Beschreibung:

Central Italian neumes A partial bifolium from a Gradual, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Central or Southern Italy, c.1100-1140] A survival from a beautiful written and decorated Gradual and a clear example of early 12th-century Beneventan notation. c.206 x 159mm (the leaf); c.206 x 286mm (the bifolium), the leaves not consecutive, 10 lines written in a fine late Carolingian minuscule, blind-ruled, Beneventan musical notation with a red F line and yellow C line, headings in red, capitals touched in red, one white-vine initial 'E' in red outline infilled with blue, yellow and green (used as a pastedown and consequently one side very worn and yellowed, some worming to extremities, cropping to outer margins). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery. Provenance: (1) Robert Wölfle, Munich, purchased in May 1980 by: (2) Bernard Rosenthal, his 'I/264'. (3) Bernard Quaritch, Bookhands of the Middle Ages III, cat.1088 (1988), no 41. (4) Schøyen Collection, MS 99. Text: The text contains parts of the Office for Sundays after Pentecost, beginning on the first recto with the Offertory for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost: '[sacrifici]um nostrum in conspectu tuo hodie'; ending on the verso in the introit for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost 'Ecce deus adiuvat me et dominus susceptor est anime [meae]'; continuing on the second recto with the Gradual for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost '[Benedicam Dominum in] omni tempore' and ending with the introit for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost 'iudica causam tuam et ne obliviscaris [voces quaerentium te]'. Script and music: Prof. John Emerson of the University of California, Berkeley, dated the bifolium to c.1100-1140 and localised it to Central or Southern Italy. The script is a very fine and legible Carolingian minuscule, while the calligraphic precision of the musical notation recalls Beneventan forms (and was in previous catalogues described as such), but as with the previous lot, whereas older scholarship tended to group together this type of notation, which was certainly more widely used than the script hand, as Beneventan, more accurate current scholarship distinguishes between notation appearing on manuscripts written in southern Italy in Beneventan script, and similar notation used elsewhere. Christie's would like to thank Dr Giulio Minniti for bringing to our attention the latest scholarship on Beneventan notation.