E-ZAahp Archivo Histórico Provincial de Zamora 001
Chants for the last part of the feast of St Thomas Becket, Bishop of Canterbury are found on the recto. Its hymn text is currently known only in this fragment, and the antiphons in only a few sources.
There is no chant content provided in the fragment for the following Translation of St James.
A faded two-line inscription may be noticed underneath the right column on the verso, written as if following approximately the ruling lines of the page. The year of the notary's book (1540) was added across the faded inscription, and, in the left margin, the name of the notary. Also on the verso, in the upper left margin, the date was written again but in a large ornate script. More inscriptions, mainly in margins, can be observed on both sides of the fragment.
On the recto, lower margin, the Zamora AHP stamp with pencilled siglum PM 1 identifies the parchment fragment in the right hand corner, with AHP numbering also written in pencil on the left.
This fragment is noteworthy for its early transmission of rare or unique chants for the feast of St Thomas of Canterbury. It is also one of the earliest witnesses of specific lessons for the Translation of St. James; the wording of the first lesson follows the unique variant of Zamora's breviary, ACZa. 209, thus establishing a likely origin. The single folio fragment was preserved through its use as the outer cover in the binding of a collection of notary documents from mid-sixteenth-century Toro produced by the notary Francisco Gonzalez de Valderas (written as Balderas on the fragment verso). This and fragment E-ZAahp Perg. Mus. 3 have significant features in common: the two fragments may once have been part of the same book.
The pictures were supplied on request by the Archive.
NELSON, Kathleen E., Medieval Liturgical Music of Zamora, Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1996.
SUÁREZ GONZÁLEZ, Ana, Fragmentos de libros, bibliotecas de fragmentos, Zamora: Instituto de Estudios Zamoranos Florián de Ocampo, 2003. Includes colour reproduction of large initial on recto: plate 12, p. 49.
CAVERO DOMÍNGUEZ, Gregoria et al., Tomás Becket y la península ibérica (1170-1230), León: Instituto de Estudios Medievales (León), 2013, pp. 163-69.
Aquitanian notation. Page ruling lines were used to provide single line staves to orient the notation with yellow tint added to highlight the single-line staves.