Fifteenth-century liturgical manuscripts with notation in the Municipal Library of Trento

Abstract

The Trentino abounds in musical manuscripts and fragments of plainsong of the fifteenth century which are of considerable importance and which have been up to now neglected by scholars and researchers. The importance of these musical and liturgical documents is increased by the fact that, in most cases, these books were used in the same geographical area, and at the same period of compilation, as the celebrated musical Trento codex of fifteenth-century polyphony. The largest collection of manuscripts of this type is to be found in the Municipal Library of Trento (BCT) and consists of the following codices:

1. BCT, ms. 1588: Vesperae et Missae sanctorum (Antiphoner-Gradual);
2. BCT, ms. 1617: Gradual-Vesperale of 1492, from Prazöll (Bolzano);
3. BCT, ms. 1787: with the lives and Offices of Saints Emmerano and Wolfgang;
4. BCT,.ms. W 1795: Historiae rhythmicae of Saints Stanislas, Adalbert and Hedwig;
5. BCT, ms. 1947/1: Gradual (25-28 December)-Antiphoner;
6. BCT, ms. 1826: Franciscan Antiphoner de sanctis.

The paper describes these codices in detail, analyzing the contents and submitting for each manuscript hypotheses on dates, origins and historical contexts, evidencing the numerous points in common with the polyphonic repertory contained in the Tr 87-93 codices. The presence of brief tropes (particularly in the Glorias) and of other liturgical characteristics (numerous Sequences and Alleluias differing from the Roman-Franciscan tradition) demonstrates the strong influence in these manuscripts of the liturgical practices of German-speaking countries, in particular the neighbouring diocese of Passau. Another characteristic encountered in some manuscripts is the absence of the Gradual in the proprium missae (indicating that the section was not sung), but this could be a specific local feature.