Central Italian neumes
Two bifolia from a Missal, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Central Italy, (Rome?), second half 12th century]
Four very handsome leaves from a Central Italian Missal, one of which contains an apparently unrecorded version of the Exultet chant at the Easter vigil.

c.340 x 232mm, 2 bifolia (4 leaves, the text not consecutive), modern pencil foliation and earlier ink foliation not followed here, 25-26 lines written in dark brown ink in a rounded Carolingian minuscule, ruled space: 247 x 138mm, Central Italian neumes, rubrics and initials in red (gutter of the first bifolium strengthened, one corner repaired, leaves a little darkened, else in excellent condition). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Bernard Rosenthal, his I/10 and I/11. A printed note that accompanies the lot says that it was probably a gift from Albi Rosenthal (1914-2004) in 1956.

(2) Bernard Quaritch, Medieval Manuscript Leaves, cat. 1147 (1991), nos. 52 and 53, acquired in 1991 by:

(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 1377.

Text:
The text of the two bifolia is not consecutive, and includes: on f.1-1v, the Masses for Sundays in Advent to Friday of Ember Days: 'Excita quesumus domine potentiam tuam [...]' to 'Muneribus nostris quesumus Domine precibus susceptis et celestibus nos munda mysteriis et cle[menter exaudi]'; on f.2-2v, Wednesday at the Beginning of Lent to Saturday after Ash Wednesday: '[ut omnes qui eos] ad misericordiam tuam deprecandam super capita [...] to 'Adest domine supplicationibus nostris et hoc sol[emne]'; on ff.3-3v, the Preface for Easter, the second part of the Exultet chant at the Easter vigil: 'Dominus vobiscum. Sursum Corda' to 'Nox in qua terrenis [caelestia humanis divina iunguntur]; and on f.4-4v the Collects, Secrets, Preface and Cues, and Post Communion Prayers for the Feast of Pentecost Sunday, and the Ferias of Monday through Friday of Pentecost Week: '[vivit et regnat] in unitate eiusdem / Deus qui hodierna' to 'ut muneribus tuis semper possimus aptari. Per [eundem]'.

Script and music:
The script is a clear, upright, regular 12th-century Carolingian minuscule. In a short description for Bernard Rosenthal, John Emerson of the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley, dates it c.1150-1200; Marvin Colker concurs, dating it to the late 12th century. Emerson states: 'Of all these fragments, the Preface seems most interesting from a musicological standpoint'. The neumes are arranged on on a yellow C-line. The Exultet chant, a very long chant at the Easter vigil which is remarkable for the localised variants which are found in different manuscript recensions, here seems to bear most similarity with some versions of the Franco-Roman text in South Italy as recorded by T. F. Kelly, The Exultet in Southern Italy, pp.272-89, though without corresponding exactly with any of the sources collated there. The neumes (see also lots 26 and 27) were previously described as Beneventan, but whereas older scholarship tended to group together this type of notation, which was certainly more widely used than the script hand, as Beneventan, more accurate current scholarship distinguishes between notation appearing on manuscripts written in southern Italy in Beneventan script, and similar notation used elsewhere.

Christie's would like to thank Dr Giulio Minniti for bringing to our attention the latest scholarship on Beneventan notation.