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On the origins of Trent 871 and 922*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Peter Wright
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham

Extract

In their pioneering study of the Trent codices, Adler and Koller divided the six manuscripts then known to them into two distinct and separate groups: a younger group, Tr88–91, which they believed to have been compiled ‘in or for Trent’ by the scribe Johannes Wiser; and an older group, Tr87 and Tr92, which they described less specifically as ‘unquestionably north Italian’ in origin. Recent findings have tended to confirm Trent as the place of origin of the former group, while at the same time indicating that the blanket description ‘north Italian’ can no longer suffice for the latter. This group comprises in effect three sources which once existed independently of each other: a principal source divided into two parts, Tr871 and Tr922, here referred to jointly as TR; and two smaller sources, Tr872 and Tr921. The few attempts that have been made to determine the individual provenances of these manuscripts rest more on informed hypothesis than hard fact, with the result that their precise origin and the reason for their association with the later codices have remained as much of a puzzle as they were when the first six manuscripts were rediscovered just over a century ago.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 Adler, G. and Koller, O., eds., Sechs Trienter Codices: Geistliche und weltliche Compositionen des XV. Jahrhunderts, Erste Auswahl, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, Jg vii, 1415 (Vienna, 1900), pp. xiii–xxi.Google Scholar Tr93, which stands apart from Tr88–91 in the sense that Wiser's contribution to it is only an incidental one, was rediscovered some years later than Tr87–92 (see Carlini, A. and others, Dalla polifonia al classicismo: il Trentino nella musica (Trent, 1981), pp. 28–9);Google Scholar its existence was first made known by von Ficker, R. and Orel, A., eds., Sechs Trienter Codices: Geistliche und weltliche Compositionen des XV. Jahrhunderts, Vierte Auswahl, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, Jg XXXI, 61 (Vienna, 1924), p. vi.Google Scholar

2 See in particular Spilsted, G., ‘Toward the Genesis of the Trent Codices: New Directions and New Findings’, Studies in Music, 1 (1976), pp. 5570;Google Scholar and Spilsted, G., ‘The Paleography and Musical Repertory of Codex Tridentinus 93’ (Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1982).Google Scholar

3 This is an unusually complex source which was compiled piecemeal over a period of about twenty years. The two parts, Tr871 and Tr922, are related by papers, scribes and repertory, and in several instances a layer is divided between them. It has therefore been considered both appropriate and convenient to view the two parts as one source, although there is no evidence that they were ever bound together. For details of the make-up of TR see Wright, P., ‘The Compilation of Trent 871 and 922’, Early Music History, 2 (1982), pp. 237–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 On the former see White, R., ‘The Battre Fascicle of the Trent Codex 87’ (Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University, 1975);Google Scholar on the latter see Ward, T., ‘The Structure of the Manuscript Trent 92-i’, Musica Disciplina, 29 (1975), pp. 127–47.Google Scholar

5 Ward, ‘The Structure’, pp. 144–7, suggests that Tr921 was probably copied in the Strasbourg–Basle region; and Wright, ‘The Compilation’, pp. 270–1, speculates that TR may also have originated in this area – a possibility which is somewhat diminished though not ruled out by the evidence presented here. White, ‘The Battre Fascicle’, pp. 5 and 18, proposes that Tr872 originated in the province of Namur, Belgium, on the basis of the fact that two of the texts set in the manuscript are related to this region.

6 Adler, and Koller, , eds., Sechs Trienter Codices, pp. xvii–xviii.Google Scholar Translations of these poems are given in Spilsted, ‘Toward the Genesis’, pp. 64–5. For a useful account of the history of Trent at this time, and in particular of the often difficult relations between the Bishop of Trent and the Count of the Tirol, see Kögl, J., La sovranità dei vescovi di Trento e di Bressanone (Trent, 1964), pp. 151–78.Google Scholar A more general account is given in Zieger, A., Storia della regione tridentina (Trent, 1968), pp. 138–62.Google Scholar

7 Wolkan, R., ‘Die Heimat der Trienter Musikhandschriften’, Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, 8 (1921), pp. 58.Google Scholar

8 Lunelli, R., ‘La patria dei codici musicali tridentini’, Note d'Archivio per la Storia Musicale, 4 (1927), pp. 116–28.Google Scholar Lunelli first presented some of his arguments in a newspaper article, ‘Intermezzo comico’, II Nuovo Trentino (Trent, 19 February 1921), pp. 33–4, in which he apparently took account of Wolkan's views, although it is doubtful whether the latter's article had yet been published.

