P-Cug (Coimbra) Biblioteca Geral da Universidade MM 0034

Archive
P-Cug (Coimbra) Biblioteca Geral da Universidade
Shelfmark
MM 0034
Name of the source
Livro dos defuntos
Siglum

P-Cug MM 0034

Source type
Polyphonic book
Subcategory of source
Choirbook
Category
polyphony
Completeness
complete or nearly complete
Document type
manuscript
Origin
Coimbra
Main place of use
Coimbra?
Provenance
Coimbra, Mosteiro de Santa Cruz
Date
late 16th century [1570s or 1580s]
Contents

Collection of music for Office and Mass for the Dead

Type of notation
Mensural (white)
Decoration

Decorative initials

Inscriptions

Inscription on cover: Livro dos defuntos

Material
Paper
Condition of document

Good

Page layout

Choirbook format; 425 x 285 mm

Foliation/Pagination

45 fols

Gathering

First section (fols 1-40) consists of five gatherings (cf analysis in Rees 1995, pp. 240-41, Table 9). Second section added later by same person and who also ruled the margins and staves

Watermarks

Type of paper used also appears in P-Cug MM 44 (cf Rees pp. 240, 376 and 403). Two watermarks found (illus. Rees 1995, p. 403)

Bindings

Old, possibly original, soft covers of light brown leather, with remains of leather ties

Remarks

None of composers attributed in manuscript can be identified with the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, although it seems likely that the manuscript originated in Coimbra. The music is exclusively Iberian in origin. The MS appears to have been prepared by a single person, who carried out the work in two main stages, corresponding to the first 40 folios and the last seven (now five). (Cf Rees 1995, p. 240.) The book appears to have been specifically compiled for performance; it also includes many written instructions to the singers. The MS gives the appearance of having been frequently used; it also has many drops of wax on the folios. (Further information in Rees 1995, pp. 241-42.) Original ink foliation. Original fol. 046 is missing; the last surviving folio (fol. 047) not given a number. This last folio has been given the new folio number fol. 046r here (= fol. [047]: see Rees 1995, p. 239)

References

REES, Owen, Polyphony in Portugal c. 1530 – c. 1620. Sources from the Monastery of Santa Cruz, Coimbra, New York & London / Garland, 1995, pp. 237-45, 376 & 403

ALVARENGA, João Pedro d', 'Patterns for Sixteenth- to Seventeenth-Century Portuguese Polyphonic Settings of the Requiem Mass', in Música e História: Estudos em Homenagem a Manuel Carlos de Brito, eds M.P, Ferreira and R. Cascudo, Lisbon, 2017, pp. 53-76

Description author/s
Bernadette Nelson
Completed on
Reviewed by
Bernadette Nelson