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Egerton MS 2615

Record Id:

032-001983588

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-001983588

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x0002c5

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Egerton MS 2615

Title:

Office for the Feast of the Circumsion; Hymns; Miracle play on the history of Daniel

Scope & Content:

Contents:

A collection of texts set to music, with notation on 4-line staves for three voices. The manuscript is composite, in three parts: (ff. 1–78; 79–94v; 95–110).

ff. 1r–68v: Office for the feast of the Circumcision (including, ff. 43r–44v, ‘Orientis partibus adventavit asinus’).

A series of polyphonic compositions:

ff. 69r–71v: ‘Veni doctor previe spiritus’.

ff. 71v–72v: ‘Christus manens quod erat’.

f. 73r–v: ‘Confirma nos Christe tua’.

f. 74r–v: Gaude Maria. Gabrielem archangelum. Gloria.ff. 74v–76v: Serena virginum, lux luminum plena / Manere [text unwritten; identified from music].

f. 76v: ‘Sanctorum meritis inclita gaudia’.

ff. 77v–78r: ‘Quem tremit infernus collaudat’.

f. 78 [a]: an unfoliated leaf with red 4-line staves.

Polyphonic organa, conductus and motets from the Notre Dame repertoire:

ff. 79r–82r: Perotin, ‘Viderunt omnes’; ‘Notum fecit’.

ff. 82r–83v: ‘Descendit de caelis’; ‘Tamquam sponsus’.

ff. 83v–84v: ‘Christus manens quod erat’.

ff. 84v–86r: ‘Veni, dotor previe spiritus / Veni, sancte spiritus’.

ff. 86v–87v: Perotin, ‘Salvatoris hodie sanguis pregustatur’.

ff. 87v–88v: ‘Presul nostri temporis’.

ff. 88v–89r: ‘Dic Christi veritas’.

ff. 89v–90r: ‘Relegentur ab area’.

ff. 90r–v: ‘Transgressus legem Domini’.

ff. 91r–92r: ‘Agmina militiae caelestis omnia’.

ff. 92r–93v: ‘Serena virginum, lux luminum plena’ / ‘Manere’.

ff. 94r–v: ‘Gaude Maria’. ‘Gabrielem archangelum’. Gloria.

ff. 95r–108r: Miracle play based on the story of Daniel.

ff. 108v–110r: Two Gospel lections.

Decoration:

10 large initials in gold on blue and red grounds and penwork decoration (ff. 1r, 16r, 17v, 50r, 56v, 80r, 82r, 88v, 90r, 91r). A large puzzle initial in red and blue with red and blue pen-flourishing (f. 95r). Large initials in blue with red penwork decoration, and in red with blue penwork decoration. Small initials in red or blue. Musical notation on red or green staves.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Egerton Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "032-001983588", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Egerton MS 2615: Office for the Feast of the Circumsion; Hymns; Miracle play on the history of Daniel" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-001983588

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-001983588

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Egerton_MS_2615 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

French
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1222

End Date:

1239

Date Range:

c 1227-c 1234

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 220 × 140 mm (written area 155 × 95 mm).

Foliation: ff. 111 ( + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 78 + 1 unfoliated modern parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end).

Collation: i–ix⁸ (ff. 1–72), x^8–1 (ff. 73–78b; 6th excised); xi–xii⁸ (ff. 79–94); xiii–xiv⁸ (ff. 95–110). Signatures and catchwords at the end of most quires, indicating that what was originally the sixth quire (after f. 40) is missing.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Pre-1600, oak boards; rebacked, British Museum.

Custodial History:

Origin: France, N. (Beauvais).

Provenance:

The chapter of the cathedral of Beauvais: probably written during the pontificate of Gregory IX (1227-1241), and before the marriage of Louis IX to Marguerite of Provence in 1234: the Laudes Regiae includes 'Gregorio summo pontifici et universali pape vita' (f. 41v), and 'Ludovico serenissimo et a deo coronato magno et pacifico regi vita et victora', without the name of Marguerite (f. 42r); text 'In Belvaco [Beauvais] est inventus . . .' (f. 95r); book-plates on ff. 78r, 110v (see Hughes, 'Liturgical Polyphony', 1959).

Gaspare Pacchiarotti (b. 1740, d. 1821), mezzo-soprano castrato: a partly effaced inscription, 'Pacchiarotti of Padua' in a late eighteenth- or nineteenth-century hand (f. 110v).

Purchased by the British Museum from Ellis and White on 8 December 1883 using the Farnborough Fund (£3,000 bequeathed in 1838 by Charles Long, Baron Farnborough (b. 1761, d. 1838), a cousin of Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (b. 1756, d. 1829), founder of the collection.

Information About Copies:

Digitised copy available on British Library Digitised Manuscripts: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Egerton_MS_2615

For additional, select digital coverage of this manuscript, see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts: https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1882-1887 (London: British Museum, 1889), no. Eg. 2615 [with additional bibliography].

Augustus Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1906-65), I, 242, 253.

A Guide to the Exhibition of Some Part of the Egerton Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1929), no. 139.

Arthur Watson, The Early Iconography of the Tree of Jesse (London: Humphrey Milford, 1934), p. 33 n. 2.

D. G. Hughes, 'Liturgical Polyphony at Beauvais in the Thirteen Century', Speculum, 34 (1959), 184-200.

Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music, 11th - Early 14th Century, ed. by Gilbert Reaney, Répertoire international des sources musicales, BIV 1 (Munich: G. Henle, 1966), pp. 501-05 [with additional bibliography].

