PRoMs - The Production and Reading of Music Sources

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

Manuscript: Cape Town, South Africa, National Library of South Africa, MS Grey 3.b.12

Manuscript type: choirbook

RISM siglum: ZA-Csa 3.b.12

DIAMM Source Key: 1082

Folio(s): All folios

Date: Before 1506

Location of origin: Italy (North)

Provenance

Probably copied in a Benedictine monastery in northern Italy (Florence, Ferrara, Mantua, or somewhere in the Emilia), with 22 concordances to I-Fn Panc. 27. The manuscript was sold by Guglielmo Libri to a dealer in England in 1859, and acquired by Sir George Grey, governor of Cape Colony, in 1860. Grey donated it to the library in Cape Town on 21 October 1861.

Artists/Scribes

Person: Anonymous, Anonymous
Person type: scribe

Basis for description: high-quality image

Cape Town, South Africa, National Library of South Africa, MS Grey 3.b.12, All folios

Physical description

Material: parchment

Number of leaves: i + 124

Format: upright

Page dimensions: 171 x 121

Quire structure: Text version

Title page / Frontispiece: f. 1r: 'Creditat atque studet scriptor, largitur et orat | Affligitur, sal. dat. fontem lucemque futuram | Ec[c]l[esi]am ditat, armat, custodit, honorat.'

Index / Table of Contents: Original index ("Tabula de hijs que continentur in hoc libro quadragesimali") on ff. 2r-1v [inverted order of pages] listing 39 pieces.

Other devices: 1. Modern foliation pencil top right, 1-124.
2. Original foliation red ink top middle, 1-2, 4-45 (= 3-46), continued in later pencil, 46-84, 86-101, 111-127, 136-144 (= 47-124).

Page details (zoom):

Preparation and Copying

All folios

Preparation

Disposition of Voice Parts Key

Pricking none visible
Ruled grid always,
double vertical line to the left and single vertical line to the right, single text line throughout (even where no text is present).
Ruling pattern highly regular
Staves omitted from grid never
Incomplete staves never
Medium and colour of grid Frequency Folios Note
very light ink always for vertical bounding lines
hard point or lead point always for text lines
Colour of staves Frequency Folios Note
red always
Ruling medium Frequency Folios Note
single rastrum always
Indentation for initials Frequency Folios Note
none always music and text often indented over ruled stave to accommodate initial
Extra space between voice parts Frequency Folios Note
empty ruled staves on grid sometimes
Space provided for separate text Frequency Folios Note
not in dedicated space often on (partially or wholly) empty staves, in margins.
Adhoc adaptation Frequency Folios Note
notation and staves extended into margin occasionally

Copying of text and music

Language(s) Latin
Order of Copying music first
always
Presence/absence of text Voice part Frequency Folios Note
fully texted with one text all voice parts normally
fully texted with one text discantus sometimes
provided with single incipit all except discantus sometimes
fully texted with one text discantus and tenor rarely
provided with single incipit all except discantus and tenor rarely
provided with single incipit all voice parts occasionally
partially texted with one text discantus rarely
untexted all except tenor rarely
fully texted with one text tenor rarely
Music
Colour(s) of notation brown
Type(s) of notation void mensural
Type of notation note rhomboid shaped notation, very slender
Monophonic notation absent
Level of calligraphy fair
Non verbal performance instructions Folios Note
pointers frequent
Line fillers Folios Note
few 87v-88r, 94v-95r repeated final barlines
Later changes Folios
addition of brief chant passage on f. 48r
Text
Types of script textura
Level of calligraphy high
Colour(s) of text black red blue
Multiple texts no
Text repetitions few
Abbreviations fairly few
Non underlaid vocal text additional
20r, 60v-83r, 103r,
added text strophes. On 20r Italian poem with no obvious relation to the music.
Liminary text Voice designations as initials in margin, always

Decoration

Level of Decoration fair
Decoration initial type Frequency Folios Initial type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
penned initials normally calligraphic with decoration, flourished one stave high, sometimes in indentation over ruled staves, sometimes in left margin or below stave with rest of text Alternating red and blue solid initials with penflourishing in contrasting blue and red at beginning of every composition. From f. 107v monochrome
Other decoration frequency Folios Other decoration type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
always decorated letters voice-designation initials in margin highly decorative and often flourished red (and more rarely black or blue) capitals
often littera notabilior at beginning of subsections, below stave with rest of text large, somewhat decorated black capitals