Graduals (Chants)
Music--Manuscripts
Illumination of books and manuscripts--Specimens
Manuscripts, Latin--Specimens
Manuscripts, Latin--New York (State)--Buffalo
Gradual with the beginning of the introit (on the recto) and the beginning of the gradual (on the verso) for the mass for Easter Sunday. Parchment:; the upper half (?) of a leaf; 3 lines of text each with its 5-line staves of music. Written in a formal gothic book hand; on the recto, a line filler shaped as multiple small lozenges stacked one on top of the other. On the recto, square notation in red ink on 5-line red staves; on the verso, the notation is in black. The initial R (for Resurrexi) in parted red and blue with a narrow strip of blank parchment separating the two colors; blank parchment square boxes on the initial's red; elaborate red flourishing along the outer left and the outer right of the initial (but no infilling, or flourishing at top or bottom of the initial). One initial in blue with red flourishing the height of one line of text and one set of staves. Rubrics in red. Added in a noting hand on the verso, along the left margin, cropped: "//erna //te vetus //agdalene."
Written in Spain during the 16th century. Belonged to Louis Charles Elson (1848-1920) who was a professor of music theory and history at the New England Conservatory of Music from age 34 onwards; he had begun studying music with his mother, then went on to study in Leipzig; he composed songs, operetta and works for the piano, but mainly he studied and wrote on the history of music; he published in a number of Boston newspapers, and was the editor-in-chief of Modern Music and Musicians (1912; 20 vols.) and of the University Musical Encyclopedia (1912-14; 10 vols.), among the ca. 50 items that he published over the course of his life. The collection of medieval fragments of music that had belonged to Louis Charles Elson was acquired in 1924 by the Grosvenor Library in Buffalo NY; this library, together with the Erie County Library and the Buffalo Public Library merged in 1953 to form today's Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. This leaf was n. 16 in the Elson collection; that number on a small oval label in the upper left corner of the recto.
Bibliography: De Ricci. Census, p. 1210, no. 12
Formerly classified as RBR Mss. C33G72 1300z
Catholic Church
Elson, Louis Charles, 1848-1920
Rare Book Room of B&ECPL (repository)
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