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Tag Archives: illuminated manuscript

The Codex Manesse

20 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Illuminated Manuscripts, Songs

≈ Comments Off on The Codex Manesse

Tags

140 lyric poets, Anthology of songs, Arany Zoltang, Codex Manesse, illuminated manuscript, Minnesang, Minnesingers, Troubadours & Trouvères, University of Heidelberg, Walther von der Vogelweide

Meister des manessischen Liederhandsch

 Der Schenke von Limburg,  fol. 82v (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Meister des mannessischen Liederhandschrift
Codex Manesse  
 
Herr Heinrich von Stretlingen

Herr Heinrich von Stretlingen, fol. 70v

The Minnesang

troubadour
trouvère
Minnesanger
illuminated manuscript (handschrift)
 

Medieval art is always new. It belongs to a collective childhood eager to chronicle every joyous moment of its journey into the future, despite calamities. The plague ended the golden era of the Provençal troubadour (langue d’oc), the trouvères (langue d’oïl) of northern France, and the Minnesingers[i] of German-language lands.

The word “trouvère” applies to all three groups. They were finding (“trouver”), or creating, and they were preserving. The Codex Manesse is a comprehensive collection of German-language songs constituting a most precious and informative testimonial. The codex is an anthology of texts with portraits, but many of its folios are illuminated manuscripts that have survived the test of time. It could well be “the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries.” (See Codex Manesse – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

Source

collection of Rüdiger II Manesse and his son
Zürich
14th century
 

The images featured above and below adorn the Codex Manesse, an extensive song book compiled and illumined “between c. 1304 when the main part was completed, and c. 1340.” It is “the most important single source of medieval Minnesang poetry [love poetry].” (See Codex Manesse – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

The Codex Manesse‘s main source was the collection of patrician Rüdiger II Manesse and his son. It was produced in Zürich, and was written in Middle High German. (See Codex Manesse – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

Contributors

Emperor (Kaiser)
King (König)
Count (Graf)
Knight
Herr
 

The lyric poets who contributed songs to the celebrated Codex Manesse are listed on the website of Cod. Pal. germ. 848 and under the Codex’s Wikipedia entry Codex Manesse. Many of its contributors were aristocrats and among these dignitaries are Kaiser [Emperor] Heinrich (fol. 6r), König (King) Konrad der Junge (fol. 7r), König Tyro von Schötten (fol. 8r), König Wenzel von Böhmen (fol. 10r), Herzog Heinrich von Breslau (fol. 11v). Earlier folios feature the more aristocratic lyric poets. (See Codex Manesse.)

Details

The Codex contains 137 miniatures that are a series of “portraits” depicting singers who had contributed a song to the Codex. It consists of 6,000 verses from 140 poets totalling 426 parchment leaves, including 140 blank as well as partially blank pages. There were four illuminators. It lacks musical notation. The Codex Manesse is housed at the University of Heidelberg. (See: http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848; http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/)

Herr Kristan von Hamle, fol. 71v
Herr Kristan von Hamle, fol. 71v
Graf Kraft von Toggenburg, fol. 22v
Graf Kraft von Toggenburg, fol. 22v

Walther von der Vogelweide

Folio 124r is a portrait of the most famous Minnesinger, Walther von der Vogelweide  (c. 1170 – c. 1230). Walther’s main theme was love, but he introduced greater realism in his depiction of love and other topics: political, moral, or religious.[ii]

It appears Walther was born in the Tirol, but learned to sing and speak in Austria. “Ze ôsterriche lernt ich singen unde sagen [sic].” According to Wikipedia, Walther was probably knighted and “was initially a retainer in a wealthy, noble household and had rooms.” (See Walther von der Vogelweide – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

In about 1224, he settled on the fief given to him by Frederick II, in Würzburg. Walther died on his fief.[iii]

Walther von der Vogelweide

Walther von der Vogelweide, fol. 124r

Konrad von Altstetten, fol. 249v

Konrad von Altstetten, fol. 249v

Sources and Resources

  • Codex Manesse, Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift
  • Cod. Pal. germ. 848
  • Zürich, ca. 1300 bis ca. 1340
  • http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848 ♥
  • http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/
  • See the List of such codices.
  • Photo credit: the University of Heidelberg (most)

My kindest regards to all of you.

