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Royal MS 8 G VII
- Record Id:
- 040-002106413
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000277.0x000396
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 8 G VII
- Title:
-
Book of 28 motets, 6 Latin secular pieces, and 1 canon (a later addition)
- Scope & Content:
-
28 motets for four voices, in parts, in Latin, with 6 Latin secular pieces, all anonymous. On an inserted paper sheet (f. 1v, double-sized and folded over) is also a puzzle-canon upon the motto ''Honi soit qui mal y pense'', the notes written around a Garter. (See Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music (1906 and 1908), 1, pp. 140, 259; 2, pp. 1, 193).
Attributions to composers, as well as additional manuscript sources for each work, are listed on the website of The C.M.M.E. project: Computerized Mensural Music Editing (http://www.cmme.org/database/sources/43 accessed 19 November 2014). The compositions (all for four voices, except the canon in eight parts) are as follows:
f. 1v: Honi soit qui mal y pense (''Morel'' probably not Clément Morel: see Milsom, op. cit., p. 171): a canon written on paper in the form of a garter, and on a lance carried by a knight, dedicated ''Viro praeclarissimo domino comiti de Arundell. octo partibus''. Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, was admitted to the order of the Garter in 1544. This folio was probably inserted into the manuscript after Arundel''s library was absorbed into the royal collection in 1609.
ff. 2v-4r: Celeste beneficium (Jean Mouton);
ff. 4v-6r: Adiuitorium nostrum (Antoine de Févin);
ff. 6v-8r: Nesciens mater virgo virum (Anonymous);
ff. 8v-10r: Ave regina celorum (Pierre de la Rue);
ff. 10v-12r: Descendi in ortum meum (?Josquin Desprez);
ff. 12v-14r: Sancta trinitas unus Deus (Antoine de Févin);
ff. 14v-15r: Vexilla regis / Passio domini (Pierre de la Rue);
ff. 15v-17r: Fama malum (Josquin Desprez);
ff. 17v-18r: Doleo super te frater mi Jonatha (Pierre de la Rue);
ff. 18v-20r: O domine Jhesu Christe (Anonymous);
ff. 20v-21r: Maxsimilla Christo amabilis (Anonymous);
ff. 21v-22r: Sancta Maria succurre miseris (Franciscus Strus); on the tenor part (f. 21v) is written ''O werder mondt'', perhaps the first words of a Flemish song from which the air was taken.
ff. 22v-23r: Sancta et immaculata (Anonymous);
ff. 23v-25r: Missus est Gabriel angelus (Josquin Desprez);
ff. 25v-26r: Dulcissima Virgo Maria (Anonymous);
ff. 26v-28r: Tota pulchra es (Anonymous);
ff. 28v-30r: O sancta Maria virgo virginum (Anonymous);
ff. 30v-32r: Verbum bonum (Pierrequan de Thérache);
ff. 32v-34r: Recordamini quomodo predixit (Anonymous);
ff. 34v-38r: O beatissime Domine (Anonymous);
ff. 38v-40r: Ave sanctissima Maria (Anonymous);
ff. 40v-42r: Ecce Maria genuit (Jean Mouton);
ff. 42v-44r: Congratulamini mihi omnes (Anonymous);
ff. 44v-48r: Egregie Christi martir (Antoine de Févin);
ff. 48v-50r: Alma redemptoris mater (Anonymous);
ff. 50v-52r: Dulcis excuvie (Anonymous);
ff. 52v-53r: Dulcis excuvie (?Alexander Agricola);
ff. 53v-54r: Dulcis excuvie (Josquin Desprez);
ff. 54v-55r: Dulcis excuvie (Jean Mouton);
ff. 55v-56r: Dulcis excuvie (Johannes Ghiselin);
ff. 56v-58r: Absalon fili mi (?Josquin Desprez);
ff. 58v-59r: Jesus autem transiens (Anonymous);
ff. 59v-62r: Anima mea liquefacta est (Henry Isaac); see also Additional MS 11585, f. 39r.
ff. 62v-63r: Tribulatio et angustia (Josquin Desprez/ Philippe Verdelot).
