THE ANONYMOUS MUSICA IN LEIPZIG, UNIVERSITÄTSBIBLIOTHEK, MS 1492: A NEW EDITION AND TRANSLATION

The article presents a new edition and English translation of the Latin music-theory treatise transmitted anonymously in Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, MS 1492, sometimes known as De musica et de transformatione specialiter, or simply the Sowa Anonymous (a reference to Heinrich Sowa's edition published in 1935). An introductory essay justifies the treatise's importance and gives reasons why a new edition is necessary. It also presents a complex case for dating the treatise to the eleventh century based on verbal and conceptual affinities with five other treatises of the era. The edition of the text is done to higher standards of orthographic accuracy than were observed in 1935 and corrects about twenty outright errors in Sowa's edition. It also includes the two embedded tonaries that Sowa omitted. The treatise is a crucial complementary witness to the state of music theory in the eleventh century.