____________________

[i] “minnesinger.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 21 Sep. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/384329/minnesinger>.

[ii] “Walther von der Vogelweide.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 20 Sep. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/635145/Walther-von-der-Vogelweide>.

[iii] Ibid.

Arany Zoltán

Kaiser Heinrich

© Micheline Walker
20 September 2014
WordPress
 
 Kaiser Heinrich, fol. 6r
(Photo credit: Heidelberg)
 
 
 
 
 

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The Ashmole Bestiary

01 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beast Literature, Bestiaries

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Aberdeen Bestiary, Ashmole Bestiary, Beasts, Bestiary, Bodleian Library, illuminated manuscript, Manuscript, Middle age, Oxford

  195-1
 
Tiger (Folio 12v).  A mother tiger is distracted by a mirror in which she thinks she sees her stolen cub, while the hunter escapes with the cub.  (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)
 
Online Manuscript:
http://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/The-Ashmole-Bestiary
 
 
  • The Ashmole Bestiary is housed in the Bodleian Library [Oxford University], MS. Ashmole 1511
  • It is a 13th-century (1200s) illuminated manuscript, as is the Aberdeen Manuscript.
  • It consists of 122 folios measuring 27.5 cm (height) by 18 cm (width)
  • The parchment is Vellum (calfskin)
  • The calligraphy is Littera textualis formata (font)
  • Codex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex

—ooo—

  1. Ashmole Bestiary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashmole_Bestiary
  2. The Ashmole Manuscript: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manu556.htm
  3. Treasures of the Bodleian: http://treasures.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/The-Ashmole-Bestiary
  4. Aberdeen Bestiary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberdeen_Bestiary
  5. The Aberdeen Manuscript: http://bestiary.ca/manuscripts/manu100.htm
  6. Illuminated Manuscript: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminated_manuscript

The Ashmole Manuscript

First, I must apologize.  My post on the Aberdeen Bestiary had lost several paragraphs when I published it.  I did not notice that my text was incomplete until later in the day.  I have now rewritten the missing paragraphs and have posted my article again.

The current post deals with the Ashmole or Ashmolean Bestiary (the two names are used) and it is believed that it was illuminated by the same artist as the The Aberdeen Manuscript which originated in England and was probably illuminated in Lincolnshire or Yorkshire.  But, the current post also contains information regarding the history of books.

The Story of Books

The Parchment: sheepskin, goatskin and calfskin

I have written about the paper, or parchment, used by artists illuminating books: sheepskin, goatskin and calfskin.  The Aberdeen Bestiary was written and illuminated on sheepskin or goatskin.  However, the Ashmole Bestiary was written and illuminated on calfskin, or vellum, which is the superior paper.

Wax Tablets: Early Folio

(please click on the image to enlarge it)
Woman holding wax tablets in the form of the codex. Wall painting from Pompeii, before 79 AD.
Woman holding wax tablets in the form of the codex. Wall painting from Pompeii, before 79 D.
 

Bookbinding: the Codex

Both the Aberdeen and the Ashmole manuscripts are codices, the plural form for codex.  Codices are books as we know them, i.e. we go from page to page sequentially.  However, the binding used in the Middle Ages was of better quality.  The pages were connected to one another using a thread.  Some illuminated manuscripts were left unbound so one could see the illuminations in full.  But, the pages were eventually bound together, which had one important advantage: pages could not be stolen.  The Aberdeen Bestiary has incisions, i.e. someone cut out part of certain folios (feuilles, leaf).  That’s unfortunate, but we at least know that part of the page is missing.  How can we tell when the entire page has been taken away?

