Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
i (18th-19th century paper) + 121 folios on parchment and (18th-19th century) paper, 18th-19th pagination in brown ink, 7-248 (pp. 7-176 + 201-240 parchment; pp. 177-200 + 241-248 paper), lacking three leaves in the beginning and a quire of eight leaves, two quires on paper added in the 18th-19th-century (collation i8 [-1, -2, -3, lacking three leaves before p. 7, with loss of text] ii-xi8 xii12 [paper quire replacing an original quire of eight leaves] xiii-xiv8 xv4 xvi4 [paper quire added]), horizontal catchwords, ruled in brown ink (justification 249 x 166 mm.), written in dark brown ink in gothic textualis bookhand on 10 lines of text and music, music in square notation on four-line red staves, rastrum 13 mm., several pages have music added in the lower margin in the sixteenth century, nineteenth-century addition on pp. 177-200 and pp. 241-248: written in black and brown inks on 10 lines of text and music, music on black staves, rastrum 14 mm.) rubrics in red, verse initials are cadels in dark brown ink (some decorated with human profiles) alternating with red initials with areas of parchment left in reserve for decoration, two initials the height of two staves, of which one is a puzzle initial (for Easter, p. 53) and the other a red initial with reserve areas for decoration (for Christmas, p. 143), several stains and signs of frequent use, but in overall good condition. Bound in the seventeenth century in brown leather over wooden boards, blind-tooled with fillets and corner fleurons, front cover stamped in gold “P. MATHIEV.”, spine with five raised bands blind-tooled with fleurons, small remains of a brass clasp and its catch, leather very worn, especially along the edges, corners and spine, but in overall good condition. Dimensions 312 x 222 mm.
This handsome Gradual was dated by its scribe, a priest at a church in Lyon. The manuscript was still in Lyon in 1994, and it bears evidence of active use for many centuries, including additions to the text copied on paper leaves, which were added to the manuscript in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Lyon was an important artistic center in the late fifteenth century; here we have valuable evidence of its local liturgy, as well as an example of a practical manuscript made for local use.
1. The date of completion, September 1480, is indicated in the colophon on p. 240: “Notum sit quod anno domini millesimo iiijc . octuagesimo et mensis septembrorum. Ego benedictus <erased> presbiter et beneficiatus in ecclesia lugdunensis curatus <erased>. scripsi notavi et finivi presentem librum ad utilitatem pro(erased)”. The scribe identifies himself as a priest of a church in Lyon, but his name is erased.
This scribal colophon is followed by a second inscription below it which recording the purchase of the manuscript by “Johanes” on the same date; it is contemporary but copied in a different ink and has also partly erased: “Johanes g<erased> emit librum istum a super dicto <erased> anno et die ut supra.” We can assume that Benedict was working as a scribe, perhaps for his own church in Lyon, or for a commercial bookseller, and when the manuscript was completed, another church in Lyon (or in the diocese of Lyon) purchased it. The liturgical use in the diocese of Lyon is quite certain; it is specified in the rubric on p. 237: “...ad usum diocesis lugdunensis.” Moreover, the Sanctorale includes a Mass for the feast of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, the patron saint of Lyon (pp. 155-158).
2. Below this are two additional inscriptions added not long after the manuscript was made; the second is a quite long and ends with a signature; both are now quite faint due to fading of the ink.
3. Ownership inscription “pierre le teyssot” in eighteenth- or nineteenth-century handwriting, back pastedown, copied below an inscription (illegible) in a different hand.
4. Notes in the margins testify to the continued use of the Gradual over the centuries. It was apparently still in use in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century when the missing text (pp. 177-200), the Credo solemne (pp. 241-246), and the Table of Contents (“Table des messes contenues en ce livre”; pp. 247-248) were added, all copied on paper. Pagination was added to the volume at this time. The liturgical use of Lyon is also mentioned in the nineteenth-century notes on the front flyleaf: “Missae dominicales et festivae totius anni juxta usum lugdunensis ecclesiae” and “Graduel noté de Lyon et non missel”.
