The sixteenth-century choirbook fragments of the National Library in Pretoria

Abstract

Two choirbook fragments, each consisting of two attached vellum leaves with notated Gregorian chant, were discovered in the National Library in Pretoria by a well-known cartographer while she was cataloguing the maps for the library immediately before the move from the old building in  Vermeulen Street to the new building in Schubart Street. The fragments are similar, but do not come from the same manuscript. One of the fragments, each leaf measuring 545 mm x 394 mm, contains four Sanctus, part of the ordinary of the Roman Mass; the other, each leaf measuring 546 x 376 mm, contains two hymns that formed part of the Roman Offi ce. Both fragments are in a very good condition. The provenance of one of the fragments is possibly the Friuli region in north-eastern Italy and possibly the Cathedral of Aquileia, because one of the Sanctus notated on it could be found only in two other manuscripts, one of which has that region as provenance, and the other probably originating from nearby. Two of the other three Sanctus on that fragment, although they have a wider distribution, also have connections with that region. The provenance of the other fragment could not be established. Both are very valuable as portion of the general heritage of Western music manuscripts. They are also of great value because they are now here in South Africa, a country so far removed from the centres of early manuscript production. It
is not known how they came to be in South Africa.

Keywords: Choir book, fragment, Gregorian chant, hymn, Mass, National Library, Office. Sanctus,