The Folio

Codices contained sequential folios (leaf, page), which was not the case when books were written as scrolls.

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)
The Joshua Scroll, Vatican Library, illuminated scroll, created in the Byzantine empire

« The Joshua Scroll », Vatican Library, example of an illuminated scroll, probably of the 10th century, created in the Byzantine empire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 
 

The Codex and the Scroll: volumen, rotulus & recto-verso

Codices (the codex) were introduced in Late Antiquity and continued developing until the Middle Ages.  The scroll was probably replaced by the 6th century AD.  Scrolls were read from side to side (volumen) or from top to bottom (rotulus).  Ironically, when we read information on the internet, we use the scroll!

According to Wikipedia, “The scholarly study of these manuscripts from the point of view of the bookbinding craft is called codicology; the study of ancient documents in general is called paleography.”  (Codex, Wikipedia.)

There was a time, moreover, when only one side of the folio (the page) was illuminated and written on (calligraphy).  In other words, the sequential codex did not have a recto-verso.  The terms Recto and Verso predate the printing-press.  (Recto and Verso, Wikipedia.)

The Ashmole Bestiary

The Ashmole Bestiary is a an early Gothic (Christianized) manuscript.  By and large, it features animals that cannot be found in Europe, except for a few.  As we know, Bestiaries provided depictions of mythical and mythological, or both, animals.  In the case of real animals, information was often obtained from the written accounts of travelers to foreign lands.  Such accounts did not provide artists with information that could lead to accurate portrayals of various beasts, a case where the proverbial “picture is worth a thousand words” applies.  Short of a picture, a tiger might not look like a tiger.

I should think, however, that former portrayals of exotic animals often sufficed.  If literature is written in the context of literature (intertextualité), the same is probably true of animal lore, which is illustrated literature.

All bestiaries are derived from the Physiologus and from other rather old descriptions of animals.  The authors of these descriptions have been listed: Isidore of Seville, Gaius Julius Solinus, Claudius Aelianus or Aelian, or earlier historians, mainly: Pliny the Elder, Aristotle and Herodotus.  This is not a complete list, but I believe that providing other sources would be overwhelming and a little redundant.  Moreover, my post would be too long.

However, if one clicks on The Ashmole Bestiary, one can see a depiction of animals presented in the Ashmole Bestiary.  If one clicks on Treasures of the Bodleian, one will find a short description of the Ashmole Bestiary provided by a Bodleian scholar.  As stated above, the Ashmole Bestiary is housed at Oxford, in one of the Bodleian libraries.

You may wish to look at Gothic art, which is the art associated with Cathedrals such as Notre-Dame de Paris and certain scripts used in Bestiaries.  Gothic art followed Romanesque art, starting in the mid 1200s and was followed by Renaissance art.  These are large categories, but I have always found it useful to begin with large categories.  It simplifies the presentation of most subjects.  The rest follows naturally.  There will be, of course, an early Gothic and a late Gothic.

There are a few more points I wish to discuss concerning illuminated manuscripts.  I have not discussed Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’Amour.  We may also wish to look at what was happening at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204).

Tiny Gallery

The Elephant

(Please click on the images to enlarge them.  It should work.)
(Photo credit:  The Treasures of the Bodleian [above image] & The Medieval Bestiary [4])
 
img8201
tumblr_lsvkayzYa31qfg4oyo1_r1_1280 
img8200
 
 
 
 
Folio 78v: Treasures of the Bodleian (Dragon strangling an elephant.)
Folio 15v: Elephant (An elephant with a chain through its trunk carries a castle full of soldiers on its back.)
Folio 18r: Bonnacon (The hunters have come prepared with shields, so the bonnacon’s primary weapon has failed to save it from the spear.)
Folio 15v: Griffin (A griffin has caught an unfortunate pig.)
Folio 71r: Swan (The swan sings sweetest when it is about to die.) 
 
