The Intersection of Anglo-French Culture and Angevin Illumination in a Fourteenth-Century Ars Nova Miscellany: A New Dating of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. Lat. 307 and Sankt Paul Im Lavanttal, Archiv Des Benediktinerstiftes, Ms. 135/6

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to re-examine the Barberini music theory miscellany now divided between the libraries of the Vatican and the southern Austrian abbey of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal. We take this opportunity to provide a fresh appraisal of this unusual manuscript’s codicological, paleographical, musico-theoretic and art-historic features with a view to shedding new light on its origin, date and earliest function. A consideration of the manuscript as a physical object and its study from a multidisciplinary viewpoint has led to a better understanding of all these features. The revised dating we suggest, moreover, allows new insights in the spread of Anglo-French music culture in fourteenth-century Italy.