Barbara Haggh
“Sources for Plainchant and Ritual from
Ghent and London: A Survey and
Comparison.”
Handelingen der Maatschappij voor
Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent
Nieuwe Reeks, 50 (1996): 23-72.
SOURCES FOR PLAIN CHANT AND RITUAL
FROM GHENT AND LONDON:
A SURVEY AND COMPARISON
Barbara HAGGH
Introduction
The history of chant was shaped not only by authority and tradition, but also by
individual initiatives, folklore, error and circumstance, and this is most evident
when composers, commissioners, copyists and singers of chant are studied
alongside the music. In this respect cities, homes for diverse peoples and
religious communities, provide an ideal framework for an investigation: Ghent
and London are especially well suited not only because of their rich and relatively
unstudied archives but also because they were the two most populous cities north
of Paris in the late fifteenth century and represented the lively musical cultures
of Flanders and England.
As the first stage of a project to study the chant and polyphony of Ghent and
London in the later Middle Ages and the musicians shaping that repertory,
manuscripts and fragments containing the rituals of the churches and abbeys of
both cities were surveyed in order to establish what survives and to record
preliminary impressions of the nature of the sources. 1 Early as well as later
sources were studied, to permit as accurate a chronology of the introduction of
new chant as possible. The later sources are an especially useful resource for the
study of later medieval music, since they are more numerous than sources of
polyphony, more representative of music in daily life and more revealing than
archives in documenting musical practices. They also reflect most clearly the
interaction between ecclesiastical authorities, patrons, founders, composers,
I am grateful to the Leverhulme foundation for supporting my research within
the project, 'Music in the North-European Metropolis: London and Ghent c. 1400-1520',
directed by Andrew Wathey. For assistance in Ghent, I am indebted to Daniel Lievois for
sharing his knowledge of the history of Ghent with me and for facilitating my research
in numerous ways, to Georges Declercq for his considerable contribution to the first part
of this essay, and to the staff of the Bijloke Museum, Museum voor Schone Kunsten,
Rijksarchief, Stadsarchief and Universiteitsbibliotheek in Ghent, the Openbare Bibliotheek and Openbaar Centrum voor Maatschappelijk Welzijn in Bruges and the Diocesan
Seminary Library in Tournai. An earlier version of this article, superseded here, was
delivered as a paper at the seventh meeting of the International Musicological Society
Study Group Cantus Planus in Sopron, Hungary, thanks to travel assistance from the
British Academy, and is in press as part of the proceedings (Budapest, forthcoming). For
further information on musical terms or composers, see The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians, ,ed. S. SADIE, 20 vols., London, 1980.
23
BARBARA HAGGH
authors, individual scribes and owners and can show associations between
churches and abbeys not necessarily evident from documentary sources. 2
The principal objective here is not to survey book production or musical notation,
which would require a separate study, but rather to consider what the sources
reveal of local musical and devotional practices. The later sources are easier to
analyze in this respect than the earlier sources, since they give fuller rubrics and
can often be dated quite precisely. For this reason, more attention is given here
to the earlier sources and to the gradual Blandiniensis, in particular, which is of
unparalleled importance as the earliest surviving assembly of all of the sung mass
proper texts. Given the restrictions of space and the number of manuscripts, only
their most interesting features will be discussed here - further elaboration of the
many important topics passed over quickly here will be found in the book
proposed for the project.
Table One lists known manuscripts and fragments from Ghent and London. 3
Introductions to books prepared for ecclesiastical use include C. VOGEL,
Medieval Liturgy: An Introduction to the Sources, tr. and rev. by W. STOREY and N.
RASMUSSEN, Washington, 1986 (early medieval books); A. HUGHES, Medieval
Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to Their Organization and Terminology,
Toronto, 1982 (later medieval books); and M. HUGLO, Les livres de chant liturgiques,
Turnhout, 1988 (typology of books). On ecclesiastical ritual in general, see J. HARPER,
The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A
Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians, Oxford, 1991 (introductory)
and D. HILEY, Western Plainchant: A Handbook, Oxford, 1993 (comprehensive) as well
as numerous articles in The New Grove Dictionary, op.cit.
3
The author would be most grateful for any information about manuscripts
from Ghent and London not listed here (fuller descriptions will appear in the book in
preparation). Evangeliaries, obituaries (exceptthose with musical notation), martyrologies,
and books of Hours are omitted here intentionally but will be discussed in the book. Also
omitted but worth mentioning are two graduals prepared in 1504 by the Hieronymites in
Ghent for the StMary Magdalene godshuis in Bruges, which have complete kyriales and
sequentiaries (including the lesser-known sequences Alma cohors domini for the
Wednesday after Pentecost, Cuius hodie celebremus for Sts Agatha and Agnes, De
parente pestas for the Transfiguration, and Festum presens recolentes forSt Barbara),
Bruges, Openbaar Centrum voor Maatschappelijk Welzijn, Archives oSJ 211.! -II, in fob;
also the late 12th-century psalter, Tournai, Cathedral Chapter Library, MS A 15, 12 ,
once thought to be from Ghent but whose office of the dead has Matins responsories not
found in any other sources from Ghent or elsewhere: Credo quod, Qui lazarum, Domine
quando veneris, Ne recorderis, Heu mihi, Peccante me, Libera me ... de viis, Requiem
eternam, Libera me ... de morte (cf. K. OTTOSEN, The Responsories and Versicles ofthe
Latin Office of the Dead, Aarhus, 1993 ). Their kalendars (the folios of several are mixed
together) list St Eleutherius, the first bishop of Tournai, and St Austregisilus, bishop of
Bourges. I thank canon Dumoulin and Jacques Pycke for making this psalter available to
me. It is possible that some fragments once kept in Tournai and in Gothic notation are from
Ghent, though further study is necessary. These are Varia, Archives de Famille, 198511,
at the Algemeen Rijksarchief in Brussels. Some manuscripts from Ghent are discussed
in M. J. BLOXAM, A Survey ofLate Medieval Service Books from the Low Countries:
Implications for Sacred Polyphony (unpub. diss., Yale University, 1987), pp.21-33, who
concentrates on noted books, breviaries and missals. No survey of manuscripts of
ecclesiastical ritual from London has ever been published.
24
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
A list of printed books from the two cities can be obtained from David Crawford,
director of the project 'Renaissance Liturgical Imprints: A Census' at the
University of Michigan or on the World Wide Web: http: //www.umich.edu/
davidcr. 4
Ghent: The Breve and Bland
Ghent begins the survey, because the oldest manuscripts of the two cities are
documented there. They include 'le monument le plus precieux qui nous reste
pour l'histoire de la messe', the gradual that is part of Brussels, Royal Library,
MSS 10127-10144, a compilation copied c. 800 and in the library of the Abbey
of StPeter in Ghent by 1200 according to Lowe and by the thirteenth century at
the very latest following the date of copying of its ex libris (hereafter the
compilation is 'Bland'), 5 as well as a no longer extant antephona[] in a book list
from the Abbey of St Bavo' s, the latter which has been dated between c.800 and
810-814. 6 StPeter's Abbey on the Blandin hill (Mont Blandin, Blandijnberg) is
presently thought to be the oldest of the two Ghent abbeys, which both date from
the seventh century. St Amand founded St Peter's between 629 and 639. St
Bavo' s dates from the second half of that century. 7 The booklist, the later history
Address: Prof. David Crawford, Director, Renaissance Liturgical Imprints:
A Census (RELICS), 2053 School of Music, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
mゥ」ィセ。ョ@
48109, USA
See B.A. LOWE, Codices Iatini antiquiores, 10, Oxford, 1963, no.1548. Lowe
and the authors cited below agree on a 13th-century date for the ex libris on f. 3r. For what
follows, I am greatly indebted to Georges Declercq, who commented extensively on three
drafts and recommended bibliography. I also thank Michel Huglo and Marike Teeuwen
for pointing me to further bibliography. The most recent edition of the gradual in Bland
is R. -J. HESBERT (ed. ), Antiphonale missarum sextuplex, Rome, 1935 (his comment on
p. XVI cited). Also seeP. JEFFERY, The Oldest Sources ofthe Graduale: A Preliminary
Checklist of MSS Copied Before About 900 AD, in: Journal of Musicology, 2, 1983,
pp.316-321 (esp. p.319); J. VAN DEN GHEYN, Catalogue des manuscrits de Ia
bibliotheque royale de Belgique, 1, Brussels, 1901, pp.191-194, no.363; H. PEILLON,
L' antiphonaire de Pamelius, in: Revue benedictine, 29, 1912, pp.411-437; M. ANDRIEU,
Les ordines Romani du haut moyen age, 1, Louvain, 1931, pp.91-96; M. HUGLO, Le
Chant 'Vieux-Romain', in: Sacris erudiri, 6, 1954, pp.lll-112, no.l3; K. GAMBER,
Codices liturgici Latini antiquiores, 2, Freiburg, 1968, pp.504-505; and J. FROGER,
L'edition du graduel par Pamelius et le manuscrit 'Blandiniensis' (Bruxelles, B.R.lat
10121-10144), in: Etudes gregoriennes, 11, 1970, pp.175-180, which cite other studies.
Bischoff (1967) dates it c.800, Munding (1930) just before 813, and Verhulst
(1971) closer to 800 but to 810/14 (citations in note 11).
On the two abbeys, see especially A. VERHULST and G. DECLERCQ, Early
Medieval Ghent between two abbeys and the Counts' Castle, in : Rural and Urban
Aspects of Early Medieval Northwest Europe, Aldershot, 1956, repr. 1992, no. XII, but
also G. BERINGS and Ch. LEBBE, Abbaye de Saint-Bavon a Gand, in: Monasticon
beige 7: Province deFlandre Orientale, 1, Liege, 1988, pp.ll-67; G. BERINGS and Ch.
VAN SIMAEY, Abbaye de Saint-Pierre au Mont-Blandin, aGand, in: ibid., pp.69-157;
and J. DECAVELE, Gand, in: Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geographie ecclesiastiques,
19, ed. R. AUBERT, Paris, 1981, cols.1005-1058.
25
BARBARA HAGGH
of Bland, which was probably not copied in Ghent but became part of the library
of St Peter's, and the history of the two abbeys, among the oldest in the region, ·
shows that the canons (the early religious men praying the horae canonicae) in
Ghent must have been very much aware of, if not a part of, several changes that
were furthered by the Carolingian court: the adaptation and establishment of a
fu11 set of texts and music for the entire church year, the development of musical
notation and of a system of organizing melody into toni (modes), perhaps even
the introduction of notation for the sung polyphony which surely preceded it.
Between 817 and 825, a rotulus from the Carolingian north arrived in
Benediktbeuern and was scraped, trimmed and bound to become f.36 of a new
manuscript compilation, now Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm
6333. 8 Copied on the rotulus by a German and probably Carolingian court
official, between 800 and 811, was a three-part inventory, now known as the
Breve sancti Bavonis, of the treasury (with books), property and rents belonging
to St Bavo's Abbey. 9 The Breve is now thought to have been requested by the
Carolingian chancery to aid them in developing a defense strategy against the
Vikings (Charlemagne had visited Ghent in 811 to inspect shipyards). 10 The
decipherable part of the list includes one or more Gospel books, one and perhaps
more antiphoners, an unidentified rule, other books and an { }anonis:
... s euan[ge]l[i]a ..... .. ... antephona .... regula .1. Q.in/lt(i) bibliotheca et
[euan]gelica ..... alis ..le... .iar.. et homiliarum et [ et uitas pat.. ..canonis
sunt in summa
That these books were at St Bavo's abbey has never been doubted, because the
Breve lists a sepulchro sancti bauonis in two places. 11 (The only earlier reference
See Palimpsesttexte des Codex Latinus monacensis 6333 (Frisingensis 133,
Cimelium 308), E. MUNDING and A. DOLD (eds.), Texte und Arbeiten hg. durch die
Erzabtei Beuron, 15-18, Beuron, 1930, pp. 7,12-13,191-196. Fol. 36r bears traces of the
writing of the Breve sancti Bavonis. On the transmission of the rotulus to Benediktbeuem,
see the more recent and comprehensive discussion by A. VERHULST, Das
Besitzverzeichnis der Genter Sankt-Bavo-Abtei von ca. 800 (Clm 6333), in:
Friihmittelalterliche Studien, 5, 1971, pp.219-223.
9
Georges Declercq points out that the verb invenimus [we find] in the inventory
of the treasury gives evidence that the scribe was not from St Bavo' s. The spelling Babo
appearing in the Breve (as well as Bavo) was only used east of the Rhine and in southern
Germany. See VERHULST, Das Besitzverzeichnis, pp.220-221.
10
SeeR. MCKITTERICK, The Carolingians and the Written Word, Cambridge,
1989, pp.160-163, on Carolingian missi sent to report on the property of churches in their
regions in 807 and 811-813.
11
As transcribed by VERHULST in Das Besitzverzeichnis, pp.232-233, with
further discussion pp.193-234 and see plates A-B preceding the article. The Breve is the
oldest document li sting an antiphoner in B. BISCHOFF (ed. ), Mittelalterliche
Schatzverzeichnisse: Erster Teil, Von der Zeit Karls des Crossen his zur Mitte des 13.
Jahrhunderts, Veri:iffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts ftir Kirchengeschichtein Munchen,
4, Munich, 1967, where it is transcribed and discussed on pp.36-38; also see the
26
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
to an antiphoner in such lists of books is from the abbey of Fontanelle, later St
Wandrille, in Normandy, where an inventory was made upon order in 787: ' ...
sacramentoria volumina III, ... psalterium cum canticis ac himnis ambrosianis ac
terminis paschalibus volumen I, ... antiphonarium romanae aecclesiae volumen
I'.) At this time, the word antiphonarius could refer to a book with material for
mass and office, but was more often the equivalent of the modern gradual, that
is, the book with mass proper texts or texts and chant. 12 The scribe of the Breve
recognized this type of book, which demonstrates that it was known at the
Carolingian court even before Abbot Helisachar' s reforms of c.814. 13 Indeed,
transcriptions oflines 22 and 23 of the Breve in Palimpsesttexte, MUNDING and DOLD
(eds.), p.7 (butcf. pp.8, 11-14,191-197, and the unnumbered facsimile ofthis palimpsest).
For comparison, see Corpus catalogorum Belgii: de middeleeuwse bibliotheekscatalogi
der Zuidelijke Nederlanden, v. 1: Provincie West- Vlaanderen, v. 2: Provinces of Liege,
Luxembourg and Namur, ed. A. DEROLEZ et al., Brussels, 1966, 1994. Finally, seeK.
G. VAN ACKER, De handschriften der vroegere St.-Baafslibrije, in: Handelingen der
Maatschappij voorGeschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent, 14, 1960, pp.63-86 (especially
p.63); id. , Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der librije van de Sint-Baafsabdij te Gent,
Bibliotheekgids 35:3-4, Antwerp, 1959, pp.75-86; and A. E. VERHULST, De SintBaafsabdij en haar grondbezit(VIe-X/Ve eeuw), Brussels, 1958, pp.17-28. Important is
P. SIFFRIN, De sacramentariis Cod. lat. monacensis 6333 aliisque sirnilibus Parisiensi,
Sangallensi, Bruxellensi comparandis, Ephemerides liturgicae, 45, 1931, pp.327-353,
who discusses similarities between the sacramentaries in Bland and those in Munich
6333. The content of Munich 6333 is edited and discussed further in Palimpsest-Studien
II Alterthmliche Sakramentar- und Litanei-Fragmente im Cod. Lat. Monac. 6333, A.
DOLD (ed.), Texte und Arbeiten hg. durch die Erzabtei Beuron, 48, Beuron, 1957, and
in B. BISCHOFF, Die siiddeutschen Schreibschulen undBibliotheken inder Karolingerzeit,
1: DieJJayrischen Diozesen, Wiesbaden, 1960, pp.26-27,32-34.
The inventory also lists gospel books, lectionaries, books of the Bible and
others. See Gesta sanctorum patrum Fontanellensis coenobii, F. LOHIER and R.P.J.
LAPORTE (eds.), Paris, 1936, pp.89-90. On early antiphoners, see M. HUGLO,
Antiphoner, in: The New Grove Dictionary, 1, pp.482-483, and K. LEVY, Charlemagne' s
Archetype of Gregorian Chant, in: Journal of the American Musicological Society, 40: 1,
198\pp.1-30, esp. pp.5-7.
