A leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [England, 1st half 15th century]

English square notation
A leaf from a Gradual, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [England, 1st half 15th century]
A leaf from an English Gradual of the 15th century.

409 x 290 mm, 2 columns of 16 lines written in black ink in a Gothic bookhand, 16 lines of music in square notation on a 4-line staff with C-clef, ruled space: 290 x 86mm. (single column), 2 large initials in blue with red marginal penwork flourishing, other initials alternately red or blue, rubrics in red (recovered from use in a binding, some staining and cockling, currently folded in half and bound horizontally). Bound in grey buckram.

Provenance:
(1) Dr George Salt, Cambridge, his MS VII. A description and transcription of the manuscript in his hand accompanies the lot.

(2) Sotheby's, 17 December 1991, part of lot 8.

(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 1557.

Text:
The leaf is from the Sanctorale in a Missal and begins in the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September): '[mortem autem] crucis. Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum', followed on the verso by the Feasts of Sts Edith (16 September), Matthew (21 September), Maurice (22 September), Michael (29 September), ending 'sunt nomini [sancto eius].'