9 This institution was probably one of the cathedral schools of grammar and song which were widely established in northern Italy by the early part of the fifteenth century (see Cattin, G., ‘Church Patronage of Music in Fifteenth-century Italy’, in Music in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Patronage, Sources and Texts, ed. Fenlon, I. (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 23 and 29).Google Scholar In a document of 22 December 1460 (TAC, Instr. Cap. x, fol. 65r), for example, Wiser is described as ‘artium gramatice professor’.

10 He is not to be confused with his sixteenth-century namesakes: see Blackburn, B.J., ‘Johannes Lupi and Lupus Hellinck: a Double Portrait’, Musical Quarterly, 59 (1973), pp. 547–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 TAC, Capsa dei Testamenti, unnumbered document. A complete transcription of the will is given in the Appendix on pp. 265 and 268–70.

12 Zanolini, V., ‘Spigolatura d'archivio’, Programma del Ginnasio Privato Pr[incipe] Vescovile di Trento per l'anno scolastico 1902–3 (Trent, 1903), pp. 40–3.Google Scholar Apparently the will went missing for a long time. It is not known when it disappeared, but quite possibly it was not available to Lunelli. Spilsted searched for it in vain (‘The Paleography and Repertory’, p. 183, n. 26), as did the present writer in 1980. It finally resurfaced c. 1982, having been incorrectly filed in a later part of the archive.

13 See Appendix, lines 74–7. Cited in Lunelli, ‘La patria’, p. 122; and quoted in Zanolini, ‘Spigolatura d'archivio’, p. 42, n. 2, and Spilsted, ‘The Paleography and Repertory’, p. 184.

14 Federhofer, H., ‘Trienter Codices’, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. Blume, F., 16 vols. (Kassel, 19491979), xiii (1966), cols. 670–1.Google Scholar

15 The surviving fragments of this once large and formal choirbook are in the hand of the main TR scribe (see Wright, ‘The Compilation’ (n. 3), pp. 265–8).

16 He is thus described in the document recording Lupi's investiture at Caldaro (cf. n. 23), at which occasion he was present.

17 He was still alive on 22 April (TAC, Instr. Cap. ix, fol. 275r), but had died by 30 July (ibid., fol. 284r). In a document of 19 March (ibid., fol. 271r) he is described as ‘Magister Andreas’. Santifaller, L., Urkunden und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Trientner Domkapitels im Mittelalter, i: Urkunden zur Geschichte des Trientner Domkapitels 1147–1500, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 6 (Vienna, 1948)Google Scholar, gives a short summary of the latest of these documents (p. 348, no. 477) as well as a number of others cited here.

18 ‘Anno domini millesimo cccc°xxviii° in die beati Colomanni martiris electus fuit in rectorem alme universitatis studii Wiennensis Mag. Johannes de Pawmgarten, arcium et medicine professor. In cuius rectoria intitulati sunt infrascripti: Nacio Australium … Johannes Lupi de Bolzano 4gr.’. Quoted from Santifaller, L., ed., Die Matrikel der Universität Wien, i: 1377–1450, Publikationen des Instituts fur Österreichische Geschichts-forschung, ser. vi, l/i (Graz and Cologne, 1956), p. 162Google Scholar, no. 4; also cited in Santifaller, L., ‘Studenti della diocesi di Trento all'Università di Vienna nel medio evo’, Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche, 3 (1922), p. 166, no. 24.Google Scholar According to Santifaller (Die Matrikel, i, p. xxii), four groschen was the standard matriculation fee from the summer semester of 1414 to the winter semester of 1450. Since this fee varied according to social standing, it seems fair to assume that Lupi was not born into a high-ranking family. (I have not yet had the opportunity to check the graduation records of the university, hitherto unpublished for the period in question, for Lupi's name.)

