Special Offer (September 2008)

Ms Bologna Q15 - The Making and Remaking of a Musical Manuscript:

Introductory Study and Facsimile Edition by Margaret Bent.
Lucca: Lim, 2008.
2 v. in slipcase (Introductory Study: 450 p. - Facsimile: 686 p.).
HARR ID 085019243.
(Ars nova. Nuova serie v. 2)
Subscription price: 750.00 EUR (valid until December 31, 2008)
Retail price from January 1, 2009 onwards: 1000.00 EUR

This manuscript is the largest international anthology of polyphonic music of the early 15th century. It was compiled in the Veneto, in Padua in the early 1420s (stage I) and Vicenza in the early 1430s (stages II-III), all copied by a single scribe between 1420 and 1435. The three illuminations are an unusual luxury for a musical manuscript at this period. It was acquired by Padre Martini in 1757 and is one of the great treasures of his library in Bologna.

About half of its 323 compositions are unique; some others are shared with and complemented by the slightly younger Veneto manuscripts Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria 2216 and Oxford, Canon. misc. 213. It is the most important source for the works of Zacara and Ciconia and for the early works of Guillaume Du Fay (with 78 works, nearly a quarter of the manuscript, many of them unica). About 50 composers are represented, including native Italians, and composers from the north who were sought after and made their careers in Italy.

Margaret Bent tells this story in her extensive introductory study, which also includes comprehensive indexes and catalogues. She spells out some of the conclusions to be drawn from the partial destruction of the manuscript by its own creator, a unique and extraordinary testimony to changing taste and contemporary reception.

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