Leaf of an antiphonal
F-pldp
The author originally wrote this description for the Cantus Database listing of this fragment.
General Information
Script is Northern Textualis Formata, sharply pointed, with well defined feet on the minims, even hairlines at the tops of minims, and some clubbed ascenders.
Labeled "Spanish choirbook" in library description.
Original Condition
Current Condition
Mounted in a frame with both sides visible
Book Decoration and Musical Notation
Decorated with fine, elaborate curling vines in the margin, delicately shaded in a pale green-rose-blue-gold colour palette. Several identifiable bird species (magpie, woodpecker, heron) are depicted in the foliage.
A large initial red F sits inside a trompe-l’oeuil frame on a black and gold background, textured with more foliage. The colours, naturalism, and interest in texture are reminiscent of German work of the later 15th century (a dating and provenance also supported by the script); the square music notation, rather than Hufnagel, might suggest a geographic placing to the north or west (near Belgium or the Netherlands). Compare the similar decoration style, also with square notation, used in a fragmented German antiphoner at the Victoria and Albert:
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1028908/manuscript-cutting/?carousel-image=2023NP1601
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O87087/manuscript-cutting-unknown/)
On the “frame” of the illuminated F, several Arabic numbers are visible; possibly this is a date (1500).
The music notation is square on a four-line black staff; the f-clef is a typical German “Hufnagel” style clef, and occasionally appears alongside the c clef on the same staff.
The music was apparently corrected or altered, possibly to give rhythmic indications: occasional isolated diamond-shaped notes appear, and in several places tails have been added, or the shape of the pes changed so that the second note is to the right of the first.