Miscellaneous collection of Charters and documents relating to Coventry; historical documents and lists; Statutes of the Realm; the 1253 re-issue of Magna Carta; trilingual poem on love; songs in English and French and an untexted musical piece.
GB-Ob MS. Douce 139
Bodleian Library, Oxford, England
Codex (complete), miscellany, with added polyphony: 3rd quarter 13th century
| Archive | Bodleian Library, Oxford, England (GB-Ob) |
|---|---|
| Shelfmark | MS. Douce 139 |
| Surface | Mixed Paper and Parchment |
| Numbering System | Foliation |
| Format | portrait |
| Measurements | 243 x 178 mm |
| Other Identifiers |
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| Notations |
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| Relationships |
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| External Links | |
| Provenance |
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| Contents | Contains 2 compositions, 2 are anonymous. |
General Description
Binding
Brown leather over pulp boards; 17th century. The gilt arms on the cover may be those of Sir Robert Cotton. The single paper flyleaves at each end belong to this binding.
Notation
English mensural: the rhomb takes the place of the breve; the English form of the conjunctura is frequently used
Ruling
9 brown five- or four-line staves per page.
Foliation
5, 5v, 179v
Foliation
modern pencil foliation at t.r.r.; an old 16th or 17th century ink foliation at b.m.r. shows the loss of 31 pages. Occasionally there is a 17th or 18th century ink foliation at t.r.r.
Surface
i + v paper + 203 parchment + i paper
RISM Description
RISM B/IV 1: A 13th-14th century parchment manuscript meas. 243 x 178 mm. and containing v + 203 folios. In addition, there is 1 blank unnumbered paper flyleaf each end belonging to the 17th century binding of brown leather over pulp boards. The gilt arms on the cover may be those of Sir Robert Cotton. Fol. ii-v are ribbed paper flyleaves of a similar date, as are f. 201-203 at the end. The foliation is a modern pencil one at t.r.r.; an old 16th or 17th century ink foliation at b.m.r. shows the loss of 31 pages. Occasionally there is a 17th or 18th century ink foliation at t.r.r. This miscellaneous collection is apparently from Coventry, though it contains the statutes of numerous towns. The dates mentioned in the ms are 1286-1307, 1303, 1332 and 1352, the former being Homagia per diversos prioribus Coventrensibus facta. There are gifts of land and letters to and from the prior of the convent of Conventry. On f. 157 may be found verses on love in three languages : Amor est quedam mentis insania-Amor est une pensée enragée - Love is a selkud wodenesse. The musical notation of the English two-part song and the monodie dance is mainly in ligatures, but the sudden three-part coda at the end of the dance brings in rhombs. The motet is a well-known French work from Mo, but it here uses English mensural notation with the rhomb taking the place of the breve. The English form of the conjunctura is frequently used too. There are 9 brown five- or four-line staves per page. The placing of longs for breves and vice versa is not infrequent.
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179v
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Sets
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Sources of British Song 1150-1300
Project Collection · 35 sources
GB-Ob MS. Douce 139
Current source
‡ denotes primary source study
Robinson, P.R. 1980. The ‘Booklet': A Self-Contained Unit in Composite Manuscripts. Codicologica 3: Essais typologiques, Litterae Textuales. edited by P.R. Robinson, 46-69. Leiden. Pages: p. 52.
Page, Christopher. 1976. A Catalogue and Bibliography of English Song from Its Beginnings to c1300. Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, 13: 67-83. Pages: p. 75-76.
Davison, Archibald Thompson, and Willi Apel (editors). 1966. Historical Anthology of Music. Vol. I. Oriental, Medieval and Renaissance Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pages: no. 40c (transcription of no. 2).
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. 54.
Davis, Godfrey Rupert Carless. 1958. Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain. edited by Godfrey Rupert Carless Davis, London: Longmans, Green. Pages: no. 277.
Parrish, Carl. 1957. The Notation of Medieval Music. Pages: 129ff pl. XLIV (facsimile of no. 3).
Hughes, Dom Anselm. 1954-60. New Oxford History of Music. Pages: 343 (transcription of no. 1); 248, 338f, 369.
Auda, Antoine. 1953. Les "Motets Wallons" du manuscrit de Turin: Vari 42. 2 vols. Pages: I-II, no. 23 (facsimile and transcription of no. 3 after Tu); I, 86.
Hughes, Dom Anselm. 1951. Medieval Polyphony in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Pages: p. 27.
Handschin, Jacques. 1949-79. Estampie. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1st Edition, 3: . Pages: column 1557f.
Reese, Gustave. 1940. Music in the Middle Ages: With an introduction on the music of ancient times. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Pages: 243, 389, 415.
Rokseth, Y. 1935+1939. Les Polyphonies du XIVe siecle. 4 vols. Pages: I and III, no. 260 (facsimile and transcription of no. 3 after Mo); IV, 138, 288.
Handschin, Jacques. 1929, 1930. Über Estampie und Sequenz. Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 12 (1929), 1ff and 13 (1930), 113 ff: . Pages: I, 13 f (transcription of no. 2); I, 8, 11.
Ludwig, Friedrich. 1923. Die Quellen der Motetten ältesten Stils. Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 5: 185-222, Vol. 5 (1924) 273-315. Pages: 205, 276.
Ludwig, Friedrich. 1922-23. Musik des Mittelalters in der Badischen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, 24.-26. September 1922. Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 5: 434-460. Pages: 444.
Wolf, Johannes. 1918. Die Tänze des Mittelalters. Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 1: 10ff. Pages: 22f (transcription of no. 2); 13f.
Ludwig, Friedrich. 1910. Repertorium organorum recentioris et motetorum vetustissimi stili. I. Catalogue raisonné. 1. Handschriften in Quadratnotation. Halle: Niemayer. Pages: 430.
Aubry, Pierre. 1908. Cent Motets du XIIIe siècle. 3 vols. Pages: I-II, no. 53 (facsimile and transcription of no. 3 after Ba); III, 88.
Stainer, John F. R, Cécie Stainer, and Edward W. B. Nicholson. 1901, 1913. Early Bodleian Music I-II (1901); Early Bodleian Music III. Pages: I, pl. 6-8 and II, p. 10-15 (facsimile and transcription of nos. 1-3).
Wooldridge, Harry Ellis. 1901. Oxford History of Music I. Oxford: Clarendon. Pages: I, 307 (transcription of no. 1).
Stainer, John F. R, Cécie Stainer, Edward W. B. Nicholson, and Stainer Sir John. 1898; reprinted as EBM I: 1966. Dufay and his Contemporaries: Fifty Compositions (Ranging from about A.D. 1400 to 1440) Transcribed from MS. Canonici misc. 213, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, with an introduction by E.W.B. Nicholson, and a critical analysis of the music by Sir John Stainer. London. Pages: plates 6-8.
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: vol.1, plates VII, XXIV (facsimile of nos. 1 and 2), and vol.2, pp.6-7, 40-41.
Frere, Walter Howard. 1894-1932, repr. Hildesheim, 1967. Bibliotheca Musico-Liturgica: A Descriptive Handlist of the Musical and Latin-Liturgical Mss. of the Middle Ages Preserved in the Libraries of Great Britain and Ireland. 2 vols. London: The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society. Pages: 412.
Madan, Falconer (editor). None. Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 7 vols. Oxford: 1895-1953. Pages: no.21723.
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Monday, 23 January, 2017
NB: Migrated from old site. Credit for notes may not be completely accurate. RISM Description