Arts Center - Rare Sacred Music

Mrs. J.W. Jennings Collection of Medieval Music Manuscripts and Early Printed Music

Dr. Roxy Harriette Grove (1889-1952), professor of piano and chair of the Baylor School of Music from 1926-1943, orchestrated the purchase of the collection in 1935, thanks to the generous gift of Mrs. J. W. Jennings of Brownwood, Texas. Some of the collection had been on display in the Spanish Building of the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. This small but impressive collection represents a general cross-section of the evolution of musical notation from the eleventh to the sixteenth century.

The Jennings Collection contains plainchants for the principal services of the western Christian rites: the Mass and the Divine Office. Chant notation appears in a variety of styles, Hufnagel and Beneventan among others. Much of the collection includes the square neumes and four-line staves that became standard in the late Middle Ages. Other parts of the collection contain two- or three-line staves. Some of the earlier manuscripts show nondiastematic, or staffless, neumes known as in campo aperto (in an open field). Still others demonstrate the use of dry-point lines scratched in the surface of the parchment, which function as the stave.

The Jennings Collection is equally treasured for its paleographic interest. Among the leaves of Latin liturgical texts one can find examples of Beneventan and Carolingian scripts and various Gothic bookhands. The exquisite work of scribes, rubricators, and illuminators abounds throughout the collection including decorative capitals, an occasional grotesque, and various types of initials: foliated, gold-leafed, geometric, inhabited. Manuscript preparation methods such as ruling (several styles) appear throughout the collection. In addition, the codices provide insight into two different binding styles among liturgical books.

One of the items in the Jennings Collection (twelfth-century Beneventan manuscript) recently received attention from paleographists and medievalists from the Universita degli Studi di Cassino (Italy) and the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies (Toronto). Previously unknown to these Beneventan scholars, this manuscript has now been included in a bibliography of exant Beneventan chant, BMB: Bibliografia dei manoscritti in scrittura beneventana, published by the Universita degli Studi di Cassino.

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1. ca. 1070, France

Parts of the Divine Office in the Feast of St. Martin, Bishop and Confessor (November 11)

• Antiphonal leaf, manuscript on parchment (11.5 x 16.5 in.) Contemporary neumes written on a two-line staff (the yellow line - C, the red line -F). This feast honors Martin of Tours (ca.316-ca.397), the Patron Saint of France.

2. ca. 1100, Monte Cassino, Italy

Parts of the Divine Office in the Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle (August 24)

• Missal leaf, manuscript on parchment (7 x 10.5 in.) Heighted neumes written on dry lines. Conveys the general rise and fall of the pitch. Although the notation of pitch is not exact, it is far superior to the system used in item 3. This manuscript is especially valuable because of the specie of script, Beneventan (Lombardic) from Monte Cassino, the home of the famous order of Saint Benedict.

3. ca. 1150, Southern Germany

Parts of the Divine Office in the Vigil of the Sunday Within the Octave of Christmas (Jan. 5), the Holy Mass of the Divine Office for the Sunday Within the Octave of Christmas, and the Holy Mass of the Divine Office in the Epiphany of Our Lord (Jan. 6), Parts of the Holy Mass in the Divine Office of the Sunday Within the Octave of the Epiphany

• Missal leaf, manuscript on parchment (8.5 x 11.5 in.) Music indicated by contemporary neumes with no staff. The shape of each neume shows a general pitch direction, but the notation has little value except to aid the memory.

4. ca. 1390, Italy

Parts of the Holy Mass of the Tuesday and Wednesday in Holy Week

• Gradual leaf, manuscript on parchment (11 x 14.5 in.) Music indicated by contemporary neumes written on four-line staff using moveable C-clef.

5. ca. 1390, Switzerland

Parts of the Holy Mass in the Divine Office of the Feast of the Epiphany

• Gradual leaf, manuscript on dark parchment (7.5 x 10.5 in.) Gothic neumes on a four-line staff using the moveable C-clef. This manuscript is valuable as an example of Gothic lettering and musical notation. Gothic neumes were called "Hufnagelschrift" because of their resemblance to hob shoe nails, the note heads being diamond-shaped and the stems being thick and pointed.

6. (a,b) ca. 1480, Arezzo, Italy, Monastery of Anghiarra

Parts of the Holy Mass of Saturday Before Passion Sunday and Parts of the Holy Mass of Passion Sunday

• Gradual leaves, manuscript on parchment (11 x 15 in.)
• Music indicated by contemporary neumes written on four-line staff using moveable C- and F-clefs.

7. (a,b) ca. 1485, Limburg, Flanders, Diocese of Maastricht

Parts of the Matin in the Divine Office of the Feast of the Epiphany and Parts of the Holy Mass of the Feast of the Epiphany, Parts of the Hymns and the Holy Mass of the Feasts of Saint Agnes (Jan. 21) and Saint Agatha (Feb. 5) [Parts of the Common for a Virgin and Martyr]

• Gradual leaf, manuscript on vellum (15.5 x 21.5 in.)
• Music indicated by contemporary neumes on a four-line staff using moveable C- and F-clefs.

8. ca. 1490, Seville, Spain

Parts of the Divine Office in the Feast of Corpus Christi

• Gradual leaf, manuscript on vellum (13 x 18.5 in.)
• Music indicated by contemporary neumes written on five-line staff using moveable F-clef.

9. ca. 1500, Spain

Gradual, Containing the Ordinary of the Holy Mass and the Proper of the Divine Office From the Saturday Before the First Sunday of Advent to Trinity Sunday

• Gradual leaves bound, manuscript on parchment (13 x 20 in.)
• Music indicated by contemporary neumes on a four-line staff using moveable C- and F-clefs. The binding is constructed from parchment waste and pressboard.

10. ca. 1500, Spain

Parts of a Gradual, Containing the Proper of the Divine Office for Holy Week

• Gradual leaves bound, manuscript on parchment (14.5 x 22 in.)
• Music indicated by contemporary neumes on a five-line staff using C- and F-clefs. Binding is old calf over wood boards. Edges of binding are reinforced with sheet iron, fastened with square brads. Front and back covers are ornamented with brass mounts which include a circular center medallion and corner and middle bosses.

11. (a,b) ca. 1515, Venice, Italy

Parts of the Holy Mass for a Confessor and a Bishop and Parts of the Holy Mass for a Virgin Not a Martyr

• Gradual leaves, printing on paper 11 x 15 in.)
• Music is indicated by contemporary neumes printed on a four-line staff using C- and F-clefs. These leaves were printed by the Giunta press and are among the earliest examples of music printing.