P-Cug (Coimbra) Biblioteca Geral da Universidade MM 1063 (39) + MM 1063 (40) + MM 1063 (44)
P-Cug MM 1063 (39) + MM 1063 (40) + MM 1063 (44)
Chants for the third and fourth Sunday of Lent and days in between them, and for Passion Sunday. They can never be directly inferred by rubrics—which have all faded—but many of them are proper to some specific feast. Other chants that are not as clearly fixed can still oftentimes be traced to a precise feast after codicological evaluation of details such as their actual disposition in the folios, or relevant decorations highlighting the beginning of a new office hour and/or feast. The chants whose incipits are found in the lower right side of f. 40 Br are too loosely connected to each other to point them to any precise day, but all are sung sometime in the third week of Lent.
Square French notation on four red lines.
Red and blue initials with elegant, polished filigree.
MM 1063 (40): Bv: Stamp of the Coimbra University Library. MM 1063 (39): Cr: Modern pencil inscription in Portuguese on top of the fragment identifying its former function as binding material: "Da encadernação de: Guido de Baisio, Enarrationes super Decreto, Lyon, 1549". Stamp of the Coimbra University Library on top right corner. Dr (see photo Z2): inscription in Portuguese written on paper strip: "relativo à fuga para o Egipto / sec. XIV / Abreviaturas". MM 1063 (44): Fr: (also seen in photo Z6): inscription in Portuguese written on paper strip: "Oficio dos mortos / séc. XIV". Stamp.
Very poor condition overall. Some regions are still well visible, but for the major part the three folios are badly deteriorated, with holes, trimmings, lacerations, ink piercing through, and heavy tanning of about half of the exposed side of each folio. All the red ink of rubrics has almost completely faded out, making it very hard to identify feasts and office hours.
MM 1063 (39) - Fol. Cr: c. 150 x c. 200 mm; fol. D: c. 155 x c. 195 mm; two columns c. 135-140 x c. 70 mm. MM 1063 (40) - Fol. Ar: c. 150 x c. 200 mm; fol. B: c. 150 x c. 190 mm; two columns c. 140 x c. 70 mm. MM 1063 (44) - c. 300 x c. 195 mm, two columns c. 230 x c. 70 mm.
Analysis of contents reveals that the page currently numbered as 40 was the first of the three in the original manuscript, even though they were not consecutive. The order is 40 - 39 - 44.
The proximity of some contents with P-Cug MM 1063-79 and the oddity of some chants in the context of the Iberian repertoire might help putting this fragment into a broader European perspective. French origin seems likely. The fragment was used for the binding of an imported book printed in Lyon.