Western Michigan University, MS 211
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Metadata
- DS ID:
- DS26332
- Shelfmark:
- MS 211
- Title:
- Leaf from an Antiphonary for Matins
- Date:
- between 1100 and 1199
- Language:
- Latin
- Material:
- parchment
- Physical Description:
- Extent: 1 leaf; parchment; 308 x 215 mm
- Note:
- Layout: The text is written in a single column of 28 lines of Latin chant, 14 on the recto and 14 on the verso. Each line is fully notated. On the verso side, in particular, there has some damage but the text remains generally legible. The margins are relatively small, with the written area measuring 298 x 190 mm (including the staff and notes as part of the written area).
Script: Written in late praegothica book hand. The letters retain the round aspect characteristic of Carolingian minuscule. The script is highly legible with clear word spacing, more compressed than Carolingian script but lacking Gothic fusions. Variations in the length of ascenders and descenders suggest a transition toward the Gothic hand.
Decoration: The R (Responsio) and V (Versus) are rubricated. The first letter of each Responsio is also rubricated and measures approximately the height of three lines.
Decoration: The first letter of each Versus is marked with a splash of red ink on the first letter but is not fully rubricated. The verso side includes a melisma mark depicted as a red squiggle underneath the notes that make up the ornamentation.
Binding: The leaf was recovered from an unknown bookbinding. There is some folding and tearing along the inner edge of the leaf, as well as some edges that were cut or torn away along the long edge.
A manuscript leaf from the twelfth century containing Latin chant music and notation. The text The chants contain a portion of the Matins service for the Third Sunday of Lent (Office of Matins, Dominica III Quadragesimae).
It is a page from a secular antiphoner. The chants recount a condensed version of the selling of Joseph by his brothers to the Ishmaelites and his later reunion with them in Egypt, as recorded in Genesis of the Hebrew Bible. Particular focus is given to Joseph’s brother Reuben.
Music: The neumes of the chant are in the same black ink as the chant text and generally appear on four staff lines. The four lines are, in descending order, black, pale green, red, and black. An occasional fifth line is added either below or above the standard four when the chant range requires it.
The manuscript also includes two repetendum cues for the singer and concludes with the differentia (“saeculorum amen” formula). - Keyword:
- IIIF Manifest:
- https://luna.library.wmich.edu/luna/servlet/iiif/m/WMUwmu~77~77~1222640~162640/manifest
- Holding Institution:
