square black

11 or 12 red five-line staves per page

1-4v

parchment

RISM B/IV 1: Fragments of a musical manuscript from Meaux Abbey dated c. 1300 and used as flyleaves in binding another Meaux Abbey ms containing the Liber de IX scientiis et sermones. The flyleaves are really four folios of music, though they were cut acros the middle to make sixteen flyleaves, eight for the front and eight for the back of the ms 654. The musical pages have now been removed so that they can be properly read. Fortunately, although they were cut down at the top for binding, this does not affect the music. The 164 folios of ms 654 measure only 130 x 100 mm., so that the original dimensions of the musical folios must have been c. 300 x 200 mm. The notation is on the usual red five-line staves (11 or 12 per page), and initials are in red with blue contrast, or vice versa. About one stave is usually missing from the middle of each page, cut away by the binder's scissors. The presence of a list of York archbishops on f. 156v proves that the music was already bound in ms 654 between 1439 and 1452, because an omission has been remedied by writing the missing name on the musical page f. 157. According to the reconstruction, f. 1-8 and 157-164 of ms 654 are now renumbered f. I-IV in ms 654 appendix. The ms 654, which has a 17th century English binding of brown calf, was purchased from W. M. Voynich in 1923 and given to the University of Chicago by alumni. The manuscript's original press-mark Y xviiij is still visible, and permits exact location of the codex on the shelf of the Abbey library. The original musical manuscript must have been an important collection of Latin motets and conductus, mainly for three voices. It is interesting to note that conductus are written in separate parts.

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