See note 9 above. On Abbot Helisachar' s letter to archbishop Nidibrius
describing the reforms, seeK. LEVY, Abbot Helisachar's Antiphoner, Journal of the
American Musicological Society, 48:2, 1995, pp.171-186. Unfortunately, itis not clear
from Abbot Helisachar's letter or from Levy's discussion whether the corrections were
copied into a single antiphoner containing material for both mass and office or into
separate books, and this is crucial, because the letter, by Levy's interpretation, with which
I agree, only refers to singers and melody with regard to the chant for the Night Office,
which is fixed in a magnum documentum according to the end of the letter. By my reading,
the only reference to the mass is a single phrase (LEVY, p.179, item 7), and the letter refers
principally to the redaction of a full and authoritative book with texts and music for the
Office. If this is the case- and this has profound implications for our understanding of the
history of the Office- then Helisachar' s letter still leaves us entirely in the dark about any
neumation of mass chant. And given that the Mass chants 'could scarcely disagree', at
least as far as the texts are concerned, we are left wondering whether any neumation would
27
BARBARA HAGGH
the Breve is evidence that St Bavo's had its antiphoner before Einhard became
lay abbot c. 814-815. 14
The St Bavo antiphoner did not survive, but Bland came to be part of the library
of St Peter's abbey by the thirteenth century. One might be tempted to equate
Bland with the Uanonis listed in the Breve sancti Bavonis because it begins with
a compilation of canon law, the Vetus Gallica, but its content, script, and Irish
abbreviations argue against its having been copied in GhentY The Bland
compilation was copied by one main scribe with assistants from Irish exemplars
and includes an abridged sacramentary, but neither Bland's gradual nor the
sacramentary share content with an Irish plenary missal used to bind a book at
St Peter's in the tenth century (of course, the origin and later use of this missal
have been necessary. On the manuscripts giving evidence of Helisachar' s learning,
interests and activities, which included the revision of the Carolingian antiphoner, seeM.
HUGLO, D'Helisachar B Abbon de Fleury, in: Revue benedictine, 104, 1994, pp.204230; idem, Trois livres manuscrits prJsentJs par Helisachar, in :Revue benedictine, 99,
1989, pp.272-285; also idem, Les remaniements de l' Antiphonaire gregorien du IXe
siecle: Helisachar, Agobard, Amalaire, in : Atti del XVII Convegno di Studi sul tema
'Culto cristiano e Politica imperiale carolingia, Todi, 9-12 ottobre 1977, Todi, 1979,
pp.89-120, especially pp.96-102.
14
We do not know who was lay abbot after Winebold (794-809). See P.
GRIERSON, The Early Abbots of St Bavo's in Ghent, in: Revue benedictine, 49, 1937,
pp.44-45.
15
Bland was copied by a single main scribe with assistants according to
HESBERT and dates from before the Breve. (LINDSAY claims that several scribes
copied the manuscript since the abbreviations used differ, but the scribe(s) probably used
exemplars of differing provenance. See Paleographia Latina, pt. 5, W. LINDSAY ed.,
St Andrews University Publications, 23, Oxford, 1927, pp.28-35, for discussion of the
'degenerate Irish' abbreviations in Bland and in another early manuscript from StPeter's,
Leiden, University Library, MS Voss. lat. F 26.) Bland's gatherings do include missing
pages, but are marked with consecutive letters, proof that the contents never changed
order or were separated. Thus, Bland never began with anything but the Vetus Gallica
(Kirchenrecht und Reform im Frankenreich: Die Collectio Vetus Gallica, Die iilteste
systematische Kanonessammlung des Friinkischen Gallien. Studien und Edition, H.
MORDEK (ed.), Berlin, 1975, pp.276-277 and passim). The front cover of its modern
binding reads 'collectio canonum etc. IX saec.'; more importantly, the torn first folio has
the text 'CANON'S' in a later, but medieval script, written vertically along the left
margin; and the verso of the flyleaf also reads 'Capitulationes. Excarsum de canonis. '
Since library catalogues list books by their incipits, Bland would very likely have been
called a 'liber canonis ', a reminder that other early antiphoners might well have hidden
behind such descriptions in library catalogues. Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS lat.
1603, in the library of StAmand in the fourteenth century and oflater date than Bland (but
from the ninth or tenth century) shares with Bland the Vetus Gallica, penitential of
Theodore and excarpsus Cummeani.
28
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
is not known). 16 There is also no evidence in chronicles or among known names
of canons for the presence oflrish priests at the Ghent abbeys around 800. 17 More
important is an addition to f. 89v in Bland copied in the second half of the ninth
century, certainly by 900. If this addition indeed pertains to Bland's owner and
was not simply copied from another source out of curiosity, which seems
unlikely given the content of the text, then Bland reached an apparent den of
iniquity, subject to the bishop of Liege. 18
Bland, f. 89v: De seruitio domni ep[iscop]i [et] archidiaconi
De una matrice aecl[esi]a mod[ium].i.de farrina
et sextarios.ii.de cruda.ad modium leodi
censi.Porcum unu[m].ualentem denarios.xii
Porcellu[m].i.ualente[m] d[e ]n[a]r[ios]. vi Pullos.iiii.optimos
Oua xx Caseos.ii.Vinu[m] sextarios vi. Sicera
aquearios.viii.Annona modios.x.Car[ra]da.i.
de feno.Altera carrada de stramine.De sale
sextariu[m].i.De cera den[a]r[ios].ii.Carradas.ii.
de ligna.De sapone. d[e]n[a]r[ium].i.Piper uncia[m].i.
Seruientes. et utensilia usque ad sufficienter
Propter tanta flagitia et tantas nequitias
inhonestas. p[ro]hibeo tibi rninisteriu[n]di
ex autoritate d[e]i patris. et s[an]c[t]oru[m] canonu[m]
ut n[on] habeas licentia[m] missam caelebrandi
neq[ue] ullum officiu[m] ecclesiasticu[m] nisi
cantu[m] psalmoru[m] melodia usq[ue] ad
satisfactione[ m].
Translation: On the service of the lords bishop and archdean. Following the
matrix of the church: 1 muid of flour and 2 setiers of unbleached flour (measured
by the muid of Liege). 1 pig worth 12 d. 1 piglet worth 6 d. 4 chickens, best
quality. 20 eggs. 2 cheeses. 6 setiers wine. 8 ewers cider. 10 muids com. 1
cartload hay. Another cartload straw. 1 setier of salt. 2 pennyworth of wax. 2
cartloads of wood. 1 pennyworth of soap. 1 ounce pepper. Servants [perhaps
16
Bland has the introit Vultum tuum for the Circumcision; the Irish plenary
missal has Postquam consummati sunt, then the other mass propers differ. Both share the
introit for Epiphany, but then differ.
17
The Irishman Celestine was abbot of both abbeys from 700 or 703 until he was
deposed in 719, but died not long thereafter. SeeP. GRIERSON, The Early Abbots of St
Peter's of Ghent, in: Revue benedictine, 48, 1936, pp.144-145, and idem, The Early
Abbots of St Bavo's of Ghent, op.cit., p.61.
18
I am most grateful to Georges Declercq for improving my transcription and to
Leofranc Holford-Strevens for the translation and to Jean-Claude Hocquet for his opinion
on the date of the script, the provenance of the text, and for identifying the meaning of
' matrice ecclesiae' in this context (communication of 30 October 1996).
29
BARBARA HAGGH
'serjeants' or fighting men] and provisions to sufficiency. On account of so many
crimes and so many dishonourable wickednesses I forbid you service of God on
the authority of God the Father and the holy canons, so that you shall not have
licence to celebrate mass nor any ecclesiastical office save only the melody of
the psalms until satisfaction.
There is insufficient evidence regarding the property of the two abbeys in this
early period. St Bavo did own property in the diocese of Liege in the ninth
century, in Chaumont-Gistoux and Meldert near Tienen (not known as a region
populated by the Irish), which was confiscated by the crown at an unknown date
and given c.988 by Otto III to the bishop of Liege. 19
Moreover, the content of Bland relates it to two manuscripts associated with
Nivelles or its region and certainly not with West Flanders, the Rheinau gradual
(Zurich, Zentralbibliothek, MS Rheinau 30, c.795-800) and sacramentary of
Padua, a later manuscript based on an earlier model (Padua, Biblioteca capitolare,
Cod. D 47, copied 841-855). Michels argued that the latter came from for the
abbey of Ni ve11es, citing a later addition on f.88r of proper material for the feast
of Sts Quintin and Foillan, because their double cult was most prominent in
Nivelles. (Others place the manuscript in the scriptorium of Lothar because of
illuminated initials pointing to the region of Liege, Aachen or Cologne). The
martyrology in the Rheinau 30 compilation lists the translation of St Gertrude of
Nivelles and the Dormition of Sts Fursy and Foillan, the latter saints venerated
at the abbeys of Posses, Peronne, and Lagny, the former two abbeys near
Nivelles, the latter abbey near Paris.
Hesbert associated Bland with Nivel1es, because it shares with Rheinau 30 an
otherwise unique second series of post-Pentecostal Sunday graduals. Rheinau
30, which was copied in Rhaetia however, also shares with Bland features oflrish
Latinity and an appended sacramentary of the type excarpsus (abridged),
including the same formula for the missa pro infirmo as Bland. 20 (Another
manuscript of southern origin possibly related to these two is a fragment dated
c.830 from Benediktbeuem, now Munich, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Klos-
19
See A.E. VERHULST, De Sint-Baafsabdij te Gent en haar grondbezit (VlleX/Ve eeuw ), Brussels, 1958, p.104.
20
On Rheinau 30, see HESBERT, introduction in : Antiphonale Missarum
Sextuplex, and id., L'antiphonaire de Pamelius et les graduels des dimanches apres Ia
Pentecote, in : Ephemerides liturgicae, 49, 1935, pp.348-59; also HANGGI and
SCHONHERR, Sacramentarium Rhenaugiense. Handschrift Rh 30 der Zentralbibliothek
Zurich, Freiburg, 1970, Spicilegium Friburgense, 15, Fribourg, 1970. The older series in
Bland, which does not follow the order of the psalms, is found in the graduals of Monza
and Sen lis; the new series, following psalmic order, is only found in Bland and Rheinau.
30
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
ter Holzen Kl. Lit. No. 104. 2 1 )
Bland's gradual shares different material with the (primitive Gregorian)
sacramentary of Padua. According to Bourque, they both reflect seventh-century
and not later Roman ritual and also the succession of Advent formularies and the
number of formulas and stations between Septuagesima Sunday and Whitsunday .
Bland differs in following the Gelasian system of Sundays after Pentecost not
found in the sacramentary of Padua. 22
Given the early state of the Roman ritual reflected in Bland and the sacramentary
of Padua, which suggests transmission of their exemplars from Rome to England
and then to the Continent, 23 and the strong Irish element in the Rheinau gradual
as well as the Irish origin of Bland's exemplars and Irish abbreviations used by
its scribes, an Irish colony seems the most likely place of origin for a manuscript
like Bland, making Ghent a most unlikely candidate. Noteworthy, too, is the
inclusion in the Bland compilation of an unidentified computus argumentum,
which has as its closest counterpart a text in a manuscript probably from Peronne,
21
SeeP. JEFFERY, Rome and Jerusalem: From Oral Tradition to Written
Repertory, in: Essays on Medieval Music in Honor of David G. Hughes, G. Boone, ed.,
Cambridge, Mass., 1995, p. 240: 'The underlying tradition that served as the original basis
for the Mont-Blandin text prior to conflation may have been related to a fragment in
Munich' . The fragment agrees with Bland in having the gradual Venite fi.li in the Omnes
gentes mass and the gradual Gloria et honore on the feast of St Menna, but differs in
omitting texts that are present in Bland and in its selection of rubrics. The fragment also
has isolated correspondences with the Rheinau and Compiegne graduals. See A.
SCHRODER, Bruchstiick eines Mess-Antiphonars aus dem neunten Jahrhundert, in :
Archiv fiir die Geschichte des Hochstifts Augsburg, 6, 1929, pp.795-806, especially
p.797-798.
n
•
On the sacramentary ofPadua, see E. BOURQUE, Etude sur les sacramentaires
romains, Vatican City, 1949, p. 301 and especially pp.357-360. The Padua sacramentary
is from the Liege region according to Mohlberg and from Nivelles according to Michels.
See K. MOHLBERG (ed.), Die iilteste erreichbare Gestalt des Liber sacramentorum
anni circuli der romischen Kirche (Cod. Pad. D. 47,folll r-1 OOr), Liturgiegeschichtliche
Quellen 11/12, Munster, 1927; Th. MICHELS, Entstehungszeit und Heimat des Codex
D 47 der Kapitelsbibliothek zu Padua, in: Jahrbuchfhr Liturgiewissenschaft, 7, 1927,
pp.24-37; and, most recently, M. METZGER, Les sacramentaires, Typologie des sources
du ュセイ・ョ@
age occidental, 70, Turnhout, 1994.
Bland's gradual contains originally Roman texts brought to northern Europe
from the British Isles and not from Rome. See HESBERT, Introduction, in: Antiphonale
missarum sextuplex; cf. K. GAMBER, Die irischen Messlibelli als Zeugnis fiir die friihe
romische Liturgie, in : Romische Quartalschrift, 62, 1967, pp.214 ff.; and id., Codices
liturgici Iatini antiquiores, 2, p.495, on the transmission of the Roman antiphoner to
England in the seventh and eighth centuries. The spelling in Bland's rubric, 'ANTFR'
[=ANTIFONARIUM], points to an Italian exemplar, but cf A. de VOGUE, Le sens
d'"antifana" et Ia longueur de I' office dans Ia 'Regula Magistri', in: Revue benedictine,
71, 1961, pp.119-124, who discusses the word antifana, which occurs in early sources of
the Benedictine Rule.
31
BARBARA HAGGH
where the Irish St Foillan was venerated.
The computus texts in Bland include:
on ff.80-81 v, an unidentified dialogue beginning mid-sentence:
... ostendam diximus supra an no presenti et ab incoacione so lis anni
[C]CCLXXXIIII. Habent enim iuxta quaternarium [etc.] [Expl.] ...
Interim tamen scito quod ea luna quod presenti anno est in XI kal.
Ap[rilis] antequam XVIIII transeat in eodem die nullatenus. 24
on ff.81 v-82r, two unidentified argumenta:
Si vis scire qualiter in XVIIII annis assis adcrescat, quem Iatini saltim
lune vocant, scito primum [etc.] [Expl.] ... tam communium annorum
quam embolismos dies sunt VI DCCCC XXXVI.
.
Si ergo vis in venire ut supra diximus incrementum lune qualiterin XVIIII
annis assem adimpleat partire per XVIII! partem dies VI DCCCC
XXXVI [etc.] [Expl.] ... Ergo adde istam medietatem puncti supra horas
XI et dimidiam et punctum et dimidium et habebis in XVIIII annis assem
impletum
Argumenta similar to the latter include, first, 'Si scire volueris quomodo
die lunaris qui dicitur saltus preparitur ... ' (Geneva, Bibliotheque publique
et universitaire, MS lat. 50, second quarter, 9th c., f.153r); and second, 'Si
nosse desideras qualiter in decem et novem annis adcrescat saltus lunae,
terre decim et nov em annorum ... ' (Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek,
MS Aug. 167, first quarter, 9th c. , f.9r, a manuscript probably from
PJronne, dated 836-848 in CONTRENI, The Cathedral School, note 37
below, p.88; also in Cologne, Dombibliothek, MS 83/2, c.805, ff.68v69r).
on ff.82v-84r, an excerpt from the Acta Synodi Caesariae, version III or
'B' 2s:
Post resurrectionem vel ascensionem [s?] domini salvatoris apostoli
quomodo pascha deberent observare nihil ordinari potuerunt, [etc.]
[Ex pl.] ... quando ergo fit intra ilium lirnitem ab XI [Kal.Apr.] qua in VII
Kal. Maii dies dominicos et luna et ill is octava sanctificata pascha nobis
iussum [om est] celebrare.
None of the other manuscript sources of thi s text contain the incipits or
explicits of the works adjacent to the Acta Synodi in Bland.
24
Cf H. SILVESTRE, Notices etextraits des manuscrits 5413-22, 10098-105
et 10127-44 de Ia Bibliotheque Royale de Bruxelles, in: Sacris erudiri, 5, 1953, p.l90).
