Three unknown Carthusian liturgical manuscripts with music of the 14th to the 16th centuries in the Grey Collection, South African Library, Cape Town

Abstract

Of the three manuscripts that form the basis of this thesis, MS Cape Town, South African Library, Grey 4c7 is, in musicological terms the most important of the three manuscripts. It is a complete Carthusian Antiphonary, of the late 14th century, written for the Charterhouse of Champmol, near Dijon, the mausoleum of the Dukes of Burgundy. It also contains an extensive Tonary, a Hymnary and a Kyriale. The two didactic verses which form part of the Tonary are of particular importance, since MS 4c7is one of the few manuscripts in the world intended for musical performance to contain the Ter terni by William of Hirsau; furthermore it is apparently the only Carthusian manuscript of any kind to contain the Oyapente et dyatessaron by Hucbald. The manuscript is placed in the context of the Carthusian liturgy of the 12th to the 16th centuries and is compared with 33 manuscripts of this period. It is shown that, although a marked textual similarity exists between the manuscripts, there are variant melodies. The conclusion is therefore drawn that the Carthusians did not have a single exemplar for the melodies in their liturgical books. It is shown that MS 4c7 and MS Oijon, Bibliotheque municipale 118, also written for Champmol, were copied from the same exemplar and that they are closely related to MSS Beaune, Bibliotheque municipale 27, 34 and 41, ot the neighbouring Charterhouse of Fontenay. The second manuscript, MS Grey 3c23, an Antiphonary for nuns, for Lauds and Vespers, written for the Charterhouse of Mont-Sainte-Marie, at Gosnay, near Arras, has been dated 1538 by the original scribe. This manuscript is almost identical to MS AGC C II 817. The presence of a Sequence, foreign to the Carthusian tradition, is however unique toMS 3c23. The third manuscript, MS Grey 6b3, is an Evangeliary, signed by the scribe, Amelontius de Ercklems, in 1520. Its provenance is the Charterhouse of Our Lady of the Twelve Apostles at Mont-Cornillon near Liege. Musicological features of the manuscript which are discussed are the Hymn 'Te decet laus', and the accent neumes at the ends of pericopes.