The final section of the Montpellier Codex analysed in full for the
first time, with major implications for late-medieval music.
The Montpellier Codex (Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Section
Médecine, H.196) occupies a central place in scholarship on medieval
music. This small book, packed with gorgeous gold leaf illuminations,
historiated initials, and exquisite music calligraphy, is one of the
most famous of all surviving music manuscripts, fundamental to
understandings of the development of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century
polyphonic composition. At some point in its historyan eighth section
(fascicle) of 48 folios was appended to the codex: when and why this
happened has long perplexed scholars. The forty-three works contained in
the manuscript's final section represent a collection of musical
compositions, assembled at a complex moment of historical change,
straddling the historiographical juncture between the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries.
This book provides the first in-depth exploration of the contents and
contexts of the Montpellier Codex's final fascicle. It explores the
manuscript's production, dating, function, and notation, offering
close-readings of individual works, which illuminate compositionally
progressive features of therepertoire as well as its interactions with
existing musical and poetic traditions, from a variety of perspectives:
thirteenth- and fourteenth-century music, art history, and manuscript
culture.
CATHERINE A. BRADLEY isan Associate Professor at the University of Oslo;
KAREN DESMOND is Assistant Professor of Music at Brandeis University.
Contributors: Rebecca A. Baltzer, Edward Breen, Sean Curran, Rachel
Davies, Margaret Dobby, Mark Everist, Solomon Guhl-Miller, Anna Kathryn
Grau, Oliver Huck, Anne Ibos-Augé, Eva M. Maschke, David Maw, Dolores
Pesce, Alison Stones, Mary Wolinski