Camille Saint-Saëns  (9 October 1835 – 16 December 1921) 
Le Carnaval des animaux  (Le Cygne/The Swan)
 
 img9159
© Micheline Walker
1 March 2013
WordPress
 
 

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The Golden Legend Revisited

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Literature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bible, Golden Legend, Gutenberg Bible, illuminated manuscript, Jacobus, Jacobus de Voragine, Middle Ages, Nuremberg Chronicle

Saints Primus and Felician, from a 14th century manuscript of the Golden Legend.
Saints Primus and Felician, from a 14th century manuscript of the Golden Legend.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Golden Legend

There is no mention of Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend,[i] or Legenda aurea, in my list of other illuminated manuscripts, my last post.  Yet hagiographies and martyrologies, the lives of saints and martyrs, were among illuminated manuscripts and the Golden Legend, compiled around the year 1260, was the bestseller of the Middle Ages.

Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230 – July 13 or July 16, 1298), also known as Giacomo da Varazze, Jacopo da Varazze and Jacques de Voragine, was an Italian chronicler and, reluctantly, the Archbishop of Genoa.  As a chronicler, he wrote a Chronicle of Genoa. However, he is also the author of Sermones de omnibus evangeliis, discourses on all the Gospels, and several other texts.  In fact, Voragine was a prolific writer and may have translated the Bible.  If he did, that translation has disappeared.  In short,  although it is illuminated, the Golden Legend, or Légende dorée, is first and foremost a text.

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)
English: "Crucifixion" (showing also...
“Crucifixion” (showing also the archbishop Jacobus de Voragine with his book the Golden Legend in his hands), by Ottaviano Nelli, Chapel of the Trinci Palace, Foligno, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hagiographies and Martyrologies

However, as a text, the Golden Legend was not just any text.  In the Middle Ages, lives of saints and martyrs were a favourite.  Saints perform miracles and some kill mythical animals.  St George slayed a dragon, which made him a popular saint during the Middle Ages.  Miracles are manifestations of the supernatural and dragons, a mythical creature born of the collective human imagination.  The Golden Legend has an apocryphal St Sylvester who goes down a dungeon, tames a dragon and climbs out carrying the dragon.

The Subject Matter

So, there can be little doubt that the Golden Legend owes its popularity in part to its subject matter.  Hagiographies belong, to a large extent, to that special realm of literature we call the “fantastic” and, in Voragine’s case, a Christian fantastic, or “merveilleux [marvellous] chrétien,” a term used by scholars to describe “fantastic” aspects of French medieval literature.  In short, Voragine wrote legends, golden legends.  Miracles and martyrdom constitute another “reality.”

Fiction: a Legend

Moreover, Voragine wrote extremely well.  He knew the merits of fiction and style, which may be the real key to the success of the Golden Legend.  Other authors wrote hagiographies and martyrologies, but not in a way that truly engaged readers.  As for Jacobus, he “embellished” his texts to the delight of readers.  Voragine is also said to have “borrowed” from other writers such as Jean de Mailly[ii] and Bartholomew of Trent,[iii] but did he “borrow” or retell?

Vincent de Beauvais, the author of the Speculum Maius (The Great Mirror), “the compendium of all of the knowledge of the Middle Ages” also borrowed from Mailly, Bartholomew of Trent and other authors.  (See Speculum Maius, Wikipedia.)   Borrowing need not be plagiarism.  Although a large number of La Fontaine’s Fables are Æsopic in origin, Jean de La Fontaine is one of the finest French authors.

A Calendar

Finally, the Golden Legend was yet another calendar, a liturgical calendar.  Every day of the year, a saint or an event, such as the birth of Christ, is commemorated.  Voragine himself was beatified in 1816 and his feast day is July 16th.  The Golden Legend’s calendar is divided into five seasons.