5. Still in Lyon in 1994 when it belonged to the collection of the Lyon bookseller L’Ancre Aldine, according to a note on a piece of paper, laid in.
pp. 7-145, [Lacking the first three leaves, pp. 1-6]; incipit, “[Excita] Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni, ut salvos facias nos. Offertorium. Benedixisti, Domine, terram tuam ... Viderunt omnes fines terrae salutare Dei nostri”;
Temporale, beginning imperfectly with an Alleluia verse at the end of the third Sunday in Advent and continuing throughout the year until the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost (p. 123) and Christmas (concluding with the Mass for Christmas Day, “Puer natus est nobis...”, on pp. 142-145).
pp. 145-214, Sanctorale, from the feast of St. Stephen (26 Dec) until the feast of St Andrew (30 November); [pp. 177-200, were copied in the 18thor early 19th century on paper and replace a missing quire];
pp. 214-218, Votive Mass for the Virgin Mary;
pp. 219-227, Masses for the Dead;
pp. 227-229, Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus for Masses on feasts of “large bells” (de grossa campana);
pp. 229-233, Kyrie, Gloria and Sanctus for Sunday Masses, followed by the Alleluia verse “Venite, exsultemus Domino” for certain Sundays of the year;
pp. 233-237, Antiphons for various feasts and for the days of the week;
pp. 237-238, Secuntur mentiones omnium tonorum festivalium ad usum diocesis lugdunensis, …;
Musical settings for singing the Canticle “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” according to eight tones; the rubric specifies these are the tones according to the use of Lyon.
pp. 239-240, incipit, “Alleluia lauda ierusalem …” [the text ends on p. 240, followed by two colophons (see Provenance above)];
pp. 241-246, [added in the late eighteenth or nineteenth century, on paper], “Credo solemne”;
pp. 247-248, [added in the late eighteenth or nineteenth century, on paper], List of contents, with errors.
The Gradual is the liturgical book which contains the musical texts for the Mass arranged according to the liturgical year. During the Mass in the later Middle Ages, the priest used the Missal, whereas the cantors and the choir used the Gradual. Here, as in most Graduals, a large part of the volume is devoted to the chants for the Proper of the Mass, that is texts that particular to specific liturgical occasions, presented according to the two simultaneous cycles of the liturgical year, the Temporale (Sundays and feasts celebrating the life of Christ, dependent on the movable feast of Easter), and the Sanctorale (fixed feasts of the saints and Virgin Mary). In this Gradual, these cycles are followed by a selection of the musical texts for Votive Masses and Masses of the Dead, and settings for the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Alleluia verses from the Ordinary of the Mass.
Less usual in a Gradual are the “eight tones” or musical settings of the Magnificat found on p. 238. This Canticle of Mary (Luke 1:46-55) was sung during the Divine Office at the evening prayer service of Vespers, and set to one of eight tones or recitation chants, usually somewhat more elaborate than the eight tones for the Psalms. The rubric on p. 237 specifies that these tones were intended for use in the diocese of Lyon.
This is a relatively large, but easily handled volume. Its size, 312 x 222 mm. (about 12 x 8 3/4 inches), with ten lines of text and music on most pages, allowed the scribes to include the texts for the entire liturgical year. Lyon, in Eastern France, was an important and wealthy city in the later fifteenth century, home to important illuminators. This Gradual, securely localized to Lyon, is evidence of the production of more utilitarian, non-illuminated manuscripts there.
Burin, E. Manuscript illumination in Lyons, 1473-1530, Turnhout, 2001.
Harper, J. The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians, Oxford, 1991.
Hiley, David. Western Plain Chant. A Handbook, Oxford, 1993.
Maxence, H. “Production et commande de manuscrits enluminés à Lyon à la fin du Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance,” in Arts et humanisme: Lyon Renaissance, ed. Ludmila Virassamynaïken, Paris, 2015, pp. 274-279.
Palazzo, Eric. A History of Liturgical Books from the Beginning to the Thirteenth Century, tr. by Madeline Beaumont, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1998.
Plummer, J. Liturgical Manuscripts for the Mass and Divine Office, New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1964.
Edition of the Gradual in the liturgical use of Rome, Graduale Romanum (1961)
https://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/graduale1961.pdf
Summary of contents of the Gradual in the liturgical use of Rome (edition 1974)
https://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/propers1974.pdf
Susan Boynton, Consuelo Dutschke, et al. “Liturgical Books” (Columbia University Libraries)
https://liturgical.columbia.edu/
Lebigue, J.-B. “Initiation to Liturgical Manuscripts”
https://cel.archives-ouvertes.fr/cel-00194063/document
TM 1172
