Giovanni Varelli, ed., Disiecta Membra Musicae: Studies in Musical Fragmentology

Book Review for Fragmentology IV (2021); review of Giovanni Varelli, ed., Disiecta Membra Musicae: Studies in Musical Fragmentology.

Fragmentology 4(2021): Index of Manuscripts

An index of all shelfmarks, accession numbers, and inventory numbers cited in reference to material in Fragmentology 4(2021).

Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Volume II: Spanish, English, Flemish & Central European Miniatures; Volume III: French Miniatures

Book Review for Fragmentology IV (2021); review of Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Volume II: Spanish, English, Flemish & Central European Miniatures, London: Ad Illissum 2019, 248 pp., 150+ colour illustrations, ISBN 9781912168132; Peter Kidd, The McCarthy Collection, Volume III: French Miniatures, London: Ad Illissum 2021, 336 pp., 350 colour illustrations, ISBN 9781912168187.

Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo, eds., The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings

Book Review for Fragmentology IV (2021); review of The Burke Collection of Italian Manuscript Paintings, edited by Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo, introduction by Christopher de Hamel, London: Ad Illissum 2021, 472 pp., 300 colour illustrations, ISBN 9781912168200.

Codex Fragments Detached from Incunabula in the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

This article presents the results of a study of 32 manuscript fragments detached from incunables in the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books of the Library and Information Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The incunables themselves were imported into Hungary between the end of the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Reconstructing a Middle Dutch Alexander Compilation

This article provides a first description, edition and analysis of Antwerp, University Library, Special Collections, MAG-P 64.19. This fragment is the sole known remnant of a Middle Dutch compilation of stories about Alexander the Great copied by the well-known Ferguut scribe (ca.1350). Our research shows that this compilation comprised Dutch versions of the Voeux du paon and the twelfth-century Fuerre de Gadres, which was previously unknown to have been translated into Dutch. We advance the possibility that the Stuttgart and Brussels fragments of Alexanders geesten and Roman van Cassamus, which were also copied by the Ferguut scribe, belonged to a second copy of this compilation, providing a continuous narrative about the life of Alexander. In this respect, the Dutch compilation resembles contemporary manuscripts of the Roman d'Alexandre in which Alexandre de Paris' vulgate compilation was complemented with various amplifications. The combination of pre-existing Dutch stories into one (semi)coherent narrative is also similar to the famous Lancelot compilation, a collection of Arthurian narratives created in Brabant in approximately the same period. The fragment thus sharpens our understanding of the role of compilations in the dissemination of Middle Dutch chivalric romance.

Fragmentology 4(2021): Editorial

Editorial to Fragmentology 4(2021).

Fragments of Jerome's Epistolae (Mainz: Peter Schoeffer, 1470) in the Utrecht University Library

Utrecht University Library possesses a partially complete print on vellum of the first volume of Jerome’s Epistolae, printed in 1470 by Peter Schoeffer in Mainz. The University Library also holds several fragments of the 1470 Epistolae, both detached and in situ, and printed on vellum as well. Several descriptions state that these fragments come from a second volume of the same provenance as the first, but this note shows that this is physically impossible. The provenance of the fragments, most of which come from books owned by Hubert van Buchell (1513-1599), is explored, as well as the importance of fragmentology for early print studies.

Manuscript waste in reconstructing book collections of medieval Elbląg

Medieval manuscript collections on the territory of Teutonic Prussia have been particularly affected by numerous unfortunate events in modern history, such as Polish-Swedish wars and the turmoil after World War II. Still, the attempts to reconstruct the local collections may shed new light on the intellectual history of this historical region. To this date this kind of research was based mostly on the preserved manuscripts with Prussian origin or provenance, that is to say produced or used on the territory of Prussia, currently held in Polish or foreign libraries and on the evidence on the lost volumes derived from archival inventories. The article, taking as an example the history of collections of the city of Elbląg, discusses the potential of systematic studies of parchment waste used in bindings of manuscripts and printed books for reconstructing the intellectual landscape of the territory in question. It systematizes different types of provenance evidence that links the parchment waste to the territory of Teutonic Prussia by an analysis of content, script, musical notation, bindings and other material evidence.

Identifying Medieval Fragments in Three Musical Instruments Made by Antonio Stradivari

This article identifies ten fragments, used as reinforcements in the sounding boxes of three instruments made by Antonio Stradivari (Cremona, c.1648-1737), which are now kept at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (the ‘Cipriani Potter’ violin, 1683, and the ‘Hill’ guitar, 1688), and at the musée de la Musique in Paris (the ‘Vuillaume’ guitar). The fragments appear to come from a single book of hours, made in Italy no later than the mid-fifteenth century. This identification allows the documentation of the use of parchment fragments in the making process of Stradivari. The authors discuss what the common origin of parchment fragments found in three distinct instruments implies for the authenticity and relative dating of their making. Finally, this study sheds light on the potential of documenting reused parchment fragments, which are widely present in many string musical instruments produced in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.