"First rubric: D(omi)nica in ramis palmaru(m) anti(phona). Incipit: Pueri hebreoru(m) tolle(n)tes ramos olivarum obviaveru(n)t domino clama(n)tes et dicentes osanna in excelsis. Explicit: Mulieres sede(n)tes ad monumentu(m) lame(n)tabant(ur) flentes dominu(m) B(e)n(e)dictus Euouae. (16.5 x 12.5 cm). Latin manuscript in red and black ink on vellum, with 6 lines of music per page (4-line staff in red with plain-chant notes in black), the text in black in a large and clear textura hand with numerous rubrics. Opening with a red decorated uncial initial (4 cm) with black penwork decoration, and with about 150 red or black uncial initials (1.5 to 2 cm) in the text, most of the black initials and many capitals in the text rubricated, and 3 initials decorated with faces in profile. Contemporary red goatskin over wooden boards, binding restored. (60) ll.
An attractive Bavarian or Tirolian Processional in red and black ink on vellum. The 4-line staff, in red, measures 12 mm, with the plain-chant notes in black. The leaves have been pricked every 20 mm about a half-centimetre from the foredge, and some pages still show traces of ruling in black. Where longer passages of text appear, the spaces between the pricking contain three lines of text, but elsewhere the music occupies the upper two-thirds with the text (in a large, clearly legible textura) below it in the lower third. The unical initials in the text occupy the full space of the staff plus text, while the opening uncial initial occupies the space of two lines plus their texts. Most pages contain six lines of music. Three of the uncial initials in the text are decorated with faces in profile.
The manuscript collates [A]-[F]10 = 60 leaves, with catchwords (partly trimmed off) at the foot of the gutter on the last page of quires C, D and E. The original text and music end on fol. F8v. The last two leaves (fols. F9-10 with F10v blank) have been filled by a less professional sixteenth-century hand (perhaps the owner's) with Thomas Aquinas's "Pange Lingua" (Sing, My Tongue), the first verse with plain-chant music, followed by two short Bible quotations (Luke 14:16-17 and Proverbs 9:5) also used in Aquinas's works (in "Sermo Dominica Secunda post Trinitatim" and "Ad Matutiuum" respectively). We have found the same opening antiphon as the present manuscript in two other liturgical manuscripts: a ca. 1178/1199 manuscript from the Biburg (Bavaria) monastery (Walter von Arx, Das Kloserrituale von Bilburg, Freiburg, 1970, 131 & 132) and a smaller sixteenth-century German manuscript (Johns Hopkins University: Gar 06), but it is best known for its appearance in the ca. 1230 Carmina Burana from the Benedictine monastery Benediktbeuern (in Bavaria, near the Tirolian border). The text of the antiphons at the end match those used later by the composer Carlo Gesualdo (1556-1613) in Naples, but we have not had the opportunity to compare the music with his.
The paste-downs have been made from manuscript waste (Latin religious texts in two columns, ca. 1500?, not identified). There are numerous manuscript notes on the front fly-leaf and some in the text, ranging from contemporary to as late as 1810. The binding has a brass pin set in the centre of the front board, to hold a strap anchored in the back board.
In very good condition, with the foot and fore-edge margin of the last leaf cut away (not affecting the text) and a couple small marginal worm holes in the last two leaves. The binding has been restored at the corners, spine and the area around the brass pin, and the fastening strap has been replaced. A well-executed liturgical manuscript with plain-chant music."
Full pdf available, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A446866/datastre...
