Rouse MS 15. CHOIR BOOK in Czech (?), 4 fragments.

Title: Rouse MS 15. CHOIR BOOK in Czech (?), 4 fragments.
Uniform title: Richard and Mary Rouse Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
Date Created: XV
Date: 1500
Place of Origin: Bohemia
Collection: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts

Summary: Written by one scribe in a large textualis formata script. The ink (of the text only, not the notation) has eaten through the paper in several places on the second fragment, with a clumsy paper-tape repair (295 x 50 mm.) along one edge. Decoration: 3 large ornate black initials (45-50 mm. in height), with red trim on yellow ground; 5 smaller simple initials (20-40 mm. in height) in red or dusty pale blue. Unbound.
Description: Music:Prague notation on five-line staffs inked in red. Using the punctum, pes, clivis(?), plica(?) or other liquescent, and other unidentified ligatures. Pitch given by F letter clefs on the third or fourth line of each staff (where visible). A B-flat accidental appears on fragment 1; as the clef has been obscured, it is not possible to say with certainty what pitch it modifies, but it is most likely an E-flat or B-flat. The large size of both notation and text as well as the low register of the chant melodies indicates that the original manuscript was indeed intended for choral performance. Undoubtedly produced in or near Prague due to the distinctive regional notation; the rhomb-shaped noteheads are characteristic of the city’s medieval sign system.
Written in Bohemia, in Prague or the region around Prague, in the fifteenth century. Perhaps reused as book covers. Acquired by J.G. Kunzle in Germany. Inherited by David M. Kunzle. Bought from him by Richard and Mary Rouse in 1994. Given to UCLA in 2011.

Dimensions: 4 fragments: 1: 308 x 214 mm.; 2: 295 x 230 mm.; 3: 73 x 215 mm.; 4: 25 (at most) x 262 mm.
Medium: Paper (thick and slightly rough-surfaced).