19 TASAPV, Sezione Latina, Capsa 46, N. 31: ‘Salutem cum bonorum omni incremento, ad cappellam Sancti Jacobi… nobis fidelem Johannem Wolff de Bolzano, clericum predicte vestre diocese’. Cited in Lunelli, ‘La patria’, p. 121, n. 1; and summarised in Schneller, F., ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte des Bisthums Trient aus dem späteren Mittelalter’, Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg, ser. iii, 38 (1894) [part 1], p. 186, no. 64a.Google Scholar

20 TASAPV, Sezione Latina, Capsa 46, N. 32 (there are two copies of this document): ‘Johannes Anhang de Bopphingen, canonicus Tridentini… discreto viro Johanni Lupi de Bolzano, Tridenti diocesi, salutem in Domino sempiternam, vacanda cappella Sancti Jacobi situata in cimiterio parochialis ecclesie Sancte Marie Virginis in Bolzano’. Cited in Lunelli, ‘La patria’, p. 121, n. 2; and summarised in Schneller, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte’, p. 186, no. 64b.

21 An incomplete and undated document records that Lupi was the representative of Andreas Prehenberger when the latter was elected to the Trent chapter (see TAC, Instr. Cap. ix, fol. 229r; and Santifaller, , Urkunden und Forschungen, p. 345, no. 465).Google Scholar According to [Bonelli, B.], Monumenta Ecclesiae Tridentinae (Trent, 1765), p. 283Google Scholar, Prehenberger's election took place in 1446; if this is the case, it would imply that Lupi was then already present in Trent.

22 Lupi's appointment is cited in Lunelli, ‘La patria’, p. 121; in K. Atz and Schatz, A., Der deutsche Antheil des Bisthums Trient, 5 vols. (Bozen, 19021910), ii (1904), pp. 78 and 96Google Scholar, as part of a detailed history of the parish; and in Stolz, O., Die Ausbreitung des Deutschtums im Lichte der Urkunden, 4 vols. (Munich and Berlin, 19271934), ii (1928), pp. 7980Google Scholar, who concludes that by the time of this appointment German was the language spoken in Caldaro.

23 TAC, Capsa 26, N. 43–1, records Lupi's nomination; TAC, Capsa 26, N. 7, records his investiture. The second of these documents (part of which is transcribed, somewhat erratically, in Stolz, Die Ausbreitung, 2, p. 103) describes him as follows: ‘Honorabilis vir dominus Johannes Lupi de Bolzano, Tridenti diocesi, cappellanus altaris Sancte Max-encie in ecclesia Sancti Vigilii Tridenti, necnon serenissimi principis domini domini Sigismundi ducis Austrie etc. cappellanus habens ac in suis tenens manibus quandam investitura per modum instrumenti sigillo’. Copies of these documents are found, together with German summaries of their contents, in ITL, Urkundenserie i, MS 4058, fols.8v–11r; they are also summarised in MS 5525, fols. 27v and 29r. All of these documents are cited in Schneller, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte’, pp. 237–8, nos. 261a–b.

24 TAC, Instr. Cap. ix, fol. 19r: ‘Locatio perpetualis facta per dominos canonicos domino Johanni Volf de una dorao’.

25 Ibid., fol. 20v (4 March 1452) and fol. 32v (4 March 1453), each of which records his presence at a meeting of the chapter. On 7 May 1452 Lupi served as a witness at the reading of the will of Hertvicus of Passau (TAC, Capsa dei Testamenti, unnumbered document (formerly Capsa 50, N. 10); quoted in Santifaller, Urkunden und Forschungen, p. 347, no. 474), in which he is described simply as altarist of San Maxentia.

26 See Spilsted, ‘The Paleography and Repertory’, pp. 186–9. The three documents describing Lupi as organist are in a different hand from any of the other documents in which he is cited, and it may be that the scribe who wrote them chose to state what other scribes took for granted.

