Montecassino, Monumento Nazionale di Montecassino - Biblioteca, 542

Siglum

I-MC 542

Summary

Antiphoner from Monte Cassino. 12th century. Beneventan notation on a dry-point staff. Incomplete, containing only the pars hiemalis, with lacunae at the beginning and between the Advent Ember Days and Christmas. 194 pages.

Liturgical Occasions

Pp. 1-194: Winter Temporale and Sanctorale. 1, Advent Ember Days (incomplete, lacuna); 3, Christmas (beginning lost); 9, Stephen; 30, Silvester; 34, Epiphany; 44, Ferial Office; 69, Sundays after Epiphany; 70, Maurus; 87, Vincent; 89, Purification; 100, Scholastica; 105, Benedict; 113, Annunciation; 115, Septuagesima; 130, Ash Wednesday; 169, Palm Sunday; 186, Holy Thursday; 192, Mandatum.

Description

The manuscript is devoted almost exclusively to chants of the Gregorian tradition, but there are a few links to the Beneventan musical tradition: the antiphons for the feasts of Benedict, Scholastica, Vincent, and Silvester show some influence of the Beneventan musical style.

The ferial Office is organized according to the secular cursus except that extra antiphons are provided for the canticles of the third nocturn of Matins. Chants not found in CAO are assigned numbers beginning with an "mca".

Selected Bibliography

• Livljanic, Katarina. "L'antiphonaire note cassinien (Monte Cassino, Archivio della Badia, ms. 542)." Ph.D. diss., École Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris), 1998.

Notes on the Inventory

The index for I-MC 542 was prepared by Katarina Livljanic (École pratique des hautes études, Paris) with editorial assistance from Keith Glaeske (Catholic University of America).