An excellently illuminated and unique source of Venetian Gregorian chant

6 Antiphonary

Illuminated choirbook on vellum. Italy,Venice (San Marco), c. 1250 (between 1238 and 1264).

417 x 280 mm. 221 leaves, the last one blank (of 224, missing the first leaf with the beginning of the text for matins on Easter Saturday, one after fol. 113 and another after fol. 117), with 12 leaves at the beginning and 22 at the end added later, ca. 1270/1280, altogether 255 leaves. – Written in a single column on 12 lines of musical notation. Southern Textualis Formata in red and black ink. Decorative initials alternately in red and blue. 16 decorative initials and 24 historiated initials, all on highly burnished gold ground. – For a mid-13th-century liturgical manuscript that was presumably exposed to regular use the manuscript is in fine condition. Some initials are abraded or smudged (fol. 42v, 60v, 123 face and robe of St Cecilia heavily rubbed), and the gold ground of some initials is partly rubbed or flaked off (fol. 25v, 37, 172). – 14th-century blind stamped binding over wooden boards.

PROVENANCE:1. Made for the liturgical library of San Marco,Venice. 2. Now: Private collection, Europe.

TEXT:fol. 1-21: Temporale, containing texts and chants for feasts from Easter to Pentecost – fol. 22-132: Sanctorale, from St George to St Andrew – fol. 133-168: Common of Saints, giving formulae for saints not accorded individual services in the Sanctorale – fol. 169-207: Responsorial – fol. 208-219:Tonario. At the beginning are texts and chants added later in commemoration of the feast of the Apparition and Finding of St Mark, probably the most typical Venetian devotional feast, which was not celebrated liturgically before c. 1270. At the end are texts and chants for the feasts of Corpus Christi, St Theodore, patron of Venice prior to St Mark, and St Leonard, who is particularly venerated in the city. These are specifically related to Venetian liturgy, or more precisely to San Marco. The antiphonary also contains offices of other important saints venerated in Venice: St George, St Mark, SS Hermagoras (Ermacora) and Fortunatus, SS Eufemia, Tecla and Dorothea, and SS Cosmas and Damian.Two liturgical dates included in the text serve as cornerstones for the probable date of the choirbook’s creation: 1238, the year in which the antiphon “Plange turba paupercula” was composed and 1264 when the feast of Corpus Christi was established (Wadding 1931, pp. 24-25, nn.VII-VIII). The extraordinary importance of this antiphonary is based not only on art historical criteria, but also on the music it contains, which is distinguished by the large number of feasts of the regional Venetian calendar it celebrates. In the present manuscript, this entire block of the Proper of Saints is collected for the first time.Thus, this group of chants represents an unique early source of Venetian Gregorian choral music (Cattin/Marcon 1990 and 1992).

ILLUMINATION:fol. 3: The Three Maries at the Sepulchre – fol. 16: Prophet – fol. 25v: St Mark – fol. 37: Christ – fol. 42v: Pentecost – fol. 48v: St John the Baptist – fol. 54v: St Simon Peter – fol. 59: St Simon Peter – fol. 64: St Hermagoras – fol. 69v: St Mary Magdalene – fol. 74v:Transfiguration – fol. 78v: St Laurence – fol. 84v: Prophet – fol. 94v: St Valentinianus – fol. 98v: St Mary – fol. 123: St Cecilia – fol. 132: Calling of St Peter and St Andrew – fol. 137v:Christ – fol. 156: St. Mary – fol. 169: Prophet – fol. 173v: Christ – fol. 182v: St Tobias – fol. 191v: Prophet – fol. 202: Christ. In 1981 the present antiphonary was published for the first time as one of the major mid-13th-century works produced for the famous liturgical library of the Venetian basilica of St Mark. Canova pointed out that this manuscript contains the first systematic use of historiated initials in Venice, (Canova 1992, p. 255). In terms of the comparative study of style the codex forms part of a group of 13th-century Venetian manuscripts of extreme rarity. The best-known manuscript within this group is the Epistolary of the Cathedral of Padua written in 1259 by the Venetian archpriest Giovanni da Gaibana (Padua, Biblioteca Capitolare, ms. S.S.). Other prominent specimens of 13th-century Venetian illumination are the Giant Bible of San Marco (Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, ms. lat. I, 1-4=209-211) and the Evangeliary of the Archivio Capitolare in Udine (ms. 17), both datable to 1230- 40. Of slightly less refined quality and of a later date are the Homiliaries of San Marco (Biblioteca Marciana, ms. lat. III, 98-101=2427-2429). Within this stylistic context the antiphonary is most closely linked to the Giant Bible of San Marco and the Epistolary of Padua. The elementary plainness of the compositions and the monumental severity of the images are reminiscent of the Giant Bible and particularly of the illuminations of the Maestro G, defined by Bettini as the direct predecessor of the artist working on the epistolary. The densely structured figure style, the varied and brilliant use of colour and the evident effort to lend the figures a concentrated sense of vitality, on the other hand, show the close stylistic resemblances between the antiphonary and the Master of the Epistolary. It is open to discussion whether the illuminations of the antiphonary precede those of the epistolary, taking into account that the language of the epistolary is connected with Venetian dialect of the 1250’s. The miniatures are without doubt among the finest extant specimens of mid-13th-century Venetian illumination. 13thcentury Venetian manuscript illumination developed a distinctive style in which the still-strong influence of late antique art merged with that of the Byzantine empire, an influence exerted particularly strongly on Venice, the maritime power that most clearly took the role of an interface between east and west.

LITERATURE:Canova/Cattin 1981, pp. 9-26; Marcon/ Cattin/Canova/Selmi 1995; Canova in: Ceccanti/Castelli 1992, pp. 247-265.
Wadding 31931, pp. 24-25, nos.VII-VIII; Garrison 1961, pp. 363-390; Bellinati/Bettini 1968; Bettini 1972, pp. 186-188;
Cattin/Marcon 1990 and 1992.