Dr. Wesley Stevens notes that similar language is used in for a different topic in the
Argumentum de nativitate: Quaerenda est nativitas luna XIIII ... (PL 90, 881 ).
25
According to B. KRUSCH, Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologie. Der 84jdhrige Ostercyclus und seine Quellen, Leipzig, 1880, pp.303-310. Early
concordances are Cologne, Dombibliothek, MS 103, ff.190v-192r, c.800; British Library,
Cotton Caligula, MS A XV, ff.80v-82v , second half eighth century; Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale, MS n.a.lat. 1615, ff.186v-187r, c.830; StGall, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 251 , c.810,
pp.l4-16.
32
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
on f. 84r, the heading and three words of the Romana Computatio, stated
wrongly to be part of the Explicit of the Acta Synodi by Silvestre:
Romana computatio ita dicitur flexibus.
The Romana Computatio does not follow directly upon the Acta Synodi
in any manuscripts checked by Wesley Stevens. 26
At the same time, Bland's content - the Vetus Gallica, an extract from the
penitential of Theodore, the excarpsus Cummiani, Irish computus texts, ordines,
the gradual, benedictions and masses for principal feasts and for selected
Sundays of the Temporale, that is, an abridged sacramentary 27 - also the fact that
it is a small manuscript in a slightly unpracticed Carolingian book hand not
traceable to any major scriptorium, led Peillon to identify it as the vade-mecum
of a wandering or rural priest, pointing away from large abbeys, such as that in
Nivelles or those of Ghent. Perhaps one day a mother church in a wicked Irish
community in the region where the modius of Liege was used will be identified.
Bland's Arrival in Ghent
How the manuscript came to St Peter's Abbey is not known, but the neumes
added to f.90r in Bland might yield further clues. Several manuscripts in the
library of StPeter's abbey by the eleventh century also contain notation and the
neumes are thought to have been added at the abbey in that century by Verhulst.
Two manuscripts have neumation for Scande caeli, the refrain to the chant of the
muses welcoming Philology at the gates of heaven, in Martianus Capella's De
nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii; another two for a poem on the signs of the
Zodiac, Ad Boree partes; and another for the antiphon Magna vox for the office
of St Lambert attributed to bishop Stephen of Liege. 28 All of the manuscripts
26
I am most grateful to Professor Stevens, who is completing a catalogue of
computus manuscripts, for searching for these concordances, and to Professor Dc:libhi
Cr6inin for confirming that these texts and manuscripts have very close Irish connections.
He notes that the phrase 'Si vis scire qualiter in XVIIII ann is ass is adcrescat, quem Iatini
saltim lune vacant' echoes a phrase encountered in Cummian's Paschal Letter of 633
(private communication, 3.5.1996). I thank Margaret Bent for bringing Dr. Cr\inRn's
イ・ウ。セィ@
to my attention.
The sacramentary of Bland is edited by C. COEBERGH and P. DE PUNIET
(eds.): Liber sacramentorum excarsus. Cod. Bruxellensis 10127-10144, saec. VIII-IX,
in :Testimonia Orationis Christianae Antiquioris, ed. P. SALMON, C. COEBERGH, P.
DE PUNIET, Corpus christianorum continuatio mediaevalis, 47, Turnhout, 1977, pp.81110, セゥエィ@
a facsimile of Bland, f.125r.
On the manuscripts with neumes, see S. CORBIN, The Neumes of the
Martianus Capella Manuscripts, in : Essays on opera and English music in honor of Sir
Jack Westrup, F. STERNFELD et al. (eds.), Oxford, 1975, pp.1-7, who notes that the
music of Scande celi was neither standardized nor well-known; J.-G. PRIAUX, Deux
manuscrits gantois de Martianus Capella, in : Scriptorium, 13, 1959, pp.lS-21 and Plate
4a of Vatican Reg. lat. 1987, f. I); idem, Le commentaire de Martin de Laon sur l'oeuvre
33
BARBARA HAGGH
with neumes have been traced to the first known Ghent scriptorium, that
established under the abbacy of Wichard ( 1034/5-1 058) at St Peter's Abbey
according to Verhulst. (Wichard's residence before he arrived in Ghent is not
known_)29 And therefore, comparison of all of the neumes might yield further
insights into their interrelationships and the plausibility of Bland having had
neumes added at St Peter's. 30
Vikings and Reforms in Laon: The Post-Pentecostal Alleluia Verses of
Ghent
When the Vikings invaded Ghent, destroying StBavo's in 851, the canons ofthe
abbey fled with their relics and books, eventually to Laon, home of their later
abbot, count Adalelm ofLaon (d. 877 or 879), where they remained intermittently
until around 930 (see Table Three). 31 Some canons stayed in Ghent, however,
and some returned from Laon between 851 and 864, because an inventory of
books dates from those years: it does not list an antiphoner, only Aevangelia
duo. 32 In 879 the Vikings again devastated StBavo's. At this time, more canons
fled to Laon and eventually to Nesle-la-Reposte in Champagne. 33 It seems telling
de Martianus Capella, in : Latomus, 12, 1953, pp.437-459; C. LEONARDI, Glosse
Eriugeniane a Marziano Capella in un Cod ice Lei dense, in :Jean Scot Erigene et l 'his to ire
de laphilosophie, Laon, 1977, pp.171-182; andJ. CONTRENI, Three Carolingian Texts
Attributed to Laon: Reconsiderations, in: StudiMedievali, ser. 3, 17:2, 1976, pp.797-813.
Also A. VERHULST, L' Activite et Ia calligraphie du Scriptorium de Saint-Pierre-deMont-Blandin, in: Scriptorium, 11, 1957, pp.37-49 and Plate 8 (Paris BN lat. 1913A,
f.1 v) .29
See VERHULST, L' Activite et la calligraphie, op.cit.
30
PEILLON, L'antiphonaire de Pamelius, op.cit., thinks the neumes in Bland
are Anglo-Saxon (cf. S. RANKIN, Neumatic Notations in Anglo-Saxon England, in:
Musicologie medievale: Notation et sequences, ed. M. HUGLO, Paris, 1987, pp.l29144); VAN DEN GHEYN, Catalogue, op.cit., considers them to be German. BANNISTER relates the neumes of Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS 1987 to
those of Laon and St Gall. As evidence of traffic between Laon and St Gall, see L.
HEIMAN, The Rhythmic Value of the Final Descending Note after a Punctum in Neums
of Codex 239 of the Library ofLaon, Etudes gregoriennes, 13, 1972, pp.151 -224, who
demonstrates that the nuances in Laon 239 generally agree with those in St Gall,
Stiftsbibliothek, 359 and Einsiedeln, Benediktinerkloster, 121.
31
See GRIERSON, The Early Abbots of StPeter's, pp.129-146, and idem, The
Early Abbots of St Bavo' s, pp.29-61. Adalelm, count of Laon, was lay abbot of St Bavo' s
from before 864 to after 877 and should not be confused with Adalelm schoolmaster. He
was perhaps succeeded by Walcher, count ofLaon, who died in 892, and perhaps then by
Baldwin II, Count of Flanders, who died 10 September 918.
32
Transcribed in BISCHOFF, Mittelalterliche Schatzverzeichnisse, pp.38-39,
from Ghent, St Bavo's Cathedral Archive, Evangeliary of St Livinus, early ninth c.,
ff.l81r-181 v (original document dating from after 851).
33
See G. CHIREST, L'abbaye benedictine de Nesle-la-Reposte, in : Revue
Mabillon, 45, 1955, pp.l48-160, especially pp.l51-l53 on the canons from Ghent; Nesle
was a flourishing abbey under Louis the Pious.
34
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
that one manuscript from St Bavo includes a notated sequence for St Vincent,
who was not especially venerated in Ghent but was the patron saint of the Laon
monastery founded c.580 where the Ghent canons are believed to have stayed for
several years. The canons of St Bavo may have returned to Ghent in 920-930 and
were definitely back before 937. The canons of StPeter's returned to Ghent
between 879 and probably by 883, but their travels before this time are not
known.
There is some evidence that the post-Pentecostal alleluia verses sung in Ghent
were adopted by the canons when they came into contact with different
ecclesiastical practices in Laon. First, similar mixtures of other rites or transitions
are documented. In 851 a monk from St Denis was brought to Laon to teach at
the abbey of St Vincent, with disastrous consequences, which included his own
excommunication and a bitter feud between Charles the Bald and bishop
Hincmar of Laon. Anne Robertson points to a late ninth-early tenth-century
StDenis gradual, Laon, Bibliotheque Municipale, 118, which includes postPentecostal alleluia verses foreign to StDenis but present in the famous neumed
gradual Laon, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS 239, dated c. 930 and representing
the rite of Laon Cathedral. The combination of these two lists is so interesting,
because they represent two quite separate traditions. The StDenis list is very
similar to lists used in Corbie and Winchester; the Laon list resembles lists in
books from Compiegne and, later, Notre Dame of Paris. Robertson concludes
'that the monks of Saint-Denis evidently made liturgical concessions to their
temporary hosts during sojourns away from their home in Paris', admitting a lack
of proof that Laon 118 belonged to the reformer or resulted from the spiritual
association between the abbeys ofLaon and StDenis established around 989.34
Such musical exchanges seem self-evident since many expatriate communities
came to Laon at this time, including canons from St Quentin and Pierrepont, the
latter at the abbey of St Vincent from 886 to 895, as well as from Ghent. In this
respect, it is worth signalling the correspondence between the post-Pentecostal
Alleluia verses in manuscripts from Ghent and those of Laon 239. The lists from
the two Ghent abbeys and a parish church subordinate to StPeter could all have
been derived from the Laon list, although the lists from the two older abbeys are
closer to it than that of the parish church of StJames, which was established in
34
On post-Pentecostal Alleluia series, seeM. HUGLO, Les listes alleluiatiques
dans les temoins du graduel gregorien, in : Speculum Musicae Artis, Festgabe for
Heinrich Husmann zum 60. Geburtstag, H. BECKER and R. GERLACH (eds.), Munich
1970, pp.219-227. A facsimile ofLaon 239 isLe Codex 239 de La Bibliotheque de Laon,
A. MOCQUEREAU (ed.), Paleographie musicale, ser. 1:10, Solesmes, 1909-1912. On
Laon 118 and Laon 239, see A. ROBERTSON, The Service-Books of the Royal Abbey of
Saint-Denis, Oxford, 1991, pp.42-43,359-363 and passim.
35
BARBARA HAGGH
the eleventh century (see Table Two). 35 Did the canons of St Bavo's and later
S t Peter's adopt the series of post-PenteGostal alleluia verses of Laon as the result
of their stay in and associations with Laon?
The Laon and StDenis lists depart significantly from the list in Bland's gradual,
the latter which is not reflected by any later manuscripts but shares with Laon 239
the grouping of Alleluia verses at the end of the manuscript. It would seem then
that the standardization of post-Pentecostal Alleluia verse lists in general
postdated Bland and was perhaps a resu1t of Carolingian-inspired reforms. That
such reforms might have taken place in Laon specifica11y is suggested by the
cantatorium fragment, Laon, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS 266. Its textual
tradition aligns it with the gradual Rheinau 30, which is related to Bland, but its
notation resembles that ofLaon 239, which follows a different textual tradition,
that of the gradual ofCompiegne. Laon 266 may be documenting a transition. 36
That Laon 239s Alleluia verse list is indeed very similar to that in many later
manuscripts does argue that the manuscript could represent an intended beginning
of a new tradition.
Yet there is another possible explanation for the Ghent lists. Since these do not
resemble those of Corbie and Winchester, establishments with which Ghent
monks had contact in the time of the reforms of Gerard de Brogne and StDunstan,
discussed below, they probably date from either before those reforms, that is
from the stay in Laon, or from afterwards. The Ghent lists do indeed also
resemble closely those from Cluny and Tournai and may therefore have been
adopted as the result of Cluniac reforms or even diocesan initiatives. Unfortunately,
we have no way of knowing, because apart from a twelfth-century missal
fragment and alate-twelfth- early-thirteenth-century missal, both fromSt Bavo's,
which have not been studied, other missals with Alleluia verses date from the
thirteenth century and later.
35
See M. HUGLO, Les livres de chant liturgique, Typologie des sources du
moyen age occidental, 52, Tumhout, 1988, pp.104-105: the Laon list resembl.es most
closely those of Tournai, Cluny, Cambrai, Amiens, Paris, Cologne and St Gall; the St
Denis list is closest to those of ninth-century Paris, Corbie and Metz. A more detailed
analysi s of lists of post-Pentecostal alleluia verses is D. HILEY, Post-Pentecost Alleluias
in Medieval British Liturgies, in: Music in the Medieval English Liturgy: Plainsong and
Medieval Music Society Centennial Essays, Oxford, 1993, pp.145-174 (especially
pp.l51-153).
36
On Laon 266, see J. HOURLIER, Trois fragments de Laon , Etudes
gregoriennes, 22, 1988, pp.31-42; P. JEFFERY, An early cantatorium fragment related
to Ms. La on 239, Scriptorium, 36, 1982, pp.245-252, who notes that Rheinau 30 and Laon
266 both omit the tract Laudate dominum on Ember Saturday and have the gradual
Domine exaudi for Good Friday, and considers the incomplete antiphoner, Lucca,
Biblioteca capitolare, MS 490, a further witness to the same tradition. Cf J. FROGER, Le
fragment de Lucques (fin du VIlle siecle), Etudes gregoriennes 18, 1979, p.145-155.
36
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
If there was a Laon influence on the ritual of St Bavo' s, however, two individuals
deserve consideration, the lay abbot Count Adalelm or his slightly younger
contemporary, Adalelm schoolmaster, who was treasurer at the Cathedral of
Notre Dame in Laon, hence responsible for manuscripts, and, after 903, dean. 37
He was an especially important collector of books 38 and perhaps a musician,
since one of the manuscripts in his possession contains early examples of musical
notation. 39 That he was in direct contact with the Ghent canons in Laon is
extremely likely, because he added the Laon Formulary, epistolary forms, to the
letters ofEinhard, the latter brought from Ghent by the canons. (Worth mentioning
is the presence in the ninth-century Paris, BibliothequeNationale, MS lat. 11379,
which contains these letters, on f.26v, of a neumed Alleluia. Letabitur justus
added in the eleventh century, a verse found neither in Laon 239 nor in Ghent
missals and graduals nor in the graduals indexed by Hesbert.)40 In any case,
Adalelm schoolmaster would have been well aware of the musical developments
then being recorded in writing in Laon: his predecessors as teachers in the city
included John Scottus Eriugena (c.820-c.880), whose writings refer to
polyphony; 41 Manno (843- ?), teacher of bishop Stephen of Liege, composer or
commissioner of several of the earliest offices in modal order;42 and Heiric of
Auxerre (880s), the teacher of Hucbald of St Amand. 43
Ghent: Reforms of Gerard de Brogne, St Dunstan's Visit, Egmond, Cluny
In 946, after the canons of St Bavo left Laon and returned to Ghent (before 937),
an influential personality in their midst, Gerard de Brogne, introduced the
37
On Laon in the ninth century, see J. CONTRENI, The Cathedral School of
Laonfrom 850 to 930. Its Manuscripts and Masters, Miinchener Beitrage zur Mediavistik
und Renaissance-Forschung, 29, Munich, 1978.
38
Thirteen manuscripts have the ex-dono of Bernard, Adelelm's predecessor,
and Adelelm; both were executors of the will of Charles the Bald. See CONTRENI, The
Cathedral School, who has also identified Adalelm' s script, pp.36-40, 100,139-140,152164.
39
On Ade1elm's hymnary, Bern, Burgerbibliothek, MS 455, see CONTRENI,
The Cathedral School, pp.160-161,169; on Laon, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS 107,
listin& Adalo and singers, see id:., pp.146-147,162-163.
0
The Formulary was finished by 892, see CONTRENI, The Cathedral School,
pp.47,74-75,152-153, also idem, Le formulaire de Laon. Source pour l'histoire de l'ecole
de Laon au debut du Xe siecle, in: Scriptorium, 27, 1973, pp.21-29. On the manuscript,
seeP. GASNAULT, Un document comptable du IXe siecle provenant sans doute de
Saint-Bavon de Gand, in :Bulletin de La Societe nationale des antiquaires de France,
seancft du 25 novembre 1970, pp.310-318 (esp. p. 313).
