some notes may be lost. Looking at the front board the clefs for f. i are visible, as they are not on f. i itself (this is quite common). It is possible that what is visible in the gutter of the front board offset is visible on the image of f. i. All the music consists of Glorias, mainly with the Tro 'Spiritus et alme', except for no. 2, which is also exceptional in being written in separate parts in isorhythmic motet style. Presented to the Bodleian by the dean and canons of Windsor in 1612.
GB-Ob MS. Bodl. 384
Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
Codex fragment (polyphony), still with host manuscript: late 14th century
| Archive | Bodleian Library, Oxford, England (GB-Ob) |
|---|---|
| Shelfmark | MS. Bodl. 384 |
| Surface | Parchment |
| Numbering System | Foliation |
| Format | portrait |
| Measurements | 275 x 182 mm |
| Other Identifiers |
|
| Notations |
|
| Relationships |
|
| External Links | |
| Provenance |
|
| Contents | Contains 5 compositions, 5 are anonymous. |
General Description
Physical Description
Fol. i-ii are also somewhat worm-eaten and damaged by glue, but generally legible
Binding
White leather over wooden boards with a parchment cover; English; 15th century
Notation
Late 14th c Ars Nova, including special note-forms as the dragma and the semibreve shape with a short tail descending diagonally on the right
Ruling
2 brown five-line staves per page; height 13.5 mm
Foliation
i-iii verso, rear flyleaf verso, front and back board offsets
Foliation
foliated in brown ink by Gerard Langbaine at t.r.r.; the parchment flyleaves f. i-vii and 358 are numbered, also at t.r.r., in modern pencil.
Surface
Parchment
RISM Description
B/IV 2: A 13th century parchment manuscript meas. 275 x 182 mm. and containing vii + 358 folios. The corpus is a collection of sermons for the time and for the saints, mainly by Bishop Haymo of Halberstadt, but also by Bede, Gregory and Augustine. These pages are foliated in brown ink by Gerard Langbaine at t.r.r., while the parchment flyleaves f. i-vii and 358 are numbered, also at t.r.r., in modern pencil. The codex was presented to the Bodleian by the dean and canons of Windsor in 1612. The binding is 15th century English work: white leather over wooden boards with a parchment cover. Fol. i-iii are or were musical pages in late 14th century Ars Nova notation on 12 brown five-line staves per page (including such special note-forms as the dragma and the semibreve shape with a short tail descending diagonally on the right). However, f. ii verso-iii verso were later erased and covered in 15th century writing. Fol. i-ii are also somewhat worm-eaten and damaged by glue, but generally legible. F. i verso was originally pasted on the back cover, though the mirror image on the inside of the front cover suggests that f. i recto was originally glued there. This latter mirror image must however be of more recent origin; it must date from the period after this folio was removed from the back cover. All the music consists of Glorias, mainly with the Tro "Spiritus et alme", except for no. 2, which is also exceptional in being written in separate parts in isorhythmic motet style.
This information is reproduced here by kind permission of the publishers. It is COPYRIGHT and copying/reproduction of any of this content without permission may result in legal action.
front board offset
The inventory could not be loaded.
‡ denotes primary source study
Wright, Peter (editor). 2013. Fifteenth-Century Liturgical Music, VIII: Settings of the Gloria and Credo. Early English Church Music, vol. 55. London: Stainer and Bell for the British Academy. Notes: edition of gloria on ff. 1v and 3r.
Curtis, Gareth R K, and Andrew B Wathey. 1994. Fifteenth-Century English Liturgical Music: A List of the Surviving Repertory. Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 27: 1-69.
Sanders, Ernest H, Frank Llewellyn Harrison, and Peter M Lefferts (editors). 1983. English Music for Mass and Offices (I). Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, vol. 16. Monaco: Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre. Notes: edition of some of the glorias.
Apfel, Ernst. 1959. Studien zur Satztechnik der mittelalterlichen englischen Musik. 2 vols. Pages: II, 90ff (diplomatic facsimiles of nos. 1, 3 and 4 with ligatures resolved into single notes); I, 54f, 58, 61, 80.
Harrison, Frank Llewellyn. 1954-1960. New Oxford History of Music. 89ff. Pages: 100 (transcription of bits of no. 1); 99ff.
Georgiades, T. 1937. Englische Diskanttraktate aus der ersten Halfte des 15. Jahrhunderts. Pages: 97f.
This form is used to make comments on a source. If you wish to notify us of a correction to the record, you should use the "Contribute a change" form instead.
No comments have been made.
Contributions to this record are recorded here. If you wish to contribute information or a correction to this record, use the "Contribute a Change" link. This will then be reviewed by DIAMM staff and, if accepted, your contribution will be acknowledged here.
Peter Wright
Wednesday, 17 January, 2018
bibliography updated
Répertoire Internationale des Sources Musicales
Monday, 23 January, 2017
NB: Migrated from old site. Credit for notes may not be completely accurate. RISM Description