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)
Jacobus de Voragine
A Golden Legend illumination (Photo credit: Google images)

An Illuminated Manuscript and an Incunable

Yet, The Golden Legend was illuminated, not by Voragine but by several Italian artists.  Moreover, it was copied (calligraphy), again not by Voragine, but by different scribes, probably monks working in a scriptorium.[iv]  So The Golden Legend could have been listed in Other Illuminated Manuscripts as several copies were made between 1260 and 1450, the year Johannes Gutenberg  (c. 1395 – February 3, 1468) invented the printing press.  However, it also constitutes an incunable (sometimes called a “fifteener,” fifteenth century).

Incunables or incunabula (incunabulum, singular: “in the cradle”) are books printed between 1450 and 1501, of which the best known is the Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42).  To see the facsimile, click on Gutenberg Bible.  Another famous incunable    is the Hartmann Schedel Weltchronik (a German translation of the Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg Chronicle).  But The Golden Legend is also, and not negligibly, an incunable.

One characteristic of incunables is that the printer often left room on the printed page  so an artist could illuminate the text.  For instance, incunables often featured rubricated (from red) letters.  Rubricated letters are slightly different than historiated letters, a matter that can be discussed later.

Page from Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, printed in red and black by Peter Schöffer (Mainz, 1471). The page exhibits a rubricated initial letter "U" and decorations, marginalia, and ownership stamps of the "Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani" (Hamburg).

Page from Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia, printed in red and black by Peter Schöffer (Mainz, 1471). The page exhibits a rubricated initial letter “U” and decorations, marginalia, and ownership stamps of the “Bibliotheca Gymnasii Altonani” (Hamburg).  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

I will pause by saying that The Golden Legend tells far more than the lives of saints and martyrs and does so because Voragine embellished his accounts to the point of creating saints and martyrs.  He was a storyteller and that may well be the reason his hagiography has endured.  However, for the record, The Golden Legend is

  • the bestseller of the Middle Ages, 
  • an illuminated manuscript,
  • an incunable and, after 1501,
  • a printed book. 
RELATED ARTICLES
 
  • Other Illuminated Manuscripts
  • Jacques de Voragine: The Golden Legend
______________________________
[i] Online text, The Golden Legend (Fordham University)
[ii] Abbreviato in gestis miraculis sanctorum (Summary of the Deeds and Miracles of the Saints)
[iii] Epilogum in gesta sanctorum (Afterword on the Deeds of the Saints)
[iv] It would appear that the scriptorium was a series of recesses located in a monastery and not a room.
 
composer: Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300 – April 1377)
form: Virelai
piece: Douce Dame Jolie
 
Sermones de Sanctis

Sermones de Sanctis

 
© Micheline Walker
11 February 2013
WordPress

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Other Illuminated Manuscripts

09 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Book of Hours, Breviary, British Library, France, Gerard Horenbout, illuminated manuscript, Liber Usualis, Middle Ages

Le Psaultier de Robert de Lisle

The Psalter of Robert de Lisle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Other Illuminated manuscripts

Because of the Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry, the celebrated Fiztwilliam Book of Hours (see Google images) and the numerous Books of Hours produced in the Middle Ages, we tend to associate illuminated books, or books with enluminures, with Books of Hours (Livres d’heures or Horæ).  However, there are many illuminated manuscripts serving other purposes, yet utilizing the main artistic elements of Books of Hours: illuminations and fine calligraphy.

Many facsimile editions of illuminated manuscripts can be bought online.  I have used some of these facsimile editions.  If a title is followed by an**, that title is a link often leading to a commercial site.  It allows buyers and other individuals to see the product.  Prices vary.  The Folio Society edition of the Fitzwilliam Book of Hours is expensive, but other facsimile editions of illuminated manuscripts are more or less affordable.

Below you will find examples of authentic illuminated manuscripts and reproductions.  As for the Gallery, it does not contain images copied from commercial sites.

