Ars Antiqua motets in fourteenth-century Italy: liturgical priorities, style and notation in Bodleian, lat. liturg. e. 42

Abstract

The motets in the fourteenth-century liturgical manuscript Oxford, Bodleian, lat. liturg. e. 42 have, despite some sidelong glances, not been the subject of any concentrated study since F. Alberto Gallo introduced them in 1970. This article proposes a date for the copying of these motets in the first few decades of the fourteenth century and demonstrates that they have much to add to ongoing debates about stylistic and notational change between the Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova styles. First, they underline the importance of considering polyphony within the context of the whole book that transmits it: e. 42's motets work together with its monophonic chant to emphasise a set of feasts which were particularly important for the compilers of this manuscript within their institutional context. Second, these motets act as an important reminder that narratives of fourteenth-century stylistic change must be heterogeneous: the wide-ranging mix of musical styles found in the motets of e. 42 add to an emerging picture of early fourteenth-century Ars Antiqua collections in which such stylistic eclecticism is a common feature. Third, e. 42's notation and its connections to that of other manuscripts enrich and complicate narratives of notational change in this period. Parallels for e. 42's ligature use can be found in a temporally and geographically diverse set of manuscripts. Its notation of semibreves, however, resembles that of a smaller group of manuscripts from the early fourteenth century and provides an important witness for the changes to semibreve rhythm at that time.