From Centre to Periphery and Back: The Codex Speciálník and Fluid Music History around 1500

Abstract

Research on European musical culture in the late Middle Ages has been significantly influenced by politics in the twentieth century. Modern ideological concepts and political borders were projected on to historical material and interpreted in terms of a Europe divided by the Iron Curtain. Although musicological research over the past three decades has frequently been confronted with questions of the identity of central Europe and its reintegration into international musicological discourse, recent synthetic studies (e.g., the Cambridge History of Music series) still largely conserve pre-1989 views of music history. Using the Bohemian Codex Speciálník (CZ-HKm 7), this study shows that the construction of a new historical narrative requires a re-evaluation of primary sources. Basic information concerning them, such as dating, must be revised according to current codicological methods, and their historical contexts must be reassessed. Today the Codex Speciálník is recognized as an internationally important source for studying the transmission of polyphony in Europe before 1500. The repertory in its earliest gatherings, dating from c. 1480 or shortly before, has close ties to the court of Emperor Frederick III and the ducal court in Milan. New findings point to central Europe-and Bohemia in particular-as an important area for the cultivation of polyphony, and demonstrate that old clichés framing the region as marginal and behind-the-times must be reconsidered.