MontsM 768: Montserrat, Biblioteca del Monestir MS 768.

OVERVIEW

Size: 540 x 400 ii + 202 + iii paper folios, no index, modern pencil foliation.

Scribe: one scribe, unknown but most likely of German-writing origin as the doppel S is often used (e.g. altiβimus).

Place: Brussels for the court of The Regent of the Netherlands- Mary of Hungary (daughter of Philip the Fair and Juana of Spain).

Date and Brief History: 1545-1555; following Mary's retirement to Spain, manuscript taken to Valladolid and later moved to Guadalajara; then passed to Philip II (King of Spain 1527-1598) in 1558 and is listed as item 9 in the inventories of Philip's books; in 1620 was bought by the Real Convento de las Señoras de la Encarnaçion in Madrid and subsequently acquired by the Benedictine monastery at Montserrat during the 1920s.

Covers and Decoration: Brown leather covers over cardboard; front and back tooled with same ornate designs (in white, blue, black, green, red and gold) with floral and vine motifs; both covers with central inscription:

DOVZE

MESSES MVSICALES

COMPOSEES PAR M. P.

DE MANCHICOVRT

painted initials on folios 1v, 2r and 142v, and inked calligraphic initials on all other folios opening a mass section.

Literature:

Herbert Kellman & Charles Hamm (eds), Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music 1400-1550, Renaissance Manuscript Studies I, vol. II, American Institute of Musicology, Hänssler-Verlag, Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1982, p. 179.

THE MANUSCRIPT

Contents:

Folio information and variants:

ff. 1v-39r (20 pages)

ff. 39v-91r (27 pages)

ff. 91v-124r (17 pages)

ff.174v-202r (15 pages)

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LINKS

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