Tuscan neumes - photo 1
Tuscan neumes - photo 2

Tuscan neumes

Lot 20
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 4 032
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053134
Lot 20 | Tuscan neumes
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
Tuscan neumes
A fragment from a Gradual, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Italy, late 11th century]
A rare sequence for the Dedication of a Church, and a very early example of the use and indication of the clef.

c.240 x 150mm, a partial leaf, 11 visible lines written in brown ink in Carolingian minuscule, ruled in blind, 12 lines of Tuscan neumes written on lines ruled with a dry point with the C-clef indicated, initial ‘A’ in red filled with yellow and green wash, smaller red initials, some uncial, touched in yellow (staining and worming, recovered from a binding and with a horizontal crease across the middle). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Antiquariat J. Voerster, Stuttgart.

(2) Quaritch, London, acquired in 1993 by:

(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 1665.

Text:
The text opens with the Sequence for the Feast of the Dedication of a Church, 'Ad templi huius limina dedicata [...] supra'. According to Thomas Forrest Kelly, The Sources of Beneventan Chant, 2011, p.34, the specific formulation of this sequence (with the word 'supra' rather than the more common 'fundata', which is also Aquitanian) is only found in manuscripts of Benevento.

Script and music:
The script and its use of the distinctive 'ri' ligature may be compared with that of a fragment of Pseudo-Marcellus datable to the 10th century, probably from Northern Italy, sold at Sotheby's, 22 June 1993, lot 3. The musical notation is heavily influenced by Beneventan neumes, differing though in the epiphonus and the cephalicus. Of particular note is the C-clef indicated for each line: ‘Clefs were first systematically used in functional liturgical manuscripts of the 11th century, where they take the form of simple letters. F and C clefs were always the most common, the letters soon becoming formalized to take on their early shape as "clefs"’ (D. Hiley, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1980, IV, p.473). Here, the C clef varies in position from one line to the next, and the three dry-ruled lines are used as a prototype of the ruled stave which would become standardised through the course of the 12th century.
Place of origin:Italy
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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