27 On 4 April Lupi's successor as altarist of San Maxentia was appointed (TAC, Instr. Cap. xi, fol. 107r; Santifaller, Urkunden und Forschungen, p. 382, no. 516); on 15 April his successor at Caldaro was elected (TAC, Instr. Cap. xi, fol. 108r, and Capsa 26, N. 43–2; a later copy is found in ITL, Urkundenserie I, MS 4058, fols. 11r–12r; see Santifaller, Urkunden und Forschungen, p. 383, no. 517, and Schneller, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte’, p. 239, no. 266); and on 13 May the benefice of St Jacob was transferred (TASAPV, Sezione Latina, Capsa 46, N. 33; summarised in ITL, Liber Presentationum i (MS 3164), fol. 28r; see Schneller, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte’, pp. 189–90, no. 76).

28 ITL, Urkundenserie I, MS 5469; summarised in ITL, Liber Presentationum ii (MS 3165), fol. 4r; see Schneller, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte’, pp. 187–8, no. 69a.

29 ITL, Urkundenserie I, MS 5466; summarised in ITL, Liber Presentationum ii (MS 3165), fol. 4r; see Schneller, ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte’, p. 187, no. 69b. Remarking on the inconsistency between the documents of 1456 and those of 1467, Schneller suggests (p. 189, n. 1) that the benefice may not really have been occupied at all during this period, but I have found no evidence to support this idea.

30 TAC, Capsa 26, N. 23–1: ‘dominus Johannes Lupi in Kaldario plebem eandem locavit honorabili viro domino Johanni Institoris ad annos quinque immediate sequentibus annum primum incipiendum circa festum Sancti Martini’.

31 In addition to those sources already mentioned, he is cited – mainly in connection with the business of his parish – in the following documents: TAC, Instr. Cap. ix, fol. 285v (14 October 1455), fols. 290v–291r (17 February 1456), fols. 315v–316r (1 August 1457), fol. 342r-v (19 October 1458); Instr. Cap. x, fol. 17r (17 May 1459), fols. 19v–20r (3 June 1459), fol. 157v (16 December 1462); Instr. Cap. xi, fol. 41r-v (18 May 1464); and there are doubtless others. It is also known, from his will (Appendix, lines 103–11), that Lupi was a member of the fraternity of Corpus Christi.

32 None of its papers appear to have been in regular use in Trent, there are no local texts, and no composers' names which suggest a local connection. (The only possible evidence of an association between the compiler and one of the composers is the ascription of the Sanctus on Tr92, fols. 210v–21 1v, to ‘Magister Andreas’ (cf n. 17), the one continental composer in TR to be identified by Christian name alone.)

33 Apart from other considerations, Bolzano would not have been a particularly salubrious place in which to live or work after 1443, the year in which a fire destroyed a large part of the town. Details are given in Klammer, B., ed., P.J. Ladurner's Chronik von Bozen, 1844 (Bozen, 1982), pp. 300–1.Google Scholar

34 I am grateful to Professor Reinhard Strohm for drawing my attention to this point. For details of Sigmund's wardship see Chmel, J., Geschichte Kaiser Friedrichs iv. und seines Sohnes Maximilian I, 2 vols. (Hamburg, 1840), i, pp. 414–42;Google Scholar and Ladurner, J., ‘Über Herzog Sigmund's Vormundschaft 1439–1446’, Archix für Geschichte Alterthumskunde Tirols, 3 (1886), pp. 23140.Google Scholar

35 VHHS, Reichregistraturbuch O, fol. 30r: ‘Item primariae preces Johanni Lupi de Poczen, ad collacionem communitatis Traminii, clericus Tridentinenti diocesi’; a marginal note reads ‘vacat, recepit alibi’. See Chmel, J., Regesta chronologico-diplomatica Friderici IV. Romanorum Regis (Imperatoris III) (Vienna, 1838), p. 18, no. 168.Google Scholar

36 For an account of the system whereby the King of Germany was entitled to request the transfer of benefices under his jurisdiction, see Santifaller, L., ‘Die Preces primariae Maximilians i’, Festschrift zur Feier des zweihundertjährigen Bestandes des Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchivs, ed. Santifaller, L., Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 1, Ergänzungsband 2 (Vienna, 1949), pp. 578–9.Google Scholar In 1441 the king recommended Lupi to the Bishop of Bressanone: ‘Item preces pro Johanne Lupi ad collacionem Episcopi Brixensi’ (VHHS, Reichregistraturbuch O, fol. 34v); but once again it is probably fair to assume that his recommendation was unsuccessful.