SeeM. HUGLO, Les origines de 1'organum vocal en France et en ltalie d' apres
les donnees de l'ethnomusicologie et d'apres les sources historiques, in : Le polifonie
primitive in Friuli in Europa, C. CORSI and P. PETROBELLI (eds.), Rome, 1989.
Miscellanea Musicologica, 4, pp.355-365, especially p.360 on Jean Scot's 'organicum
melos' and p.357 on Hucbald. Cf CONTRENI, The Cathedral School, ch. 7 on John Scot.
37
BARBARA HAGGH
Benedictine rule, installed a regular abbot, and ensured financial stability. Count
Arnulf I as lay abbot of St Peters also began to reform and restore that abbey by
July 941, replacing the canons with Benedictine monks, restoring property
which he had usurped and appointing Gerard de Brogne as regular abbot (Gerard
served until 953 and died in 957). 44
Gerard de Brogne' s reforms are important for the history of chant on the
Continent, because some elements, such as the use of Roman ritual more
canonicorum and not secundum regulam [of St Benedict] for the triduum
sacrum, 45 may have found their way into the Regularis concordia. The most
likely transmitter would have been the great Anglo-Saxon reformer, St Dunstan,
who was exiled at StPeter's in Ghent in 956-957 under abbot Womar (953/4980), that is, just after Gerard' s reforms. 46 St Dunstan (d.988), monk and abbot
of Glastonbury, also learned about reforms at Fleury, which had adopted the
Cluniac customary in 930. On returning to England, he became bishop of
Worcester in 957 and of London in 958, later archbishop of Canterbury (960988). His pupil Aethelwold, in Abingdon with monks from Glastonbury, sent a
monk to Fleury and had monks from Corbie come to teach the rules of psalmody
and chant. While Aethelwold was bishop of Winchester (from 963 to 984), a
synod held in 960 with monks present from Ghent and Fleury formulated the
Regularis concordia. In its introduction, the practices of Ghent and of Fleury are
G
•
CONTRENI, The Cathedral School, pp.137-138; A. AUDA, Etienne de
Liege. L 'ecole musicale liegeoise du Xe siecle, Brussels, 1923.
43
On Hucbald, see CONTRENI, The Cathedral School, pp.42,135,142; On
Heiric and Laon, see ibid. pp. 72,77, 145,151.
44
For extensive bibliography on StPeter's abbey and the reforms of Gerard de
Brogne, see Monasticon beige 7: 1, p. *84; on the reforms, see especially, A. DIERKENS,
Abbayes etchapetres entre Sambre etMeuse (VIle- Xle siecles), Beihefteder Francia, 14,
Sigmaringen, 1985, pp.232-247, also D. MISONNE, Gerard deBrogne, in: Dictionnaire
d'histoire et de geographie ecclesiastiques 20, 1984, pp.727-730.
45
See J. SEMMLER, Das Erbe der karolingischen Klosterreform im 10.
Jahrhundert, in: Monastische Reformen im 9. und 10. Jahrhundert, R. KOTTJE and H.
MAURER (eds.), Sigmaringen, 1989, pp.59-63. The Council of Aachen of816 prescribed
the Benedictine cursus for all monks, but asked them to celebrate the triduum sacrum
iuxta ritum Romanae ecclesiae more canonicorum and then Easter Sunday secundum
regulam.
46
Cf. D. HILEY, What St Dunstan Heard the Angels Sing: Notes on a PreConquest Historia, in : Laborare fratres in unum. Festschrift Liisz/6 Dobszay zum 60.
Geburtstag, J. SZENDREI and D. HILEY (eds.), Spolia Berolinensia, 7, Hildesheim,
1995, pp.105-115 .
38
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
considered models. 47 These events may explain the presence of traces of Ghent
abbey ritual in English manuscripts, such as an unidentified collect for Wulmar,
a saint whose relic was brought from Boulogne to StPeter's Abbey under Gerard
de Brogne. The collect is found in a secular breviary of Bath diocese, Oxford,
Bodleian Library, Lat.liturg.C36. 48
Other Ghent reforms may have been brought to the Dutch abbey of Egmond.
Count Dirk II founded this Benedictine abbey around 950, bringing the first
monks from St Bavo's in Ghent. 49 Two Ghent monks served as abbots of
Egmond in the twelfth century: Walter (1129-1161) and Lambert (1180-1182).
In 1130, the bishop of Utrecht had requested a monk from StPeter's to come to
set matters in order at Egmond and at this time the library was increased and the
Cluny ordo adopted. 5° The ordo of Cluny had been introduced at StPeter's on
47
Michel Huglo argues that the early tenth-century model for the Winchester
Tropers was influenced by an archaic Corbie-St Denis group source, but that it is
impossible to tell whether Corbie or St Denis was the closest model. (See M. HUGLO,
Remarks on the Alleluia and Responsory Series in the Winchester Troper, Music in the
Medieval English Liturgy: Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society Centennial Essays,
S. RANKIN and D. HILEY (eds.), Oxford, 1993, pp.47-58.) Also see M. HUGLO,
Centres de composition des tropes et cercles de diffusion, in : La tradizione dei tropi
liturgici, C. LEONARDI and E. MENESTO (eds.), Spoleto, 1990, pp.139-144. On the
Regularis concordia, see T. SYMONS, Regularis concordia: History and Derivation, in :
Tenth Century Studies, D. PARSONS (ed.), London and Chichester, 1975, pp.37-59; D.
KNOWLES, The Monastic Order in England. A History of its Development from the
Times ofSt Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 943-1216, Cambridge, 1950, pp.3156; R. McKITTERICK, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751-987,
London, 1983, p.252-254,285; and S. ROPER, Medieval English Benedictine Liturgy,
New xork, 1993, pp.26-29.
See D. CHADD, An English Noted Breviary of c.1200, in :Music in the
Medieval English Liturgy. Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society Centennial Essays,
S. RANKIN and D. HILEY (eds.), Oxford, 1993, pp.223-224: O.s.d.q. beato Wlmaro
confessori tuo atque abbati eterne beatitudinis gloriam contulisti; da quesumus ut cuius
sollempnia celebramus, eius meritis et precibus adiuuemur. On the translation, seeN.
HUYGHEBAERT, Une translation de reliques a Gand en 944: Le Sermo de Adventu
Sanctorum Wandregisili, Ansberti et Vulframni in Blandinium, Brussels, 1978, and, for
a critical reexamination of the evidence, R.C. VAN CAENEGEM, The Sources of
Flemish History in the Liber Floridus, in: R.C. Van Caenegem. Law, History, the Low
Countries and Europe, L. MILlS et al. (eds.), London, 1994, p. 71-95, especially p. 8287. St Bavo is mentioned in the text of an English poem: see F.J.E. RABY, A History of
Christian Latin Poetry from the Beginning to the Close of the Middle Ages, 2, Oxford,
1957,4pp.128-130.
See J. HOF, De abdij van Egmond van de aanvang tot 1573, Hollandse
ウエオ、ゥセョL@
5, The Hague-Haarlem, 1973, especially pp.215-222 on manuscripts of ritual.
See G. DECLERCQ, Van 'renovatio ordinis' tot 'traditio romana'. De abdij
van Egmond en de Vlaamse kloosterhervorrning van de 12de eeuw', Egmond tusserL Kerk
en wereld, G.N.M. VIS (ed.), Hilversum, 1993, pp.163-181, especially p.175, note 45.
39
BARBARA HAGGH
31 January 1117 by the local abbot Arnulf, the abbot of St Bertin and Bauduin
VII, Count of Flanders; at that time, twelve monks were sent from St Bertin to
Ghent. 5 1 Certainly, there are traces of saints venerated at the Ghent abbeys in
manuscripts from Egmond and in other Dutch sources. 52 Also, the mostly later
manuscripts from Ghent may include items of ritual from French abbeys visited
by monks from StPeter's, such as Saint-Wandrille, Saint-Ouen in Rouen and
Mont-Saint-Michel, but the manuscripts still need to be analyzed thoroughly. 53
Historiae
From the tenth to the twelfth century, the two abbeys of Ghent became enmeshed
in a bitter struggle for dominance in which they sought to substantiate their
antiquity and acquire precious and important relics. As a result, both abbeys
experienced an unprecedented flowering of literary activity, including the
falsification of charters and fabrication of saints' lives and miracles. New saints'
devotions filled the abbeys' calendars as a result and music had to be composed
for them.
The saints' offices almost certainly from the Ghent abbeys or commissioned by
them are for those saints whose cults originated there - Sts Bavo, Livinus,
Landoaldus, Landrada, Amalberga and Pharallde. Full texts survive for all of
51
D. CHADD, Abstract, in: Programmheft: 39. WolfenbuttelerSymposion: Die
Erschliessung der Que/len des mittelalterlichen liturgischen Gesangs, 25-29 March
1996, notes that British Library, MS Add. 29253, a fourteenth-century breviary [from St
Peter] and Harvard, Houghton Library, MS lat. 267 [from St Bavo] give evidence of the
imposition of the Cluny ordo, except for the respond Docebo te que ventura sunt (CAO
6482), which is found in a Norman book from Bonne Nouvelle Saint-Ouen. On Cluniac
reforms in Northern France and the Low Countries, see DECLERCQ, Van 'renovatio
ordinis', pp.169-177 (with bibliography cited); E. SABBE, La reforme clunisienne dans
Ia Flandreau debut du Xlle siecle, in : Revue beige de philologie et d'histoire 9, 1930,
pp.121-138, and HESBERT, Corpus antiphonalium officii, Rome, 1960, v.5, p.lO and
passim, where the Cluniac content of British Library, MS Add. 29253, from StPeter's
Abbe¥ (14th c.) is identified.
7
·Sts Ansbertus, Wulframnus, Gudualus, Amalberga and Wandregisilus are
represented in the ordo of Egmond, and a kalendar from the Benedictine convent of St
Stephen in Oudwijk includes Sts Ansbertus, Gudualus and Amalberga. See A.M.
ZIJLSTRA, Egmond Revisited. Swiss Elements in Dutch Chant Manuscripts, in :
Tijdschrift van de koninklijke vereniging voor Nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis, 45:1
(1995)3' pp.3-17.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Bruno Bouckaert IS preparmg an mdex of Ghent, Umvers1ty L1brary, MS 14,
a 15th-century antiphonerfrom StBavo's, for the projectCANTUS, based attheCatholic
University of America.
40
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
these offices and complete chants for most of them. 54 Georges Declercq has
located a text showing that Remigius of Mettlach was asked, surprisingly, by
Stephen and his companion from StPeter's Abbey to compose the Matins chant
for an office of St Bavo. 55
Offices forSt Amalberga (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS lat. 5606) and for
Sts Landoaldus and Livinus (Ghent, University Library, MS 488) in Lorraine
neumes survive in their oldest manuscript sources as separate gatherings within
54
The fascinating history of the Ghent relics is told in 0. HOLDER-EGGER, Zu
den Heiligengeschichten des Genter St. Bavoklosters, in : Historische Aufsiitze dem
Andenken an Georg Waitz gewidmet, Hannover, 1886, pp.623-665. The texts of the office
of St Bavo are edited in L. DE KESEL, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het St.
Baafsofficie, in : Collationes Gandavenses, 22, 1935, pp.29-47; the texts of the offices of
Sts Landoaldus and Livinus (as found in Ghent, University Library, MS 488) are edited
in Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum latinorum in bibliothecis publicis Namurci,
Gandae, Leodii et Montibus asservatorum, Subsidia hagiographica, 25, Brussels, 1948,
pp.162-167. Other edited office texts include: Laudate, pueri, puerum (St Livinus), in:
Analecta hymnica medii aevi, 55 v., C. BLUME and G .M. DREVES (eds.), Leipzig,
1886-1922 (hereafter AH), 26, pp.253-256; Levine martyr nos preclare (St Livinus), AH
28, pp.307; Proles Landrada procerum (91essons only) (St Landrada), AH 18, pp.108110; Virgo clemens et benigna (St Pharailde), AH 13, pp.215 -217. Noted offices of Sts
Landoaldus and Livinus are in Ghent, University Library, MS 488, ff.86r-93r; a noted
office of St Amalberga is Paris, Bibliotheque N ationale, MS lat. 5606, pp.158-172. A
noted office of St Bavo survives in Ghent, University Library, MS 15, vol. 2, ff.267v279v. Music for the office of St Pharai1de does not survive in Ghent manuscripts, but I
have not yet checked elsewhere. On the cult of St Livinus and the presence of chant from
his office in Mattheus Pipelare's Missa Sancti Livini, see J. BLOXAM, In praise of
spurious saints, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 44, 1991, pp.163-220,
who アセウ」オ・@
reforms made to the offices of Ghent saints after Trent on p.213.
The passage: 'Quidam [Remigius ofMettlach, a renowned teacher] itaque ex
illis [of his pupils, the monks] sunt promoti, alii abbates sunt effecti. Fecit siquidem de
proprio patrono Liutwino sermonem ad eiusdem patris legendum annuam festivitatem.
Rogatus insuper a Stephano et eius socio, Blandiniensibus monachis, de sancto Bavone
can tum composuit noctumalem, quem illi ad propria reportabant gaudentes omni thesauro
cariorem. Iussu etiam Eckberti episcopi de confessoribus Christi Euchario, Valerio,
Matemo dulci modulatione composuit historiam, cui de euangelio: Designavit Dominus
in illo die, legendam annexit omeliam. Illi autem Remigio abbati Ottho imperator
camenam misit gracilis avene munus ob suavitatem musice artis in illo iam probate'. ('Ex
Miraculis S. Liutwini Auct. Monacho Mediolacensi', Monumenta Germaniae Historiae,
Scriptores, H .V. SAUERLAND (ed.), 15:2, p.1266, from Trier, Stadtbibliothek, MS
2002, ff.179r-190r, before 1095.) P. WAGNER, Einfohrung in die gregorianische
Melodien, v. 1, Leipzig, 1895, p.314 incorrectly associates a Remigius of Milan with this
passage. Suffrages with prose antiphons for Sts Eucharius, Valerius and Maternus,
bishops of Trier are found in Cologne, Historisches Archiv, MS W 28, but no offices for
these individuals possibly by Remigius have been identified (cf A. HUGHES, Late
Medieval Liturgical Offices, Toronto, 1994, who thinks the office forSt Matemus edited
in AH 28:21 is unlikely to be by Remigius.)
41
BARBARA HAGGH
compilations of saints' lives, evidence that such musical compositions were
regarded even then as historiae. All of these offices can only be dated
approximately at present; they must date from after the translations of the saints'
relics, whose chronology is given in Table Three.
Characteristics of the music and poetry can suggest relative dates. With the
exception of the office of St Pharai1de, all of the Ghent offices followed the
monastic curs us originally, having six antiphons and twelve lessons and
responsories for Matins. 56 In offices reflecting an original state, successive
chants have often been composed to musical formulas in numerical order. There
were eight possible formulas, known then as toni; today, more often than not, as
modi. That the Matins antiphons of the office of St Landoaldus follow the modes
1-8 then 1-4 argues that this office is in its original state. That the responsories
are not in order after modes 1-6, returning to 1, 7-8, 1, 3 and 1, does not argue
against this conclusion, since numerical order of mode among responsories was
generally less strict. 57 In the St Landoaldus office, all responsories but numbers
8, 11 and 12 use standard musical formulas associated with responsory verses,
an indication that this office is musically conservative and perhaps older.
Striking are also the identical intonations of the first three chants of the office:
, ,
Re)( re- gu.m
セ@
hセKQィエ[
t.t de-
[.l.<;
Q@ \vtv',ta.tory
I , f)
j) Il l I
I
u.na..-
p
p, f' , '
セイm・Ns@
•
t
I
,
• •'
1,'1
I
q
I
Example One
Antiphons, Office of St Landoaldus, Ghent, University Library, MS 488, ff.86r-88v
56
57
pp.29-51.
42
See the table in HARPER, The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy, pp.93-97.
See A. HUGHES, Modal Order and Disorder, in: MusicaDisciplina, 37, 1983,
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
the Vespers Magnificat antiphon, the invitatory antiphon and the first antiphon
of the first nocturn, perhaps an indication that the office had to be created quickly,
just like the Vita. If that was indeed the case, the office of St Landoaldus might
be dated between 980 and 983 (see Table Three and Example One).
Well-known melodic formulae were taken over in other chants as intonations,
but special features of the St Landoaldus office include chants exceeding the
normal range for their tonus, repeated segments of melody, and infrequent
melismas (short untexted melodic formulas)- those ending final responsories are
relatively short. Many texts in the office forSt Landoaldus are in hexameters;
some are rhymed.
