CZ-Pn 1 D a 3/52

CZ-Pn 1 D a 3/52 is the shelf-mark for a single folio dating from the second half of the 14th century.

Overview

The leaf was originally used for financial records, one of which is dated to 1356. An undetermined amount of time later, a different scribe added two liturgical tenor settings for organ, each in two voices: a Salve, sancta parens and Kyrie, magne Deus. The descant is notated in Old German tablature notation, using the common symbols for semibreves, minimae, and semiminimae, along with a diagonally crossed downward stem for the sharps Fis, Cis, and Gis. When present, the (embellished) tenor moves in long note values, which the upper part divides (with some inconsistencies) into eight semiminimae. It was either written directly into the same staff as the descant, transposed a third, fifth, or seventh higher than necessary, or with letter notation below it, always at the upper fifth, which suggests that the organ at which the source was written had a transposing pedal of some variety. Other than the organ compositions, a few large notes in rhombic chorale notation and formulae to be used in the descant were written onto the folio.

Two references to a Czech town, albeit indecipherable, are made in the text. The regionally specific rhombic neumes further support the hypothesis that the manuscript was written in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown.

Eventually, the folio was used for book-binding, and was seemingly taken out of this unknown volume at an even later date. It was discovered in 2016 at the Library of the National Museum in Prague. A restoration took place the following year; however, most of the notation is only visible under UV light, due to the mechanical damage the manuscript had suffered prior to its discovery.

References

A facsimile and reconstructed transcription of the manuscript are available in the article linked below.

Horyna, M. (2018). Středověká varhanní tabulatura na rukopisném zlomku z Knihovny Národního Muzea. Musicalia 1-2. https://publikace.nm.cz/file/7d46c49e6738b4f885fa5470cfa9e5c6/20605/Musicalia%202018%206-42.pdf (contains English translation)