The use of a climacus with dots directly under each other is reminiscent of Aquitanian notation.

parchment

RISM B/IV 1: The 3 parchment manuscripts in question here were unfortunately destroyed by fire some 20 years ago, though it appears that a few charred fragments still exist at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. All are single flyleaves, of which nos. 4 and 109 date from the 11th century and no. 130 from c. 1100 at the earliest. While the first two sources are written in staffless neumes, ms 130 can be transcribed owing to the use of dry-point four-line staves in 6 accolades of 2 staves. Unfortunately, the left-hand margin is mutilated and the bottom stave and part of the next cut away. The use of a climacus with dots directly under each other is reminiscent of Aquitanian notation. The second voice of each organum is directly above the principalis and has the main consonants of the text as a guide. The verso was to have contained 3 further organa, namely the Alleluias, V. Ascendens Christus, Non vos reliquam orphanos and Veni, sancte Spiritus, but the notes were never inserted above the texts. The 5 organa on the recto are still in note-against-note style. All the intervals from 1-6, together with the octave, are in use, but the seventh is not employed. Ms 4 contains 3 organal parts without the plainsong for 3 responsories. The neumes are neat French ones of the type used at Fleury and there are 6 lines of them. Ms 130 has 4 organa and uses both recto and verso. These 4 Alleluias are written with the organal part directly above the principalis and employ typical French neumes, less neat and perhaps a little more recent than ms 4. A blank space on the verso of ms 130 has been filled by a 14th century two-part chace, which for once is complete with the name of the composer and the date. Even so, the work is of little importance. Ars Nova notation is not used: in fact, the piece is almost entirely in ligatures, though the mensuration signs O and C appear in alternation.

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