Art: Medieval Manuscripts

Cantate Domino. This was an exhibit of medieval music manuscripts in the Free Library of Philadelphia.

I was alone in the Rare Book room. There was no sound except for a few footsteps from the staff who circulated a couple of times. About 40 leaves and some bound ones were displayed two to a case so they were very easy to see.

Descriptive labels explained the different purposes of the manuscripts and described the unusual features of each. Most obvious were the difference in scripts and notation. Most were in Gothic Bookhand or Rotunda. Also obvious, were the artistic differences: the gold ground and simple faces of the earliest manuscripts contrasted with the later ones that showed the influence of the Renaissance in such features as perspective, detailed faces, and period clothing.

One page showed some notes that looked like those used today. the label described it ast St. Gall notation and explained that the Greeks had a system of notation that was lost after the fall of Rome.

Some details were charming. On one leaf, tiny animals were shown playing musical instruments. Seeing them made me think of some of Walt Disney's drawings for Fantasia. On another, one monk in a chorus of 10 or so seemed to have a moustache; it and his tonsure were blue-grey whereas the other monks had brown hair. Another leaf showed several initials with funny faces - one was described as a caricature of a monk wearing tinted glasses. That made me wonder who it was. I know of the St. Gall monastery and it is supposed to be fabulous. I was never there but I have seen some of the pages on the manuscript website. The Codices Electronici Sangallenses (CESG) www.cesg.unifr.ch/en is continuously updated; as of March 25, 2009 there are "only" 251 manuscripts on the site.


In another Lewis E M 42:15 at the bottom of the page is a man holding "a leash attached to three dogs dressed in elegant costume dancing to the music of a pipe and tabor.."


In anothers on view Lewis E M 72:15-16 a sheep plays a type of trumpet to a dog.

The manuscripts can be viewed on the website of the Free Library of Philadelphia by searching under Collections for Medieval Manuscripts. The Digital Scriptorium is an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts that unites scattered resources from many institutions. http://www.scriptorium.columbia.edu/