Sonderforschungsbereich 950

Manuscript Cultures in Asia, Africa and Europe

New York, Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Columbia University, N-66, conductus
fragments as a pastedown

Detective work –
Hunting for music manuscripts reused in various bookbindings

What happened to medieval parchment manuscripts that were not in use any more and that took too much space in the library? In many cases, the parchment was reused in bookbindings of other manuscripts or early printed books (incunables). There, the dismembered fragments remain undiscovered until modern scholars or librarians incidentally find them. Many sources that transmit one of the most famous collections of music history, the 13th century manuscripts associated with the cathedral Notre-Dame of Paris, ended up like this. Sometimes, they are found in parent volumes far away from Paris, like this example in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New York’s Columbia University shows.

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