Notre Dame manuscripts and their history: case-studies on reception and reuse

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on fragments of Notre Dame manuscripts that made their way to German speaking Europe during the medieval period. The first chapter focuses on their contexts of reuse. Dominican, Cistercian as well as Franciscan bookbinders played a role in these processes of medieval and early modern recycling. The potential for fragments to elucidate bookbinders’ techniques will be explored, and existing hypotheses as to the circulation of Notre Dame manuscripts will be critically reviewed.

Furthermore, an emphasis is placed on the importance of the reconstruction of medieval book collections. The second chapter is dedicated to the discovery of a set of conductus fragments reused by a bookbinder of the Dominican convent of Soest. Taking one known fragment as a point of departure, I was able to assign five further leaves(now in Münster, Cambridge and New Haven) to this set of fragments. The third chapter sheds new light on the history of two host volumes, in which, during the twentieth century, organum fragments were discovered. It addresses questions of the changing ownership of manuscripts, focusing on the role of post Reformation and nineteenth century book collectors.

The final chapter, a case study of the conductus Porta salutis ave, discusses editorial problems in conjunction with a close analysis of the piece’s main stylistic features. As the text was originally designed as a seal inscription, questions of material culture and music are also addressed. Furthermore, my systematic search for text sources for the distich Porta salutis ave revealed more than twenty previously unconsidered manuscripts transmitting the poetic text only, whose fuller, contents point to complementary contexts and functions to those suggested in the musical sources and the seals.
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