PRoMs - The Production and Reading of Music Sources

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

Manuscript: Florence, Italy, Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, MS Basevi 2442

Manuscript type: partbooks (incomplete set)

RISM siglum: I-Fc 2442

DIAMM Source Key: 246

Image repositories: Internet Culturale

Folio(s): Tenor partbook, all folios

Date: First half of the 16th century, probably c. 1527

1518-1528, probably c. 1527 (Brown 1966); c. 1510-1505 (Rifkin).

Location of origin: Italy

Provenance

1. Bernardo di Jacopo Rinuccini, perhaps prepared at his instigation for presentation to Filippo Strozzi (b. 1489, d. 1538), Florentine patrician and banker, in 1527, the year of Strozzi's triumphal entry to Florence or thereafter during his voluntary exile from the city: inscription E'x liberalitate Bernardi Renuccini' (16th century, Tenor partbook f. Iv); golden crescent on the covers perhaps refer to the Strozzi arms (see Brown 1966); 2. Abramo Basevi (b. 1818, d. 1885) Italian musicologist and composer: bequeathed in his last will with his entire collection of books and manuscripts to the library of the Regio Istituto Musicale di Firenze, now Conservatorio di Musica 'Luigi Cherubini'.

Artists/Scribes

Person: Anonymous, Anonymous
Person type: scribe
Location of origin: Italy
Note: All three volumes written by a single scribe.

Bibliography

Gandolfi 1911, 246; Hewitt 1942, 108; Picker 1958–63, 196-259; Becherini 1964, 266-268; Clinkscale 1965, I, 231, II, 476-478; Hewitt 1966, 384; Plates 2a and 2b; Brown 1966, Plates 2a and 2b; Pannella 1968, 41-47; Brown 1968; Smijers/Antonowycz/Elders 1969, 61-62; Hudson 1969–72, VI, xxvi, xxviii, 70-73, 84-86, 101-102; Atlas 1971, I, 484-485; Bernstein 1973, 1-68, 17-178; Picker 1976, 253; Brown 1976, 675-679; Atlas 1976, I.2, 248; Winn 1979, 50-54; Hudson 1979, xi, xiv, xvii-xviii, xxi-xxiv, l-4, 8-10, 13-16, 26-27; Census-Catalogue 1979-1988, I, 235f; Brown 1981; Jonas 1983, II, 9 passim; Agee 1985; Meconi 2003, xvi, 75, 157, 359; Elders 2013, 198.

Basis for description: original

Florence, Italy, Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, MS Basevi 2442, Tenor partbook, all folios

Physical description

Material: paper

Number of leaves: i + IV + 96 + IV + i

Format: oblong

Page dimensions: 140 x 200

Quire structure: Text version

Other devices: 1. Modern pencil foliation recto bottom left, 1-100 (counting rear flyleaves)

Page details (zoom):

Preparation and Copying

All folios

Preparation

Disposition of Voice Parts Key

Pricking none visible
Ruled grid always,
single vertical bounding lines; no text lines
Ruling pattern highly regular
Staves omitted from grid never
Incomplete staves never
Medium and colour of grid Frequency Folios Note
brown ink always Justification lines only.
Colour of staves Frequency Folios Note
brown always
Ruling medium Frequency Folios Note
double rastrum normally stave height 15 mm, interspace 11.5 mm
Indentation for initials Frequency Folios Note
none always
Extra space between voice parts Frequency Folios Note
empty ruled staves on grid occasionally Space between pieces.
Space provided for separate text Frequency Folios Note
no separate text always
Adhoc adaptation Frequency Folios Note
notation extended into margin rarely 74r

Copying of text and music

Language(s) French
Order of Copying music first
always
Presence/absence of text Voice part Frequency Folios Note
fully texted with one or two texts tenor always
Music
Colour(s) of notation brown
Type(s) of notation void mensural
Type of notation note rhomboid shaped
Monophonic notation absent
Level of calligraphy high
Non verbal performance instructions Folios Note
signa congruentiae 1v
Line fillers Folios Note
few 2r, 4r, 4v 96r
Text
Types of script cursive (humanistic)
Level of calligraphy high
Colour(s) of text brown
Multiple texts yes
29r, 29v
Text repetitions very many
Abbreviations few
Non underlaid vocal text none
Liminary text 'Canon Faulte clargent per nature / faulte clargent per bemol' (f. 1r). 'Secunda pars' (f. 54v).,
1r, 54v

Decoration

Level of Decoration high
Decoration initial type Frequency Folios Initial type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
penned initials always calligraphic with decoration, calligraphic with grotesque heads Beginning of pieces. Calligraphic initials with pen-flourished decoration, some with human heads (ff. 36r, 45r, 52v, 84r), often highlighted in yellow.
Other decoration frequency Folios Other decoration type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
rarely 2r, 4r, 4v 96r decorative final long