37 VHHS, Reichregistraturbuch O, fol. 30r: ‘Item familiaritatis pro Johanne Lupi de Boczano, clerico Tridentinenti diocesi, sub forma communi cum conductu’. See Chmel, , Regesta chronologico-diplomatica, p. 20, no. 192.Google Scholar

38 See P. Wright, ‘The Aosta–Trent Relationship Reconsidered’, paper given at a conference to commemorate the life and work of Laurence Feininger held at Trent in September 1985, and to be published in the conference proceedings.

39 Federhofer, ‘Trienter Codices’ (n. 14), col. 668, speculates that Tr87 and Tr92 may contain the repertory of the chapel of Emperor Sigismund iii.

40 See Saunders, S., ‘The Dating of the Trent Codices from their Watermarks, with a Study of the Local Liturgy of Trent in the Fifteenth Century’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1984), pp. 148–9;Google Scholar and Spilsted, ‘Toward the Genesis’ (n. 2), p. 62.

41 TAC, Instr. Cap. x, fol. 19v: ‘comisserunt predicto domino Johanni Lupi ut dictum dominum Johannem Wiser in tenuram et corporalem possessionem dictorum altarium, ut premissum est sic sibi colatorum inducat et ponat, et inductum et positum tueatur, et defendat ac faciat sibi de fructibus reditibus’. Earlier in this document, which is summarised in Santifaller, Urkunden und Forschungen, p. 363, no. 486, Wiser is referred to as ‘honestus et discretus iuvenis dominus Johannes Wisser de Monaco, Frisingensis diocesis, magister et rector scolarum’.

42 TAC, Instr. Cap. ix, fol. 284r (30July 1455): ‘Johannes Wissar, suonatore scolaris in dicta civitate’. The word ‘suonatore’ (the scribe has lapsed into the vernacular at this point) might be interpreted more specifically to mean ‘player’ or ‘organist’. It would appear significant that this early mention of Wiser (so far the only reference to his status as a musician) occurs in a document relating to his predecessor as master and rector of the cathedral school, Johannes Prenner, since this suggests that Wiser may already have been employed there, perhaps as his assistant. The proximity of this earliest reference to Wiser to the matriculation of ‘Johannes Organista de Monaco’ at the University of Vienna (2 November 1454; see Santifaller, L., ed., Die Matrikel der Universität Wien, ii: 1451–1518, Publikationen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, ser. vi, 1/n (Graz and Cologne, 1959), vol. 1, p. 31, no. 47)Google Scholar marginally strengthens the attractive if slight possibility raised by Spilsted (‘The Paleography and Repertory’, p. 174, n. 9) that they are one and the same person.

43 TAC, Instr. Cap. xiii, fol. 135v (12 April 1497). Cited in Boni, G.,‘Origini e memorie della chiesa plebana di Tione’, Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche, 19 (1938) [part 3], p. 253.Google Scholar

44 Unless he is either ‘Johannes amicus domini decani’ (Appendix, line 128) or ‘Johannes lector ewangelii’ (lines 133–4).

45 This might be adduced from the fact (hitherto unnoticed) that the scribe who copied Tr87, fols. 167v–174r, also entered the Gloria on Tr88, fols. 384v–386r, and the Sanctus setting on Tr89, fols. 57v–58v, and may have copied other works into the later manuscripts. Many features of this hand (for example, the hairline stroke of the ‘e’ or the internal ‘2’-shaped ‘r’) seem to indicate that it is not Wiser's (as suggested in Bent, M., ‘Some Criteria for Establishing Relationships between Sources of Late-medieval Polyphony’, in Music in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Patronage, Sources and Texts, ed. Fenlon, I. (Cambridge, 1981), p. 303, n. 11)Google Scholar, but that of one of his assistants. Tr87, fols. 167v–174r, form part of a late addition to TR which differs from the later codices both in its papers and in its layout of staves.

