Contains miracles, songs, papal bulls and pious treatises. According to Albareda, all except the last 18 folios and one or two interpolated folios were written by the same hand towards the end of the 14th or at the beginning of the 15th century. 10 pieces preserved in the music fascicle: 6 are polyphonic. 3 of these are canons for 2 or 3 voices, as indicated by the word 'caça'. Nos. 2 and 5 are in Virelai form. The last piece is preserved in an earlier source at Tarragona, but unfortunately only the upper voice is available there. Some of these pieces, e.g. no. 2, were certainly used as dance music for the recreation of pilgrims at Montserrat.

red velvet binding from the last third of the 19th century bears the name Llibre Vermell (the four preliminary leaves at the front and the two at the rear belong to this binding)

Ars Nova (except for the unmeasured no. 1), including semiminims and some Spanish methods of notation, such as the substitution of a breve-minim group for a breve-semibreve group (with the meaning of the latter), and the use of a semibreve immediately followed by a minim to indicate a punctus augmentationis.

1375, 1398 and 1399 (dates of miracle 63 in main corpus);

red four-line staves for nos. 1-3, and on five-line staves for nos. 5-6

21v-26

old foliation,replaced by a modern ink foliation at t.r.r., doubtless at the time of the present binding

Initials are in red and violet, or blue, or simply red.

Parchment

RISM B/IV 2: A parchment manuscript meas. 432x310 mm. and containing 137 folios. The red velvet binding, which dates from the last third of the 19th century, gave the codex the name Llibre Vermell by which it is commonly known. To this binding belong four preliminary folios and 2 at the end, all unnumbered. According to Albareda, all except the last 18 folios and one or two interpolated folios were written by the same hand towards the end of the 14th or at the beginning of the 15th century. Initials are in red and violet, or blue, or simply red. The contents are miracles, songs, papal bulls and pious treatises. Originally there were 172 folios, to judge from the old foliation, which was replaced by a modern ink foliation at t.r.r., doubtless at the time of the present binding. For the date of the ms, miracle 63, the two last miracles before the song collection and a note on f. 56v are important. These bear the date 1375, 1398 and 1399 respectively. P. Villanueva, who saw the ms in 1806, found that it contained a "Birolay de Madona Sancta Maria" entitled Rosa plasent. Unfortunately, this was lost during the time the ms was in the possession of the family of the Marquis de Lió. Since the library at Montserrat however was destroyed by French troops in 1811-1812, the codex as a whole was luckily preserved. It was returned to Montserrat in 1885. The Llibre Vermell has often been investigated since Dreves examined it in 1890 and published 5 of the Latin song texts in Analecta hymnica XX-XXI (1895), but the more serious editorial work began with Albareda's description of the codex and Suñol's transcriptions of the music. Since then it has been edited again by Ursprung and Anglès. The musical notation is quite clearly of the Ars Nova type (except for the unmeasured no. 1), including semiminims and some Spanish methods of notation, such as the substitution of a breve-minim group for a breve-semibreve group (with the meaning of the latter), and the use of a semibreve immediately followed by a minim to indicate a punctus augmentationis. The text was evidently written before the music, since the text of no. 2 was started on f. 22 with insufficient space, and then the whole piece with music from the beginning again on f. 22v. The music is written on red four-line staves for nos. 1-3, and on five-line staves for nos. 5-6. Out of the 10 pieces preserved in the music fascicle, 6 are polyphonic. 3 of these are canons for 2 or 3 voices, as indicated by the word "caça". Nos. 2 and 5 are in Virelai form. The last piece is preserved in an earlier source at Tarragona, but unfortunately only the upper voice is available there. Some of these pieces, e.g. no. 2, were certainly used as dance music for the recreation of pilgrims at Montserrat.

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