Details

Subjects:

Music theory -- History -- 500-1400.
Music theory.
History.
Music, Greek and Roman -- Early works to 1800.
Music, Greek and Roman.

Form/Genre:

Codices (bound manuscripts)
Diagrams.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin.

System Details:

Ms. codex.

Summary:

15th-century copy of a Latin treatise on the Pythagorean-based theory of ancient Greek music, in which the text reflects an older (10th-century) tradition and the numerous diagrams related to ratio and pitch demonstrate later developments in the tradition.

Notes:

Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Paper, 52; 1¹²(missing first 2 leaves) 2-4¹⁰ 5⁸ 6⁴; [1-52]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 2 columns of 39-41 lines; ruled in lead, with little of the ruling now visible.
Script: Written in semi-humanistic script.
Decoration: Diagrams and tables throughout in various combinations of red, blue, and brown ink; 2-line initials and paragraph marks in red or blue; headings, roman numerals in text, and a few marginal notes in red; capitals touched with red.
Watermark: Similar to Briquet, Soleil, 13977 (Fleurus and Namur, 1487-1491) and 13979 (variants made in France and used in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Rhineland, 1512-1540).
Binding: Early 18th-century (?) parchment over pasteboard with parchment-cord clasps and pastedowns and endleaves with the watermark S. Bartolomeo Delle Fabbriche; Boeci De Music Ms. written on spine in ink.
Origin: Written in France, ca. 1490.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by J & J Lubrano to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, 1997.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2019.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 28-29 (LJS 47).

Publications about:

Herman, Nicholas. Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries from Philadelphia Libraries (exh. cat.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Libraries, 2020. 232-33 (cat. 69).

Cited as:

Oversize UPenn LJS 47.

Contributor:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

779360003

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page