Graduale Ecclesiae S. Michaelis in Claudiopoli

F-36pd

Cluj-Napoca, Biblioteca Academiei Române, Fragm. Cod. Lat. 19

General Information

Title Graduale Ecclesiae S. Michaelis in Claudiopoli
Shelfmarks Fragm. Cod. Lat. 19
Material Parchment
Place of Origin Transylvania?
Date of Origin 1501-1528
Script, Hands

One hand, late Gothic bastarda. One-compartment a, loops for l, h,  feetless minims.

Original Condition

Page Height 570 – 575 mm
Page Width 405 – 410 mm
Height of Written Area 430 mm
Width of Written Area 260 mm
Number of Columns 1
Width of Columns 260 mm
Number of Lines 8
Line Height 26 – 29 mm
Ruling red ink
More about the Condition

The fragment was extracted from Alba Iulia, Batthyaneum Library, MS I.1. It was cropped from the top of fol. 293 (rubricated contemporary folio number still visible). 

Current Condition

Extent 1 partial leaf
Dimensions 220 x 240 mm
More about the 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

Description

Alternating red/blue Lombards (2 lines).

  • Musical Notation

    Messine Gothic.

  • Content

    • Content Item
      • Text Language Latin
      • Title Graduale
      • Content Description

        recto: [Kyriel]|eyson. Kyrieley[son. Kyr]ieleyson. Gloria [sit] deo. (?) Et mor... |  

        verso: [Gloria. ... [do]|mine deus rex celestis [deus pater] omnipotens. Domine fi[li unigenite] Jesu Christe altiss|[ime]

      • recto

    History

    Origin

    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.

    Provenance

    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 identified 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.

    Persons and Institutions Jesuit, then Piarist college/school in Cluj-Mănăștur and Cluj: "Domus PP Monostoriensis Catalogo Inscriptus 1690", "Bibliothecae Regalis Lycei Claudiopolitani 1832" (frontispiece of host volume).

    Host Volume

    Title Elogia Patriarcharum et Christi Jesu Dei Hominis Emanuelis Thesauri... et Aloysii Juglaris, Moguntiae: Sumptibus Joannis Baptistae Schönwetteri, MDCLXIX.
    Date of Origin/Publication 1669
    Place of Origin/Publication Mainz
    Shelfmark C. 54660-2
    Page/Folio Reference: wrapper
    Remarks

    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

    • Kilián Szigeti, "Két középkori erdélyi Graduale eredetének kérdése", Magyar Könyvszemle 86 (1970), 165-72.