Sources for Cantigas

Links to online images of manuscripts of containing the medieval Galego-Portuguese song repertory.

Having already blogged about manuscript resources for French and Occitan song, German song, motets, and Machaut, this page is about online resources for manuscripts of another medieval vernacular song repertory: Cantigas.

E-Mn 10069. To. c.1275 (Ferreira 1994). According to Grove, 161 parchment leaves, 32 × 22 cm. No miniatures. 5 text scribes; 1 music scribe (Ferreira, 1994). 128 songs (102 cantigas from f.9v onwards and then 3 appendices with 26 more cantigas (from f.136 onwards). Earliest redaction of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.

E-E MS T.I.1 (T.j.1) E2 or T. Also called the “Códice Rico”. Probably 1280–84 (Ferreira 1994). According to Grove, 256 parchment leaves, 49 × 33 cm. 2-column layout. 1264 miniatures, normally grouped in 6 on a full page for a single song or 12 on 2 full pages for the fifth song in each group of 10. Main collection has 194 cantigas and is first volume of a set of 2; the second, incomplete volume, containing 104 songs with empty staves, is now I-Fn B.R.20. F. Not online.

E-E Ms b. I. 2 (j. b. 2). E or E1. Probably c.1284 (Ferreira 1994). According to Grove, 361 parchment leaves, 40 × 28 cm. 2- column layout; 2 music scribes for 416 songs (including 9 repeated cantigas, a repeated melody and 4 cantigas without music). Link to images from the facsimile edited by Anglès. [A massive pdf file — be patient as it loads!]

P-La. Cancioneiro da Ajuda / Ajuda songbook. Late 13thC; Grove says c.1300. This manuscript was designed for notation, but the staves were never entered in the spaces left for them. Listing of content with links to transcription and MS images.

P-Lant frag. cx 20 no.2. 13thC. The Sharrer fragment in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. Listing of content with links to transcriptions and MS images. Contains seven songs by Dom Dinis (King of Portugal, 1279–1325) on a fragmentary folio, discovered in 1990 by Sharrer and according to Grove restored in 1993 such that the musical content suffered. 3-column layout; no miniatures. 2 calligraphic styles, possibly by same copyist, with corrections by a different hand. 3 music copyists.

P-Ln Cod.10991. Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional / Chansonnier Colocci-Brancuti / Colocci-Brancuti songbook. Listing of content with links to transcriptions and MS images. Copied c.1525 in Rome from a lost 14th-century Portuguese exemplar. Also contains an early treatise on poetry, the Arte de trovar. NB: Black-and-white images only.

I-Rvat Lat.4803. Cancioneiro da Vaticana / Vatican songbook. Listing of content with links to transcription and MS images. Copied c.1525 in Rome from a lost 14th-century Portuguese exemplar.

US-NYpm M 979. 14thC (on the Cantigas website) or last quarter of the 13thC (Grove). Vindel MS. MS fragment (bifolio written on one side only) that emerged from a book binding in the early 20thC. Contains 7 songs (all with staves; 6 with notation entered) by Martin Codax, all cantigas de amigo. Listing of content with links to transcription and MS images.

Bibliography

Cantigas website: http://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt/manuscritos.asp

“Sources, MS, §III: Secular monophony; 6.Galego-Portuguese.” [subscription only]

Ferreira, M.P. ‘The Stemma of the Marian Cantigas: Philological and Musical Evidence’, Cantigueiros, vi (1994), 58–98.