YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION
YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION
90 LUMINITA FLOREA planets, and the heavenly – and still concentric – spheres inhabited by angels, archangels, and, ultimately, by Christ in Glory. 49 In illustrated manuscript editions of Calcidius’s translation of Timaeus, and side by side with cosmic schemes, one finds abundant visual material for interval proportions. A case in point is Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 23, where folio 53r displays the colligatio elementorum (the conjunction of the four elements and four qualities), while folio 53v shows a diagram of the octave and its subdivisions, with the outermost semicircle demonstrating the diapason and the one concentric to it naming the corresponding proportion, i.e., duple; at the next level, the two symmetrically arranged semicircles represent the interval of diapente and its corresponding proportion, the sesquialtera; finally, at the third level the pictor has drawn semicircular shapes for tones and semitones. 50 In cases such as this one, the connection musicastronomy is clearly perceivable; it might be surmised that the sharing of a common conceptual territory between these two disciplines has caused the migration of circular shapes from one leaf to the next. Such interdisciplinary communion, however, is not explicit – yet the concept of image borrowing still make sense – in manuscripts containing music theory tracts only. A case in point are the rows and columns of tangential circles – twenty in all – that were drawn on folios 21v–22v of the 1351 exemplar of the treatise Quatuor principalia found in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 90; they were meant to exhibit solmization-syllable permutations and practically amount to a comprehensive imago or speculum of the hexachord system. The manuscript Digby 90 contains the earliest extant exemplar of the longer version of this treatise, also preserved in three manuscripts from the first half of the next century: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 515; 51 London, British Library, MS Add. 8866; 52 and Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS O.9.29 53 – the latter including a colophon giving 1421 as the date of completion of the manuscript. The four manuscripts were clearly written by four different scribes, but it is apparent that many, if not all, of the drawings in each manuscript were executed by the scriptor of the text. 49 On a smaller scale, a detailed treatment of the four elements alone frequently employed the customary “flattened” projection of the sphere to show water, air, earth, and fire surrounded by the symbols of the twelve signs of the zodiac; see, for instance, a fifteenth-century French version of Bartholomeus Anglicus’s De proprietatibus rerum (Livre des Propriétés des Choses), in Paris, Bibiliothèque Nationale, MS f.fr. 135. 50 The image can be seen by following the Bodleian Library link at Early Manuscripts at Oxford; see also Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, MS W 22 (Phillipps 1029): Macrobius, Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis, with several diagrams based on Calcidius; for a catalogue description, see RISM B/3/4, pp. 139–140. 51 For a catalogue description, see RISM B/3/4, pp. 107–109. 52 For a catalogue description, see RISM B/3/4, p. 33. 53 For a catalogue description, see RISM B/3/4, pp. 101–103.
VIRTUS SCRIPTORIS: STEPS TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY OF ILLUSTRATION BORROWING IN MUSIC THEORY TREATISES For example, from a study of the ductus of the letters of the main text, the legends accompanying the diagrams, the text of the chant examples, the color and concentration of the ink, the form of the noteshapes, rests, mensuration signs, and other graphic shapes present in the manuscript; and from observation of other factors such as the positioning of various diagrams within the text, it is very likely – in fact, probable – that the first book on this list was copied and illustrated by a single scriptorpictor. The circular diagrams drawn to exemplify hexachord mutations are simple, unadorned, and straightforward; their purpose is to instruct. The contours of the circles are rather irregular (which in turn leads one to believe that no compass was used in the drawing of them), and, although the execution proper is careful and the result of it is tidy, the layout does not suggest a great deal of preoccupation with the general planning of space. Rather, the scriptor-pictor appears to have gone on to using leaf after leaf until the whole diagram was completed: thus the bottom of folio 21v includes a single row of three circles, the next fifteen circles were drawn as three columns of five rows each on folio 22r, while the remaining two circles occupy the top of folio 22v. The scriptor (who was conceivably the pictor as well) of MS Add. 8866 did not draw any diagrams at this point in the text. Whether this was a choice prompted by a desire