Extent: 1 manuscript choir book (170 leaves) : parchment ; 364 x 263 mm
Note:
Title devised by cataloger. Manuscript codex. Collation: Parchment, i (paper) +1 (paper) + 169 (foliated 2-170 in pencil) + 4 (paper containing printed music) + i (paper); 18(±1, -2, -3, -6, -7, -8, a leaf added in the seventeenth century at the beginning, lacking three leaves before fol. 2 and three leaves after fol. 3, with loss of text) 210(-10, lacking one leaf after fol. 12, with loss of text) 3-1110 1210(1+1) 13-1510 162 17-188... Layout: Written on a varying number of lines, ruled in brown ink: fol. 2-3v in single column with 6 staves and 6 lines of text on each page, rastrum 25 mm; fol. 4-10 in single column with 7 staves and 7 lines of text, rastrum 20 mm; fol. 10v in single column with 9 staves and 9 lines of text; fol. 11-12 text written in two columns on 33 lines on each page; fol. 12v music in two columns with 7... Script: Written in black ink in Gothic bookhand. Decoration: Rubrics in red, capitals touched in yellow; very fine 1- to 2-line initials alternating in red with purple penwork and in blue with red penwork, the penwork of the larger initials is very elaborate and fine, including fish-motifs (fol. 166); 8 large parti-colored puzzle initials mark the beginnings of offices on the feasts of: fol. 4v, Saint Mary of the Snows; fol. 149, Christmas... The added printed section on paper at the end (4 folios) has black square musical notation on red four-line staves up to eight staves to page, rastrum 17 mm, text printed in red and black. Music: Square notation on red 4-line staves. Binding: Bound in the late fifteenth or the sixteenth century in brown calf over wooden boards, covers blind-tooled with triple fillets forming a frame that encloses a crossed X, 5 brass bosses on each cover, spine with 4 raised bands, brass clasps and leather straps that attach to brass pins on the back cover (leather expertly replaced in modern times), green silk place markers, front... Origin: The style of the decoration and the script localize this manuscript in Italy around the third quarter of the 15th century. The liturgical contents suggest that the manuscript was made in Rome. The manuscript includes extensive chants for the feasts of St. Augustine (fol. 84-101) and St. Mary of the Snows (fol. 4-12). The entire office for the feast of St. Mary of the Snows, "in festo... Shelfmark: Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Library, Ms1715. The numerous amendments and additions to the text show that the volume was still in use in the seventeenth century, perhaps even in the eighteenth century. Acquired on February 4, 1998, by Dr. Detlef Mauss (1943-2009), a lawyer and book collector based in Wiesbaden in Germany; see his neat, penciled signature and embossed stamp on the front flyleaf.
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