Considerably different is the office forSt Livinus. It includes newly-composed
responsory verses and its melodies are far more active, with many skips and
spanning a wider range. This office surely originated in Ghent, but soon became
known in other parts of Europe. An office in fifteenth-century Gothic notation
following the secular curs us, that is, with nine antiphons, lessons and responsories
for Matins, and in the Eastern European chant dialect, is part of a manuscript
compilation that once belonged to the regular canons in Rudnicz but is now in
the Prague University Library: MS III D 16 (ff.347r-352r). 58
The texts of the mass for St Livinus were even printed in the Missale
Quinqueecclesiense for PJcs, Hungary (Venice, 1499), Budapest, Orszagos
Szechenyi Konyvtara, RMK III 52 Inc 990 (ff.220r-v). The rubric preceding the
mass relates that Nicolaus Henrici, bishop of Pees (d.before 25 July 1360),
brought relics of St Livinus along with the historia and mass to that city in 1351,
perhaps to his own church of StPeter' s. 59
The offices of Sts Landrada and Pharallde are more recent than the others. Their most
noticeable late characteristic is their rigorous adherence to metrical patterns.
58
I came across this office in Prague only a few days after the paper was
presented on which this article is based. I am most grateful to Jana Novotna for making
it possible for me to study a microfilm of the manuscript while the library was closed for
repair and for providing photographs of the office. The manuscript is no. 28 in V.
PLOCEK, Catalogus codicum notis musicis instructorum qui in Bibliotheca publica rei
publicae Bohemicae socialisticae in Bibliotheca universitatis Pragensis servantur, 1,
Prague, 1973, p.91. F.346v has the text of a collect forSt Livinus.
59
This was discovered by Janka Szendrei. The texts have the rubric: 'Anno
Domini 1351 sunt portate hue ad quinque ecclesias reliquie beati Livini episcopi et
martyris per venerabilem dominum Nicolaum episcopum Quinqueecclesiensis una cum
hystoria et legenda cum rnissa completa de Flandria de civitate que vacatur Gandavum,
vel vulgariter que dicitur Genth, et requiescit ibi in monasterio beati Bononis [sic; =
Bavonis]: in abbatia sancti Benedicti. Cuius festum colitur in crastino sancti Martini
episcopi et confessoris' . On 'Nicolaum episcopum' , see GAMS, Series episcoporum,
p.376.
43
BARBARA HAGGH
Photo One
Prague, University Library, MS III D 16, f347v
End ofVespers and Matins, beginning with Antiphon 1: Floruit egregius infans
Livinus
44
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Some antiphons and responsories from these Ghent offices were also sung
during processions, at least at St Bavo' s, but no other newly-composed
processional chant has been identified. 60 The texts and chant for the masses held
in honor of these local saints were not new, but borrowed from the commune
sanctorum. 61
Later Chant
Oflater date than most of the offices are hymns, sequences and alleluia verses
for the same saints, listed in Table Four (some may not have originated in Ghent).
Some hymns derive their texts from other hymns. For example, a hymn for St
Landrada has the text incipit Pange lingua; forSt Livinus, Hymnum canamus.
Most common are strophes of four eight-syllable lines. Sequences survive for Sts
Livinus, Landrada and Phara"ilde, as do a small number oflater medieval alleluia
verses, perhaps from Ghent. One is a verse for St Barbara that was sung at St
Bavo, where relics of the saint were deposited in 985 (Example Two). 62
J
セ@
I
I
"> y,
/,0
f ·) tl2)
I
I+ { '
AI-le-
I
I
,p d;_:)
サヲエセ@
f1) '7S j;<) :'f·:) ' 9
1
IIA-ya_
l'
セ@
Bo.r'Do.-
vir-
ftt
pi - 4セッ@
[bJ
セ@ );'
bls q.ue..
iu.-
,;; 5 i)
•
I
Q
I>
J
l$)
I
YlO-
¥i v
! ;\
セ@
セ@
su.-
F"\ I
-17
l
I
r.'
,..,l
,
Lセ@
:p
,
pe.rna.,
Example Two
Alleluia Barbara virgo pia, Ghent, University Library, MS 14, v. 2, ff.l4v-15 r
Nearly all of these compositions appear only in the later sources and further
analysis of their chant and of the vitae from which their texts were derived will
be necessary to determine approximate dates for them. Nevertheless, their
patterns of rhyme suggest that they postdate the offices and thus give evidence
60
See Ghent, University Library, MS 184, with processional chant for Sts
Landoaldus, Bavo and Macharius.
61
The commune sanctorum includes chants shared by feasts for similar saints
grouped in one part of a manuscript. Cross-references to these items appear elsewhere
エィイッオセ
manuscripts as a way of saving parchment or paper.
R ィッオエ@
The Alleluia and verse Barbara virgo pia splendens are in Ghent, University
Library, MS 14, v. 2, ff.14v-15r.
45
BARBARA HAGGH
of continued creativity at the two abbeys.
Later medieval manuscripts from Ghent show the increasing importance of
votive services and commemorations and particularly of the office of the dead.
St Bavo and St Peter shared a series of Matins responsories for the latter from
Cluny and used in those French Benedictine monasteries which had introduced
Cluniac reforms. 63 Full cycles of votive masses, none of which are for patron
saints, are in the graduals of St Bavo and St James, 64 and Marian antiphons
appear in the manuscripts as well, although the antiphoners from St Bavo give
only three, omitting Ave regina celorum. 65 The antiphoners include a special
commemoration forSt Bavo to be sung during Advent, consisting of an antiphon
for the saint and the Marian prosa Inviolata, integra et casta es. 66
Of great interest are the complete kyriales surviving from the abbey of St Bavo
and the parish church of St James. 67 These contain the chant for the Ordinary of
the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, but here not Ite missa est)
appropriate for solemnities of different rank and include many melodies not
found elsewhere, perhaps because they are more complete than other kyriales,
even assigning Ordinary cycles to the lowest-ranking feasts of three lessons. The
kyriale of St Bavo in Ghent, University Library, MS 14, v .1-2, is unique in giving
evidence of the rhythmicized and harmonized performance of selected Glorias
and Credos. A two-part Gloria setting (v.2, f.153v-155r) assigns the chant to the
upper voice and adds a lower contratenor in parallel motion except at cadences
[Photo 2]. It is followed by a rhythmicized Credo with indications for performance
63
Cf. OTTOSEN, The Responsories, pp.148-151 and his discussion, pp.285289. The series is 1. Credo quod, 2. Qui lazarum, 3. Domine, quando veneris, 4. Subvenite,
5. Heu mihi, 6. Ne recorderis, 7. Peccante me, 8. Domine, secundum actum, 9. Memento
mei, Deus. Ottosen discusses an office of the dead with an entirely different responsory
series in manuscripts 'from St. Bavon' on pp.162, 295, 311, but the precise provenance
of the five manuscripts he cites, all now in France, in my opinion is not known. StBavo's
cult extended beyond Ghent and far-removed churches were dedicated to him, and I have
not yet seen Ottosen ' s manuscripts in person. His study did not incorporate any of the
manuscripts presently in Ghent.
64
The gradual of StJames is called an antiphoner (=antiphonale missarum) in
F. VERSTRAETEN, Sint-lacobske rk Gent, In ventaris van het kunstpatrimonium, Ghent,
1973, p.153, no.646. Verstraeten also lists printed books of ritual from the sixteenth to
eighteenth century, most following the use of Rome, but some of the diocese of Ghent.
65
Ghent, University Library, MS 15, v.l, ff.349v ff. includes the Alma, Salve,
and Regina celi; v.2., ff.332r ff. includes only the Alma and Salve .
66
Ghent, University Library, MS 15, v.2, f.19v.
67
.
.
•
•
.
A full d1scuss10n of the kynales will appear m a separate study. The StJames
kyriale is in Ghent, StJames' , MS s.s., ff.l97v-212r; the St Bavo kyriale is in Ghent,
University Library, MS 14, v.l, ff.262v-277v, and in v.2, on ff.l45r-159v (incomplete,
lacking the Agnus Dei' s).
46
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
by a chorus and organum in alternation. Both share the rubric De sanctis huius
loci. A different Credo setting (v.1, f.271v-274v), under the rubric In vigilia
nativitatis domini, pasche et penthecostis, is in four parts and is among the
earliest surviving examples from the Low Countries ofjalsobordone: motion is
largely parallel, with root position chords and repeated harmonic progressions
[Photo 3]. 68
Also rhythmicized is the Te Deum added later to the main corpus of a
contemporaneous antiphoner from St Bavo, Ghent, University Library, MS 15,
v .1, on f.351r. The polyphonic Credo does show that harmonized singing was
cultivated at St Bavo by 1500. That theory treatises known in the northern Low
Countries and concerned with discant as well as chant were copied at St Bavo in
1504 precisely is further evidence of a new or possibly renewed interest in
polyphony around the turn of the century. 69
Rubrics in the St Bavo kyriale indicate that the polyphonic Credo was also to be
performed by a chorus alternating with organum, perhaps singers and organist
or intoners and the rest of the choir. Documents from Ghent do give evidence of
scribes' fascination with longer chants, which were often performed by alternating
performing forces. Named in most entries in the obituary of the parish church of
StJohn are theinvitatory antiphon Circumdederuntorits psalm Venite exultemus.
The tract of the Requiem mass, Sicut cervus, is also named. It was sung by the
choir, but the verses by four soloists. We do not know precisely how the antiphon
Clementissime - also named frequently in the archives - was performed during
68
The polyphonic Credo and Ghent, University Library, MS 14 are discussed in
BLOXAM, A Survey, p.27; that the polyphony surrounding the Credo melody (Ghent,
University Library, MS 14, v.1, ff.271v-274v) was added to the plainchant, which was
copied c.1469, is evident not only from the style of the music, but also from the slightly
different colors of ink used for chant and polyphony. On Credo settings in mensural
notation, see A. GASTOUI, Comment on chantait le 'credo' en certaines eglises, au XVe
siecle, in: Revue du chant gregorien, 36, 1932, pp.48-49; T. MIAZGA, Die Melodien des
einstimmigen Credo der romischen-katholischen Lateinischen Kirche, Graz, 1976; R.
SHERR, The performance of chant in the Renaissance and its interactions with polyphony,
in: Plainsong in the Age ofPolyphony, Cambridge, 1992, ed. Th. F. KELLY, pp.183-208.
Onfalsobordone in manuscripts from Cambrai Cathedral, see C. WRIGHT, Performance
Practices at the Cathedral of Cambrai 1475- 1550, in: The Musical Quarterly, 64, 1978,
ーNRYセMSX@
Ghent, University Library, MS 70 was copied in Ghent and became part of the
library of Raphael de Marcatellis. See f.206r: 'Explicitus est liber Scriptus Gandavi per
me M. Anthonium de aggere sancti martini 1504'. On the manuscript, see A. DEROLEZ,
The library of Raphael de Marcatellis, Abbot of St. Bavo 's, Ghent, 1437-1508, Ghent,
1979, pp.7-25, and especially pp.227-234. Also see Egidius Carlerius and Johannes
Tinctoris, On the Dignity and the Effects of Music, trans. J.D. CULLINGTON, intro R.
STROHM, King's College London Institute of Advanced Musical Studies Study Texts,
No. 2, London, 1996. Daniel Lievois has identified the Jacobus Cartier named in the
Tinctoris treatise as a zangmeester at the Church of Our Lady in Bruges in the 1450s.
47
BARBARA HAGGH
Photo Two
Ghent, University Library, MS 14, v.l,f271v-272r
Photo Three
Ghent, University Library, MS 14, v.2,fl53v-154r
48
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
the procession to the grave after the Requiem, but it is long enough that altematim
performance would have been feasible if not desirable. 70 Other polyphony
alternating with chant survives in a vesperale from the leper house in Ghent
called Rijke Gasthuis. 71 The procession on Christmas Eve began with the
plainchant responsory Sanctificaminifilii Israel and antiphon Bethleem nones
minima, with a doxology in two-part polyphony. Next, the plainchantresponsory
Hodie et illuxit nobis was followed by a three-part verse in two-part polyphony
(notated consecutively) [Photo 4].
Photo Four
Brussels, Royal Library, MS 4826,f89v-90r
Two-part Verse: Tam gloriosafulgit dies ... Tanquam sponsus
70
Ghent, University Library, MS 116, from 1302 with later additions, is edited
inN. DEPAUW, Obituarium Sancti Johannis: Necrologe del' eglise St-Jean (St-Bavon)
Gand, du Xll/e au XVJe siecle, Brussels, 1889.
71
See J. DECAVELE, Lepreux ou Rijke Gasthuis, a Gand, in : Monasticon
beige, 7: Province deFlandre Orientale, Liege, 1977, pp.179-193.
a
49
BARBARA HAGGH
After the Lauds antiphons, with the rubric De Domina antiphona, there followed
a monophonic hymn with therubricRhythmus, MagnumnomendominiEmanuel
(in triple meter and white mensural notation) and a two-voice hymn Dies est
letitie, both well-known in the Low Countries, especially among communities of
the Modern Devotion. 72 In Ghent, alternating performing forces seem to have
fascinated scribes, listeners, composers and performers.
Contrasting with the so-called 'simple' polyphony, which we know was sung in
Ghent, is the more complex originally French repertory copied into manuscripts
now in Ghent, but probably brought with students from Paris. 73 These manuscript fragments bound books belonging to the women of Groenenbriel
(Augustinian) and of Ter Haeghen (Cistercian). Finally, an early sixteenthcentury fragment of unidentified provenance but now in Ghent contains the
beginning of the Kyrie of Petrus de la Rue's Miss a Ave sanctissima Maria. In
1509, de laRue received a prebend at the collegiate church of St Pharai1de with
the support of Margaret of Austria, so the fragment may reflect this composer's
association with Ghent. 74
There is no polyphony or evidence for it in the kyriale from the parish church of
St James, but unusually detailed instructions for bellringing, so essential in
Flemish worship, do survive in the archives of that church and complement the
kyriale (similar instructions survive from St Pharailde). 75 Only insignificant
72
See R. RASCH, De cantiones natalitiae en het kerkelijke muziekleven in de
zuidelijke Nederlanden, Koedijk, 1985, especially pp.6-10. Brussels, BibliothequeRoyale,
MS 4826, ff.88v-94r, discovered by and discussed in BLOXAM, A Survey, p.30, n.19.
Magnum nomen domini Emmanuel is listed in U. CHEV ALlER, Repertorium
hymnqfogicum, 6 vols., Lou vain and Brussels, 1892-1920, as no.ll 024.
SeeR. STROHM, The Ars Nova Fragments of Ghent, in : Tijdschrift van de
vereniging voor Nederlandse muziekgeschiedenis, 34, 1984, pp.109-131, and further
discussion in id., The Rise of European Music, 1380-1500 Cambridge, 1993, pp.68,7475, 101. Facsimiles of the fragments are published in An Anthology of Music Fragments
from the Low Countries (MiddleAges- Renaissance), E. SCHREURS (ed.), Peer, 1995,
pp.16-21.
74
Ghent, Rijksarchief, Varia D 3360 B (facsimile in An Anthology, p.80). On
de laRue in Ghent, see J. ROBIJNS, Pierre de La Rue (circa 1460-1518), een biobibliographische studie, Brussels, 1954, pp.27 -28, and H. MECONI, Free from the Crime
of Venus: The Biography of Pierre De laRue, in: Aetas del XV congreso de la Sociedad
internacionalde musicologia "Culturas musicales del mediterraneo y sus ramificaciones ",
Madrid/3-10/TV/1992, Revista de Musicologia, 16:3, 1993, in press.
75
Ghent, Archives of the Church of StJames, MS 1232, ff.83v-84v, ordinances
of3 and 10 October 1429. Also see Ghent, Rijksarchief, StPharailde, S 234, ff.102r-104v,
an eighteenth-century copy: 'Reglement voor de kJokluyders van Ste Pharaildis tot Ste
Nicolaes van elken dag wat zij moeten luyden, ende met wat klok, voor de mettenen,
vespers, hoogmisse, diensten van bet Capittel, getrokken uyt een zeer Oud boeksken
gegeven door d'heeren Pastor ende kerkmeesters aen de luyders, om hun daer naer te
reguleren'.
50
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
chant fragments remain from the other parish churches, so archives will have to
be used to reconstruct what happened there.