46 There is, for example, no record of their presence among the liturgical books listed in the various fifteenth-century catalogues of the parish church of Bolzano: see Obermair, H., ‘Die liturgischen Bücher der Pfarrkirche Bozen aus dem letzten Viertel des 15. Jahrhunderts’, Der Schlern, 59 (1985), pp. 516–36.Google Scholar I am grateful to Herr Obermair for sending me a copy of his article and answering a number of points.

47 TAC, manuscript catalogue, ‘Repertorium omnium documentorum, quae in Archivio Cattedralis Ecclesiae Tridentinae Divi Vigilii custodienda asservantur, ad Reverendis-simi Capituli commodum, et Ecclesiae predictae incrementum opera, ac studio Francisci Feliciis Comitis de Albertis Canonici Tridentini, interiectis materiarum titulis anno Domini 1746 absolutum’, fol. 108v: ‘Liber Musicus MS. = alii consimiles = B.L.’. (Cited in Carlini and others, Dalla polifonia al classicismo (n. 1), p. 16.) Bockholdt, R., ‘Notizen zur Handschrift Trient “93” und zu Dufays frühen Messensätzen’, Acta Musicologica, 33 (1961), p. 40CrossRefGoogle Scholar, noted the presence on the spine of Tr93 of the letters ‘BL’ and an inscription ‘Cod(?) Musicus MS Libr…’. Unfortunately all the original bindings of the Trent codices were discarded during the restoration of the manuscripts in the 1970s, but photographs of Tr87–92 taken before 1934 and now kept at the Museo Provinciale d'Arte confirm that the same eighteenth-century shelfmark was present on the spines of other volumes in the group.

48 This note reads: ‘Et postea emptus per Johannem Wiser, iuris utriusque doctorem, in die exaltationis sancte crucis, Anno Domini m°c°coc°co9o’. The book in which it is found (TBC, MS 151, ‘Cassiodori liber Variarum’) is cited in Casagrande, V., Catalogo del Museo Diocesano di Trento (Trent, 1908), p. 90, no. 470.Google Scholar

49 See Cattin, ‘Church Patronage’ (n. 9), esp. p. 29.

50 The rector of Tysens, recipient of a schaffpret and a portative organ (Appendix, lines 116– 18); Johannes Freudental, recipient of a clavichord and lute (lines 118–20); Ambrosio [Slaspeck], recipient of a clavicembalo, clavichord and lute (lines 120–2); and the priest ‘primo qui cantat’ (lines 141–2). Also mentioned in the will are a mansionarius (lines 14 and 125) and a succentor (line 139); both of these offices often carried musical duties.

51 This is a transcription, not an edition. As many as possible of the original characteristics of the document (spelling, capitalisation, punctuation) have therefore been retained, in the hope that this will facilitate evaluation of Lupi's habits as a scribe. Abbreviations have been expanded and italicised. Occasionally a letter which is obviously missing has been supplied parenthetically. A vertical stroke indicates the end of a line, two vertical strokes the end of an item where the following item begins on the next line. (Oblique strokes represent original punctuation.) In addition the following symbols (borrowed from Parkes, M. B., English Cursive Book Hands 1250–1500 (Oxford, 1969), p. xxviii)Google Scholar have been used: ry enclose words which have been inserted between lines or placed in the margin; [ ] enclose words or letters which have been deleted by the scribe by means of crossing out or erasure. I am grateful to Don I vo Leonardi for allowing me to consult his unpublished transcription of the will, from which my own version differs in a number of respects; and to Dr Michael Jones and Professor Robin Storey of the University of Nottingham History Department for kindly checking my transcription and offering some useful suggestions.