St Gall neumes (Early German neumes)
A leaf from a Breviary, in Latin, manuscript on vellum [Germany, 11th century]
A fine example of the most primitive state of neumatic notation from a large, handsome German Breviary.

c.333 x 213mm, a single leaf, 21 lines written in brown ink in a large, late German Carolingian minuscule in two sizes, ruled space: c.260 x 134mm, 7 lines of linear, staffless St Gall neumes (Early German neumes), rubrics and capitals in red (one natural flaw in the vellum, some marginal staining and fraying). Bound in grey buckram at the Quaritch bindery.

Provenance:
(1) Antiquariat J. Voerster, Stuttgart.

(2) Bernard Quaritch, acquired in 1993 by:

(3) Schøyen Collection, MS 1664.

Text:
The text of the leaf is from the Service for Mondays at Matins and Lauds, with antiphons, chapter, psalms and collect, from '[lo]cuti sunt vanitates & dolos tota die meditabantur' to 'ut desideria tenebrosa non [teneant]'.

Script and music:
Written in brown ink in a large, bold, clear hand of the early 11th century. The tendency shown in this manuscript to slope the letters and rather to cramp them laterally is characteristic of the German bookhand of the late Middle Ages. The linear, staffless neumes represent the most primitive stage of notation, without any cue to the pitch of each neume, making performance fully dependent on oral tradition.

K. Helsen, 'The Evolution of Neumes into Square Notation in Chant Manuscripts', Journal of the Alamire Foundation, 5 (2013), pp.150-156 and 161.