North Spain notation - photo 1
North Spain notation - photo 2

North Spain notation

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£ 1 890
Auction dateClassic
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 1053133
Lot 19 | North Spain notation
North Spain notation
A leaf from a noted Missal, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Spain?, second half 11th century]
An 11th-century leaf with unusual script.

c.310 x 210mm, 2 columns of 34 lines written in brown ink in a Carolingian minuscule of 2 sizes, ruled space: c.270 x 190mm, North Spain diastematic (heightened) staffless neumes, rubrics in red, initials in red or touched in red, a Maltese type cross (recovered from a binding and with small segments of internal margin cut out, one affecting text, a few holes affecting text, some staining). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Several pentrials in a ?15th-century hand on recto and verso, including the name 'Gulielmo'.

(2) Bernard Rosenthal, his I/196, with accompanying notes by John A. Emerson and Marvin Colker.

(3) Bernard Quaritch, Bookhands III, cat. 1088 (1988), no 39, acquired in 1988 by:

(4) Schøyen Collection, MS 105.

Text:
The fragment contains the Masses for St John the Evangelist (27 December) and Holy Innocents (28 December), with introit, collects, epistle, gradual, Alleluia, Gospel, offertory and the first word of the Secret, from '[effici]mur gratiores' to 'contritus est et nos liberati sumus. / Sec.'

Script and music:
The handsome Carolingian hand contains especially tall letters, with 'a' sometimes rising above the line of minims, 'Nt' ligature, a strong 'z', and words sometimes joined or split erroneously (for example 'euange liste' and 'dece lo' on verso). The leaf has been variously localised to Italy, Spain and France. Bologna has been suggested by comparison to Rome, Vatican City, Vat. lat. 4770. In a 1986 description which accompanies this lot, Marvin Colker catalogued it as 'France?, early twelfth century', while John A. Emerson suggested 'the region of Beauvais, Senlis, and Soissons'. He also indicated that the absence of verses in the Offertory suggests a later date. Eduardo Aubert identified it as northern Spanish, and this seems most likely given the type of notation, which contains the distinctive triangular clivis and clean punctum of North Spanish notation), and the unusual decorated initials.
Place of origin:Italy
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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