PRoMs - The Production and Reading of Music Sources

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

Manuscript: Bologna, Italy, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna, MS Q 17 (olim 148)

Manuscript type: choirbook

RISM siglum: I-Bc 17

DIAMM Source Key: 1388

Image repositories: Gaspari Online

Folio(s): All folios

Date: 1490-1500

1490s (Atlas 1971); before 1500 (Staehelin 1970a).

Location of origin: Florence, Italy ; Italy (North)

Provenance

Acquired by Padre Martini in the 18th century

Artists/Scribes

Person: Anonymous, Anonymous
Person type: None
Note: scribe unknown, but all music by the same scribe; text incipits and liminary texts possibly by different scribes, but roughly contemporary

Basis for description: original

Bologna, Italy, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna, MS Q 17 (olim 148), All folios

Physical description

Material: parchment

Number of leaves: ii + 76 + i

Format: oblong

Page dimensions: 115 x 190

Quire structure: Text version

Index / Table of Contents: Later table of contents (18th century?) with numbering on separate piece of paper pasted onto f. Ir; alphabetical list of composers with folio numbers in another earlier - but not contemporary - hand (also 18th century) on f. Iir

Other devices: 1. Early foliation reddish brown ink top right, 2-9, 11-78; 2. Later foliation 2-5, 7, 8(=9), 11-17, 32-33, 34-35, 39-41, 42(=43), 59-78

Page details (zoom):

Preparation and Copying

All folios

Preparation

Disposition of Voice Parts Key

Pricking always,
one prick per page in outer margin in the middle of page, corresponding to top line of fourth stave (2-38, 49-78) or bottom line of third stave (39-48).
Ruled grid always,
single line to left and right, no lines for text
Ruling pattern highly regular
Staves omitted from grid never
Incomplete staves never,
n/a
Medium and colour of grid Frequency Folios Note
reddish brown ink always
Colour of staves Frequency Folios Note
reddish brown always
Ruling medium Frequency Folios Note
triple rastrum always
Indentation for initials Frequency Folios Note
none always no indented staves, music indented over 1 stave to accommodate non-executed initials 9-13 mm
Extra space between voice parts Frequency Folios Note
empty ruled staves on grid often
Space provided for separate text Frequency Folios Note
no separate text always
Adhoc adaptation Frequency Folios Note
partial additional staves occasionally staves slightly extended into margin, occasionally, ff. 5r, 6v, 8r, 14r, 15r, 16r, 17r, 30r, 32r, 35v, 44r, 52v, 53r, 64v, 65r, 66r, 69r

Copying of text and music

Language(s) Flemish, French, Italian, Latin, Spanish
Order of Copying music first
always
Presence/absence of text Voice part Frequency Folios Note
provided with single incipit all voice parts normally
untexted all voice parts occasionally
Music
Colour(s) of notation black
Colour of notation note <p>in places flaking off the page</p>
Type(s) of notation void mensural
Type of notation note slender and strongly pointed rhomboid shape
Monophonic notation absent
Level of calligraphy very high
Non verbal performance instructions Folios Note
signes-de-renvoi
pointers
Line fillers Folios Note
often tapered lines after final barline at the end of almost every voice, sometimes followed by a decorative flourish
Later changes Folios
later additions on blank staves, all in same hand, hasty and irregularly shaped and spaced round notes in slightly lighter reddish-brown ink
Text
Types of script cursive
Level of calligraphy fair
Colour(s) of text black
Multiple texts no
Text repetitions n/a
Abbreviations few
Non underlaid vocal text none
Liminary text Composer ascriptions throughout on top verso where pieces begin, same hand as text incipits. Occasional canon instructions, 'residuum' notes, also same hand
Later changes added scribblings in Italian on f. 22v, mostly later erased

Decoration

Level of Decoration very poor
Decoration initial type Frequency Folios Initial type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
initials planned always small guard letters for initials, usually in left hand margin, more rarely in space left by indent, D only. In other voices initial almost always executed as part of incipit (not added later), in spite of indent in all voices
Other decoration frequency Folios Other decoration type(s) Size position Description Discrepancies
occasionally decorative final long elongated decorative final long
sometimes signa congruentiae decorative signa congruentiae from one side of the opening to the other where voices cross