  • The Abécédaire: (L’Abécédaire de Claude de France, or the Primer of Claude of France**);
  • The Antiphonary (Wiki): Antiphonaire, f4, Cathedrale San Lorenzo Perrugia, Italy;
  • Apocalypse books (Wiki): The Corpus Apocalypse;** The Corpus Apocalypse;** The Bamberg Apocalypse (Wiki); Google images;
  • The Bestiary (Wiki): The Aberdeen Bestiary (Wiki); The Aberdeen Bestiary; Google images
  • The Breviary (Wiki): The Grimani Breviary**
  • The Gospel Book (Wiki): The Book of Kells (Wiki); The Book of Kells;** Google Images; The Lindisfarne Gospels**
  • The Missal (Wiki): The Missal of Barbara of Brandenburg;**
  • The Psalter (Wiki): Le Psautier doré de Munich, or The Munich Golden Psalter;** The Psalter of Robert de Lisle**
  • Various prayer books: Prayer to the Virgin

Like Books of Hours, the Breviary is an abridged version of the Liber Usualis.  However, it is used by bishops, priests and deacons, not lay Christians.  The Breviary   “contains the canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings and notations for everyday use.” (“Breviary,” Wikipedia)

A Tiny Gallery

Miniatures depicting the months of December and August, from the Grimani Breviary, illuminated by Gerard Horenbout with Alexander and Simon Bening. The August page (to the right) was illuminated by Alexander and Simon Bening only. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) 
(please click on the images to enlarge them)

Miniature depicting the month December, from the Grimani Breviary, illuminated by Gerard Horenbout with Alexander and Simon Bening449px-Breviarium_Grimani_-_August

The Corpus Apocalypse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Corpus Christi Apocalypse

The Lindisfarner Gospel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 
The Lindisfarne Gospels
“The Lindisfarne Gospels is an illuminated Latin manuscript of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the British Library. The manuscript was produced on Lindisfarne in Northumbria in the late 7th century or early 8th century, and is generally regarded as the finest example of the kingdom’s unique style of religious art, a style that combined Anglo-Saxon and Celtic themes, what is now called Hiberno-Saxon art, or Insular art. The manuscript is complete (though lacking its original cover).” (YouTube description)
 
 
piece: O Euchari in Leta Via
performers: Catherine King, Emily Van Evera, Richard Souther & Sister Germaine Fritz

Information

  1. “abecedarius”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
    Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013
    <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1004/abecedarius>.
  2. “breviary”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
    Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2013
    <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/79032/breviary>.
  3.  “Claude Of France”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
    Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013
    <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120451/Claude-Of-France>.
  4. “New Testament”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
    Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013
    <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/412114/New-Testament?overlay=true&assemblyId=73072>.
  5. “missal”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
    Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2013
    <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/385386/missal>.
  6. “responsorial singing”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
    Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2013
    <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/499643/responsorial-singing>.
The first horseman as depicted in the Bamberg Apocalypse (1000-1020). The first "living creature" (with halo) is seen in the upper right.

The first horseman as depicted in the Bamberg Apocalypse (1000-1020). The first “living creature” (with halo) is seen in the upper right.  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
9 February 2013
WordPress
 
 
 
Related articles
  • Books of Hours, a Rich Legacy (michelinewalker.com)
  • Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, revisited (michelinewalker.com)

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The Squarcialupi Codex & Francesco Landini

24 Thursday Nov 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Music

≈ Comments Off on The Squarcialupi Codex & Francesco Landini

Tags

ballate, domes, Florence, illuminated manuscript, Italian ars nova, Landini, Petrarch, Squarcialupi Codex, trouvères, Venice

Francesco Landini

The Squarcialupi Codex  (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Med. Pal. 87) is a compendium of pieces of music.  It was published in Florence in the Trecento, the fourtheenth-century or the dawn of Italian Renaissance.

Surprisingly, it contains 216 pieces of music.  I have extracted  the following information from Wikipedia, not a frivolous source.  On the contrary!

