London (Canada), University of Western Ontario - Archives and Research Collections Centre (ARCC), M2150

Siglum

CDN-Lu M2150

Summary

Sixteenth-century “mutilated” antiphoner, possibly from the Burgos monastery, Spain. Square notation on five-line black staves. Secular cursus. 97 extant folios. Nineteen lacunae.(Imperfect: folios 1-26, 32-36, 40-41, 45-46, 63, 67-68, 86, 89, 93-108, 116-117, 130-131, 136, 138-139, 148, 154-162, 170-171, 174, 181-192? wanting.) 55.6 x 38.7 cm.

Liturgical Occasions

Ff. 1-118: Holy Week. lacuna; 27r, Maundy Thursday; lacuna; 39r, Good Friday; lacunae; 87r, Holy Saturday; lacunae.
Ff. 119-180: Summer Temporale. 119r, Easter; lacunae; 133v, Octave of Easter; lacunae; 141r, Ascension; lacuna; 149r, Pentecost; lacuna, 163r, Corpus Christi; lacuna; 172r, Sundays after Pentecost; lacuna; 180r, Sundays in August; lacuna.

Description

This choir book was in the possession of the Music Library at The University of Western Ontario before it was moved to Archives and Special Collections. It was purchased in the late 1960s from a book-dealer in Paris. Apparently, this manuscript had been part of the collection at the Burgos monastery. Its prior whereabouts are unknown. There are no names, bookplates, stamps or other marks on the inside covers or elsewhere which might reveal any information about the provenance or the travels of this book prior to its present home. The only library identification marks are those of the University of Western Ontario; these are found on the inside front cover, as well as on the recto side of the first extant folio (fol. 27). The contents offer little insight as to where this volume was produced, used, or housed during the last few centuries.

Of the original folios which may have numbered near 200, approximately half are extant. Many have been cut away at the spine and removed from the manuscript. The size of the principal writing-space is 43.8 x 27 cm; this is the interior dimension of the frame-ruling and does not include the liturgical-occasion headings which are written across the top of facing sides in red ink. The binding is original.

This antiphoner contains the chants sung by the choir in the Offices of the Temporale surrounding Easter. The first extant folio gives a portion of the Offices for Maundy Thursday. It is reasonable to assume that the missing twenty-six folios at the beginning of the manuscript contained the chants for the six Sundays in Lent and the remainder of Holy Week. Chants for Good Friday (including the Lamentations of Jeremiah), Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday are followed by those for the weekdays after Easter and the ensuing Sundays in the paschal season. Offices for Ascension and Pentecost are followed by chants for Corpus Christi. A lacuna of ten folios before Corpus Christi most likely accounts for the absence of an Office for Trinity Sunday. Magnificat antiphons for the Sundays after Pentecost up to the month of August fill the last extant folios of this manuscript.

Selected Bibliography

• "Antiphonarium monasticum." In Western Libraries, Archives and Special Collections online catalogue. Link.


• Lacoste, Debra. “A Late-Medieval Antiphoner at the University of Western Ontario.” In Chant and its Peripheries: Essays in Honour of Terence Bailey, pp. 310-319. Ottawa: The Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1998.

Notes on the Inventory

The inventory for CDN-Lu M2150 was prepared by Debra Lacoste (The University of Western Ontario).

Full Texts Entered by

Debra Lacoste

Complete/Partial Inventory

Complete Inventory

Full Source/Fragment

Fragment or Fragmented