Notation and Script

F clef, pencil marks, insertion, and porrectus neume

This sequence follows a standard Dominican notational system, and consists of square noteheads on a four-lined staff. A movable F-clef appears at the beginning of each system, and, as in the example isolated in the image to the left, appears in the middle of a system when moved. The medieval F-clef is the predecessor to the modern bass clef; notes positioned on the line positioned in between the two dots (which resemble a modern semicolon) sound as an “F.” Pencil marks appear frequently in each system, and demonstrate evidence of user interaction and likely use in performance. These marks indicate correspondence between notes and text; isolated in this example are pencil marks matching two punctum neumes to the two-syllable word, “tuo.” 

Another notable addition to this sequence is the isolated correction, marked with a yellow rectangle in the image. The insertion, which reads “ad quem,” was added later to the sequence, likely due to a scribe copying error. Pencil marks denote correspondence between the insertion and two punctum neumes. Finally, this image isolated a porrectus neume, which resembles an “N.” This neume would have been sung as three separate notes from left to right; the first two are marked by either end of the angled downward stroke, and the final notated with a square notehead. Porrectus neumes only appear twice in this instance of the Tibi cordis sequence, emphasizing the Dominican ideal of simplicity and preference for less melismatic musical material. 

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Text, punctum, climacus, podatus, and torculus neumes

The script used in the text of the Tibi cordis in altari sequence, and the preceding Ave virgo virginum sequence, is of particular interest, as it is distinct from the hand used in the rest of the manuscript. The sequences, which were likely copied between 1280 and 1340, appear to be written in the Northern gothic textualis libraria hand: a form of gothic minuscule which is often identified in manuscripts of Northwestern Europe. Libraria scripts are considered to be a more informal form of gothic minuscule.

The neumes isolated in this image are the punctum, the climacus, the torculus, and the podatus. The punctum neume is the most common neume in this sequence, and both sonically and visually resembles a modern quarter note. In this instance, the puncta are drawn as a square with small serifs in each corner. This serifed notational style closely resembles Parisian square notation of the 13th and 14th centuries, wherein noteheads are positioned squarely on the staff, and tails are perpendicular to staff lines. Porrectus neumes in the Parisian square notational style, such as the one isolated in the image above, exhibit an initial slope, and are oriented squarely on the staff. 

The three other neumes isolated in this image are more complex than the punctum. The climacus neume, circled in red, is a set of four notes, the first of which appears as a punctum. The three notes that follow the initial are diamond shaped and descend stepwise. The torculus and podatus neumes appear at the very end of the sequence, and are attached to the final “amen” of the chant. The torculus neume resembles three connected punctum neumes, and was sung from left to right. The podatus neume which concludes the sequence consists of two square noteheads, one on top of the other, and would have been sung from bottom to top.

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