P-BRad (Braga) Arquivo Distrital Ms. 726
P-BRad (Braga) Arquivo Distrital Ms. 726
Contains the practical instructions for the functioning of the Braga Cathedral Choir. Includes an index at the end.
It is divided into 17 main sections or Títulos: 1º. Das Mattinas e Laudas Sollemnes (1r); 2º. Das Mattinas & Laudas do[s] dias Duplex (6r); 3º. Das Mattinas dos dias Semiduplex & Simplex (6v); 4º. De todas as horas meudas: A saber Prima, Terça, Sexta & Noa (7v); 5º. Vesporas dos dias Solemnes & dias Duplex (8v); 6º. Das Vesporas dos dias Semiduplex Simplex & Feriaes (12r); 7º. das Completas (12v); 8º. das Horas de N. S[enhora] (13v); 9º. De como se fasem os Asperges, & em que dias (14r); 10º. Das Procissoes (15v); 11º. das Missas Terça, & Prima (24v); 12º. Missas de Prima, Anniversario, Officios, & Capellas (27r); 13º. Obrigaçaõ do Sobchantre tirada de varios capitolos do estatuto (32r); 14º. Da obrigação dos Mossos do Coro (34r); 15º. Das Domingas do advento & mais festas athe a Dominga da septuagessima (37r); 16º. das festas em q[ue] o Perlado, & os Dignidades são obrigados a diser a Missa de Terça (60r); 17º. da Instrucção dos Presbiteros, Diaconos, Subdiaconos, & Moços do Coro (61r).
Includes a fair number of complete chants, e.g. the Te Deum (2v-5r), the Asperges me and Vidi aquam antiphons (14v-15v), the antiphons sung during the litanies of March (20r), the way to sing the litanies of May (21r), the Roman litany for the preces (22r-v), the hymn Pange lingua (59v), etc.
Black square notation on 5 red lines, with clefs and custos; use of the isolated lozenge dot with semi-mensural meaning.
From fol. 72 onwards, it appears the musical notation was not completed, as the figures were left unfilled with ink.
On the initial guard leaf, there's the signature 'Antonio Thomas dos Reis' and another 'Reis' on fol. 1, likely referring to Antonio Thomaz dos Reis (fl. 1835-1861), who was Mestre de Cerimónias at Braga Cathedral.
Fair. Ink corrosion, especially from fol. 41 onwards.
Text is written in one column.
The book has three foliation systems: one in Roman numerals, from I to LXXXIX, in the top left-hand corner; another in Arabic numerals from 1 to 91 in the top right-hand corner, with gaps in the numbering between fols. 10v and 14r, although there is no lack of content; and the third, also in Arabic numerals in the top right-hand corner, up to 89, which is only visible from fol. 43 onwards, although it is partially visible from fol. 32 onwards. Occasionally, from fol. 59 onwards, the two foliations in Arabic numerals overlap, one correcting the other.
Sun <SA / DP> (initial guard-leaf).
Leather over cardboard.
The folios have been trimmed since one of the numberings is sometimes cut off and in other cases is non-existent, also the first folios have been reinforced and it is possible to identify a watermark dating from the second half of the 18th century on the initial guard-leaf. We can therefore infer that the book has been restored and perhaps rebound.
FERREIRA, Manuel Pedro, «Two Offices for St. Gerald: Braga and Aurillac», in Commemoration, Ritual and Performance: Essays on Medieval and Early Modern Music, edited, with an introduction by Jane Morlet Hardie (Ottawa, Institute of Mediaeval Music, 2006), p. 41.
RODRIGUES, Ana Maria S. A., «O Regimento do coro da sé de Braga em 1506», Lusitania Sacra - 2.ª série XVIII (2006), pp. 433-450.
BELLINO, Albano, Inscripções e Lettreiros da Cidade de Braga. Algumas Freguezias Ruraes (Porto, Typographia Occidental, 1895), p. 30.
REIS, Antonio Thomaz dos, Methodo da Liturgia Bracharense, Em que se expoem fundamentalmente, e com clareza o modo de celebrar com a devida perfeição o Sacrosancto Sacrifício da Missa (...) (Typographia Bracharense, 1837).