The manuscripts from Ghent give some evidence for the transmission of music.
Traces of the rites of the abbeys are found in books from the secular churches.
Such cross-contamination is especially apparent in the few surviving manuscripts
from the collegiate church of St Pharallde, first mentioned in 1073, but originally
the castle chapel of the counts of Flanders. Its ordinal of c. 1400 includes material
for Sts Macharius, Landoaldus, Amalberga, Bavo, andLivinus, the saints of both
abbeys. 76 Its patron, St Pharai1de, is represented in some books from the two
abbeys. She appears in a thirteenth-century litany of a St Bavo book, but not in
the thirteenth-century missal from StPeter (indeed in the breviary of 1393). St
Pharallde is also represented in the gradual from StJames, along with saints
known especially in Tournai, but, curiously, all of the saints from the two Ghent
abbeys were left out. Yet the post-Pentecostal alleluia verses of StJames are very
similar to and appear to be derived from those of the two abbeys (see Table Two
above).
The remaining manuscripts of ecclesiastical ritual from Ghent were used by the
multitude of religious orders and communities that chose to settle in and around
the city. Among these books are two with hymns. The antiphoner of the
Cistercian abbey of Oost-Eeklo contains a complete cycle of fully-notated (and
well-known) hymns. A seventeenth-century fragment from an Augustinian
house includes music incipits of hymns introduced and sung by that order in
particular. 77
The manuscripts from Ghent described above and most others listed in Table
One reflect the rituals of regular or secular communities, but one surviving
manuscript was prepared for a specific chapel foundation. This is a missal copied
in 1483 for the chapel of Sts Vinciana and Landrada in St Bavo's, which was
founded by abbot Guillaume II ofBossuut (d.1460). The missal includes only the
readings for the mass and gives no music incipits, but covers all Sundays and
main festivals of the church year and has a supplement with full masses for the
Marian feasts and feast of the relics of St Bavo' s and many votive masses. The
76
Ghent, University Library, MS 567, pp.137-323.
Ghent, Rijkarchief, Augustijnen, reeks 44, no.60. The hymns are Nunc sancte
nobis, Rector patens verax (both ferial), Largire clarum vespere (St Augustine), Dive
celestis patrie (StJohn of St Facondo =Juan de Sahagun), Ite matris ossa (Translation of
St Monica), Teferant lingue (St Monica), Presulum sidus rutilansque (St Simplicianus),
Te canunt omnes Nicolae (St Nicolas of Tolentino), In cola abrupte (St Guillaume),
Christe sanctorum decus (St Gabriel), Dum predo hesperias (St Augustine), Urbs alma
summa judice (St Nicolas of Tolentino), Magister orbis maxime (St Augustine). All of
these hymns are listed in CHEVALIER, Repertorium hymnologicum.
77
51
BARBARA HAGGH
litany of the mass for the dead lists St Pharai'lde as well as the saints of St Bavo
but no saints of StPeter's abbey. 78
***
Different in nature and number are the sources from London, of which only those
atthe British Library and some atthe Bodleian Library have been studied in detail
thus far. Whereas there is abundant evidence for local composition and for rituals
changing from church to church in Ghent, London and indeed most of England
sang more or less the same chant, certainly by the fifteenth century. This was the
chant of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury which gradually replaced other local
rites between the thirteenth century and the Reformation. Unique to the Sarum
rite were its chant for the Ordinary of the mass and a number of festive
processions held before Mass and at Evensong.
The ecclesiastical history of London also has little in common with that of Ghent.
London's earliest foundation became a Cathedral, it had only one prominent
abbey and its nearly 100 parish churches outnumbered those in Ghent by far.
Also unlike Ghent, London was a diocesan see early on. When Pope Gregory I
sent Augustine to England in 597, he sought to establish London to serve as a
diocesan see, and as a result, in the seventh century, Ethelbert, King of Kent,
founded what would later become St Paul's Cathedral. In the next centuries,
London suffered more than did Ghent from Norman and Viking invasions. Its
only important Benedictine abbey, the new abbey of Westminster, was founded
in 1065 when Edward the Confessor appointed Eadwine as its first abbot,
although an earlier abbey had existed since the eighth century; the present edifice
was begun in the thirteenth century. London also had its hospitals and convents. 79
78
London,BritishLibrary, MS Add. 17440, copied in 1483. Seethenoteonf.2r:
'Desen mesboec behoert te sinte baefs ten nieuwen autare onder de orghelen die her
willem van bossuut abdt dede maken ende fondeerde oft ordineerde eewelijc en erfelijc
een daghelijcse messe ter eeren van den san ten daer af vanden lichame bier int tclooster
rustende sijn' . A similar manuscript is Tournai, Diocesan Seminary, MS 23, a missal
prepared in the fourteenth century for a member of the Amman family, but the location
where it was used has not yet been determined. On Guillaume de Bossuut, see A. VAN
LOKEREN, Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Bavon et de la crypte de Saint-Jean aGand,
Gand 1855, pp.142,150.
79
SeeN. TEMPERLEY et al., London, in : The New Grove Dictionary, 11,
pp.142-146. A fuller discussion of the history of the plainchant repertory of this city is in
preparation. Historical studies of ecclesiastical life in London include T. BAKER,
Medieval London, London, 1970; The Church in London, 1375-1392, A. McHARDY
(ed.), London Record Society, 13, London, 1977; C.N.L.BROOKE and G. KEIR,
London, 800-1216, the shaping ofa city, London, 197 5, ch. 6; C.M.BARRON, The parish
fraternities of Medieval London, in : The church in pre-Reformation Society,
C.M.BARRON and C. HARPER-BILL (eds.), Woodbridge, 1985; Parish, Church, and
People: local studies in lay religion, 1350-1750, S.J. Wright (ed.), Hutchinson, 1988;
W.K. Jordan, The Charities of London, 1480-1660, London, 1960.
52
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Missals, a book with some offices and a coronation ordo survive from Westminster abbey, where, since William the Conqueror's coronation in 1066, English
monarchs have been crowned, married and buried by tradition, as well as
numerous book lists from earlier times. 80 Relics of St Botulph were housed at the
abbey. 81
From St Paul's Cathedral we have only psalters and a secular antiphoner
fragment with parts of offices of St Vincent and the Conversion of Paul, but
manuscript fragments now in Aberdeen, the only London sources to contain
organum, give evidence that the church knew Notre Dame polyphony, 82 which
is corroborated by references in a book list of 1255 to a book of organum
belonging to William de Fauconberg, treasurer of St Paul's, and, in a 1295list,
to three more books of organum belonging to three different individuals. 83 St
Paul's used its own unique rite until 1414 when the Sarum rite was introduced,
but later local material from the church is found in London, British Library, MS
Add. 5810, a compilation with copies made in 1782 from a small book from the
time of King Edward IV (d. 1483). That book included a 'Manual for Clergy of
the diocese of London' with collects for local saints and a 'Short Manual forSt
Paul's Cathedral London', with offices forSt Erkenwald and Sts Peter and Paul
as well as collects forSt Wenefrede and the Translation of St Erkenwald. 84
80
See J. A. ROBINSON and M. R. JAMES, The Manuscripts of Westminster
Abbey, Cambridge, 1909, especially chapter 1: On the Making and Keeping of Books in
Westminster Abbey, A.D. 1160-1660. A list of sequences sung at Westminster Abbey c.
137 5 is published in Thesaurus hymnolo gicus, Analecta liturgica, 2:2, E. MIS SET and W.
WEALE, eds., Lille and Bruges, 1892, pp.l76-182. On music at Westminster Abbey, see,
most recently, F. KISBY, The Early Tudor Royal Household Chapel in London, 14851547, diss., Royal Holloway, University of London, 1996, ch.6, and id., Music and
mオウゥセ。ョ@
of early Tudor Westminster, in: Early Music, 23:2, 1995, pp.223-240.
See J. BERGSAGEL, Liturgical Relations between England and Scandinavia:
as seen in Selected Musical Fragments from the 12th and 13th Centuries, in: Foredrag
och diskussionsinliigg friin Nordiskt Kollokvium, 3, Helsinki, 1976, pp.ll-26, who
discovered chant for St Botulph in the Riksarkiv Stockholm and in London, British
Librag', MS Add. 34388.
Discussed in G. CHEW, Studies and Reports . A Magnus Liber Organi
Fragment at Aberdeen, in: Journal of the American Musicological Society, 31, 1978:2,
pp.326-343, especially 340-342. Chew proposes that fragments containing the Magnus
Liber and part of an antiphoner once belonged to St Paul's; a facsimile of the antiphoner
ヲイ。ァセョエ@
is in ibid., pp.328-329.
SeeR. BALTZER, How Long was Notre-Dame Organum Performed?, in:
Beyond the Moon: Festschrift Luther Dittmer, ed. B. GILLINGHAM and P. MERKLEY,
Ottawa, 1990, pp.l18-143, especially p. 130, and ead., Notre Dame Manuscripts and
Theirs?wners: Lost and Found, in: The Journal of Musicology, 5, 1987, pp.380-399.
See London, British Library, MS 5810, pp.198-199 (Manual) and pp.200-202
(Short Manual).
53
BARBARA HAGGH
Books survive from more London parishes than Ghent parishes, but mostly
kalendars and missals lacking notation. The only completely notated book is the
noted breviary from the church of StMary Axe or from St Andrew's, U ndershaft,
which follows the Sarum use; the breviary has detailed rubrics and deserves
further study. Many of the parish missals include the names of owners, donors,
or confraternity members and were most likely prepared for use in private
chapels or by chantry priests.
The remaining London manuscripts represent Augustinian, Brigittine, Carmelite,
Carthusian and Dominican communities. The strangest of these books in its
present form is a Carmelite missal which was reconstructed and rebound in 1951
from thousands of tiny fragments consisting mostly of illuminated initials. 85 The
layout of the original manuscript was already unusual, since chant incipits are
included only for items of the mass ordinary: the Ite missa est and Benedicamus
domino are especially well represented. It should be possible to reconstruct part
of this Carmelite kyriale from these incipits.
Ghent and London: The Sixteenth Century
The sixteenth century brought turmoil to London and Ghent, but books of
ecclesiastical ritual were printed in both cities during this time and do survive. 86
London is represented by portable breviaries known as portiforia and by missals
following the Sarum use, which were reprinted every five years or so throughout
the century. Only a few books were printed in Ghent, all after the iconoclasts
passed through. They include a 1572 breviary and officia propria of St Bavo,
which had become a secular chapter and then a Cathedral in the meanwhile. 87
Editions of a Liber ecclesiarum Gandavensis were printed in 1576, 1586 and
1595.
One other undated Ghent imprint merits attention, because it contains chant for
two celebrations founded by private benefactors in the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries, the Mandatum or footwashing ceremony ofMaundy Thursday
and the office of the dead, printed together with a special antiphon always
requested for funeral processions in Ghent, Clementissime. Its title, Manualis
Monast[ eri] Blandiniensis. Pars II. A in qua continentur Mandatum Novum item
Ordo ad sepeliendum defunctos. Item Clementissime, et antiphona ad
85
London, British Library, MSS Add. 29704,29705,44892. Cf. M. RICKERT,
The Reconstructed Carmelite Missal, London, 1942, and ead., Textual synopsis and
concordance of numbers offragments ofthe reconstructed Carmelite Missal, London,
1950.
86
A complete list is available from RELICS (see note 4).
87
Before 12 May 1559, when Ghent became the see of its own diocese, it
belonged to the diocese of Tournai with Bruges and Lille.
54
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
susceptionem Novit[iorum] reflects exactly the texts of the charters of foundation, which highlight the Mandatum ceremony, the ordo for burying the dead and
Clementissime, two unrelated services that were never found successively in
other books of the use of this church. The print also includes antiphons for the
ceremony of receiving novices. 88 Apart from the antiphon Clementissime, which
is infrequently documented in the Low Countries, the rites for the two foundations are not in themselves unusual. The Ghent Mandatum antiphons do not
include the 'Caput' melisma, as the untexted notes concluding the antiphon Venit
ad Petrum have become known in musicological scholarship (this melisma is the
plainchant upon which the Ghent composer Jacob Obrecht based his Missa
Caput. )89 The presence of the Mandatum not only in records from the two abbeys
but also from two parish churches subordinate to StPeter's abbey, StJohn's and
St James, is interesting as is the lack of evidence for the celebration of the
Mandatum at St Pharallde, a collegiate church largely independent from the
abbeys. 90 Its celebration at the parish churches probably reflects the emphasis
placed on this devotion by the Benedictine order. 91
Conclusions
The 76 manuscripts from Ghent surveyed here constitute one of the most
important collections of such sources in the Low Countries, not only because
88
Compare the texts describing foundations excerpted in DEPAUW, Necrologe
with the print Ghent, University Library, 3096(1 ), which includes Clementissime Domine
qui pro nostra mise ria on pp.68-73. This chant had a different function as the final versicle
after the responsory Libera me ... de morte in a ritual of Sens printed in 1500 (OTTOSEN,
The Responsories, p.305), and is found also in the Lucca antiphoner (Antiphonaire
monastique, Xlle siecle: Codex601 de laBibliotheque Capitulaire de Lucques, PalJographie
musicale, 9, Tournai, 1906, p.59). It was requested for many fifteenth- and sixteenthcentury obits described in Dijon, Archives departementales de la Cote d'Or, G 1167, a
sixteenth-century obituary of the Sainte-Chapelle ofDijon. Michel Huglo informs me that
Clementissime is found in most Cistercian and Dominican rituals, but is indeed rare in the
north.
89
The most recent discussion of the mass is in R. C. WEGMAN, Born for the
Muses: The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht, Oxford, 1994, pp.265-267 and passim;
also seeM. BUKOFZER, Caput: A Liturgico-Musical Study, Studies in Medieval and
Renaissance Music, New York, 1950, pp.217-310. The most recent edition of the mass
is in the New Obrecht Edition, 2, T. NOBLITT (ed.), Utrecht, 1984. Also see D. LIEVOIS
and R. WEGMAN, De componist Jacob Obrecht (c.1457-1505) was inderdaad een
Gentenaar, in : Handelingen der Maatschappij voor Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te
Gent, 1993, pp.lOl-125.
90
.
The Mandatum anttphons were added at the end of the gradual of StJames,
Ghent, StJames', MS s.s. in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Also see the
ordinal of St Pharailde from c.1400, Ghent, Rijksarchief, St Veerle 3.
91
•
• •
On the history of the Mandatum and the role of the Bened1ctmes, see
T. SCHAFER, Die Fusswaschung im monastischen Brauchtum und in der lateinischen
Liturgie, Texte und Arbeiten hg. durch die Erzabtei Beuron, 47, Beuron, 1956.
55
BARBARA HAGGH
some manuscripts are very early and many include musical notation, but also
because the full range of religious establishments and book types are represented.
Especially rare and important are the ordinal of St Pharai1de, which joins a small
number of similar books from collegiate churches in the Low Countries, 92 and
the gradual with kyriale from the church of StJames, which permits an unusual
lookataparishchurch'smusical repertory. By contrast, only very few manuscripts
of ritual survive from Antwerp and Liege, slightly fewer from Brussels than from
Ghent, and only Bruges and Utrecht are well represented. The number of known
surviving sources from London is small in comparison to Ghent but does not take
into account the vast number of uncatalogued fragments in the Public Record
Office and elsewhere in England. Moreover, the uniformity of English ritual
brought about by the imposition of the Use of Sarum has surely discouraged the
kind of research into local English practices that would lead to the discovery or
identification of other London manuscripts.
The types and numbers of sources from Ghent and London reflect changing
devotional and intellectual concerns. The earliest sources - the Breve sancti
Bavonis, the flyleaves from a plenary missal, and the eleventh-century manuscripts
with neumes, give evidence of Carolingian and post-Carolingian attempts to
order their world and record it in writing. At this time standardized music for
mass and office was introduced (cf the antiphona in the Breve, which reached
Ghent before Einhard' slay abbacy) and musical notation developed, which does
at first appear often only with selected texts or in margins, as in the Ghent
manuscripts. The oldest known 'antiphoner', the gradual of Bland, was not
copied in Ghent, however.
