Profane Compositions

#

his precious musical manuscript has been dated circa 1495-96, but other authorities attribute it to the very early years of the 1500s. The original structure of the codex is composed of 80 sheets, 112x166 mm, numbered in pencil, to which 16 pages (listing the manuscript contents) were added in the 1800s. Also the attribution of the illumination to either Padua or Ferrara is controversial. The binding is still the original; brown leather with gold impressions, with the incisions of the old clasps. It would seem from the content of the codex – illuminations, musical compositions and poetic texts – that the work was destined for a refined elite, so much so that some authorities believe that the codex was illuminated for Isabella d’Este Gonzaga. The codex is carefully finished, with elegant writing and coloured capital letters flanking nearly every sheet; some sheets have purple coloured backgrounds and illuminations inspired by nature – birds, insects, flowers, fruit – of exceptional decorative richness, sometimes with echoes and returns between text and image. The secular compositions, for two to four voices, are mostly 15th century “strambotti”, a tradition for which the manuscript constitutes an indispensable source, so much so it represents, from the musical and poetic aspect, a “virtual anthology”.

Musical poetry for Court celebrations. Illuminated Renaissance manuscript, end 15th cent. - beginning 16th cent., 90 sheets (180 pages), 17x12 cm, period decorated leather binding, boxed with commentary. 999 copies.

#