Graduale Ecclesiae S. Michaelis in Claudiopoli
F-1yki
General Information
One hand, late Gothic bastarda. One-compartment a, loops for l, h, feetless minims.
Original Condition
The fragment was extracted from Alba Iulia, Batthyaneum Library, MS I.1.
Current Condition
The fragment was detached from the host volume, and restored at the National Unity Museum in Alba Iulia, in 2021.
Book Decoration and Musical Notation
Alternating red/blue Lombards (2 lines).
Messine Gothic.
Content
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Content Item
- Text Language Latin
- Title Graduale
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Content Description
[In festo unius martyris pontificis]
r: [Inue]|ni dauid seruum meum oleo sancto meo unxi eum. Alleluia. Uer. Elegit te dominus sacerdo|[tem sibi ad sacrificandum ei.]
v: [Inueni Dauid seruum meum oleo sancto] |unxi eum manus enim mea auxiliabitur ei et brachium meum confortauit eum. Offer. Ueritas mea et misericordia mea| [cum ipso et in nomine meo exaltabitur cornu eius]
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History
Alba Iulia, Batthyaneum Library, MS I.1, from which the fragment was extracted, is the former gradual of St. Michael's church in Cluj. The manuscript is most likely a local product, made for St. Michael's Church in Cluj. St. Michael's feast is highlighted and introduced by a historiated initial in the MS (f. 187r, formerly f. 224). In 1528, the Renaissance chapel of St. Michael's church was finished (date carved in stone). The ironsmith who made the chapel gate also produced the gradual's massive clasps, and dated them (1528). This is the manuscript's terminus ante quem.
The gradual survived during the Reformation, was integrated in the Jesuit library (s. XVI-XVIII), and then into the library of the Catholic "Lyceum". In 1913, the MS was transferred to Alba Iulia by order of the Catholic bishop of Transylvania. By that time, the first and last quires of the manuscript had been mutilated by the Jesuits. Three such fragments (Fragm. Cod. Lat. 19-21) have been identifed so far in the bindings of books belonging to the Jesuits, who moved from Cluj-Mănăștur to Cluj and back again from 1579 to the eighteenth century.
Host Volume
The fragment was detached from the host volume, and it was restored at the National Unity Museum in Alba Iulia, in 2021. The host volume was rebound.
Bibliography
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Kilián Szigeti, "Két középkori erdélyi Graduale eredetének kérdése", Magyar Könyvszemle 86 (1970), 165-72.