St Gall neumes (Early German neumes)
A leaf from a Breviary, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Northern Italy, second half 11th century]
A leaf from a Northern Italian Breviary in a Romanesque script.

c.292 x 193mm, a single leaf, 29 lines written in brown ink in a regular Romanesque book script in two sizes, ruled space: c.240 x 150mm, staffless adiastematic (unheightened) St Gall neumes (Early German neumes) above lines, rubrics and three 2-line initials in red (recovered from use as a pastedown, verso consequently almost entirely scrubbed, some darkening to the margins, some cuts, creases and fading). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Robert Babcock, New Haven.

(2) Bernard Quaritch, acquired in 1993 by:

(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 1769.

Text:
The leaf contains readings for the Feasts of Sts Sixtus (August 6/7) Cyriacus (August 8) and Lawrence (August 10), beginning: 'Beatus Syxtus episcopus respondit: Ego semper sacrificavi [...]'.

Music:
Notation is added to some but not all of the chant texts, in a contemporary hand.