medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Listmembers,
The Mennonite University here in Winnipeg recently received a splendid donation of
liturgical manuscripts and single leaves -- largely huge musical works -- that were
bought by the donor in Barcelona back in the 1970s. None of them came with
provenances. I am particularly intrigued by the most impressive manuscript in the
collection, easily the largest parchment manuscript I've even seen (probably c. 1 m
high) which contains the music, I believe, for Vespers. The archivists there are
throwing around a date of "15th century" but the elaborate, largely non-figural
decoration looks to me later, perhaps even 17th century, although it has somewhat
the appearance of naïve or folk art and is not easy, at least for me, to date.
Frankly, I have no idea whether such large parchment choir manuscripts were still
being made in Spain as late as the 17th century. On examining the manuscript
yesterday for the first time, I spotted a short inscriptions in the elaborately decorated
frontispiece that looks to me like it could possibly signal the location of the
manuscript. It reads (as far as I could make out): Villalua Royo. Does this ring any
bells with anyone? Does anyone know anything at all about these large choir
manuscripts?
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
PS The Mennonite University is going to try to post some images on a website in
the near future, if anybody is interested in seeing them.
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