Clarissima plane atq𝔷 choralis || musice interpretatio Dñi Bal||thasser Praspergij Merspurgeñ. cũ || certissimis regulis atq𝔷 Exẽploꝝ Ano||tacionibꝰ || & figuris multũ splẽdidis || In Alma Basileorum vniuersitate || exercitata.||

Finis musices ex Orphei lyra et || Saphus cythara manate atq𝔷 per venerabi||lem dñm Balthasser praspergiū Merspur⸗||geñ. In nobili ac preclaro Basileorum stu⸗||dio proceltico: diligentia exactissima exami||nate. Rogatu tandem auditorum per proui||dum virum Michaelem Furter Ciuē Basi=||lieñ Impresse. Anno xp̃iane salutis suꝑ Mil||lesimo [sic] quingentesimo quarto.||

Arms of Basel: two dragons supporting a shield with a bishop’s crozier (C3v)

Basel

Theory book

Printed specifically for Basel University (as noted on title page). The text has evidently been printed from a new setting of type, as is expected. The woodcuts generally seem to be printed from the same blocks, though slight differences (such as the lower woodcut on B2r, in which the uppermost line of the staff is straighter in vdm 360 than it was in vdm 358) suggest that some blocks may have been repaired or recut. There is a slight degradation in the block from vdm 358 to vdm 360.

Title woodcut: on the right, Lady Musica plays a harp; on the left, a teacher points to solmisation syllables in a banderole above their heads.

Latin

US-NH Music Deposit 49

woodcut

Textura

Hufnagel notation

first music example (A8v): 33 x 13 mm

example in theory book

Musical examples for modes, etc. A table covering one complete opening, tipped in between fols. C2 and C3, compares the “Scala greca” and the “Scala latina”.

A-Iu, CH-Lz, CH-SGs, CH-SGs, CH-SO, GB-Ge, *US-NH, US-R

The book is also listed in the 1548 Bibliography by Gesner (see Bernstein).

Basel: Michael Furter, 1501, vdm: 638

Bernstein, Lawrence F. “The Bibliography of Music in Conrad Gesner's Pandectae (1548).” Acta Musicologica 45 (1973): 119-163 (no. 66)