Dominican processional now in the ‘Suppressed Convents’ collection at the National Library in Florence, where it came from the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella. Contains two polyphonic pieces and one monophonic Marian sequence; all three are anonymous.
The final gathering begins with a monophonic Marian sequence, Ave nobilis venerabilis Maria, followed by two two-voice items: the first, in the same hand as the Marian sequence, is a unique Marian song beginning Flos de spina nascitur genitor de filia; the second, added in a different hand, by a slightly later scribe, begins Clangat cetus. The entry in Iter liturgicum italicum, based on the work of Giacomo Baroffio, dates this processional to the last decade of the thirteenth century, placing its origins in Florence. It is similar to other small, contemporaneous Dominican processionals with a handful of polyphonic pieces, including D-Do 882 from Brunnenhof (which also contains Ave nobilis venerabilis Maria) and CH-Gpu lat. 155 from the borders of Germany and Switzerland.
Flos de spina nascitur genitor de filia has no known concordances to its music or text. Empty ruled staves underlaid with the text Benedicamus Do[mino] at the end of the piece suggest the scribe may have intended to add a Benedicamus cauda. The two-voice Clangat cetus has concordances with three roughly contemporaneous Spanish manuscripts: Codex Las Huelgas E-BUIh s/n, from Burgos in North Spain (c.1300–1325); E-Boc 1, a troper-proser from Taragonna in Catalonia (c.1300); and E-TO Cód. 135, a troper-sequentiary likely from Tortosa in Catalonia (1200s). In Spanish sources, Clangat cetus is always a Sanctus trope, appearing alongside Sanctus plainchant melodies, with a final verse whose text cues singing of the Sanctus. Here, in I-Fn Conv. soppr. da Ord. S. Maria Novella 12 (str.243), the final verse is omitted and partially replaced with an ‘Amen’ to repurpose the piece for more general use.