Beneventan neumes - photo 1
Beneventan neumes - photo 2

Beneventan neumes

Lot 23
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 1 008
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053137
Lot 23 | Beneventan neumes
Estimate value
£ 700 – 1 000
Beneventan neumes
Gradual with Sequences, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Southern Italy, 11th century]
A very rare fragment of Beneventan music from a Gradual with sequences.

Two fragments of one partial leaf, c.130 x 160mm, 6 partial lines written in brown ink in Beneventan minuscule, the text continuous between the fragments, Beneventan diastematic (heightened) staffless neumes, initial 'B' partly in outline and partly infilled with green wash (recovered from a binding and consequentially defective and stained, some holes, most of the top line of the second fragment trimmed). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Bernard Quaritch Ltd., Bookhands of the Middle Ages IV: Beneventan Script, cat. 1128 (1990), no 5, acquired May 1988.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 59.

Text:
The text of the present fragment is for the Transfiguration on 6 August. The sequence 'Benedicta semper sancta trinitas' (Analecta hymnica, vol. 53, p.139) follows the Alleluia verse 'Benedictus es domine' (see also Benevento, Biblioteca Capitolare 34, f.213v). A sequence is a text sung during the mass before the gospel. Like tropes (see lot 22), sequences were a development of the late Carolingian liturgy. Their expressive images and poetic forms made them popular in later medieval ritual, and they continued to be composed until the Counter Reformation when such liturgical 'accretions' were cut back or prohibited altogether. Since melodies of sequence tend to be syllabic, with each syllable sung to a single note, the appearance of notation is characterised by well-spaced single notes and few compound neumes, much like the notation of prosulas in lot 22.

Script:
The script is a calligraphic Beneventan minuscule of the 11th century: letters are carefully shaped and, except in the case of ligature or two contiguous bows, often do not touch one another. The simplified 'B' of 'Benedictus' has a characteristically Beneventan curve-like infilling of the bow; the sharply defined shading of strokes found in later manuscripts is lacking here.
Place of origin:Italy
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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