In Ghent, most changes and new additions to the basic plainchant repertory
introduced by the Carolingians came in the years before 1300, when the abbeys
reformed their repertories to suit monastic ideals, first under Gerard de Brogne
and then with the imposition of the Cluniac customary. Traces of the Cluniac rite
remain in the selection of texts and music for the feasts of the Temporale, the
Office of the Dead, and perhaps the series of post-Pentecostal Alleluia verses
(which may also date back to the stay of the canons of St Bavo in Laon). Traces
of De Brogne' s reforms have not been securely identified yet. At the same time,
local coloring was given the Ghent repertory when several historiae were
composed in or for the Ghent abbeys in honor of the saints whose relics were
brought (or created) in Ghent. There is no similar evidence for the composition
of chant from the other secular and regular communities in Ghent.
92
See, for example, Les ordinaires des collegiales Saint-Pierre a Louvain et
Saints-Pierre-et-Paul aAnderlecht d' apres Les manuscrits duXIVe siecle, ed. P. LEFEVRE,
Louvain, 1960, and Liber ordinarius Sancte Marie Traiectensis, ed. K. VELLEKOOP,
Utrecht, 1996.
56
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
In London as in Ghent, small private psalters, missals and breviaries were
produced in increasing number after beginning in the late thirteenth century, a
reflection of a new emphasis on private devotion. The Ghent manuscripts of this
kind reflect the spread of the cults of the saints of the two abbeys to other
ecclesiastical establishments.
The large choir antiphoners and graduals from Ghent date from the fifteenthcentury and later, by which time cotidianen (choirs of professional singers) were
founded in the Ghent parishes. A similar emphasis on the daily office and mass
is documented in the abbeys. Most interesting is the 'simple' polyphony in the
late fifteenth-century St Bavo gradual, which has no counterpart from StPeter's
Abbey, but corresponds in its 'simplicity' to the two-part polyphony in the
sixteenth-century Vesperale from the Rijke Gasthuis. That polyphony circulated
in communities influenced by the Modern Devotion.
In Ghent, the fifteenth century represents a period of transition from the abbeys'
feted medieval past, when they made the most substantial contributions to the
plain chant repertory, to the turbulent present of the sixteenth century, when the
new collegiate church of St Bavo and its competitor, the old collegiate of St
Pharai1de stood alongside the churches of neighboring cities in cultivating the
composition and performance of the most advanced sacred polyphony. This is
reflected not so much by the gradual and processional described above or by the
scrap with music by De La Rue in Ghent, but especially in the archives.
The above is only a beginning and much more research remains to be accomplished.
A first priority should be the analysis of the musical notation in manuscripts from
Ghent. Captioned as Messine, Lorraine or Gothic, none of these adequately
describes the nuances unique to each music scribe and perhaps distinctive for the
city or region. Another urgent need is the edition of the saints' offices and
analysis of the kyriales.
Efforts should also be directed to tracing Ghent practices in English, Dutch and
French sources, and identifying outside practices in the ritual of Ghent. Similarly,
a polyphonic repertory from Ghent may well survive in manuscripts copied and
kept outside of the city.
In this respect, it is worth remembering that often unusual or significant features
of individual sources, ranging from Bland to the Mandatum print, are only
revealed by the study of contemporaneous archives, which reflect the reality
corresponding to the ideal presented in the books. The archives record actual
celebrations, detail the activities of performers and scribes, document foundations, list the contents of private and communal libraries and may contain
handwriting by manuscript copyists, thereby revealing their identity. Where
archives survive, they should be studied alongside the manuscripts; a more
comprehensive understanding of music in late medieval cities is sure to result.
57
BARBARA HAGGH
Samenvatting
De 76 handschriften hier opgenomen uit Gent vormen een van de voornaamste
verzamelingen in de Lage Landen. Ze zijn belangrijk omdat ze bijzonder vroeg
te dateren vallen en omdat vele ervan muzieknotatie bevatten. Bovendien bieden
ze een volledig overzicht van aile types van geestelijke instellingen en van hun
boeken. Bijzonder zeldzaam en merkwaardig zijn het ordinale van Sint-Veerle,
dat een mooie aanvulling biedt van de beperkte reeks van dergelijke boeken uit
de collegiale kerken in de Lage Landen, en het graduale annex kyriale van SintJacobs, dat een uitzonderlijk inzicht biedt in het muziekrepertorium van een
parochiekerk. In tegenstelling met Gent bleven er voor Antwerpen en Liege
slechts een beperkt aantalliturgische handschriften bewaard en ook voor Brussel
zijn er iets rninder overgebleven. Enkel Brugge en Utrecht zijn uitstekend
vertegenwoordigd. Voor London is het aantal bekende bronnen gering te
noemen in vergelijking met Gent. Ze dienen evenwel aangevuld met een
aanzienlijke groep niet gecatalogiseerde fragmenten in het Public Record Office
en op andere plaatsen in Engel and. Het uniform maken van de Engelse ritus door
het verplicht invoeren van deze van Sarum had bovendien tot gevolg dat studies
aangaande lokale muzikale praktijken in Engeland ontmoedigd werden. Nochtans zou dit soort van onderzoek het ongetwijfeld mogelijk maken tal van
Londense manuscripten aan het Iicht te brengen of nader te identificeren.
In het voorkomen van de types van bronnen uit Gent en London en in hun aantal
worden zekere wijzigingen weerspiegeld in de devotie en in de intellectuele
inzichten. De oudste bronnen, namelijk het Breve sancti Bavonis, de losse
bladzijden uit een rnissale plenarium en de elfde-eeuwse handschriften met
neumennotatie, illustreren Karolingische en post-Karolingische pogingen om de
toenmalige wereld te organiseren en om dit op schrift te stellen. In die tijd werd
er de muziek voor mis- en koordiensten gestandaardiseerd (zie bijvoorbeeld de
antiphona in het Breve, die Gent bereikt hadden vooraleer Einhard er leke-abt
werd). Tevens werd er een muzieknotatie ontwikkeld die voor het eerst te
voorschijn treedt bij welbepaalde teksten of in het kantwit, een verschijnsel dat
eveens kan vastgesteld worden in de Gentse manuscripten. In dit verband valt
evenwel op te merken dat het oudst bekende antifonarium, het zogenaamde
graduale in het handschrift Bland, niet in Gent gekopieerd werd.
Wat Gent betreft kwamen de meeste wijzigingen en nieuwe toevoegingen aan
het oorspronkelijk door de Karolingers ingevoerde repertorium van gregoriaans
tot stand in de jaren v66r 1300. De abdijen pasten toen hun repertorium aan de
monastieke idealen aan, voor het eerst onder Gerard de Brogne en daarna
ingevolge het opleggen van de gewoonte van Cluny. De sporen van het ritus van
Cluny kunnen gevonden worden in de keuze van teksten en muziek voor de
fees ten van het temporale, voor het dodenofficie en rnisschien ook in de rangorde
van de alleluia-verzen voor de tijd na Pinksteren, zij het dat deze rangorde ook
kan teruggaan tot het verblijfvan de kanunniken van Sint-Bavo in Laon. Sporen
58
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
van de hervormingen van Gerard de Brogne werden echter nog niet teruggevonden. Tegelijkertijd werden er een lokale kleur verleend aan bet Gentse repertorium
door diverse historiae die tot stand kwamen in of voor de Gentse abdijen ter ere
van de heiligen wier relieken naar Gent overgebracht (of aldaar gecreeerd)
werden. Voor de andere seculiere en reguliere gemeenschappen in Gent bestaan
er geen gelijkaardige aanwijzingen voor het tot stand brengen van gregoriaans.
Na de late 13de eeuw werden er zowel in London als in Gent in toenemende mate
kleine psalters, missalen en breviaria voor persoonlijk gebruik geproduceerd.
Dit weerspiegelt het sterker beklemtonen van de individuele devotie. De Gentse
handschriften van dit type tonen duidelijk aan dat de heiligencultus van de beide
abdijen zich uitbreidde tot de andere kerkelijke instellingen.
De grote Gentse antifonaria en graduales voor gebruik in het koor dagtekenen uit
de 15de eeuw en later. In die tijd werden de cotidianen (koren van professionele
zangers) in de Gentse parochiekerken gesticht. Ook in de abdijen zijn er
aanwijzingen voor een toenemende aandacht voor het dagelijks officie en voor
de misdiensten. Bijzonder interessant is de zogenaamde 'eenvoudige' polyfonie
in het laat-15de-eeuwse graduale van Sint-Baafs, een verschijnsel dat niet
bekend is voor Sint-Pieters, maar dat anderzijds volkomen in overstemming is
met de 'eenvoud' van de tweestemmige polyfonie in het 16de-eeuwse Vesperale
van het Rijke Gasthuis. Dit soort polyfonie kwam voor in gemeenschappen die
belnvloed werden door de beweging van de Modeme Devotie.
In Gent kan de 15de eeuw beschouwd worden als een overgangsperiode tussen
enerzijds de middeleeuwse bloeiperiode van de grote abdijen, die uiterst belangrijke bijdragen geleverd hadden tot het repertorium van het gregoriaans, en
anderzijds de turbulente actualiteit van de 16de eeuw. De nieuw gestichte
collegiale kerk van Sint-Baafs en zijn directe concurrent, de aloude collegiale
van Sint-Veerle, volgden samen met de kerken van naburige steden de nieuwe
trend bij het componeren en uitvoeren van de meest vooruitstrevende vormen
van gewijde polyfonie. Dit blijkt even wei eerder uit de archiefgegevens dan uit
de hierboven beschreven graduales en processionales of ui t het Gentse fragment
met muziek van De la Rue.
Deze bedenkingen zijn slechts als een eerste benadering te beschouwen omdat
er nog heel wat onderzoek dient te gebeuren. De prioriteit dient eerst en vooral
gelegd te worden bij de analyse van de muzieknotatie in de Gentse manuscripten.
Hoewel deze omschreven wordt als behorend tot het type van Metz, van
Lorreinen of nog als gotisch, beantwoordt geen enkele van deze typeringen op
adequate wijze aan de nuances die eigen zijn aan elke individuele scriptor van
muziek en die wellicht specifiek zijn voor de stad of voor haar omgeving. Verder
bestaat er een dringende behoefte aan de uitgave van de officies der heiligen en
aan een analyse van de kyriales. Er zou bovendien moeten gepoogd worden de
Gentse muziekpraktijk nate speuren in Engel se, N ederlandse en Franse bronnen
59
BARBARA HAGGH
en omgekeerd ook invloeden van buitenaf te ontdekken in het Gentse ritueel. Het
valt zeker niet uit te sluiten dat een polyfonisch repertorium uit Gent te vinden
is in handschriften die elders gekopieerd en bewaard bleven.
In dit verband dient er eveneens aan herinnerd te worden dat vaak het ongewone
of het significante van individuele bronnen, gaande van Bland tot het gedrukte
Mandatum, enkel te voorschijn treden dank zij de studie van archiefbronnen uit
die tijd. Deze weerspiegelen immers de realiteit die beantwoordde aan het ideaal
dat in de boeken gesuggereerd wordt. In de archieven vindt men meer. Ze bieden
lijsten van prive- en gemeentelijke bibliotheken en kunnen aan de hand van het
handschrift waarin ze gesteld werden de identiteit verraden van kopiisten van
manuscripten. Waar men het geluk heeft dater archief bewaard bleef, moet dit
tegelijk met de muziekhandschriften bestudeerd worden. Dit zal zeker leiden tot
meer diepgaande inzichten betreffende de muziek in de laatmiddeleeuwse
steden.
60
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Table One
SOURCES FROM GHENT AND LONDON
WITH MUSIC AND RITUAL 1
GHENT
Augustinians
St Agnes
Missal, 17th c., Ghent, Rijksarchief, St Agnes, 20
Groenenbriel
Late 14th-c. sacred and secular polyphony, fragment, in fol., Ghent,
Rijksarchief, Groenenbriel, 133
Processional, 18th c., 160, Brussels, Royal Library, MS II 2042
Unidentified community
Ceremonial, 16th c., go, Ghent, University Library, MS 191
Hymns, 17th c., 120, Ghent, Rijksarchief, Augustijnen, 44 nr.60
Benedictines
StPeter's Abbey
Gradual, c.800 (at St Peter's by 1200-1300), go, first line neumed
Brussels, Royal Library, MS 10127-10144, ff.90v-115r
Poem Ad Boree partes with first verse neumed, 11th c., go, Oxford,
Bodleian Library, D'Orville, MS 145, f.56r
Scande celi neumed in Martianus Capella's De nuptiis Philologiae et
Mercurii, book II, 117, 11th c., go, Leiden, University Library, B.P.L.,
MS 88
Ad Boree partes and Scande celi neumed, 11th c., 40, Vatican City,
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 1987, f.1r-/
Antiphon Magna vox laude sonora in messine neumes, from the office of
St Lambert by Stephen of Liege, added in 11th c. to 9th-c. manuscript of
the Confessions of St Augustine, 4o, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS
lat. 1913A, f. 1v
Plenary missal (two flyleaves) copied by an Irish continental scribe (at St
Peter's in 11th c.), 10-11th c., now 26.5 x 6.5 mm., Vatican City,
3
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS lat. 3325
Lectionary, before 1200, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. G 44
Miscellanea with hymns and prayers, 12th c., small fol. Ghent, University
Library, MS 246, 92r ff.
Ritual with added sequence forSt Vincent of Saragossa, Precelsa sec lis
excolitur (edited in AH 7, 226; AH 53, 359) in heigh ted but adiastematic
neumes on, 12-14th c., in 40, Brussels, Royal Library, MSS 1505-1506,
f.lv (12-13th c.)
Psalter leaf with bottom trimmed, 12th c., in fol., Ghent, University
61
BARBARA HAGGH
Library, MS 3799, no. 4 (perhaps from StPeter's)
Noted hymns andofficeofStAmalberga, early 13th c., 40, Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale, MS lat. 5606, pp.l55-172
Missal, c.l275-1285, 8°, Ghent, Bijloke Museum, MS 60-1
Missal, 1323- 1325,40, Tournai, Diocesan Seminary Library, MS 23
Psalter, 13-14th c., so, London, British Library, MS Add. 30029
Psalter, 2 v., c.1320-1330, 16°, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 5-6
Ceremonial, 1322, 12°, Ghent, University Library, MS 233
Breviary, 6 v., 1373,4°, Ghent, University Library, MS 3381
Breviary, early 14th c., 4°, London, British Library, MS Add. 29253
Ceremonial with noted prefaces and Requiem mass, 14th c., 40, Ghent,
University Library, MS 296
Noted psalter (15th-c. leaf in-fol. used as binding), Brussels, Royal Library,
MS II 1160
Diurnal, 16th c., 40, Brussels, Royal Library, MS II 1689
Processional, 16th c., 120, Ghent, University Library, MS 188
St Bavo' s Abbey
Missal fragment, 12th c., Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS
Reg. lat. 686, f.I
Noted offices of Sts Landoaldus and Livinus, late 12th c., so, Ghent,
University Library, MS 488
Noted missal, late 12th-13th c., in fol., London, British Library, MS Add.
16949
Breviary, early 13th c., so, Ghent, University Library, MS 293
Unidentified office (of St Margarita?) with space left for notation, which was
not filled in, 13th c., so, Ghent, University Library, MS 147, f.132
Breviary, 14th c., Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University, Houghton Library,
MS lat. 267
Missal (fragments), 14-15th c., 4°, Ghent, University Library, MS 3088
Gradual with kyriale, 2 v., with polyphonic Gloria and Credo added to
existing chant, 1452-1474, in fol., Ghent, University Library, MS 14 (not
for both sides of choir: v .1 Temporale, v .2 Sanctorale)
Psalter, 1469, 120, Ghent, University Library, MS 73
Antiphoner, 2 v., 1471-1481, in fol., Ghent, University Library, MS 15 (for
both sides of choir)
MissalofBossuutchapel, 1483, so, London,BritishLibrary,MS Add. 17440
Missal, 15th c., Toronto, Collection Bergendal, MS 65
Obituary, Benedictine Rule, and monophonic scribblings in white mensural
notation becoming round, 15-16th c., Ghent, Rijksarchief, Bisdom SintBaafs, R 20bis, p.7
Music theory treatises, 1504, in fol., Ghent, University Library, MS 70
Processional, 1539-1559, so, Ghent, University Library, MS 184
Processional (18th c.), 2 antiphoners, 2 graduals, directorium chori, copied
ad Andreas Guyard, 1658-1660, Bruges, Groot Serninarie, MS 394
62
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Processional, 1831 (after older model), so, Cambridge, Mass ., Harvard
•
4
College, Houghton Library, MS lat. 3 10
Het Rijke Gasthuis (no known rule but under jurisdiction of St Bavo's)
Vesperale, c.1550, with Christmas polyphony, so, Brussels, Royal Library,
MS 4826
Ceremonial, 1661, so, Ghent, University Library, MS 2428
Ceremonial, 17th c., so, Ghent, University Library, MS 1670
Cellites or Alexians
Missale parvum, 15th c., so, London, British Library, MS Egerton 2602
Cistercians
Abbey of Oost-Eeklo
Antiphoner with hymns, 1498, in fol., Ghent, Museum voor Schone
Kunsten, MS s.s.