Decoration:
Two miniatures in colours and gold of the royal arms with dragon and greyhound supporters (f. 2v) and of the portcullis badge (f. 3). Two illuminated initials and partial trompe l''oeil borders depicting flowers, insects and birds in Flemish style (ff. 2v-3). For a reproduction of ff. 2v-3, see Royal Manuscripts, no. 153, pp. 422-23. No further painted initials in the remainder of the manuscript, but each piece is introduced with elaborate strapwork initial letters.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002106413 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 8 G VII : Book of 28 motets, 6 Latin secular pieces, and 1 canon (a later addition) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[0646]/040-002106413
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_8_g_VII (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1513
- End Date:
- 1544
- Date Range:
- c 1513-1544
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment (with 1 paper insertion).
Dimensions: 370 x 260 mm (paper folio is double sized). Text space: 260 x 190 mm.
Foliation: ff. 63 + 2 + ii. Folio 1 is a mid-sixteenth century paper insertion. Two folios following f. 63 have been ruled with musical staves but are unfoliated. Folios i and ii are single parchment leaves, one at the beginning, one at the end.
Collation: i8 (ff. 2-9), ii-viii8 (ff. 10-63, + 2 ruled but unfoliated).
Script: Gothic hybrid (Bâtarde) / Gothic cursive (Secretary).
Binding: Post-1600. Royal Library parchment binding; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Produced in the workshop of Petrus Alamire in the southern Netherlands (Brussels/ Mechelen), probably for Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Born into the Nuremberg merchant family of Imhof, Petrus settled in the Low Countries in the 1490s and became famous as a music scribe, having made several similar choirbooks for other European courts (see Doran, Henry VIII: Man and Monarch (2009), no. 55).
Provenance:
Henry VIII (d. 1547) and Catherine of Aragon (d. 1536): heraldic emblems of the Tudor rose and pomegranate (the latter is Catherine''s emblem) in the miniature on f. 2v and combined together in the initial on f. 3; the letters ''H'' and ''K'' are also written in flowers on these folios. Inscribed with ''Katherina'' and ''Henricus rex'' in the text of Févin''s motet ''Adiutorium nostrum'' (ff. 4v-6r).
Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel (d. 1580): the 8-voice canon on f. 1 (a later insertion) on the Garter motto ''Honi soit qui mal y pense'' is inscribed ''Morel viro praeclarissimo domino comiti de Arundell''. This folio later passed to his son-in-law John, 1st Baron Lumley (d. 1609).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Publications:
-
François-Joseph Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie generale de la musique, 2nd edition, 8 volumes (Paris: Librairie de Firmin Didot, 1860-65), VI (1864), p. 193.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, p. 277; IV, pl. 63.
Henry Davey, History of English Music (London: J. Curwen, 1921), pp. 65, 87, frontispiece.
Edward E. Lowinsky, ''A Newly Discovered Sixteenth-Century Motet Manuscript at the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome'', Journal of the American Musicological Society, 3 (1950), 173-232 (p. 224).
Dom Anselm Hughes, Catalogue of the Musical Manuscripts at Peterhouse, Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), I, pp. 140, 259; II, pp. 1, 193.
Flemish Art 1300-1700, Winter Exhibition 1953-54 (London: Royal Academy of Arts ,1953-54), no. 617.
Helmuth Osthoff, ''Vergils Aeneis in der Musik von Josquin des Prez bis Orlando di Lasso'', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 11 (1954), 85-102 (p. 88).
The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609, ed. by Sears Jayne and Francis R. Johnson (London: British Museum, 1956), p. 286.
Herbert Kellman, ''The Origins of the Chigi Codex: The Date, Provenance, and Original Ownership of Rome, Biblioteca Vaticana, Chigiana, C. VIII. 234'', Journal of the American Musicological Society, 11 (1958), 6-19 (p. 18).
Martin Picker, ''The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria: Manuscripts 228 and 11239 of the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Bruxelles'' (University of California, Berkeley: Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, 1960), I, pp. 98-99, 360.
John Ward, ''The Late Music of Ms Royal Appendix 58'', Journal of the American Musicological Society, 13 (1960), 117-25 (p. 123).
Helmuth Osthoff, Josquin Desprez, 2 volumes (Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1962-65), II, pp. 14, 19, 108, 174-75, 293, 334, 370, 382-84.
