Fragments of Medieval Plainchant Manuscripts in Late Gothic Notation in Ljubljana. An Outline of the Conception and Results of the Research under the Same Title

Abstract

The article is a presentation of the treatise under the same title defended in 1988 at the Philosophical faculty in Ljubljana as doctoral dissertation (cf. Muzikološki zbornik XXIV). There are 151 fragments in Ljubljana depositories meeting the specifications stated in the title. These fragments, preserved as paste-up strips or sheets on the covers or spines of some later bound books, i.e. as bookbinder's material, represent the remains of 69 manuscripts originating from mid- 14th- to mid- 16th-centuries and having been destroyed after the reforms of the Council of Trent. 30 books have been preserved in a single folio of each, whereas some of the large-size remains consist of 12 to 39 folios. The comparison of the contents preserved with several medieval sources including the late-15th-century prints from Aquileia permits of the conjecture that some of the 69 fragments represent the remainder of books of the rite of Aquileia which continued in force also in the Slovene ethnic territory to the south of the Drava river throughout the Middle Ages. However, for the very inconsistency of the medieval divine service, the exact liturgical provenance of the fragments under discussion remains uncertain. The discussion of the system of notation is based on copying out allnotationalsigns. The criterion as met by all 69 fragments is as follows: (1) the use of punctum, or the use of punctum and only rarely of virga, as the signs for the only tone over a syllable, the use of punctum and virga in signs for more than one tone; (2) a marked tendency towards thick-lined, calligraphic strokes. From the point of view of music in its narrow sense, only tones have been discussed for methodological reasons. The antiphonal psalmody of the Office contains a total of 53 (or 55, if two transpositions are to be taken into account) different terminations. However, some of them may prove to be misspellings, and some logical variants. The comparison of individual tones displays a considerable degree of inconsistency. 43 fragments have been preserved in connection with some books which are certain to have been bound in Carniola. This gives rise to the conjecture that the manuscripts to which these fragments used to belong must have been originated here as well.