P-Cug (Coimbra) Biblioteca Geral da Universidade MM 0230 + MM 0231 + MM 0161
P-Cug MM 0230 + MM 0231 + MM 0161
Choruses (1), Motets (43), Canons (1) (= 45)
Pen-flourished and calligraphic initials in red and yellow, red and black, red, and black. Those added by the main scribe are of a particularly fine design.
MM 230, front cover: "SVPERIVS :-"; p. 1: "Cantus". MM 231, front cover: "ALTVS"; p. 1: "Altus". MM 161, front cover: "TENOR :-". Other inscriptions are given in each of the musical items description.
Good, with signs of ink burn-through still not affecting reading of music or text; MM 230 and MM 161 with the upper edge of folios trimmed; MM 161 with slight water damage.
Oblong partbook format. MM 230: 156 x 215 mm; MM 231: 165 x 224 mm; MM 161: 162 x 232 mm.
MM 230: iv + 31 + i folios; modern pencil pagination to recto sides only (1, 3, etc. up to 69; lapse in pagination: p. 15 follows p. 11, although no folio is missing; back flyleaf unnumbered). MM 231: ii + 33 + iv folios; modern pencil pagination to recto sides only (1, 3, etc. up to 69; back flyleaves unnumbered). MM 161: v + 29 + iii folios; modern pencil pagination to both recto and verso sides (1-74).
See REES 1995, pp. 315-16.
All of the folios in the three books bearing music are of the same, unidentified, type of paper. For more details, see REES 1995, pp. 380, 407.
All three books have parchment covers which originally formed leaves from two different choirbooks. The covers of MM 230 and MM 231 are described on https://pemdatabase.eu/source/96811.
Three partbooks from a set of four. MM 230 is the superius book; MM 231 the altus; and MM 161 the tenor. The bassus book is missing; the three surviving books are complete. Four scribes worked on this set of manuscripts. The main scribe used only the recto side of folios, or the recto and the preceding verso when two voices of the same piece were to be contained in one book; the second scribe mostly used the many versos left blank by the main copyist; the third scribe copied only one piece, Dum transisset Sabbatum; the chorus Ecce Deus verus fallentes was copied by a fourth scribe.
Some, if not all of the music contained in this set of partbooks might be the work of Francisco de Santa Maria (d. 1597), not only because of the many concordances with P-Cug MM 70 (which contains ascriptions to no other composer), but also due to stylistic considerations (see REES 1995, pp. 317-18, 323).
The index of musical items follows the order in which they occur in the superius partbook (MM 230); items not found in that book appear at the end of the list.
NOTE: The three partbooks have new shelfmarks. MM 230 is now MM 231; MM 231 is now MM 231 A; and MM 161 is now MM 231 B.
REES, Owen, Polyphony in Portugal c. 1530 – c. 1620: Sources from the Monastery of Santa Cruz, Coimbra (New York & London, Garland, 1995), pp. 311-23
Musical Items
| Folio | Seq | Incipit | Genre | Composer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MM230 066-067 + MM231 068-069 + MM161 066-067 | 001 | Iste est Joannes | Mo | Anonymous |
| MM230 069 + MM231 047 + MM161 053 | 001 | Domine ostende nobis | Mo | Anonymous |
| MM231 059 + MM161 060 | 001 | O crux benedicta | Mo | Anonymous |
| MM231 062 | 001 | Gaudentes gaudeamus omnes | Mo | Anonymous |
| MM231 065 | 001 | Ecce Deus verus fallentes | Chor | Anonymous |