Dentro il Ms. CS 51: Guillaume Faugues, la Missa Vinus vina vinum e un restyling ‘in diretta’

Abstract

The attribution of the Missa Vinus vina vinum to fifteenth century composer Guillaume Faugues was suggested by Johannes Tinctoris and Franchino Gaffurio who in their treatises (Proportionale musices and Tractatus practicabilium proportionum), while criticizing some mensural procedures, provided the Mass’s authorship. This attribution, however, is problematic: the mensural procedures criticized by Tinctoris and Gaffurio can not be found in the only source of this mass (I-Rvat, CS 51). In my opinion, Faugues revised the mensural procedures in accordance with Tinctoris’ doctrines and at the same time revised the piece’s melodic profile and rhythmic structure. While revision of the mensuration becomes evident when comparing the piece’s layout with Tinctoris and Gaffurio’s criticism, traces of the melodic restyling (corrections and erasures) evident in the manuscript source allow us to make hypotheses about the exemplar’s layout, to evaluate Faugues’s reworking of the mass. This ultimately suggests that the composer was living in proximity to the scriptorium in which the manuscript of this mass was produced.