P-Cug (Coimbra) Biblioteca Geral da Universidade MM 033

Large number of paper-types; 6 watermarks: Wm 1 resembles Briquet #207; wm 4, Briquet #6097; wm 5, Briquet #11936; wm 6, Briquet #4844. (Details in Rees 1995, pp. 376 & 400-402.)

Bindings:

Old covers of whote leather over boards. (Material similar to that used for P-Cug MM 36.) Book rebound between 1937 and 1941.

Decoration:

First surviving page of MM 33 (f.2r) has probable self-portrait of Pedro de Cristo as initial, entitled 'D. PETRVS' AVT(OR). Elaborate coloured and gold initials

Inscriptions:

First surviving page of MM 33 (f.2r) has probable self-portrait of Pedro de Cristo as initial, entitled 'D. PETRVS' AVT(OR).

Remarks:

Copied by Pedro de Cristo in the 1580s (autograph manuscript). Original ink foliation, with several irregularities (details in Rees 1995, p. 229). Manuscript prepared in advance of copying, with margins and staves ruled throughout book. Manuscript used later by copyists of P-Cug MM 44 and MM 53, who recopied much of the music. Motets in this manuscript reflect music for feasts of highest rank ('of four cantors'), as represented in printed 1531 breviary and other books pertaining to the monastery. These feasts include the Exaltation and the Invention of the Holy Cross; the Nativity of St John Baptist. Also represented are St Martin of Tours and St (Queen) Isabel, two saints of particular devotion in Portugal. (Cf Rees 1995, p.235)

References:

REES, Owen, “Newly Identifed Holograph Manuscripts from Late-Renaissance Portugal”, Early Music 22 (1994), pp. 261-77

REES, Owen, Polyphony in Portugal c. 1530 – c. 1620. Sources from the Monastery of Santa Cruz, Coimbra, New York & London: Garland, 1995, pp. 229-36, 376 & 400-402

REES, Owen (ed.), Music by Pedro de Cristo: An Edition of the Motets from Coimbra Biblioteca Geral da Universidade, MM 33, Amsterdam: Harvard Academic Publishers, 1998 [Introduction includes list of works by Pedro de Cristo in surviving Portuguese sources]

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