Augustus Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 volumes (London: British Museum, 1906-1909), I, pp. 140, 259; II, pp. 1, 193.
James Roland Braithwaite, ''The Introduction of Franco-Netherlandish Manuscripts to Early Tudor England: The Motet Repertory'' (unpublished doctoral thesis, Boston University 1967), I-III, passim.
The Medici Codex of 1518: A Choirbook of Motets Dedicated to Lorenzo de'' Medici, Duke of Urbino, ed. by Edward E. Lowinsky, Monuments of Renaissance Music, vols. III-V (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), III, pp. 145-46.
Albert Dunning, Die Staatsmotette, 1480-1555 (Utrecht: A. Oosthoek, 1969), pp. 125, 129-30, 335.
Werken van Josquin des Prés: Supplement, ed. by Albert Smijers, M. Antonowycz, and W. Elders (Amsterdam: Vereniging voor Nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis, 1969), pp. xiv-xv, 26-29.
Joshua Rifkin, ''Die Staatsmotette 1480-1555 by Albert Dunning'' (Review), Notes, 28 (1971-72), 425-29 (p. 427).
A Gift of Madrigals and Motets, ed. by H. Colin Slim, 2 volumes (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1972), I, pp. 8, 50, 108, plate 31.
Herbert Kellman, ''Josquin and the Courts of the Netherlands and France: The Evidence of the Sources'', in Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference, 21-25 June 1971 (London, New York, and Toronto, 1976), pp. 181-216 (pp. 200, 209, 212).
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by Stanley Sadie, 20 volumes (London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980), IX, p. 720.
F. Tirro, ''Royal MS 8 G. VII: Strawberry Leaves, Single Arch, and Wrong-Way Lions'', The Musical Quarterly, 62 (1981), 1-28.
Stanley Boorman, ''Notational Spelling and Scribal Habit'', in Datierung und Filiation von Musikhandschriften der Josquin-Zeit, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, 26 (Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz, 1983), pp. 65-109.
London, British Library, MS Royal 8 G.vii, ed. by Herbert Kellman, Renaissance Music in Facsimile, 9 (New York: Garland, 1987) facsimile.
John Milsom, ''The Nonsuch Music Library'', in Sundry Sorts of Music Books: Essays on the British Library Collections presented to O. W. Neighbour on his 70th Birthday, ed. by Chris Banks, Arthur Searle and Malcolm Turner (London: British Library, 1993), pp. 146-82, 170-71.
Janet Backhouse, ''A Salute to the Tudor Rose'', in Miscellanea Martin Wittek: Album de codicologie et de paléographie offert à Martin Wittek, ed. by Anny Raman and Eugène Manning, (Louvain: Peeters, 1993), pp. 1-13 (p. 1).
The Treasury of Petrus Alamire: Music and Art in Flemish Court Manuscripts 1500-1535, ed. by Herbert Kellman (Ludion: University of Chicago, 1999), no. 22.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), p. lv, n. 117.
Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), pl. 133.
James P. Carley, The Books of King Henry VIII and His Wives, preface by David Starkey (London: British Library, 2004), pl. 105.
Jennifer Thomas, ‘Patronage and Personal Narrative in a Music Manuscript: Marguerite of Austria, Katherine of Aragon, and London Royal 8 G.vii’, in Musical Voices of Early Modern Women: Many-Headed Melodies, ed. by Thomasin LaMay (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 337-64.
Nicolas Bell, ''Commentary'', in Music for King Henry: BL Royal MS II E XI (London: Folio Society, 2009), pls. on pp. 32, 56.
Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, ed. by Susan Doran (London: British Library, 2009), no. 55 exhibition catalogue.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 153 exhibition catalogue.
''London, British Library, Royal MS 8 G.VII'', in The C.M.M.E Project: Computerized Mensural Music Editing, http://www.cmme.org/database/sources/43 accessed 19 November 2014.
''Source: GB-Lbl Royal 8 G. vii'', in DIAMM: Digitial Image Archive of Medieval Music, http://www.diamm.ac.uk/jsp/Descriptions?op=SOURCE&sourceKey=2032 accessed 19 November 2014, with further bibliography.
- Exhibitions:
- Gold and Glory: Henry VIII and the French King, Hampton Court Palace, London, 20 May 2021 - 5 September 2021
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)