Abbey of Ter Haeghen
Fragment with secular polyphony, 14th c., in fol., Ghent, Rijksarchief,
Varia D 3360 A
Kyrie (fragment) of La Rue, Missa Ave Sanctissima, in fol., Ghent,
Rijksarchief, Varia D 3360 B
Gradual, 1741, so, Brussels, Royal Library, MS II 2465
Bijloke
Antiphoner, c.1600, in fol., Ghent, University Library, MS 791
Doomzele
Office of the Dead, 1767, so, Ghent, University Library, MS 927
Baudeloo
Missal, 15-16th c., in fol., Ghent, University Library, MS 74
Ceremonial, 1654, 8°, Ghent, University Library, MS 194
Gradual, 1687, in fol., Ghent, University Library, MS 133
Convent of St Barbara in Jerusalem, called Joris Vrancx
Ritual and prayers, 18th c., so, Ghent, University Library, MS 2429
Praemonstratensians
Drongen Abbey
Missal, 1524, 4°, Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS n.a. lat. 1906
Secular Churches
Collegiate Church of St Pharailde
Psalter of Count of Flanders, Guy de Dampierre, 13th c., 160, Brussels,
Royal Library, MS 10607
Ordinal, c.1400, go, Ghent, Rijksarchief, St Pharailde, 3
Ordinal of St Pharai'lde by I.B. de Castillion, 1741, 40, Brussels,
63
BARBARA HAGGH
Royal Library, MS 18127
Office of St Phara"ilde, 18th c. , so, London, British Library, MS Add.
16954, pp.305-311
Parish Church of StJames
Gradual with Kyriale and sequences, 1466-1468, in fol., Ghent, Parish
Church of StJames, MS s.s.
Parish Church of St Nicholas?
Flyleaf [=1r] with chant notation, 13th c., Ghent, Stadsarchief, St Nicholas,
54
Ghent or Region
Kalendar, 13th c., Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4082
Psalter, 13th c., 8°, Copenhagen, Det kongelige bibliotek, MS Ny. kgl.
Saml. 41
Psalter, mid 13th c., 8°, Bruges, Openbare bibliotheek, MS 8
Psalter, c.1255-1265, 8°, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS liturg 396
Psalter, third quarter 13th c., 12°, Bruges, Openbare bibliotheek, MS 335
Psalter, third quarter 13th c., so, Brussels, Royal Library, MSS 5163-5164
Psalter, third quarter 13th c., 12°, Oxford, BodleianLibrary,MS Rawl. C940
Psalter, last third 13th c., 12°, Brussels, Royal Library, MS IV 137
Missal, 1366, in fol., The Hague, Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum,
MS lOA 14
Breviary of Louis de Male and Marguerite of Brabant with noted hymns,
c.1360-1367, in fol., Brussels, Royal Library, MS 9427
Psalter, 15th c., so, Brussels, Royal Library, MS 5143
Antiphoner folio, c.1500, Ghent, Stadsarchief, Vrij schippers, 38
Ghent, University Library, 147, f.132r: space between lines left for chant
ranges between 2.4 (bottom two lines) and 2.65 em (most)
London Diocese
Manual with collects and offices, 1782, so, London, British Library, Add.
MS 5810, ff.198r-202r
Augustinians
Priory of the Holy Trinity, Aldgate
Calendar, end 12th c., Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 252/2
Other Austin Friars
Psalter, mid 15th c., Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS
lat. 11438
Benedictines
Westminster Abbey (formerly StPeter's)
Psalter with office of the dead, 12th c., London, British Library, MS
64
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Royal 2 A. xxii
'Litlington Missal', 1383-1384, London, Westminster Abbey, MS 37
Liber regalis with coronation ordo, end 14th c., London, Westminster
Abbey, MS 38
Kalendar, offices, memorials, 15th c., 160, Oxford, Bodleian Library,
MS Rawl. liturg. G.10
Brigittines
Abbey of St Saviour, Syon
Breviary, 15th c., Syon Abbey (Devon), MS 3
Offices, 15th c., Syon Abbey, MS 6
Processional, end 15th c., Syon Abbey, MS 1
Carmelites in London?
Ordinal, 14th c., Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 89 (olim B 3.8)
Carmelites
Missal (reconstructed from fragments), 3 v., noted mass ordinary incipits,
end 14th c., in fol., London, British Library, Add. MS 29704, 29705;
oblong 40: 44892
Missal fragments, end 14th c., Glasgow, University Library, MS Euing 26
Missal fragments, end 14th c., London Private Collection 2
Charterhouse
Psalter, 13th c., Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS lat. 10434
Missal, 14th c., New Haven, Yale University Library, MS 286
Gradual, 15th c., in fol., London, British Library, MS Egerton 3267
Breviary, 15th c., Blackburn, Museum and Art Gallery, 091.21195
Dominicans
Glossed Lectionary, 13th c., in fol., London, British Library, MS Royal 3
E. viii
Convent of Friars of the Holy Cross
Manuale sacerdotum, 16th c., Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.l.7
S t Paul's Cathedral
Fragment of January sanctorale from an antiphoner, perhaps from St Paul's,
among Aberdeen, University Library, MS 237911 fragment
Psalter, 12-13th c., London, St Paul's Cathedral, MS 1
Glossed Psalter, 13th c., London, St Paul's Cathedral, MS 2
Kalen dar, 15th c., Cambridge, Downing College, Bowtell collection, MS s.s.
Sarum missal, 14th c., London, British Library, MS Harley 2787
Parish Church subordinate to St Paul's, later Writtle in Essex
Kalendar fragment, 13th c., Liverpool, Cathedral, MS 51
65
BARBARA HAGGH
All Hallows the Great Parish Church
Martyrology, 13th c., Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 194, pp.217-332
St Botolph without Aldersgate Parish Church?
Missal, early 15th c., London, Guildhall, MS 515
Missal, 15th c., Oxford, Christ Church, MS lat. 87
StLawrence Jewry Parish Church
Missal, before 1435, in fol., London, British Library, MS Arundel109
St Margaret's Parish Church, Lothbury
Missal, 14th c., Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd 1.15
StMary Axe or St Andrew's, Undershaft
Noted breviary, end 14th-early 15th c., in fol., Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS
Bodley 948
StMary's Parish Church, Aldermanbury
Lectionary with noted lessons for Christmas, before 1508, 40, London,
British Library, MSS Royal 2 B .xii and xiii
St Sepulchre, Holbom
Processional, 14th c., 120, London, British Library, MS Harley 2942
Donated to Hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary, near Cripple gate
Lessons and responsories for St Mary Magdalene, early 12th c., in fol.,
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Mus. 113
London
Psalter, 13th c., Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS 1247 (olim0iv.16)
Psalter, first quarter 15th c., in fol., Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 45
Missal, 14-15th c., Minehead, Parish Church of St Michael, MS s.s.
Kalendar, c.l410, in fol., Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 362
Kalendar, after 1444, 120, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Selden supra 95
Kalendar, 1465, 120, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 623
Kalendar, 15th c., Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS 402 (olim B
xvi.41)
Psalter with Kalendar, mid 15th c., 40, London, British Library, MS Royal
2B.x
Also see:
London, British Library, Add. MS 44920, C.A. Gordon, 'Manuscript Missals:
The English Uses', 1936, typescript
London, British Library, Add. MS 44921, C.A. Gordon, 'The English Uses:
Alleluia Verses after Pentecost', 1936, notebook
66
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Table Two
POST-PENTECOSTAL ALLELUIA VERSES 1
Ghent,
St Bavo's
Ghent,
StPeter's
Ghent,
StJames
(under StPeter)
Psalm Laon,
Bib.Mun.,239
Ghent,
Univ.Lib.,l4,v.l
Ghent,
Bijloke,60-1
Ghent,
St James,s.s.
7.12
17
18
20
30
58
1. same
2. same
1. same
2. same
1. same
2. same
3. same
4. same
5. same
6. Eripe me
6. same
7. same
8. same
9. same
10. same
11. same
12. same
13. same
14. same
15. Benedicam
dominus
16. same
17. same
3. same
4. same
5. same
3. same
4. same
5. same
18. same
19. Confitemini
20. same
21 . Qui sanat
22. Eripe me
23. Qui posuit
18. same
19. Dextera dei
20. same
21. same
22. same
23. same
Laon,
Cathedral
64.2
77
80
87
89
94.1
94.3
104
107
110
1. Deus iudex iustus
2. Diligam te domine
3. Celi enarrant
4. Domine in virtute
5. In te domine
6. Omnes gentes
(replaced by Eripe me)
7. Te decet hymnus
8. Attendite
9. Exultate deo
10. Domine deus
11. Domine refugium
12. Venite
13. Quoniam deus
14. Confitemini
15. Paratum cor meum
16. Redemptionem
113.11
116
124
117
129
137.1
145
17. Qui timent
18. Laudate dominum
19. Qui confidunt
20. Dextera dei
21. De profundis
22. Confitebor tibi
23. Lauda anima mea
6. same
7. same
8. same
9. same
10. same
11. same
12. same
13. same
14. same
15. Benedicam
dominus
16. same
17. same
7. same
8. same
9. same
10. same
11. same
12. same
13. Redemptionem
14. same
15. Dextera dei
16. same
17. same
18. Confitebortibi
19. same
20. same
21. same
22. Verbo domini
23. Qui posuit
Ghent, Univ. Lib. 14, v. 1, also has, as marginalia, a second, later series of postPentecostal alleluia verses. The script dates from after 1540, but how much after has not
been determined. In 1536 the Benedictine community at St Bavo, for which the
The temporale in Ghent, University Library, MS 14, v.l, assigns a second
alleluia and verse Replebimur in bonis to Sunday 6 after Pentecost.
67
BARBARA HAGGH
manuscript was prepared originally, ceased to exist. It became a secular chapter and
moved, in 1540, to what was formerly the parish church of StJohn. In 1559, the new St
Bavo's became a cathedral. The new series is 1. Verba mea auribus, 2. Domine deus, 3.
Deus iudex, 4. Deus qui sedes, 5. Domine in virtute, 6. In te domine speravi, 7. Omnes
gentes, 8. Magnus dominus, 9. Eripe me, 10. Te decet, 11. Exultate deo, 12. Domine deus
salutis, 13. Domine refugiumfactus es, 14. Venite exultemus, 15. Quoniam deus, 16. Cantate
dominum, 17. Domine exaudi orationem, 18. Timebunt gentes, 19. not indicated, 20. Paratum cor
meum, 21. In exitu Israel, 22. Qui timent dominum, 23. De profundis.
68
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Table Three
CHRONOLOGY OF GHENT2
Charlemagne visits Ghent to inspect shipyards, later granting St
Bavo immunity
St Bavo destroyed by fire
c.813
Documents from StPeter name Einhard as Jay abbot
815
Einhard lay abbot of St Bavo; visits Ghent in 827, Spring 830, 7
819
September 839 and is otherwise replaced by the priestLiuthard and
his vicedomus Erembert
c.825
Vita Bavonis by monk from St Bavo
828
Einhard has relics of Sts Peter and Marcellinus brought to St Bavo
840
Death of Einhard
851
St Bavo sacked by the Danes
864
Translation of St Amalberga to StPeter; at this time the lay abbot
of St Bavo is Count Adalelm of Laon (half-brother or brother-inlaw of Robert the Strong)
879
Danes winter in St Bavo
879-930s St Bavo uninhabited; canons flee to Laon first, then to Nesle-laReposte (Champagne), bringing their relics, treasury and books
918
St Peter established as burial place for the counts of Flanders
before 937 Relics of St Bavo deposited in castle chapel by the community from
St Bavo
941
Reforms of Gerard de Brogne at StPeter
944
Translation of relics of Sts Wandregisilius, Ansbertus and
Vulframnus from St Wandrille, Boulogne, to StPeter
946
Translation of relics of St Bavo to St Bavo and de Brogne' s reforms
956-957
St Dunstan sheltered at St Peter
mid lOth c. Monks of St Bavo establish Egmond Abbey
964
StPeter receives property at Lewisham and Greenwich
Elevation of relics of St Florbert at StPeter (again in 1049, 1077)
975
980
Translation of relics of Sts Landoaldus, Amantius, Julianus,
Vinciana, Adeltrud, Landrada to St Bavo
982
Elevation of relics of Sts Landoaldus and Landrada at St Bavo
983
Adventus S. Landoaldi by monk from St Bavo
985
Translation of relics of Sts Barbara and Pancrace from Rome to St
Bavo
beg.llth c. Life of St Dunstan (not music) by monk Adelard of StPeter at
request of archbishop of Canterbury
1007
Translation of relics of Sts Livinus and Brice from Villa Holthem
to St Bavo
1010
Elevation of relics of St Bavo at St Bavo
811
This chronology is based on publications cited in note 4 and corrections kindly
communicated to me by Georges Declercq.
69
BARBARA HAGGH
1014
Short Life of St Macarius by monk from St Bavo
before 1050 Life of St Amalberga by monk from StPeter
c. 1050
Elevation and Life of St Livinus by monk at St Bavo
1067
Elevation of relics of St Macharius at St Bavo
1067
Longer Life of St Macharius by monk from St Bavo
1073-1088 Life of St Bertulphus by monk at St Peter
1073
Elevation of relics of St Pharai"lde at castle chapel
1086
Elevation of relics of St Amalberga at StPeter
c.1090
Life of St Bavo by Thierry of St Truiden
1132-1138 Life of St Gudwalus by monk from StPeter
1171
Elevation of St Livinus at St Bavo
70
POLYPHONY IN GHENT AND LONDON
Table Four
HYMNS AND SEQUENCES FOR GHENT SAINTS EDITED
. IN ANALECTA HYMNICA
HYMNS
Agnum sponsum virgineum
Audite, Christi milites
Christi virgo egregia
Claris psallendo vocibus
Gaude, martyr, flos Livine
Gaude, mundum quod sprevisti
Gratulemur in honore
Hymnum canamus glorie
Hymnum fideles populi
0 Livine, martyr Dei
Pange, lingua, gloriose
St Amalberga, Vespers
St Bavo
St Phara"ilde
St Amalberga, Matins
St Livinus
St Bavo
St Landrada
St Livinus
St Macharius
St Livinus
St Landrada
AH 12,82
AH 23, 131-132
AH 12,219
AH 12,83
AH29, Ill
AH 29,98
AH 12, 152
AH 12, 156
AH 12, 157
AH 29, 159
AH 12, 152
St Bavo
St Landrada
St Pharai1de
St Landrada
St Livinus
St Bavo
AH 40, 149
AH 37,206
AH 37,246
AH 37,205
AH 44, 190-191
AH 9, 120-121
SEQUENCES
Bavonem patronem laudat
Gratulemur in honore
F elici conubio
Landrade virginum chorus
Sollemni vos induite
Tuum mundo toti, Bavo
Items Listed in Chevalier, Repertorium
Amans Bavo concordiae
Bavonem meritis tollat
Wandregisile regiis
St Bavo
St Bavo
St Wandregisilius
(relics at St Peter's)
no.974
no.2320
no. 34807
Non-Indexed Compositions in Ghent Manuscripts:
Brussels, Royal Library, MS 1505-1506 (from StPeter's)
SEQUENCE
Precelsa seclis excolitur
St Vincent
71
BARBARA HAGGH
Ghent, University Library, MS 14, 2 vols. (St Bavo), and
Ghent, Parish Church of StJames, MS s.s. (StJames)
ALLELUIA VERSES
Barbara virgo pia
Ecce vere Israhel
Nobilis atque pia
Salve mater Anna
St Barbara
St Eligius
Conception
St Anne
St Bavo
St Bavo
StJames
StJames
Transfiguration
Sts Fabian and Sebastian
St Vincent
StJames
StJames
StJames
SEQUENCES
De parente pestas
H anc tituli do mine
Martyres egregii
72