A Leaf with Latin Liturgical Chants at the DRAGEN Lab
April 7, 2025 in CANTUS Database, DRAGEN Lab, Manuscript Studies, Reports, University of Waterloo
Manuscript Fragments
at the DRAGEN Lab
Part 2:
Leaf of Latin Liturgical Chants
[Posted on 7 April 2025]
Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Vellum Leaf with music and notation for liturgical chants: Verso: Bottom.
To accompany preparations for the 2025 RGME Autumn Colloquium at the University of Waterloo in November, we explore some manuscript and printed treasures at the University’s Medieval DRAGEN Lab (Digital Research Arts for Graphic and Environmental Networks). We thank the staff of the DRAGEN Lab and its director, Steven Bednarski, for permission to examine these materials and share the findings with you.
For information about the Colloquium and registration for it, please visit
[Update: See the revised information for the Colloquium, which will take place at Princeton instead, without support from UWaterloo:
Fragments
In a series, first we examine leaves from two different medieval manuscripts in Latin. Part 1 in this series exhibited a leaf for the month of February in an unknown Book of Hours. See
- A Latin Kalendar Leaf for February from Northern France at the DRAGEN Lab.
Now in Part 2 we consider a leaf with musical chants from a liturgical book so far unknown.
Standing on its own, without identifying inscriptions or other marks to indicate its origin, date and place of production, early and subsequent ownership, or other features of its transmission, the leaf must or can speak for itself.
II. Leaf with Liturgical Chants
On the recto, the chants open with Scitis quia post buduum Pascha fiet, from the text of Matthew 26:2. The enlarged initial for this text is written in black ink like the text; other enlarged initials for other chants are in red.
The verso finishes mid-word at the beginning of a chant, Si[. . . ]tio Con-.
The first chant corresponds with an item in the Cantus Database, for which only one other source is cited, also preserved in Ontario albeit in a different university’s collection.
= St. Catharines (ON), Brock University Library – Archives and Special Collections, RG 394 (fragment).
- “A single parchment leaf from a liturgical manuscript. Square notation in black ink on five-line red staves with F clefs. 5 staves per folio side with humanistic, rounded script in the intervening spaces. 264 mm tall x 185 mm.”
Recto
Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Manuscript Fragment with Chants, Recto.
The Text:
Quid molesti estis huic mulieri? Opus enim bonum operata est in me.
Nam semper pauperes habebitis vobiscum me autem non semper
/ [om. habetis in page-turn?] (Matthew 26:10–11)
[VARIANT? of Cantus
quid molesti estis huic mulieri bonum opus operata est in me ]
OR
Bonum opus operata est in me
nam semper pauperes habebitis vobiscum me autem non semper habebitis
Compare:
- https://cantusdatabase.org/chant/671141, with one manuscript source.
Verso
Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Saint Jerome’s University, Latin Manuscript Fragment with Chants, Verso.
/ qui est ex ueritate audit uocem meam (John 18:38)
Non haberes potestatem adversum me ullam nisi tibi datum esset desuper propterea qui me tradidit tibi maius peccatum habet (John 19:11).
Mulier; ecce filius tuus. Ecce mater tua. (John 19:26 and 27)
Si tio Con-
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Do you recognize this leaf? Do you know of other leaves from the same manuscript or by the same scribe and workshop?
Please leave your Comments here or Contact Us.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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Preview
As the preparations for the Colloquium in hybrid format at the University of Waterloo develop, we might examine some other fragments in the DRAGEN Lab, in further posts in this series.
Preview:
Single leaf from a Book of Hours, with a band of foliate and floral ornament at the right-hand side of the single column of text in 16 lines of script.
Recto
Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Vellum Leaf from a Book of Hours, Recto.
Verso
Waterloo, University of Waterloo, DRAGEN Lab, Vellum Leaf from a Book of Hours, Verso.
With thanks for permission to examine these fragments.
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