YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

VIRTUS SCRIPTORIS: STEPS TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY OF ILLUSTRATION BORROWING IN MUSIC THEORY TREATISES
dance of Greek note-names, Latin letter-names, and solmization syllables; of proportions;
of concordance of Latin letter-names, solmization syllables, and the nine
Muses (making up the Gamma novem musarum); of concordance of Latin letternames,
solmization syllables, and precious metals (making up the Gamma metalorum);
of concordance of Latin letter-names, solmization syllables, Greek names,
and the nine planets – allegedly according to Cicero (The Dream of Scipio); of the
seven planets and their corresponding Greek names, Latin letter-names, and solmization
syllables – allegedly according to Boethius (De musica, Book I, chapter 24).
In the interest of space, this article will only present examples of circular diagrams
from the category of geometrical shapes, and examples of plant- and treeshaped
diagrams from the category of living things. The illustrations belong in both
music theory manuscripts and in manuscripts devoted to other disciplines.
SCRIPTOR, PICTOR, NOTATOR
The first point, however, that needs to be addressed here is a question of terminology
arising from the culture of the time, involving the way in which music theorists and
other medieval writers expressed themselves with regard to the writing and illustrating
of manuscript books, and the designations used in medieval texts to refer to
those engaged in such activities.
Scriptor, autor, compilator, and notator are all terms frequently encountered in
medieval documents. Among modern researchers, C. Matthew Balensuela has
pointed out that “scribes of words may not be good at drawing or music notation”; 11
within the ranks of medieval and Renaissance autores, a somewhat condescending
attitude was occasionally expressed towards scriptores who were either unsatisfactorily
skilled or careless enough to provide little or no space between syllables that
were to be set to music. Such a practice was perceived as a vicium scriptoris that
forced the notatores (in a musical context, those who penned the notes) to squeeze
in several notes above one syllable, thereby rendering the music difficult to read and
to sing. 12
11 See BALENSUELA, ‘Ut hec te figura docet’.
12 See, for instance, the fourteenth-century Quatuor principalia, Tertium principale, chapter 58: est enim
vicium scriptoris atque notatoris et racio est quia scriptor inter sillabas nimis spacium dimittit; notator
verum spacium implet, in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 90, fol. 37v. The entire manuscript,
with the exception of a few folios, can be seen by following the Bodleian Library link at Early
Manuscripts at Oxford. For a catalogue description, see RISM B/3/4, p. 121. The treatise, edited from
MS Digby 90, is printed in E. DE COUSSEMAKER ed., Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series
a Gerbertina altera, 4 vols., Paris, 1864–1876, repr. Hildesheim 1963, 4, pp. 200–298; the passage in
question appears on p. 253. An electronic version of this edition is found as a set of four different files
in the Thesaurus Musicarum Latinarum database, ;
QUAPRIB1TEXT, QUAPRIB2TEXT, QUAPRIB3TEXT, and QUAPRIB4TEXT can be found by following
the fourteenth-century link.
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