Late medieval music fragments in the Netherlands: A codicological (re-)examination

The university libraries of Amsterdam, Leiden, and Utrecht each house a set of interrelated music fragments which are dated around 1400 (Wegman 1992). A variety of genres is preserved on eighteen leaves – Mass settings, motets, and French as well as Dutch-texted courtly songs, - pointing to a lively music culture. The Dutch-texted songs make it plausible to assume that the songs were compiled in the northern Low Countries. Due to their use as flyleaves in bindings from the early sixteenth century some of the leaves are in a highly deteriorated state. Despite the discovery of the Utrecht fragments in the early twentieth century , the Leiden fragments in the 1960s, and the Amsterdam fragments in the 1980s, a comprehensive study of the codicology and the repertory therefore has not been carried out.

Thanks to digital restoration techniques and a fresh examination of the material evidence in light of recent research, new conclusions about the origins and content of the fragments can be drawn. In my paper, I shall present first results of my codicological re-examination of the fragments, supplemented by new transcriptions and musical analyses. This will provide a fresh view on the origins and use of the fragment leaves, revising and refining currently held views about the dissemination and cultivation of mensural polyphony in the northern Low Countries.