Included in the Codex‘s 216 pieces are 146 pieces by Francesco Landini, 37 by Bartolino da Padova, 36 by Niccolò da Perugia, 29 by Andrea da Firenze, 28 by Jacopo da Bologna, 17 by Lorenzo da Firenze, 16 by Gherardello da Firenze, 15 by Donato da Cascia, 12 pieces by Giovanni da Cascia, 6 by Vincenzo da Rimini.  There are sixteen blank parchment folios which may have contained pieces by Paolo da Firenze and Giovanni Mazzuoli.

The Codex is organized according to composers and includes a richly illuminated, in blue, gold, purple and red, portrait of each composer.  The illustration I have placed above our text is from Squarcialupi Codex, shows Francesco Landini, the most prolific among composers whose pieces constitute the Florentine Codex. The Squarcialupi Codex is also a testimonial to fraternity, the raison d’être of schools.

* * *

The Squarcialupi Codex is an important document because it supplies us, in one book, with an illustrated history of Italian songs before Franco-Flemish Adriaan Willaert (c. 1490 – 7 December 1562) travelled to Venice to found the Venetian School (1550 to around 1610).  The enlumineur is unknown.

San Marco, in Venice

The Fall of the Byzantine Empire:  the Italian “ars nova”

When the Bizantine Empire was replaced by the Ottoman Empire, in 1453, scholars first travelled to Italy carrying books and a fully-fledged culture, mainly Greek. Western Europe’s Renaissance had begun and San Marco’s dome would be of Byzantine inspiration.

The Renaissance: the Italian “ars nova“

It may be useful to use the works of Francesco Landini (c. 1325 or 1335 – September 2, 1397), as the turning-point between the early Renaissance music and the Venetian School, except that Landini’s style is abundantly ornamented as would be the case with later madrigals.

Francesco Landini was blind from childhood and worked as organist in at least two Florentine churches.  He played several instruments, and built one, the ‘syrena syrenarum.’  He is protrayed above holding his portative organ or organetto.

The organetto

We also owe Landini a cadence (end of a piece of music), the eponymic Landini cadence in which the sixth degree of the scale, the ‘la’ (the sub-mediant) is inserted between the leading-note (note sensible [sensitive] in French), the ‘si’, and the tonic (the ‘do’) = si-la-do.

Landini wrote twelve madrigals and may have written sacred music, but the compostions we know are secular. Most are ballate in two or three voices and are included in the Squarcialupi Codex.

The ballata finds its origins in the songs of trouvères, the virelay, in particular. However, Florentine chronicler Filippo Villani (b. 1235) describes Landini as a true Florentine.  Yet, Landini’s compostions display “madrigalism,” which is an abundance of ornamentations, including roulades.  As well, his compositions demonstrate northern influences.  According to the Encyclopædia Britannica

he [Landini] was crowned with a laurel wreath as the winner of a poetical contest at Venice in 1364. In Il Paradiso degli Alberti del 1389, Giovanni da Prato described Landini as playing his songs so sweetly “that no one had ever heard such beautiful harmonies, and their hearts almost burst from their bosoms.”[i]

In the Encyclopædia Britannica, we also read that “in addition to his 140 settings of ballate (91 for two voices, 49 for three), his surviving compositions include 12 [mentioned above] madrigals a virelay, and a caccia.”

It would appear, however, that they are early madrigals.  So let us keep away from possible Procrustean Beds.  Landini may be an example of this or that, but Landini is also Landini, a brave man who not only coped with blindness, but used hearing to everyone’s benefit.

No wonder he was a close friend of the great Petrarch (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), whose sonnets are an homage to Laura de Noves (1310–1348), the wife of Hugues de Sade.  Petrarch caught a gimpse of her and started to write about her.

Laura de Noves

There always remains that unknown dimension that characterizes creativity, that seminal idea one dares to pursue…

(click to hear Ecco la primavera; Squarcialupi Codex)

____________________

[1] “Francesco Landini.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 24 Nov. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/329369/Francesco-Landini>.

 November 24, 2011

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