vdm16 
Clarissima planae atque choralis musicae interpretatio (a).

Basel: Michael Furter, 1501, vdm: 638

BASICS
Title page:

Clarissima plane atq𝔷 chora||lis musice interp̃tatio Dñi || Balthasser Praspergij Merspurgeñ.|| cũ certissīs regulis atq𝔷 Exẽploꝝ Ano||tacionibꝰ & figuris multũ splẽdidis In || Alma Basileoꝝ vniuersitate exercitata||

Colophon:

Finis musices ex Orphei lyra et || Saphus cythara manate atq𝔷 per venerabi⸗||lem dñm Balthasser praspergiu𝔷 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||lesimum quingentesimo primo.||

Author:
Balthasar Prasperg
Printer:
Michael Furter
Printer's mark:

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

Place of printing:

Basel

Year:
1501
Further information on dating: from colophon
Type of source:

Theory book

Catalogue references:
RISM B/6 p. 667
VD16 P 4722
vdm
638
Further details:

Printed specifically for Basel University (as noted on title page); two editions published in 1501 (vdm 638 and vdm 358). A-Wn belongs to vdm 638. Comparison with vdm 358: title page slightly different; quire A seems to be newly set; then quires B and C (including all the music) are exactly the same.

Illustrations:

title woodcut: image of lady musica with a harp on the right; on the left a teacher pointing to solmisation syllables in a banderole on the top.

Language:

Latin

Format:
4º
Printed area: 95.5 x 159 mm
Number of leaves:
19 + 1 fold-out sheet
Collation: A-B8, C4 (plus an inserted sheet to fold out with a diagram; not included in signature between C2 and C3).
Autopsy copy:

A-Wn 396.004-B

Online facsimile:

D-Mbs


D-Mbs 4 Mus.th. 1256, A1r
DETAILS
Technique for printing music:

woodcut

Text font:

Textura

Notation:

Hufnagel notation

Number of staff lines:
4
Number of voices:
1
Measurements:

first musical example (A8v): 32.5 x 12 mm.

Genre:

example in theory book

Repertoire:

Musical examples for modes, etc.

Copies:

*A-Wn, B-Br, *CH-Bu, CH-Fcu, *D-B, D-Mbs, D-Rp, *D-W, *GB-Lbl

Copies in historical catalogues:

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

Related editions:

Clarissima planae atque choralis musicae interpretatio (b).

Basel: Michael Furter, 1501, vdm: 358


Clarissima planae atque choralis musicae interpretatio.

Basel: Michael Furter, 1504, vdm: 360


Clarissima planae atque choralis musicae interpretatio.

Basel: Michael Furter, 1507, vdm: 361

Secondary literature:

Bernstein, Lawrence F. “The Bibliography of Music in Conrad Gesner's Pandectae (1548).” Acta Musicologica 45 (1973): 119-163 (no. 66)
Giselbrecht, Elisabeth, and Elizabeth Savage. “Printing Music: Technical Challenges and Synthesis, 1450–1530,” in Early Music Printing in German-Speaking Lands, ed. Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl, Elisabeth Giselbrecht and Grantley McDonald. London: Routledge, 2018: 84–99. (91)


D-Mbs 4 Mus.th. 1256, A8v
COPIES
A-Wn (Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)
Shelfmark: 396.004-B
Classification of binding:
later / modern binding
Description of binding: Modern, blue cardboard binding.
Manuscript additions or corrections:

„2“ written in brown ink on first folio.

B-Br (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique / Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België)
Shelfmark: INC A 2.076 (RP) (Réserve précieuse)
Condition:

No ms additions. Has folding table.

Description of binding: Nineteenth century brown morocco binding stamped with gold fleurets, with title stamped on spine. The number “33” in an old hand on the frontispiece suggests that it was once part of a Sammelband.
Provenance:

Fétis François-Joseph 1784-1871

CH-Bu (Basel, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität Basel)
Shelfmark: Magazin. Sign.: DE VII 1:5
Condition:

Good; facsimile of the fold-out from the 1507 edition added at the end of the volume.

Classification of binding:
contemporary binding
Description of binding: Sixteenth-century quarter-bound pigskin over oak boards. The blindstamping has the motifs of St Barbara and the pious pelican.
Content of composite volume:

1. Grãmatica Nicolai perotti cũ || additionibus regularũ: & metrice || artis Guarini veronẽsis perfacũ||di viri lucidissime perspecta ([Basel: Jakob Wolff von Pforzheim, c. 1501]; VD16 ZV 12301)
2. DIalogus fra=||tris Rutgeri Sycambri canonici regu=||laris De quantitate syllabarũ.|| cum paucis carminibus || adiunctis in=||choat (Cologne : Quentel, Heinrich (heirs), 1502; VD16 R 3869)
3. Johannes de Garlandia, Nomina et ver=||ba defectiua ([Cologne: Martin von Werden, c. 1505])
4. De mensuris Sylla||barum epithoma sicu||ti succinctissimũ ita || & fructuosissimum (Strasbourg: Johannes Schott, 1500)
5. Clarissima planae atque choralis musicae interpretatio (Basel: Furter, 1501)

Provenance:

Front flyleaf: Liber fratrum Carthusiensium domus vallis beate Margarethe in Basilea minori proueniens a confratre nostro d. Henrico Ecklin eiusdem domus monacho professo, qui continet libros preciales subnotatos [names titles in the volume]. Shelfmark from the Carthusian library: A 61.

CH-Fcu (Fribourg, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire)
Shelfmark: EF 20
D-B (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung)
Shelfmark: Mus. ant. theor. P 70
Classification of binding:
later / modern binding
Description of binding: Brown cardboard half bound in brown leather.
Manuscript additions or corrections:

Some annotations in light brown ink on title page (Praspergius theoricus [?] Prasperger Der Jung). Nineteenth-century fold-out at the end with comparison of Greek and Boethian scales, replacing table missing in this copy.

D-Mbs (München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)
Shelfmark: 4 Mus.th. 1256
Link to online scan:

D-Mbs

D-Rp (Regensburg, Bischöfliche Zentralbibliothek)
D-W (Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek)
Shelfmark: A: 78 Quod. (2)
Description of binding: In light brown wood and white leather leather with various round and square stamps. One metal clasp. Contents are noted on the wooden part of the binding.
Content of composite volume:

Handwritten part, thereafter:
1: Opus aureum (Cologne, Quentell, 1501)
3: Lilium musice plane (Hupfuff, 1506) plus a manuscript part.
4: Extus sequentiarum cum luculentis (Cologne, Quentell, 1504).
5: Expositio hymnorum (Heinrich Quentell Erben 1504) plus a manuscript part.

Bound with copies from vdm:

Opus aureum musicae [Quentell 1501] (b) - D-W
Lilium musicae planae [Hupfuff 1506] - D-W

Manuscript additions or corrections:

At the beginning of the volume are a few pages of handwritten music and notes: one piece for four voices, then what looks like a transcription of a theory book with musical example; at the very end of the entire volume (with multiple books bound into it) more handwritten notes; in this book there are no handwritten annotations.

GB-Lbl (London, British Library)
Shelfmark: K.1.h.2 (2)
Classification of binding:
later / modern binding
Description of binding: Modern, light brown leather.
Content of composite volume:

Lilium Musice plane Michaelis Keinspeck, Basel: Furter, 1496
Flores Musice.