to save parchment, or whether no choice at all was involved and this is just a simple case of forgetfulness, we do not know. Suffice it to say that no folios or text are missing at this point – just the twenty circles, which would have taken up about two pages. Whether one or two different individuals wrote the text and drew the illustrations in MS Bodley 515 bears further investigation (although one could argue that the scriptor and pictor were one and the same person). Whatever the case, the pictor here had in mind a more grandiose scope: like the ones in MS Digby 90, the diagrams in MS Bodley 515 were undoubtedly drawn to inform the mind and to offer visual glosses on the main text; in addition, they also fulfill an aesthetic function, as, on folios 24v-25r, the pictor took great pains to decorate the space between circles with double-edged romboidal and triangular shapes, and included four additional circles on the second page just to fill in the unused space; these circles he then proceeded to fill with stylized flowers and other minor ornamental elements instead of solmization syllables. Furthermore, and as a final touch, he enclosed the circles on each page in a rectangle to create the effect of a framed painting. From these and from other drawings it appears that the maker (or makers) of MS Bodley 515 was (or were) creating not just a means of transmitting information by way of text and graphics, but also a book that would be pleasing to the eye – in other words, a work that was both instructive and decorative. 91
- Page 37 and 38: FROM VARIETY TO REPETITION: THE BIR
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VIRTUS SCRIPTORIS: STEPS TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY <strong>OF</strong> ILLUSTRATION BORROWING IN MUSIC <strong>THE</strong>ORY TREATISES<br />
For example, from a study of the ductus of the letters of the main text, the legends<br />
accompanying the diagrams, the text of the chant examples, the color and concentration<br />
of the ink, the form of the noteshapes, rests, mensuration signs, and other<br />
graphic shapes present in the manuscript; and from observation of other factors such<br />
as the positioning of various diagrams within the text, it is very likely – in fact, probable<br />
– that the first book on this list was copied and illustrated by a single scriptorpictor.<br />
The circular diagrams drawn to exemplify hexachord mutations are simple,<br />
unadorned, and straightforward; their purpose is to instruct. The contours of the circles<br />
are rather irregular (which in turn leads one to believe that no compass was used<br />
in the drawing of them), and, although the execution proper is careful and the result<br />
of it is tidy, the layout does not suggest a great deal of preoccupation with the general<br />
planning of space. Rather, the scriptor-pictor appears to have gone on to using<br />
leaf after leaf until the whole diagram was completed: thus the bottom of folio 21v<br />
includes a single row of three circles, the next fifteen circles were drawn as three<br />
columns of five rows each on folio 22r, while the remaining two circles occupy the<br />
top of folio 22v.<br />
The scriptor (who was conceivably the pictor as well) of MS Add. 8866 did not<br />
draw any diagrams at this point in the text. Whether this was a choice prompted by<br />
a desire to save parchment, or whether no choice at all was involved and this is just<br />
a simple case of forgetfulness, we do not know. Suffice it to say that no folios or text<br />
are missing at this point – just the twenty circles, which would have taken up about<br />
two pages.<br />
Whether one or two different individuals wrote the text and drew the illustrations<br />
in MS Bodley 515 bears further investigation (although one could argue that<br />
the scriptor and pictor were one and the same person). Whatever the case, the pictor<br />
here had in mind a more grandiose scope: like the ones in MS Digby 90, the diagrams<br />
in MS Bodley 515 were undoubtedly drawn to inform the mind and to offer<br />
visual glosses on the main text; in addition, they also fulfill an aesthetic function, as,<br />
on folios 24v-25r, the pictor took great pains to decorate the space between circles<br />
with double-edged romboidal and triangular shapes, and included four additional circles<br />
on the second page just to fill in the unused space; these circles he then proceeded<br />
to fill with stylized flowers and other minor ornamental elements instead of<br />
solmization syllables. Furthermore, and as a final touch, he enclosed the circles on<br />
each page in a rectangle to create the effect of a framed painting. From these and<br />
from other drawings it appears that the maker (or makers) of MS Bodley 515 was (or<br />
were) creating not just a means of transmitting information by way of text and<br />
graphics, but also a book that would be pleasing to the eye – in other words, a work<br />
that was both instructive and decorative.<br />
91