Montpellier Codex

Montpellier Codex manuscript

The Montpellier Codex (Montpellier, Bibliothèque Inter-Universitaire, Section Médecine, H196) is an important source of 13th-century French polyphony. The Codex contains 336 polyphonic works probably composed c. 1250–1300, and was likely compiled c. 1300.[1] It is believed to originate from Paris. It was discovered by musicologist Edmond de Coussemaker in c. 1852.[2][3]

  1. ^ Grove: "Date: fascs.2–6, 1270s (Rosketh and RISM, c1280); fascs.1 and 7, plus the additions to 3 and 5, very end of 13th century (Branner: late 13th century, Everist: 1280s); fasc.8, very early years of the 14th century (Branner and Everist: c1300). As a controversial alternative to the picture of a manuscript compiled in discrete stages of activity a decade or more apart, Wolinski posits a single campaign of copying fascs.1–7 as an entity in the 1260s or 1270s, with fasc.8 perhaps also as early as the 1270s; not widely accepted, her theory has radical implications for the development of the motet, musical notation and music theory in the second half of the 13th century (Wolinski, 1992, pp.299–301)."
  2. ^ Emil Naumann Illustrierte Musikgeschichte., Volume 2, Spemann, Berlin & Stuttgart 1886.
  3. ^ Pierre Combe The Restoration of Gregorian Chant: Solesmes and the Vatican Edition, CUA Press, 2008, p. 13f