PRoMs - The Production and Reading of Music Sources

Mise-en-page in manuscripts and printed books containing polyphonic music, 1480—1530

Manuscript: Verona, Italy, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS DCCLVIII

Manuscript type: choirbook

RISM siglum: I-VEcap 758

DIAMM Source Key: 972

Image repositories: Biblioteca Capitolare Verona

Folio(s): All folios

Date: c. 1500

C. 1500 (Kanazawa 1975).

Location of origin: Verona, Italy

Artists/Scribes

Person: Anonymous, Anonymous
Person type: scribe

Basis for description: original

Verona, Italy, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS DCCLVIII, All folios

Physical description

Material: paper

Number of leaves: ii + 119 + ii

Format: upright

Page dimensions: 450 x 340

Quire structure: Text version

Title page / Frontispiece: Fol 1v: Heraldic device of the Maffei family on single parchment leaf. Could have been added later

Other devices: 1. Modern library foliation 1-119, pencil top right

Page details (zoom):

Preparation and Copying

All folios

Preparation

Disposition of Voice Parts Key

Pricking never
Ruled grid always,
single line to left and right, left line ruled through on fol. 88-103, on remaining folios interrupted for indentations which have their own lines; text line added on ff. 30v-36r
Ruling pattern highly regular
all,
11 pentagrams, ruled freehand, sometimes slightly uneven, not parallel, varying in distance
Staves omitted from grid never
Incomplete staves never
Medium and colour of grid Frequency Folios Note
black ink always all pencil for added text lines
Colour of staves Frequency Folios Note
black always
Ruling medium Frequency Folios Note
double and single rastra always double rastrum 15/15 mm, distance 13.5 mm; bottom stave single rastrum 15 mm
Indentation for initials Frequency Folios Note
double always staves 1-2 and 7-8 always indented (except f. 16r (4 staves)), c. 55 mm
Extra space between voice parts Frequency Folios Note
staves not ruled on grid often
Space provided for separate text Frequency Folios Note
not in dedicated space rarely additional hymn strophes
Adhoc adaptation Frequency Folios Note
notation extended into margin sometimes
notation and staves extended into margin rarely

Copying of text and music

Language(s) Latin
Higlighting none
Order of Copying music first
always
Presence/absence of text Voice part Frequency Folios Note
fully texted with one text all voice parts always
Music
Colour(s) of notation black
Colour of notation folios all
Type(s) of notation void mensural
Type of notation folios all
Type of notation note even rhomboid shape, slightly falling off to the right, thick lines and stems
Monophonic notation present
Intonations, occasionally, square notation as black breves
Level of calligraphy fair
Level of calligraphy note medium (low in additions)
Line fillers Folios Note
occasionally chains of custodes where residuum continues on next opening
Later changes Folios
Substantial number of later additions on preruled pages, filling out blank openings between quires or space leftover at the end of a quire. Music hand of all additions same as main hand (if written with less care, thinner and more irregular stroke), but different text hands, some in fact untexted. No initials on these pages, indentation left blank, capital initial letters in stave with sung text, except 78v-80r where the capitals are in the indentation space 30v-47r, 62-64r, 78v-80r, 86v-88r
Text
Types of script textura
Types of script note textura (62v-64r, 78v-80r, 86v-88r humanist cursive)
Level of calligraphy fair,
medium, quite variable in size (62v etc. low)
Colour(s) of text black
Multiple texts no
Text repetitions none
none in main corpus, rare in additions
Abbreviations many
Non underlaid vocal text additional
extra strophes in hymn section 48v-62r, between D and T, sometimes additionally below T
Liminary text No composer ascriptions, voice designations in initials. Occasional Tacet inscriptions, reduced voice designations etc., large script (by main text scribe) between or below voices

Decoration

Level of Decoration high
Decoration miniature frequency Folios Size position Description Discrepancies
rarely 16r
Decoration initial type Frequency Folios Initial type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
painted initials normally
penned initials occasionally where no piainted initial
initials planned occasionally none in main corpus, all in additions
Other decoration frequency Folios Other decoration type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
rarely signes-de-renvoi