Lot 37

Antiphoner, of Ambrosian Rite, in Latin, manuscript on vellum

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Description

141 leaves, 270mm. by 197mm., lacking single leaves at beginning (perhaps blank) and after fols.7 and 133 and probably further leaves at end, else apparently complete, collation: i-ii^{7 [of 8, lacking i], iii-xvii^{8, xviii^{7 [of 8, apparently lacking i], modern pencil foliation (followed here) repeats ‘58’, ‘71’ and ‘91’ and includes two much later paper leaves inserted into quire 12 (foliated 91-2), text pages with 23 lines of text in single or double column, written-space 220mm. by 135mm., most pages with 11 lines each of text in a small rounded late Carolingian minuscule and of music formed of neumes arranged above and below a single red stave, rubrics in red, opening heading in alternate lines of red and brown, rubrics and capitals in red,}}} large and small decorated initials throughout in red or brown or both colours, often with decorative flourishes or penwork, seven very large decorated initials, (1) initial ‘V’ in elaborate geometric and plant-stem design, 136mm. by 75mm., fol.1v, (2) initial ‘S’ in yellow, brown and red infilled with tightly compacted insular-style interlace, 44mm. by 28mm., marginal extension formed of a long lion with a human head, fol.18r, (3) initial ‘L’ in brown and yellow with insular-style interlace, 75mm. by 40mm., fol.23v, (4) initial ‘V’ formed of a fish biting the hind leg of a snarling dragon, 52mm. by 36mm., with yellow and red wash, fol.27v, (5) initial ‘P’ formed of a dragon and enclosing a human face, 60mm. by 22mm., fol.71v, (6) initial ‘V’ in yellow filled with vinestem interlace, 47mm. by 30mm., fol.71v, and (7) initial ‘A’ in red and yellow partly formed of and filled with insular-style interlace and plant-stem patterns, 55mm. by 42mm., fol.77r, drawing of King David playing his harp in the outer margin of fol.19v, worn and thumbed throughout, pages towards the end dampstained and sometimes partly illegible, final pages defective and disintegrating, some gatherings loose, remains of medieval stitching on 3 leather thongs (defective), loosely enclosed in printed paper wrappers with red textile ties

Provenance

provenance

Contemporary monastic ownership inscription in the upper margin of fol.126r, “Iste liber est [de] monesteri di loco legnate”. This and the following lot have remained together in the family of the present owner for many generations.

Catalogue Note

text

A remarkable and apparently unrecorded Codex of Ambrosian chant, perhaps the oldest extant copy. The Ambrosian rite was unique to the medieval archiepiscopal province of Milan. It was popularly ascribed to Saint Ambrose (c.339-397), bishop of Milan. It differs notably from the standard Roman rite of the western Church and it may be a partial survival of an even earlier Christian form of worship, preserved only in Milan. Ambrosian musical chant is of exceptional rarity and importance for it may reflect western liturgical music earlier than any other surviving record. Despite its extreme antiquity, however, the four oldest substantial manuscripts all date from no earlier than the twelfth century. Three cover the winter half of the church year, as here, and one covers the summer portion. They are (i) British Library Add.MS. 34209 (winter), mid twelfth-century (ii) Milan, Biblioteca Capitolare F.2.2 (winter), late twelfth-century (iii) the so-called Varese-Eredi Bianchi manuscript, still in private hands in Italy (winter), late twelfth-century; and (iv) Bedero di val Travaglia, San Vittore B (summer); cf. D. Hiley, Western Plainchant, A Handbook, 1993, p.540. There is also a thirteenth-century manuscript in the Chiesa Prepositurale of S. Stefano in Milan. The British Library manuscript forms the basis of all modern editions, including the facsimile by the Benedictines of Solesmes, 1896-1900 (Paléographie Musicale, V-VII), the Antiphonale Missarum iuxta ritum S.E. Mediolanensis, 1935, and H. Huglo et al., Fonti e Paleografia del Canto Ambriosiano, 1966 (Archivio Ambrosiano, VII). It closely resembles the present manuscript in scale and date but is more imperfect, lacking all before the first Sunday in Advent, fol.14r of the present manuscript.

The manuscript opens with a long heading, “In nomine sancte et individue trinitatis …”, describing this as an Antiphoner for the middle of the year according to the rite of the Ambrosian Church as instituted by Saint Ambrose himself for the use of that church and as confirmed by many excellent doctors including the great Saint Augustine in the ninth book of his Confessions and elsewhere. It opens with the feast of St. Martin, pope and martyr (12 November), “Levavi occulos meos ad montes …” and the hymn “Bellator armis inclitus …”, continuing with the feasts of St. Romanus (18 November, fol.3v), St. Cecilia (22 November, fol.5r), St. Clement (23 November, fol.5v), St. Andrew (30 November, fol.5v), St. Ambrose himself (7 December, fol.9r, large heading partly in uncials), etc., and feasts of the Temporal from the first Sunday in Advent (fol.14r) to Christmas (fol.46r), St. Stephen (26 December, fol.57v), etc., to Epiphany and the Sundays which follow it, St. Sebastian (20 January, fol.90r), Agnes (21 January, fol.90v), Vincent (22 January, fol.90v), etc., and the Sundays of Lent, etc., to the eve of Easter.