Wulf Arlt, Ein Festoffizium des Mittelalters aus Beauvais in seiner liturgisches und musikalischen Becheuting (Cologne, 1970).

Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 612.

Arthur Seale, Music Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1987), p. 4, pl. on p. 3.

Nicolas Bell, Music in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2001), pp. 33-37.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Daniel, of Egerton MS 2615
Pacchiarotti, of Padua

Places:

Beavais, France

Related Material:

Description from the Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1882-1887:

‘1. OFFICE for the Feast of the Circumcision, in the Cathedral Church of Beauvais, with musical notes. It begins: "Incipit cantor."

"Lux hodie lux leticie; me iudice, tristis Quisquis erit, renouandus erit sollempnibus istis. Sint hodie rocul inuidie, procul omnia mesta. Leta uolunt quicumque colunt presentia festa." These lines are followed by the "conductus quando asinus adducitur," beg.:-

"Orientis partibus Adventauit asinus, Pulcher et fortissimus, Sarcinis aptissimus, Hez! hez! sire asnes, hez!"

This is the so-called "Prose de l'âne" sung at the Fête des Fous, and found also in a MS. belonging to the library of Sens (Millin, Monumens antiques, vol. ii. 1806, p. 336; Didron, Annales archéologiques, vol. xvi., 1856, pp. 259, 300). It is repeated further on in the office (f. 43), where it is harmonized in three parts (see Didron, op. cit., plates). Other hymns, etc., also harmonized, are placed at the end of the office, the words in some cases being omitted.

2. A miracle-play on the history of Daniel, beaded "Incipit Danielis ludus." f. 95. It begins:-

"Ad honorem tui, Christe, Danielis ludus iste In Beluaeo est inuentus; Et inuenit hunc iuuentus."

Printed, from MS., this with the music, by F. Danjou, Revue de la Musique, vol. iv. 1848, p. 97; and E. de Coussemaker, Drames Liturgiques, 1860, p. 49.

3. Gospels for Easter, and for the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. f . 108. Vellum; ff. 110. Written in the xiiith cent., probably during the pontificate of Gregory IX. [1227-41], and before the marriage of Louis IX. to Marguerite of Provence in 1234, (see fF. 42, 42 b). On the last page is the inscription: "Iste liber est beati petri beluacensis." In the old binding of wooden boards. With the book-plate (f. 110 b) of the chapter of Beauvais. The MS. afterwards belonged to Pacchiarotti, of Padua. Octavo. From the Farnborough Fund.’

Description from Augustus Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, vol. 1 (London: British Museum, 1906), pp. 242 and 253:

ff. 1-108. 1. Office for the Circumcision, commonly known as the Fête des Fous, containing the celebrated Prose de l'Âne, ‘Orientis partibus aduentauit asinus,’ with musical notes throughout, those to the above prose being given in plainsong (f. 1) and in a 3-part setting (f. 43). f. 1. 2. ‘Danielis Ludus,’ beginning with the short prologue, ‘Ad honorem tui, Christe, Danielis ludus iste. In Beluaco [Beauvais] est inuentus Et inuenit hunc iuuentus,’ followed by the prose ‘Astra tenenti cunctipotenti turba uirilis et puerilis contio plaudit.’ The principal characters represented are King Belshazzar and his princes and satraps, magicians, the Queen, King Darius and his princes and musicians (cythariste), and Daniel. The choruses which introduce the leading characters — somewhat resembling the ancient Greek choruses — are called ‘conductus,’ but it does not appear whether they were intended to be sung in harmony or with instrumental accompaniments. In the chorus of princes, ‘Vir propheta Dei Daniel‘ (f. 98b), there is a mixture of Latin and French, f. 95. The text is accompanied throughout by quasi-square and diamond-shaped notes on a stave of 4 red lines, with the F, C, and G signatures.

ff. 43, 69-94. Motets, in score, introduced in an Office for the Circumcision — the Fete des Fous — at Beauvais. They are, unless the contrary is stated, for 3 voices. The notes which accompany the text throughout are quasi-square on staves of 4 red lines, of which that for the lowest voice is occasionally placed below the text. There are others without words at ff. 74, 76. 1. ‘Orientis partibus aduentauitasinus‘ (Prose de l'âne). f. 43. 2. ‘Veni, doctor preuie.’ ff. 69, 84b. 3. ‘Christus manens.’ ff. 71b, 83b. 4. ‘Confirma nos‘ (for 2 voices), f. 73. 5. ‘Quem tremit infernus.’ ff. 73 (for 2 voices), 77b. 6. ‘ . . .t honore uirginali.’ f. 73b. 7. ‘[Serena virgo (?)].’ f. 74b. 8. ‘Sanctorum meritis.’ f. 76b. 9. ‘[V]iderunt omnes’ (for 4 voices). f. 79. 10. ‘Notum fecit Dominus‘ (for 4 voices), f. 80. 11. ‘Descendit de celis.’ f. 82. 12. ‘[Salv]atoris hodie sanguis.’ f. 86b. 13. ‘[Pr]esul nostri temporis.’ f. 87b. 14. ‘Die, Christi Veritas.’ f. 88b. 15. ‘. . . legentur ab area.’ f. 89b. 16. ‘Transgressus legem.’ f. 90. 17. ‘Agmina milicie.’ Words by Philippe de Grève, music perhaps by Henricus de Pisis (see Eg. 274, ff. 3, 4b, etc.). f. 91. 18. ‘[? Mar]ia, uirginum lux.’ f. 92. 19. ‘[G]aude, Maria, Gabrielem.’ f. 94.